Brunei Darussalam - Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and ...

Country Report 2006
(Based on the PCGIAP-Data Integration Template 2006)
Brunei Darussalam
Country/state: Brunei Darussalam
Name of contact person:
Affiliation, Organization:
I. Country Report
A. Country Context
Geographical Context
Brunei Darussalam is situated on the north-west of the island of Borneo, between east
longitudes 114 degrees 04’ and 11 degrees 23’ and north latitudes of 4 degrees 00’ and 5
degrees 05’. It has a total area of 5,765sq km. with a coastline of about 161 km along the South
China Sea. It is bounded on the North by the South China Sea and on all the other sides by
Malaysian State of Sarawak.
The population of Brunei Darussalam in mid-year 1999, is estimated at 330,700 persons, an
increase of 7,600 persons or growing at 2.4% over the mid year population estimate 1998. Of
the said total, 175,200 (53%) are males and 155,500 (47%) females
The land surface is developed on bedrock of tertiary age comprising of sandstone, shale and
clays. The terrain in the western part of Brunei Darussalam is predominantly hilly lowland below
91 meters, but rising in the hinterland to about 300 meters. The eastern part of the state
consists predominantly of rugged mountain terrain, rising 1,850 meters above sea level at Bukit
Pagon. The coast has a wide, tidal and swampy plain.
Historical Context
Haji Mohd Jamil Ali and Norzamni Salleh
Function, Position: Surveyor General Office
Address:
Email address: Tel, Fax survey@brunet.bn

The 1959 Constitution provides for The Sultan as the Head of State with full executive authority.
The sultan is assisted and advised by five councils – the Religious Cuncil, the Privy Council, the
Council of Ministers (the Cabinet), the Legislative Council and the Council of Succession
The 1959 Constitution established the Chief Minister as the highest official, with the British High
Commissioner as adviser to the Government on all matters except those relating to the Muslim
religion and Malay customs. Effectively, however, in all internal and financial matters, the
country has been self-governing.
Land administration was the first handled by the British Resident which has the power to issue
the letter of ownership to land applicants until the ‘Declaration of Constitution’ in 1959 where this
power was given to His Majesty Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang
Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam through Sultan in Council.
Current Political and Administrative Structures
Brunei is an independent soverign Sultanate which is governed on the basis of a written
Constitution.
His Majesty The Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan is the supreme executive authority in Brunei
Darussalam. His Majesty has occupied the position of Prime Minister since resumption of
independence in 1984.
Brunei’s administrative system is centred on the Prime Minister’s Office which has provided the
thrust behind His Majesty’s aim to introduce greater efficiency in the Government. In his
National Day speech in 1987, his Majesty pointed out that it was essential to keep the country’s
administrative machinery up-to-date in line with development of Brunei as an independent
nation. His Majesty has followed a combination of traditional and reforming policies, moving
away from a structure of a Chief Minister and State Secretary to a full ministerial system with
specified portfolios.
A. National SDI Context
History and Status of National SDI Initiatives
Description of the origins and the development of National SDI inititatives.
The National SDI initiative is based on collaboration and the major SDI activities occur at
National Government level. It is expcted that the development of NSDI will be implemented
among private/public partnership.
Have Core Datasets been defined within the SDI structure ?
The core datasets are cadastral, roads, rivers at scale of 1:2,500 under Survey Department
which are also used as base map. Other is Land Registration datasets which is under Land
Department. Currently, there is no custodianship or guidelines been created however each
department has write access to their own data only.
Describe the data acquition and access mechanisms within the SDI

There is no clearinghouse or portal for sharing of spatial data currently implemented. However
the sharing of spatial data is via intranet that links 3 departments (survey, land and town &
country planning departments). Pricing, licensing, reproduction principels do govern the data
access especially datasets.
If your country is not developing a National SDI, are there any plans on developing an SDI in
the future?
Brunei Darussalam is moving to NSDI
Historical Outline of Built and Natural Environment Data Development
Please describe the origins and development of both cadastral and topographic data, along
with other built and natural environmental datasets.
Agencies involve in cadastral and topographic data development are Survey Department and
Private sectors (Land Surveyors). The data were developed from different perspective and
backgrounds. Cadastral from a property perspective whereas topographic from mapping
perspective.
Current Administration of Built and Natural Enviromental Data
Please describe current institutional and management arrangements that govern cadastral
and topographical data.
Survey Department deal with physical survey data, Land Department deal with land registration
data and District Office deal with administrative boundaries. All these are at national level.
Please describe current institutional and management arrangements that other built and
natural environmental data.
Survey Department governs image data for monitoring purposes, Town and Country Planning
Department governs the master plan for the whole country and Enviromental Unit under Ministry
of Development governs environment data.
Please describe the metadata arrangements for built and natural environmental datasets.
There is no metadata currently used or in place
Please describe the data format or conceptual model for built and environmental datasets,
especially topographic and cadasral datasets.
Since Survey Department is the only government agency dealing with cadastral and
topographic data, data modal are common. All data are using feature coding as in ‘Survey
Department Data Dictionary’.
B. Institutional Framework for Integration - Data Provider
Please provide information on how spatial information is managed from a data provider
perspective.
Data also received from private surveyors via contracts or tender award. In the contracts or
tender, guidelines of submission and specification is listed. All submission will be check
accordingly and loaded successfully to the database before payment can be processed.
Please describe the tools that are used to manage spatial information.

