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Created to Enhance Environmental InformationMiddle East Data-Packed GIS CDThe Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) was established in 1992 on the basis of a joint commitment by its three principal sponsors: the Government of Egypt (GOE), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). CEDARE's primary function is that of an "enabling" agent in support of sustainable development initiatives at national, subregional, and regional levels, stimulating the implementation of international conventions and agreements in the region. Since its inception, CEDARE has recognized the need for GIS as a key tool in the collection, management, and analysis of environmental data. With the objective of enhancing the environmental information available in the region and as part of its ongoing efforts to collect and distribute information to member countries, CEDARE recently completed the CEDARE CD-ROM, which includes two primary parts--a home page and a GIS module. The home page component consists of linked hypertext pages on CEDARE and an Internet browser, while the GIS component includes digital data and ArcView Data Publisher, a customized, project specific version of ArcView GIS. The geographic extent of the GIS database covers the Arab countries and Mediterranean Europe. The digital database has three levels: the CEDARE regionwide level, the national level, and the hot spot level. The regional level is made up of Digital Chart of the World (DCW) basemap data and other thematic environmental data sets from several sources. The national data comprises country-level data sets, some of which came from the DCW and ArcAtlas data, and is available for all countries in the CEDARE region. Other specialized national data sets are available for seven countries. This data was obtained by CEDARE from national sources in hard-copy form and was automated into digital data. The hot spot level data comprises data sets on selected study areas that required the development of specialized data. There are currently three hot spots in the product. The CEDARE CD-ROM includes Esri's GIS Data Viewer, which was developed using ArcView Data Publisher. The data viewer contains digital maps for all regional, national, and hot spot level data, as well as online data documentation in the form of a Windows help file. The viewer was also customized to provide password access by country to all of the national maps originated from national sources of national level data and to all of the data for Palestine. Comments Dr. Adel Farid Abdel-Kader, environmental information advisor at CEDARE, "There is a strong need for coordinated efforts in our region, in order to avoid duplication of efforts and optimize the use of resources. I believe that through CEDARE's CD-ROM, we have developed a product that will make a powerful contribution in our region toward attaining some of our environmental information goals." Esri staff traveled to CEDARE headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, and assisted in database design, database documentation, and other technical issues. CEDARE staff later visited Esri's headquarters for a review of the database, the viewer interface, production procedures, and quality control issues. Esri has manufactured more than 1,000 finished CD-ROMs for international distribution by CEDARE. For more information, contact the executive director, CEDARE, 21 Giza St., Nile Tower Bldg., 13th Floor, Cairo, Egypt (E-mail: cedare@ritsec1.com.eg). |
