In February
2012, Pangea Proxima met with Alan Ramirez, the manager of the GIS department
of INEC, at his office to discuss Costa Rica’s situation with GIS. INEC
(Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos) is the national institute which
conducts the country’s census every ten years.
Alan talked about the
nation’s latest census report (2011) which was just completed and how the data
is currently being examined. Also INEC, under Alan’s guidance, has just recently
completed the process of digitizing all of the cities, towns and streets throughout
Costa Rica. This development will not be noticed by most Ticos (Costa Ricans)
initially, but it sets the stage for advancement of the nation’s economy,
business, health, education and environmental conservation which will be
far-reaching and will eventually affect every citizen in some form. Those people
up to meet the challenge and ready to take advantage of the opportunity
presented will be able to examine spatial patterns occurring among the
population and achieve success by planning accordingly. Concerning growing the
economy, business people will be able to examine the demographics across
regions and target their audience effectively. They will know where to best
start a new business or distribute their products after examining variables
such as incomes and densities of populations. The government will have the
ability to improve access to health and education by building new facilities after examining
spatial patterns of population demographics, densities, education levels, and
health topics. The government and NGOS may also start working on curbing
important negative social issues such as poverty by targeting specific areas
down to the block level and creating “hot spots”, which pinpoint the areas facing
the highest social risks. The government and NGOs will also be able to help
conserve the nation’s pristine environment and large biodiversity by examining
historical records with a new spatial perspective. This new factor could
produce such positive effects as helping to preserve some of the world’s
endangered species.
 |
| A GIS thematic map of Costa Rica using the "hot spots" technique |
|
 |
| Older hand drawn maps |
In the past, all of
the official Costa Rican census maps were hand-drawn, which were very
time-consuming and were not effective when it came to examining census data
because the collected information could not be imported automatically. Speaking
from an economical stand-point, in the short term, the cheaper option to
produce census maps may be the traditional manual approach, especially in
countries that have low costs of labor. However, from society’s point of view,
it will be efficient and economically effective to initially invest more on the
front-end in a digital method because the long-term benefits are far greater
when it comes to planning for the future. In the case of the GIS, the largest
investment must be made at the beginning. This means that expenditures in the
early stages of a project, are incurred while the tangible benefits perhaps
only materialize well into the project cycle. An initial large investment on
the front end will translate to lower costs of maintenance, updating and sustainable
benefits in the long-term. Long-term benefits are much higher because the process
creates a multi-purpose digital database.
The proposal for
modernization of the census mapping unit breaks with the traditional schemes
and aligns with the most innovative trends in the production of geostatistical
data. This methodology is also in full convergence with the main tenets of the
United Nations in cartography for census reports. The tenets reflect the
recommendations of the expert group meetings and includes the conclusions of
the regional workshops on GIS and census mapping. The meetings of the experts
stressed the need for countries to consider the use of census geographic
programs as a continuous process and not merely as a sequence of operations of
mapping and dissemination. It was emphasized that the manual should demonstrate
that the use and application of contemporary geospatial technologies is beneficial
in all stages of population and housing censuses. The manual also prevents ways
in which various technologies improve the efficiency in the preparation stages,
census, census processing and dissemination of its results.
Here are some other important recent developments in Costa
Rica concerning their GIS census mapping efforts:
 |
| The digitization process |
- Input of orthophotos (aerial
photograph geometrically corrected such that the scale is uniform) in 85%
of the country
- 2009: All modern processes of digital mapping
became operational
- Development of mapping facilities and the purchase
of necessary equipment and technology
 |
| Costa Rican geographers at work digitizing the nation's cities, towns and roadways |
- Recruitment and training of 100 people to
digitally map the entire nation
- The MGU (Minimum Geostatistical Unit) was updated.
The MGU covers a geographical area, of variable size. Urban Area = one block;
Rural Area= town, village, hamlet.
