Digitizing Zanzibar Archipelago (Progress Report)

Spatial Collective spent months on Zanzibar building capacity of the Commission for Lands (COLA) and State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) students and staff on digitizing the Digitizing the Outputs of the Zanzibar Mapping Initiative. The goal was to build enough capacity so that local entities can independently digitize all the structures on Unguja (and eventually Pemba) Island. Training was held at the Commission for Lands on Zanzibar.

Summary of deliverables so far:

• Two and a half months of intensive capacity building for COLA and SUZA  staff
• Another two months of independent digitizing was carried out by the COLA and SUZA students and staff under Spatial Collective’s supervision
• Eleven COLA staff and ten SUZA staff and students trained in digitization and data management
• All the structures within 150+ (out of 239) grids (3 km x 3 km) digitized
• All the structures within Stone Town digitized
• Altogether, more than 100,000 buildings digitized
• The following attributes were assigned to each building:
  1. Building Condition (Complete, Incomplete, Foundation)
  2. Problematic Capture for buildings which attribution or digitization was problematic
  3. Change-set (date)
  4. Building Area (square meters)
  5. Building Reference Numbers assigned to the buildings in the Pilot Area based on the classification put forth by the Client
• Shapefile and Spatialite dB layers created for the datasets
• The following manuals were developed:
  1. Setting up Spatialite Database
  2. Accessing Data through the Spatialite Database or Locally from the Computer
  3. Setting up for Digitization
  4. Basic Tools for Digitizing and Topology Checker
  5. Digitization – Practical Steps and Rules
  6. Digitization Error Examples
  7. Edge Matching
  8. Generating Building Reference Numbers