IRIN
PAKISTAN: Data standardisation to improve quake relief coordination
15 November 2005


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

ISLAMABAD, 15 November (IRIN) - The United Nation's Humanitarian 
Information Centre (HIC) in Pakistan has finalised data standardisation 
of locations across Pakistan's quake-affected region in an effort to 
better coordinate relief and development activities.

"We were trying to establish - now almost finished - a single list of 
all the towns and villages, each with a unique code through which people 
can search the database to gather and share information with improved 
inter-linkages and better integration," Craig Williams, data coordinator 
with the HIC, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

He added that these codes provided a systematic means of linking and 
exchanging data and analysing relationships between them.

Such a system will prove key in addressing the needs of communities 
across the 30,000 sq km affected area, noting issues of population, 
building damage and assistance distribution.

According to Williams, there were often 10 different names for the same 
settlement, while some locations appeared on maps and others didn't. 
Then there were lists of communities produced by the National Database 
Registration Authority (NADRA) for issuing national identity cards, 
while for census taking there was another list. Similarly the military 
used other kinds of lists.

"So everybody was speaking different languages to talk about the same 
village or town, making the coordination more complicated," Williams 
maintained.

To date, the HIC database has enlisted nearly 6,500 small and large 
communities centred in a square shape around the earthquake-hit region 
of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir 
in about 34 sub-districts comprising 15 districts. A further breakdown 
shows about 1,783 locations are from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, 
nearly 4,300 from NWFP, 296 of Punjab province, 33 from around the 
capital, Islamabad, and some 63 from Pakistan's Federally Administered 
Northern Areas (FANA).

Using a Pcode system, an abbreviated term for 'Place Code' - similar to 
zip codes and postal codes - a unique reference code has been 
established for thousands of locations. Any information that is linked 
to one location with a Pcode can be linked and analysed with any other 
information linked to the same Pcode.

The data standards have also been linked to a geographical information 
system for printing computerised maps with geography detail, which 
would, for instance, help find villages located above the snow line.

"The most difficult aspect here has been that in most emergencies we do 
have physical access, but since so much infrastructure was damaged in 
this earthquake, we lost access to many of the roads - especially the 
smaller roads that lead into remote communities and even the larger 
roads - that allow the transport of large quantities of relief goods. So 
information gathering has been a difficult process," Williams added.

Now, together with other UN agencies and Pakistani authorities, the HIC 
has located helipad sites, as well as identified the opened and closed 
roads and those areas that have not received any assistance at all.

"It's a very big task for us to get people to adopt a single common 
system and start to share information," Williams said, adding all the 
system's information to provide technical support on the new code system 
was available on the UN Pakistan country website, as well as the HIC's.

Each of the 10 clusters charged with relief efforts on the ground will 
employ the new system to handle their own information about health, 
shelter, and education to support the field operations.

As of now, the larger humanitarian community, including the relevant 
government departments, UN agencies, donor governments, civic 
institutions and local and international NGOs working in the affected 
area, have agreed to form this new system as the basis of their 
information management systems.


IRIN photos and articles of the Asia earthquake impact are available to 
media and members of the humanitarian community free-of-charge. Articles 
can be accessed at www.IRINnews.org. Full-sized images suitable for 
publications can be downloaded directly from the public photo 
library:www.irinnews.org/photogallery/iringallery .  To search for 
appropriate photos select 'Pakistan' under the Country search dropdown 
box.

New photos and articles are added daily.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005


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