Assessment of GIS Capabilities of LGUs of the Province of La Union, Philippines: Basis for Action Plan

Abstract

The study determined the Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities of the Local Government Units (LGUs) of La Union province in the Philippines. The GIS profile of the LGUs was assessed and the level of awareness, understanding, utilisation and expertise of GIS users on selected GIS concepts were determined. Constraints in the utilisation of a GIS was investigated to come up with a proposed GIS action plan. Using a descriptive research design, a constructed questionnaire was used in gathering data substantiated through key informant interviews. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Results revealed that GIS users in the LGUs have moderate awareness and fair understanding on some GIS concepts. GIS is moderately utilised in the LGUs and GIS users have average level of expertise on such. LGUs operate GIS under minimal funding and technical support. Technical, financial and organisational constraints in GIS utilisation is evident such as limited GIS background of users, costly hardware and software and the absence of fulltime GIS specialists. Based on the results, projects such as capacity building, benchmarking and data collaboration were proposed to increase the GIS capacities of LGUs. Information dissemination was also done to extend the results to the LGUs.