Implications of Institutional Client-Server Geographic Information System: A Case of Mzuzu Agriculture Development Division

Stand alone GIS applications at Mzuzu ADD make it difficult if not impossible for the top management to access data and make decisions accordingly. The applications make it difficult for members of staff to share spatial information and further more there is duplication of work and inconsistency in the spatial data collected by the ministry. The current setup influences what is termed as the institutional challenge. This situation arises due to GIS experts not being able to communicate effectively to the decision makers. This is as a result of the absence of the link or availability of the GIS applications and its data to the decision makers. Institutional challenge is one of the many challenges facing in the adoption of GIS usage. As a way of eliminating or reducing the stated problems above, this study proposes client-server GIS application. One such application can be a Spatial Data Infrastructure at an institutional level. The aim of this research was to identify implications that can arise in introducing an institutional GIS client-server application over stand-alone GIS applications.