Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Center for GIS Applications, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), 30 Golden Stairs , Avondale, Harare.
We are a Zimbabwean born tech-non-profit scientific research and development company leveraging the use of geospatial technology to support conservation and development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. We recognize that worldwide organizations are increasingly integrating geographic information systems and taking advantage of the power of geospatial intelligence to better understand how both communities and individuals use the land and their need for related services. We recognize that comprehensive use of geospatial technology in developing countries will await customization of training programmes and the development of national, municipal and community spatial databases that are openly shared and accessed in order to effectively and efficiently respond to conservation and development issues. We therefore work to develop and appropriate a giscience capacity – an ability to create, capture, store and manipulate spatial information, understand changing patterns, processes and emphasize relationships among people, places, regions and their environment in space and time. Developing this scientific and technical capacity is increasingly important in the 21st century as the pace of change on the earth’s surface increases to unprecedented levels. Geospatial intelligence enables us to know location (where is it?), condition (what is at?), trends (what has changed since?), patterns (what spatial patterns exists) and modeling (what if?). This enables understanding and when we know we make better \-informed and therefore wiser decisions.
Our work spans from geospatial software and spatial data development, to leveraging its use in geodemographic research, development planning, responding to humanitarian crisis, tracking environmental change to helping planners develop sound land use policies. We develop spatial data such as household life style data, census data, commercial data (sales data and property records), cadastral data and satellite data about places from communities, cities and regions in creating profiles of those places for a wide range of applications emphasizing interdisciplinary problem solving.
Addressing this challenge is imperative in fostering the removal of barriers to the effective and ethical use of geospatial intelligence in practical work efforts such as urban planning, natural resources management, economic development, telecommunications and infrastructure maintenance, health, law enforcement, responding to natural disasters, driving local and central government efficiency, geo-enabling citizen voices and improving service delivery.
We therefore work to integrate spatial data on these issues, manipulate those data and draw maps that arise from integration of data from several different sources, on different topics and at different scales in order to emphasize the spatial relationships among the objects being mapped, thus making scientific inquiry the hallmark of our work ethic.
We are proud to be a key catalyst of an innovation ecosystem that is merging in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world striving to create and leverage technology that solves local problems thus cumulatively offsetting big global problems.
Our Mission
Is to organize and analyze geographically referenced information into a universally accessible format and promote its widespread use in conservation and development.
Our vision
Lowering barriers to the use of geospatial technology in Africa
Our Values
· Innately curious
· Innovative
· Scale
· Interdisciplinary thinking
. Co-create
. Co-design
Objectives
To provide a platform for open, collaborative geospatial software development projects by supplying software, hardware, communication and business infrastructure.
To create an open-collaborative location information innovation hub responsible for activating geospatial technology innovators towards positive socio-economic impact.
To create a spatial data repository and control center responsible for collecting, creating, storing and openly disseminating (subject to open data sharing protocols) spatial data for use in humanitarian, conservation and development initiatives
To leverage the use of geospatial technology in public voluntary development projects, programmes and humanitarian situations in partnership with public and private, local and international partners.
To operate capacity building programmes, geospatial conferences and collaborate in related efforts with public and private, local and international partners.
To foment an environment for interdisciplinary scientific research on socio-ecological systems coupling location information.
To create and run peer reviewed (journal/books/articles) scientific publications on the use of location information in the understanding of socio-ecological systems in Africa.
To create an independent location information innovation and geospatial services based cross-sector policy think tank.
To provide a foundation for developing a voluntary code of ethics in spatial data use, dissemination, accessibility and spatial data standardization and being an active promoter of geospatial technology through its usage and lobbying for legislation and policies (open data sharing) that favor geospatial technology.
To create an independent legal entity for geospatial research and development (R & D) resource mobilisation for the advancement of the geospatial industry in Africa and realisation of the Trust’s objectives.
Services
The Center administers Zim-wide GIS infrastructure, collect and disseminate spatial datasets and provide training and project support in the use of geospatial technologies. We support projects that require customized GIS software & app development, capacity building, geodatabase development including front-end user interfaces, geographically referenced information, spatial mapping and analysis.
Come to CGISA for:
Increased access to credible spatial information, empowering citizens, local governments, and protecting marginalized communities,
Access to hardware, software and spatial data,
Web-mapping and Mobile Data Collection Applications Development and Programming,
Spatial Data and Geo-database Development,
Project Implementation Support,
Crisis and humanitarian situation response mapping, creation and leveraging of technology enabling mapping of the real-time pulse of what’s happening on the ground,
Collecting meaningful data by gathering data through custom surveys and crowd sourcing tools on board mobile devices,
Capacity building training programs and technical workshops,
Tools for GIS applications and platforms for collaborative research on socio-ecological systems coupling location information,
Curriculum support for academic institutions offering GIS courses on how to incorporate spatial thinking and mapping technologies into their courses, learning outcomes or seeking to integrate spatial data with knowledge from multiple disciplines,
Seminars and conferences on GIS topics & the coupling of location information across disciplines,
Understanding the theory behind Geo-information Science & Earth Observation,
Joining our GIS Learning Group,
Connecting to the GIS Community of Users in the region,
CGISA Hive
is the sustainability wing of the Center for GIS Applications that consults on GIS and Remote Sensing for profit. The proceeds of all consulting work are donated to the cgisa for promoting endogenus growth as well as to fund critical project activities and administration without reliance on donor funding.