- Mapping of the following:
o
Rivers: Represents the national water network
updated to 2010
o
Localities: Settlements, neighborhoods,
villages, Center, city, indigenous community, condominium, precarious, village,
urbanization and residential.
o
References: They represent the locations of
places of interest, they are shops, schools, churches, squares, parks, which
are useful for the census.
o
Limits: Represents the limit geostatistical or
the administrative political boundary.
o
Public works and roads: streets, sidewalks,
threshing-boards, malls, railway lines, power transmission lines, bridges,
gates, pedestrian crossings, etc.
Additional GIS Census Projects in Costa Rica happening in
the near future will include:
- Improvement of cartographic layers
- Permanent cartographic update in the field
- Publish the Catalog of Territorial Integration
- Design of printed maps and in .pdf format
- Creation of thematic maps with variables and
indicators of the 2011 Census
- Site for interactive queries via the web
- Mapping for new sampling frames on the basis of
the mapping of the 2011 Census
Early this coming summer (2012), Pangea Proxima will be
working with the Minister of Education in Costa Rica to help place accurate
location markers on the 29% of their 5,000 schools which are located in
extremely rural areas (mountains, forests and jungles).
 |
Costa Rican planners examining maps
|
Strides in mapping technology
will help the nation use the science behind studying spatial patterns in
helping to further the cause of creating greater access to health and
education. This work in turn will lead to a healthier and higher quality of
life decreasing extreme poverty.
To read more about the Costa Rica 2011 Census click on the
following link:
http://www.inec.go.cr/Web/Home/pagPrincipal.aspx
 |
| Costa Rican census workers collecting data |
 |
| Hand-held GPS device used to gather data for digital maps |
In
2010, I visited both Costa Rica and Nicaragua as part of a volunteer
organisation based in London, England. Leaving a worried mother and father at
home I embarked on a three month trip that, little did I know, would be the
best three months of my life so far. I was assigned to a project based in La Vanilla,
a small village on the outskirts of Achuapa, Estelí, where about ten families
resided. I lived with a family of eight in a two-room corrugated iron hut.
Living amongst the locals was the best way to do it as I learned a lot about
their struggles, their successes and their general everyday activities. It
seemed to me that the main problem was with education or the lack of access to
it. The school there was made up of three rooms, with one acting as a lunch /
music hall and the other two as classrooms. What stood out was how the
textbooks, that supposedly taught English, were incorrect and thus, the
students were not learning anything of value. A second issue lay in the fact
that they had no consistent teacher. The family I lived with told me that it
was a touch and go situation as to whether a teacher would turn up for school
that day. After more questioning I learned that teachers are not held in high
regard in Nicaragua, much like other countries. The average wage for a teacher
in Nicaragua is well below that of a market worker and in actual fact Nicaraguan
teachers are amongst the worst paid professionals in Nicaragua. Indeed, they
are amongst the worst paid workers in Central America. 
Recently,
a Nicaraguan economist by the name of Adolfo Acevedo, who is a independent
research professional, said that,
Indeed,
this statement may be on the right lines as it is obvious that if teachers
continue to be among the lowest paid workers then the supply of teachers as
well as the demand for teaching jobs will decrease. Leaving Nicaraguan
education in a state of disrepair. In order to alleviate this problem, the
issue that must first be addressed is the lack of funding for teachers. The
average wage must increase, attracting a better-educated group of teachers that
have the capabilities to teach young Nicaraguans and to be able to sustain a
lifestyle that will sufficiently support them. When the Sandinista government first
came to power, they claimed free education for all. President Ortega went as
far as to say that education will be a "priority for his
administration" and deployed a nationwide literacy campaign. Although the past
government may have caused the problem of a lack of funding for education in
Nicaragua but it appears that the new government has done nothing to change
this. Indeed, the situation has been called "stagnant" as the issue
of underfunding continues to be a problem. In a developing nation such as
Nicaragua, where funding for education is difficult due to other national
expenses, it will be critical to ensure that the appropriate funding is
directed to teachers training and increase salaries in order to ensure quality
education for all.
