Singapore Land Authority spearheads “Spatial Enablement” initiative

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is spearheading its annual, SLA Spatial Challenge, which is organised for Pre-University and Tertiary students to encourage the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies in Singapore.

Ng Siau Yong, Director of SLA Geospatial Division, told FutureGov Asia Pacific that the primary objective of this initiative is to create and increase awareness of GIS technologies in students and to encourage the innovative application of GIS to solve real life issues.

“SLA is spearheading a whole-of-government initiative “SG-SPACE” (Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment) to create an environment to facilitate the sharing and use of geospatial information among the public agencies, business and communities for better decision making,” Ng said.

“Spatial Challenge is one of the ways in which SLA promotes and creates the awareness of the use of GIS and geospatial information to our future generation”.

The author at work at the Singapore Land Authority — Photo by Tan Hua Seng
(profsurv.com)

The SLA Spatial Challenge is done annually in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, which has played a key role in creating awareness of GIS Technologies in schools.

“Since 2008, our target participants were the pre-university students. From 2010 onwards, we have enlarged our target participants’ base to include the tertiary students as well. To date, an approximate number of 350 students had participated in this competition” he said.

Ng added that the Spatial Challenge event yielded such positive responses that it encouraged the Government to continue its efforts to reach out to the students from Universities and Polytechnics.

SLA invests S$60,000 (US$47,000) to organise each annual Spatial Challenge event, which according to Yong is an investment into the education of Singapore’s Future Generation and would pave the way towards a “Spatially enabled society”.

“Singaporean youths today are highly resourceful and receptive to new technology. If they see the benefits of geospatial technology and adopt spatial thinking in all areas of their lives, they can potentially help to push this technology to the edge through innovative use.”

“This will definitely enhance the move towards ‘spatially enabling’ the country” Ng said.

-futuregov.com