Developing a Geoportal for County SDI: Case Study of Nairobi County

The purpose of this study was to assess the existing spatial data type holdings within geospatial organizations in Nairobi County and determine their current spatial data sharing patterns. The main objective was to develop a geoportal to enhance spatial data sharing and effective management in Nairobi County. Our methodology entailed configuration of the database followed by server and web setup. A combination of tools were used which included Apache Tomcat, PostgreSQL as the database, Esri Geoportal Server, Apache Directory Server and Jxplorer for establishing the LDAP connection to the database. Fifty organizations from Nairobi County that handle geospatial data were interviewed via the online survey to find out the data sharing practices between organizations. The results rate the data sharing practices in the county to be poor. The final results comprise of a working geoportal application, with data download and other repository tabs together with the interactive web map embedded to the map viewer. The main conclusion is that geospatial organizations within Nairobi County own various types of spatial data based on their day to day activities. The main recommendation is that the same model used at the county can be scaled and replicated at the national level.