The potential for GIS applications in Bangladesh is significant. However, this would require coordination by a central agency that have resources and believe in the potential of GIS as a tool for development and planning. I would think the Government of Bangladesh should take the lead in bringing large nonprofit and/or educational institution at the forefront of GIS education in Bangladesh.
My four months in Bangladesh gave me the insights as to how GIS can have some major impact in influencing policy makers for better use of information for planning and development. My initial goal was to get spatial data for GIS, primarily streets, for the City of Dhaka. This was successfully accomplished for major parts of the city (60-70%). The second goal was to have the spatial coverage or the political and administrative boundaries of Bangladesh. With the collaboration of the Department of Geography at the University of Dhaka I was able to gather this data in crude form. After recoding the data and re-projecting them in the correct coordinate system I was able to utilize the data for my class at BRAC University. The third goal was to gather socioeconomic data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Census and have them mapped by Districts (Regional States), Upazila (sub-regions), and Unions (smaller jurisdictions that could be compared to zip code boundaries in the US). My students were able to utilize the District level data to show some startling socioeconomic disparity in Bangladesh by districts. Upazila and union level data could not be used for mapping because data at that level is not widely available and also the upazilas were not coded. I would be able to complete this task as soon as I can find some time. I believe meeting the above three goals were significant accomplishments in my four months. I cannot claim all the credit – without the help of students and academics, particularly from BRAC and Geography Department at Dhaka University, the project would have been incomplete.
The next step would be to focus on Bangladesh Census data and map them by different geographic level. There is no better way of understanding the needs of the population then by the powerful visual description of the situation. For the policy planners they will be valuable tools for decision making. The Census must come forward to provide user-friendly data free of cost to our students. One of the major complain from my students was that they did not have access to the in electronic format although it is available to the agency. GIS is useless without data, however, it can also be dangerous without authentic data. Therefore, for the sake of maintaining the integrity of the data and for making best use of the data, Government of Bangladesh must take initiative to disseminate data over the internet. It is an established fact that more the data is used the more people will find the errors associated with the data. For example, I found serious errors in the online population data by districts. When we mapped it, we found two districts Dhaka and Pirojpur having the highest number of people. In fact, the data showed, Pirojpur having more population then the capital city, Dhaka. We were able to correct it after students compared the electronic data with the data available in hard copy.
I am planning to create an archive of Bangladesh spatial data and provide them online. They will be maintained in the website http://www.bdgis.com I have had many people emailed me and called me from both US and Bangladesh. They showed great interest to see GIS can grow in Bangladesh. I will create a Bangladesh GIS User database so that students and practitioners all around world can be connected to GIS Community in Bangladesh and abroad.