Abstract:
The need to improve access to spatial data has attracted both research and policy attention because it is considered as one of the key requirements for sustainable development. Since multiple stakeholders are involved in the spectrum from spatial data production to use, an effort to make spatial data widely accessible requires multi-stakeholder approaches to foster consensus over multiple decision criteria. The objective of this study was to explore and structure a multi-criteria decision-making problem regarding access to spatial data in Ghana from a multi-stakeholder perspective; and to prioritize (rank) spatial data accessibility components and influencing factors for policy decisions. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used as a tool to support the structuring of the multi-criteria decision problem and the multi-stakeholder process. A three-level AHP structure was constructed to examine the spatial data access problem, with a main objective, four sub-objectives and five alternatives. Spatial data accessibility was decomposed into four components (discoverability retrievability, usability and affordability) which were used as sub-objectives (criteria). More so, spatial data access is mediated by influencing factors (institutional, technical, policy/legal, socio-cultural and economic) which were used as alternatives. Fifty individuals from twenty-four organizations were interviewed and later engaged in a focus-group discussion to generate weights (priorities) for the accessibility components and the alternatives. The results provide both qualitative and quantitative information to decision makers regarding the spatial data access problem and their priorities from the perspective of enhancing access to spatial data. Regarding accessibility components (objectives), discoverability and retrievability had the highest priorities while technical and institutional issues had the highest priorities with regard to the influencing factors. Considering the overall impact on the main objective and in the face of limited resources, it is concluded that improvement in the technical and institutional environment with the view to improving discoverability and retrievability require the highest priority in order to enhance access to spatial data in Ghana
