Spatial Data Management for Water Resource Management: the Botswana Wellfield Monitoring Program

In 1995 the Botswana Department of Water Affairs (DWA) carried out an inhouse study entitled ‘Statement of User Requirements’ (SOUR). The study clearly highlighted that the bulk of the data handled by the Department was spatial in nature and recommended the management of all data under the umbrella of a geographic information system (GIS), the Department of Water Affairs Geographic Information System (DWAGIS). The magnitude of the envisioned system would require that it be implemented in stages; the first stage being the creation of a National Groundwater Information System (NGIS) designed to improve access to data held in several existing and planned groundwater-related databases. The second stage will bring in the surface water component as a major contributor of spatial data. It is envisaged that DWAGIS will constitute a local DWA Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) that, with other local SDIs, will form a pyramid of SDIs that will then constitute a National Spatial Data Infrastructure for Botswana. This paper discusses the rationale leading to the DWAGIS concept and the proposals and activities that were carried out during Phase I of the National Groundwater Information System, also known as the Wellfield Monitoring Project.