Limpopo Geospatial Analysis Platform (GAP)
During the period 2007 – 2010 the CSIR Built Environment was involved in the development of a geo-spatial analysis platform for the Limpopo Local Economic Development and Tourism Department (LEDET), and was based largely on the CSIR GAP product (version 2) developed for South Africa (see Figure 1). The Geospatial Analysis Platform (GAP) then consisted of a strategic economic, population, town centre, road network and spatial accessibility dataset for South Africa. The platform utilised the underlying mesoframe methodology – developed to overcome the problem of spatially incompatible “large area statistics” by re-scaling and assembling a variety of census, satellite imagery and other data sources in terms of a common set of meso-scale analysis units.
Figure 1: GAP timeline.
In 2007 LEDET identified a need in the Limpopo province for enhanced local and district economic planning capabilities to the municipal sphere of government. The GAP platform was viewed as a mechanism that could contribute towards this aim. This lead to the formulation of a project entitled: “Development of a geo-spatial analysis platform and profiling of the geographic spread of economic activities in the Limpopo Province”. This project had two objectives, namely i) to address the second economy data gap and ii) to create a decentralised but inter-linked application (Enhanced GAP) that utilises spatial data for LED/economic development planning. The project provided an opportunity to develop a web-linked, bandwidth efficient and updatable GAP3 prototype. Some of the latter additions to the datasets added to GAP3 included the economic clusters as described in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (2008/9). Enterprise data (sourced from Brabys) was also used as proxy information for economic sector allocations as well as contributing to the abovementioned cluster maps.
During 2010-11 GAP4 was further enhanced through the addition of a range of environmental indicators mainly from the Limpopo State of the Environment Report (SoER). The environmental and related indictors provide an evaluation of the status of the Limpopo province environment (both natural and social). The indicators are grouped into a range of themes which includes climate, terrestrial, water (inland), biodiversity and ecosystem health, human settlements and well-being, economy and environmental governance. These indicators are also vital inputs to government planning and decision-making, civil society and the public.
Further enhancements on the GAP4 took place in 2011 when LEDET indicated a need to enhance the information pertaining to mineral resources within Limpopo Province. Given the pressures on mining it became necessary to provide more comprehensive mineral and mining related information to decision-makers and planners. The objective was to create more balanced plans which can improve livelihoods across areas bearing the issues of sustainable development in mind.
