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Mesoamerican and Caribbean Geospatial Alliance (MACGA)
The Mesoamerican and Caribbean Geospatial Alliance (MACGA) is a project implemented by the U.S. Geological Survey/EROS Data Center in cooperation with several partner organizations. MACGA strives, as an "alliance" of organizations with shared interests, to facilitate the development of spatial data with appropriate standards, datums, and descriptions, assist efficient data management, and support access, dissemination, and applications in the regions of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. The logic behind the project: better and more readily available spatial data should translate into better decision-making.
With core funding from USAID, and support from national and international agencies, the MACGA project features an ambitious capacity-building program. Two technical workshops on spatial data technologies were organized to provide training, software, and source data. One was held in Panama during November 2003 for Mesoamerican participants, and the other one was held during April 2004 for Caribbean participants. The project seeks to promote the establishment or improvement of spatial data infrastructures, assist in the establishment of better communication channels among agencies and initiatives developing spatial data, and in general help build a framework for improved spatial data generation, management, and dissemination in these two regions.
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MesoAmerican
Panama City, Panama
November 10-26, 2003 |
Caribbean
Port of Spain, Trinidad
May 17-28, 2004 |
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Generous support for this initiative, by way of financial contributions, software and spatial data
donations, provision of airfares, training support, and organizational and technical assistance, have been provided by the following agencies:
- Agency for Educational Development (AED)
- Bureau for Economic Growth, Agricultura and Trade (EGAT)
- Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)
- Centre for Geospatial Studies, University of the West Indies
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA)
- Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)
- Comisión Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo (CCAD)
- Comité Permanente para la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de las Américas (CP-IDEA)
- Disaster Mitigation Facility for the Caribbean (DMFC)
- Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
- Global Observation of Forest Cover (GOFC)
- Guatemala-Central America Program (G-CAP)
- Inter-American Biological Information network (IABIN)
- Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia (IPGH)
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
- Latin America and Caribbean Regional Program (LAC)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
- National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)
- National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA)
- Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
- Organization of American States (OAS)
- Pacific Disaster Center (PDC)
- The World Bank
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center
- U.S. Southern Command (US Southcom)
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