 A study conducted under the Mapping Africa for Africa (MAFA) initiative of the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa (the UNECA) has defined for the first time what African geo-information stakeholders and practitioners believe is a "fundamental" geo-spatial datasets. The definition developed after extensive consultation across the continent is:
Fundamental data sets are the minimum primary sets of data that cannot be derived from other data sets, and that are required to spatially represent phenomena, objects, or themes important for the realisation of economic, social, and environmental benefits consistently across Africa at the local, national, sub-regional and regional levels.
Key criteria for a geo-spatial dataset to be defined as fundamental include: | | - Having complete coverage of the area of interest and it should be of an acceptable standard, including consistency, reliability, quality, continuity and accuracy;
- A diversity of users in different sectors must have a consistent need for the dataset
- It must have sufficient detail for it to be of significant benefits to users
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Using the above definition and criteria, a set of 25 fundamental geospatial datasets were identified. These datasets were classified in 11 themes and 3 categories. The categories represent the level of importance of the different groups of fundamental geospatial datasets. Level 0 or the Primary Reference category is the most important all fundamental geospatial datasets and incorporates the Geodetic Control Network. Level 1 includes all Base Geography such as rectified satellite imagery and aerial photography, hypsography and hydrography. Administrative and infrastructure geospatial datasets form part of the Level 2while environmental geospatial datasets form part of the Level 3. It was recognized that not all of the geospatial datasets would form part of these three levels and therefore Level 4 incorporates all non-fundamental secondary datasets.
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