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Nov. 3, 2006 – Lieutenant Governor Vargrave Richards delivered the keynote address at the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) 2006 GIS Conference in the Bahamas today. Lt. Governor Richards, who oversees several divisions key to the implementation of the GIS system in the Territory, has been in the Bahamas for the past week attending the conference.
In his address, Lt. Governor Richards called on other Caribbean nations to increase their level of information sharing so that the region can begin to "mitigate the impact of future disasters and challenges."
The Virgin Islands, Lt. Governor Richards told conference attendees, is well on its way to integrating technological databases with the establishment of a GIS Charter Council and with partnerships between the University of the Virgin Islands, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. The lieutenant governor said the partnership will result in the installation of an early warning system in the Territory that will assist in plotting and predicting potential tsunami occurrences in the entire Caribbean.
"There is much work to be done in the Virgin Islands," Lt. Governor Richards stated, referring to the overall implementation of the GIS system. "This system, however, is a tool for empowerment, for training government employees across the board and especially for assisting our students to understand the impact of GIS in their lives. It impacts our tourism base, our public safety, our waste management systems, our Department of Planning and Natural Resources, our realtors, insurance sector and other equally vital areas in our community."
The 2006 URISA GIS Conference ended today.
