Ministry Launch VanuaGIS

The Minister for Lands & Mineral Resources, the Hon. Faiyaz Koya officially launched the VanuaGIS during the 3rd National Geospatial Conference held at Novotel Lami, on the 25th of November 2016.

With the theme “Mapping the Disaster”, the Minister ensured participants that this web portal platform (Vanua GIS) “is going to change the way we access information and will boost the quality of our strategic planning and decision making”.

As rightfully stated by the Minister, ‘…this is the first of its kind… a tool that is long overdue…’ given that data sharing has been one of the biggest challenges in Fiji. The collaboration of Fiji’s data- providing a centralized repository of public data sets that can be seamlessly integrated into Data Sets, received from different organization such as Fiji Elections Office.

The Hon. Koya informed participants that Government used GIS technology after Cyclone Winston to track relief assistance at the National Disaster Management Office. It has assisted the Government during disaster preparedness and also in the creation of digital maps of all evacuation centres.

Further, through using GIS technology, the Government was able to map coastal communities that are most vulnerable to rising sea levels and assist in the relocation of these communities. All information can be assembled digitally in one web portal and accessed by authorized users with the click of a button.

In his closing address, Hon. Koya urged all stakeholders to use the technology that is now available to everyone to put Fiji in the best possible position to weather future events. The conference was attended by 100 participants who also witnessed this significant milestone.

The Ministry of Lands & Mineral Resources is very grateful to the assistance rendered by various stakeholders who provided their respective data to our Geospatial Information Management Division, which formed the basis of Vanua GIS portal. These stakeholders included; Fiji Elections Office, Ministry of Sugar, Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture, iTaukei Lands Trust Board, Water Authority, Fiji Electricity Authority, Fiji Roads Authority & Telecom Fiji Limited.