BIG: Indonesia Lacks Sovereignty Over Geospatial Data, Comprehensive Data Controlled by Foreign Entities

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Acting Head of the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG), Mohamad Arief Syafi’i, has acknowledged that Indonesia still lacks sovereignty over its geospatial data. “We hope that in the future we will have sovereignty over this data, sir. To be honest, at the moment we do not have sovereignty. Not to mention the technology, sir, even the comprehensive data is now owned by Google Maps, Here Maps—all foreign. We do not control this data,” Arief stated during a hearing on the Single Data Bill (RUU Satu Data), on Monday (6 April 2016). “Remote sensing technology and satellites have advanced greatly; the highest resolution published for public use—not the military version, sir—is something we cannot access,” he said. “For civilian use, the resolution is 30 cm, meaning this table can already be seen from the satellite, sir—30 cm can be detected,” he continued. Nevertheless, Indonesia faces geographical challenges in the form of cloud cover that hinders the use of optical satellites. Therefore, the government must begin considering the use of radar technology, which can penetrate clouds and operate day or night. On the other hand, Arief believes that aircraft are still necessary to produce maps with high accuracy, especially on a large scale. “With aircraft technology, not only can we increase the resolution to 8 cm, sir—which is needed for 1:1,000 scale. The resolution means this glass can be captured, sir, but also the positional accuracy,” he said. “If satellites can deviate by metres, sir, that’s far off. With aircraft technology, not only the resolution can be improved, but also the positional accuracy. This is something that satellites cannot achieve; it can only be done with aircraft,” he added. “We must be technologically independent; we must build our own satellites,” Arief stated. He also reminded of the importance of geospatial data in the context of defence, citing the use of satellite imagery in inter-country conflicts as an example. Arief emphasised that, beyond mapping, the presence of satellites is important for periodically updating data with broad coverage and quickly. “If we don’t have this, our bullets could miss and go anywhere,” he explained.