Emerging Trends in Developing Appropriate Data Management Infrastructure for Physical Development Planning in Nigeria

Developing an enduring and sustainable data management infrastructure for physical planning
in Nigeria is critical to addressing the numerous problems posed by uncontrolled urbanization, rapid
population growth and environmental degradation. The thrust of this paper focuses on the key elements
that are important for the creation of a robust and efficient data management infrastructure systems that
are data-driven, which aid in making informed decisions in physical planning. The proposed data
infrastructure embraced National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) as the bedrock that ensures the
integration of geographic information systems, data mining, knowledge discovery and advanced data
analytics, which forms the enabling environment for data collection, storage, analysis of spatial and aspatial
data, and visualization. The establishment of NSDI will enable unified data management framework,
standardized data format, interoperable systems and a centralized data repository that is accessible to
various stakeholders, including government agencies, city planners, and related researchers. Capacity
building through training and technical skill education of planners and policy formulators will add value
to the successful implementation and utilization of the data management infrastructure systems.
Nonetheless, the awareness of Common Data Environments (CDE), International Standard Organization
(ISO) protocol, advanced information and communication and groupware technologies are crucial for data
management infrastructure for physical development planning in Nigeria.
Keywords: NSDI, Knowledge Discovery, Common Data Environments, International Standard
Organizations.