A Territorial Information System for Lebanon Information is vital to Decision Makers. Political decision as spatial by nature: they apply to population settled in a certain geographical area. However raw data, the base for any information system, does not have a spatial distribution. For this reason Geographical Information Systems – GIS -, are important for Decision Makers: spatially structured data allows better comprehension of the reality and therefore better decisions.

         GIS are not meant to exist just for producing maps. They are interactive tools that should be accessible to decision makers in a simple way. Without any special hardware and software requirement. Through the Internet, whenever this is possible and convenient. GIS are normally based on digital maps and specific thematic information. A major step forward is provided by Territorial Information System – TIS. A TIS will include all the spatial information available and relevant to a specific geographic area. It is a platform that can be enriched when more organizations and stakeholders join it.

          IT Synergy has worked in Lebanon with the Remote Sensing department of CNRS, the National Council for Science and Technology. The CNRS and the Ministry of Agriculture have provided most of the spatial information, including high definition satellite images, while IT Synergy role has been to provide the TIS software platform and training. This solution is based on Open Source software.

          It is therefore fully owned and replicable by the Lebanese Government without any restriction or additional cost. No special hardware or software is required for the servers that host the system. Databases can also be distributed among several servers to maintain data ownership and sovereignty. Any authorized user can access right away the information from his computer, connecting the server through the Local Area Network or via the Internet using his standard browser. The project staff has been thoroughly trained to be able to maintain and enrich the information available in the TIS ensuring the sustainability of this initiative. We expect to expand the reach of the system developed so far to cover other areas that the Government of Lebanon will consider relevant with the contribution of other interested sectors.