The Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Infrastructures (SRCTE) will provide the population with a virtual shop of cartography until the end of the year. The assurance was given this morning by the Regional Secretary, José Contente, at the opening session of the workshop on “Geospatial Reference Systems: Challenges for the Autonomous Region of the Azores – Adequacy to the Community Directive INSPIRE.”

The project, unprecedented in the Region, will provide all the interested citizens and users with geo-referenced information, through an easier access to both research and acquisition, so that, as the Secretary stressed, “this initiative may be another step towards the construction of a puzzle that will become a scientific and technological cluster.”

Digital cartography and geo-referencing are themes that have been increasingly developed in the Autonomous Region of the Azores over the last years, stated José Contente. “The Government, as partner associated to spatial planning, has strongly supported this area, given not only the necessity of modernity and effectiveness in our development, but also the necessity of a quick search, as well as of the search and use of instruments that will better adequate the geo-referencing projects to the demands of modern times.”

The Regional Government, through the Regional Directorate for Cartography Services of the SRCTE, has promoted the development of these services due to its importance in different areas of the society, for that reason this workshop gathered nearly 150 participants and speakers.

Nowadays, the Azores have to face the challenge brought by the application of the Community directive INPIRE, which require the abandonment of the local reference system and its replacement by the GLOBAL ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame). Through this change, the public and private services will have to convert the existing geographic information, which is in the local system, to the ITRF.

The advances of the Regional cartography are present in two worldwide recognised search engines, namely Virtual Earth from Microsoft and Google Earth. For José Contente, this is a “great step,” as it enables a better knowledge of the Azores due to the technological advances.

The Geo@çores portal that enables the publication, search, visualisation and share of geo-referenced information between the governmental departments is one of the projects undertaken by the Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Infrastructures.

“The IDEA – Interactive Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Azores was created in order to boost the Geo@çores, regarding its opening to the community and interaction with the public,” mentioned the Regional Secretary.

According to José Contente, the tourism and agriculture sectors, whilst keystones for the Regional economy, “should now be complemented with the Scientific and Technological System which should be modern in order to create new challenges and new opportunities to our society, and we strongly believe in these new opportunities resulting therefrom, hence the Government’s commitment in this area.”