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The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Society of Trinidad and Tobago will be hosting its first Mapathon, a first step in filling the data gap existing in T&T.

The Mapathon, titled “Mapping with Purpose” will be a unique opportunity for the GIS community, both professionals and enthusiasts, to connect and map for a good cause. It involves the digitisation of roads and buildings within the Borough of Chaguanas using Land and Surveys 2014 high resolution aerial photography to create authoritative spatial datasets.

The Mapathon will be held at the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Land Management, the University of the West Indies, St Augustine on November 26, and in commemoration of GIS Day 2016, from 9 am to 12 pm. Admission is free.

The GISSTT is a non-profit organization founded in 1996. It's mission is to create a platform for Geographic Information Systems in Trinidad and Tobago that inspires, educates and informs to realize the full potential of GIS in the country.

The objectives are to promote the use of GIS concepts and technology, to facilitate a medium for exchange of ideas among various interest groups, including GIS users, suppliers, professional organizations, governmental agencies and other interested parties and to develop a body of knowledge toward the effective and efficient use of GIS.

About GIS

GIS is a system that runs in the background allowing you to explore roads using Waze and that Facebook application which allows Facebook users to check-in at a location.

GIS can create geographic data, manage, analyse and display it on a map.

It provides real benefits that organisations of all sizes and disciplines, in both the private and public sector, can take advantage of through a myriad of applications. For example, in Agriculture, GIS can be used to promote more effective and efficient farming techniques through analysis of soil data to determine what are the best crops to plant and where their seeds can be sown for the greatest yield.

In the Health Sector, GIS can provide cost effective tools for evaluating interventions and policies that can control the spread of communicable diseases and improve access to health care by positioning it where it is needed the most. GIS analysis of environmental health data is also powerful in explaining the relationships of disease patterns with the social, institutional, technological, built and natural environment.

It has been determined that GIS based Digital Taxation systems can assist Governments in solving taxation problems to maximise government income as well as help regulate urban growth and its direction of expansion by finding suitable sites for further urban development. GIS technology can provide the geographic advantage for law enforcement agencies by turning data into actionable knowledge to improve resource allocation, crime analysis and surveillance a much-needed advantage in a country where crime has become an epidemic.

To reap the benefits of GIS, accurate and comprehensive spatial data is critical. However, Trinidad and Tobago lacks these comprehensive and authoritative datasets that needs to be integrated into a GIS to reap these benefits.