The Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA) conducted an Innovation and Creativity Workshop on Cadastral Data management and exchange in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), with the participation of 30 representatives from engineering departments at local authorities, with the aim of exploring mechanisms of installing and formatting GIS in municipalities to exchange and integrate date received from relevant authorities and ministries.
The Activities Coordinator at APLA, Shoruq Rabee, clarified that the workshop comes in continuation of what was implemented during the past years in the field of GIS, pointing out that APLA is intending to establish an online portal, which will be launched for the work of the Technical and Legal Support Unit at APLA to facilitate and enhance communication with the hub members.
The GIS development consultant from LGRP-GIZ, Dr. Anas Al-Tartouri, pointed out that the main objective of the workshop is to explore and learn the work related to cadastral data management in the Palestinian Land Authority, in addition to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Project, which aims to devise policies to govern data exchange between relevant institutions as well as criteria for controlling the content, structure and quality of data.
On the other hand, SDI project coordinator from the Ministry of Local Governance (MoLG), Hussein Abu Sa'dah, presented an introduction about the project and the issues it tackles, exploring the operational chain of the project, and the integrated geographical data framework of the UN, and the consultative missions provided in the current phase of the project.
The GIS officer at the Land Authority, Mohammad Falian presented the main issues related to the work of the Land Authority regarding data management, starting with the legal personality of the Land Authority, the chain of data management between departments and sections, data encryption in the used systems, data flow between the Land Settlement Commission and the Land Authority, all the way to partnership with local authorities providing them with basins blueprints for official use.
The GIS Director at Hebron Municipality, Rawan Abu Aisheh, presented the Municipality's experience in installing and preparing the GIS system in Hebron Municipality, to receive and integrate data from the Land Authority and mechanisms of data exchange with the Land Settlement Commission, pointing out the key services provided in relation with land plots.
It is worth mentioning that the workshop was conducted under the Technical Hubs project for exchange experiences between local authorities, implemented in partnership between APLA and LGRP-GIZ. It comprises of five hubs: Engineering and Planning Hub, Public Relations Hub, Financial Management Hub, Village Councils Hub, and Creativity and Innovation Hub.
