Spatial information and development in the Americas: Geography in the 21st century

The visible opening and closing sections form an address marking the author’s appointment as a corresponding member of Argentina’s National Academy of Geography in Colombia. Reviewing his work in regional and urban development, national mapping, and geographic administration, he emphasizes human geography, primary historical sources, and professional geographic judgment, and discusses Ernesto Guhl’s influence on his understanding of territory and development. He highlights the production of the 2002 Atlas of Colombia, completed over more than five years by IGAC professionals with contributions from over 32 institutions. Its more than one thousand maps, charts, and diagrams synthesize physical, social, economic, and cultural information. An earlier digital atlas enabled users to customize maps and consult a geographical names dictionary. The closing sections draw on the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile to discuss constraints imposed on disaster response by communications infrastructure, national geographic institutions’ capacities, and the availability of spatial information. The author distinguishes military, civilian, and Central American cadastral and land-administration models of mapping institutions. He advocates spatial data infrastructures, international standards certification, and capacity building, and proposes responsibilities for national institutions in fundamental-data stewardship, quality assurance, coordination, certification, and access. Against a regional context of economic growth, limited competitiveness, and persistent inequality, he identifies spatial information and its applications as resources for development and integration, particularly in climate change, territorial planning, and natural disasters.