What is BNSDI
The Belize National Spatial Data Infrastructure (BNSDI) is a partnership between Central Government Ministries, Local Government Authorities, Statutory Bodies, Public Utility Companies and Local Universities to make map data and other location information accessible.
This partnership has been 10 years in the making and currently involves 30 Partners.
The BNSDI Geoportal
The BNSDI Geoportal is the web portal developed for the BNSDI through which data is shared by the Partners can be accessed by them.
The BNSDI Geoportal is administered by the Spatial Data Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Spatial Data Department is headed by the Data Administrator.
Leadership
The BNSDI partnership is overseen by an Executive Committee currently comprising the Chief Executive Officers of some of Ministries, Statutory Bodies, and Public Utility Companies.
The Executive Committee is advised by a Technical Committee currently comprising representatives of some Ministries, Statutory Bodies, Public Utility Companies and the University of Belize.
The Ministry of Natural Resources coordinates the activities of the Executive and Technical Committees.
BNSDI Policies
The BNSDI partnership is regulated by a set of agreed policies, including the understanding set out in the Executive Committee Charter, Technical Committee Terms of Reference, the BNSDI Programme Design: Policy Component and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Sharing, Access and Use of Data by, between and among Government Ministries, Statutory Bodies, Public Utility Providers, Local Government Authorities and Local Universities.
Current Partners
The Partners in the BNSDI currently includes:
Who can become a Partner
Any Central Government Ministry, Local Government Authority, Statutory Body, Public Utility Company and Local University can become a Partner in the BNSDI upon agreement to abide by the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Non-Partners
A non-partner is any person or organization who is not a Central Government Ministry, Local Government Authority,Statutory Body, Public Utility Company or Local University.Data Use by Partners
The Partners in the BNSDI have the permission to use each other’s data in the BNSDI Geoportal in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding.
Some data in the BNSDI Geoportal is restricted and can only be accessed by Partners through the mechanism set out in the Memorandum of Understanding.
The list or restricted data can be accessed here.
Data Use by Non-Partners
Non-partners can access any available open data here.
Open data refers to data that is made freely available to the public.
A non-partner can make a request for data in the BNSDI Geoportal to the BNSDI Partner who is the data owner.
A BNSDI Partner if it chooses can share its data in the BNSDI Geoportal with a non-partners.
Where a Partner has given its permission for a non-partner to have its data the data will be delivered by the Data Administrator to the non-party via a file sharing service.
A non-partner may be required to sign a user agreement with the data owner.
Non-partners do not have access to the BNSDI Geoportal.