GIS officers, analysts boost spatial, technological skills in new software |04 May 2021

Participants at the start of the training yesterday (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

A group of GIS officers and analysts have started a 10-day online training in how to install, configure and use a new software to store, manage and share data of geospatial resources.

The seven Geographic Information System (GIS) officers and analysts are from the GIS Unit of the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Petro Seychelles and the Maritime Boundary Management Division from the Ministry of Fisheries and the Blue Economy.

Designated Minister Jean François Ferrari, who is also responsible for fisheries, launched the training yesterday morning at the office of the department of the Blue Economy’s Maritime Boundary Management Division at the Providence highway complex.

This was in the presence of the principal secretary for the Blue Economy, Kenneth Racombo and special advisor in the Blue Economy department Philippe Michaud as well as the chief executive of Petro Seychelles, Patrick Joseph.

The training, the second in a series of three being organised by the department of the Blue Economy in collaboration with the UNDP as part of the capacity building component of the UNDP-Joint Management Area (JMA) between Seychelles and Mauritius, is being funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It is being carried out by the UNDP together with the governments of Mauritius and Seychelles.

The ArcGIS training is offered by the Enterprise Solutions training from the Environment Science Research Institute (ESRI), which is a GIS software supplier.

This training is offered by ESRI as two separate courses, but has been combined to be offered locally as the UNDP Project requires.

The first five days will focus on the ArcGIS Enterprise: Configuring a Base Deployment, with the remaining five days focusing on the ArcGIS 4: Sharing Content on the web.

Once completed all participants would have learned the essentials to install and configure an ArcGIS Enterprise base deployment that enables the secure access, creation, and sharing of geospatial resources, and acquired knowledge on how to license and install the four software components of a base deployment and ensure system security and performance.

Francesca Adrienne, the director general for the Maritime Boundary Management in the department of the Blue Economy and also a participant in the training, commented:

“It is crucial for the UNDP-JMA project that we have a more advanced online special server system. The software is being used worldwide and is more advanced with a wider data storage capacity and would allow us more flexibility to create different apps and share information.”

When he addressed the group while launching the training, Minister Ferrari said it is an opportunity for the participants to gain knowledge and skills to support the ongoing development and management of the vast marine space that is the JMA and they could use the same knowledge for similar management of the Seychelles EEZ.

Minister Ferrari noted that the JMA between Mauritius and Seychelles is the first such trans-boundary agreement there attracting considerable conservation interests and research from international organisations while remaining one of the least studied marine eco-regions in the world. The latest being a research by Greenpeace International on the Saya de Malha Bank completed a month ago thus the need to build a comprehensive data and information system as well as the technical and management capacity of professionals to support development of the JMA.

Marie-Anne Lepathy