The Department is currently using ESRI products (ARCSDE) as a tool to manage spatial
information.
At what scale do you produce built and natural environmental datasets such as cadastre and
topo?
Cadastral is at scale of 1:2,500 and topographic is at scale of 1:1,000
C. Institutional Framework for Integration - Data User
Please describe the major data users.
Major data users :-
Government Department topographical, cadastral layers, maps
Consultant topographical and cadastral layers
Public cadastral layers
University maps of different scales
Planners topographical, cadastral layers, maps
Military Maps
Describe current services and products that are available to data users and customers.
There is a center for purchasing Geomatics information located at second floor of the Survey
Department . Currently there is no on-line services.
D. Issues in the Integration of Built and Natural Environmental
Datsets
Need for Integration
Data integration is consider as priority in our jurisdiction. With this we can share data and fully
utilized them. This will help in decision making among politicians. Once data integrated a lot of
analysis can be done thus enable us to make life easy in doing population census, site
selection, hazard management, environmental protection and others that required integrated
data.
Major Issues in attempting to integrate built and natural environmental datasets.
What are the major issues hindering the ability to integrate multi-source datasets on a
national level ?
Among the major issues hindering us to integrate multi-source datasets are :-
1. Technical capability
2. Standardisation of data
3. Custodianship issue
4. Policy of issuance data
5. Confidentiality of data
6. Security of data (sharing)
7. Copyright law
Please list and describe the outcomes of any attempts to integrate built and natural
environment datasets at a national or state type level.

Pilot projects using GIS concepts :-
1. Sistem Informasi Kampong Ayer (SIKA) - completed
A system for water village allows us to differentiate types of houses, number of
occupants, male/female/child occupants, local / non locals and etc. In this project, there
is integration between building layers, house numbering, population data . This system
was used to demostrate analysis of population censors, site selection and also for map
production. Field work and also population census was done by the team itself. Due to
confidentiality some of the information cannot be shown.
2. Digital Survey Sheet - on going
The default layer on this survey sheet are cadastral, roads and rivers. Option layers are
from other sources such as geodetic information, gazette layers, house numbering,
topographic and others.

II. Questionaire
Please answer to the best of your ability
1.0 Policy Principles :
What are the current issues that policy needs to address within your jurisdiction in regards to
spatial information?
Current issues are mainly on security of data, directive from higher authority, custodianship of
data and pricing.
Has your jurisdiction developed any policies on data integration? If so, what is the capacity for
and policies relating to data integration within your jurisdiction ?
Currently there is no policy yet
How much of the spatial information policy and initiatives is user driven ? Please give examples
of user driven projects or initiatives.
None
Are there policies or guidelines in place for the following aspects of spatial data ? If yes, at what
level do these policies apply (please tick National, State / Provincial or Local)?
Only Department’s guideline
Policy
State/Provincial
National Level Level Local Level
1. Management /
2. Data Model
3. Metadata
/
4. Custodianship
5. Pricing
/
6. Access
7. Distribution
8. Privacy
/
9. Security
10. Purchasing, Procurement
/
2.0 Institutional Principles
What are the current institutional issues hindering the integration of data within your jusrisdiction?
Please tick level of importance

Issue
Very
Important
(5)
Important
(4)
1. Funding /
2. Collaboration /
3. Awareness of data
/
existence
4. Licensing /
5. Data Access /
6. Other
7. Other
Neither
(3)
Not Very
Importan
t
(2)
Not
Important At
All
(1)
How is spatial information accessed within your jusrisdiction? Please tick if access mechanism
is the primary method of accessing data (used constantly). Secondary method (used occasionally)
or not used at all.
Access Mechanism Primary Secondary Not Used
1. Paper maps /
2. Directory /
3. CDROM or other portable medium /
4. Email /
5. Online, Internet /
6. Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area
Network (WAN), other communication
network
7. Other
/
How is spatial information managed within your jurisdiction ?
SI Management Please Tick
1. Centralised (National Government) /
2. Decentralised (State/Provincial/Local)
3. Other
How are spatial data initiatives funded within your jusridiction?
Funded By Please Tick
1. Government (public sector) /
2. Cos recovery of data
3. Private Sector
4. Public/private Sector
5. Other

3.0 Technical Principles :
What are the current technical issues hindering the integration of data within your jurisdiction?
Please tick level of importance.
Issue
Very
Imoprotant
(5)
Important
(4)
1.Computational heterogeneity /
2. Vertical topology /
3. Refrence system /
4. Data quality /
5. Metadata /
6. Data format
7. Other
Neither(3)
Not Very
Important
(2)
Not Important
At All
(1)
What standards organizations or bodies for spatial data does your jurisdiction subscribe, member
or adhere to?
Standard Please Tick
1. International Standards Organisation ISO, Technical Committee for
/
Geographic Information / Geomatics – TC211
2. National Standards Committee or Body
3. Open GIS Consortium OGC
4. World Wide Web Consortium W3C
5. Other
4.0 Legal Principles
What are the current legal issues hindering the integration of data within your jurisdiction?
Please rank,
Issue
Very
Imoprotant
(5)
Important
(4)
1. Copytight /
2. Intellectual property /
3. Data access /
4. Privacy /
Neither(3)
Not Very
Important
(2)
Not Important
At All
(1)

5. Data licensing /
6. Other
7. Other
5.0 Social Principles :
Who are the major users of cadastral and topographic data within your jurisdiction?
Data User (Cadastral)
Major
User
User Sporadic
User
Not a User
1. Government - technician /
2. Government - manager /
3. Private sector /
4. Academia /
5. Military /
6. Other
Data User (Cadastral)
Major
User
1. Government - technician /
2. Government - manager /
3. Private sector /
4. Academia /
5. Military /
6. Other
User Sporadic
User
Not a User
What capacity building initiatives are currently underway within your jurisdiction in regards to
spatial information development?
1. The Department is sending officers for overseas training both short and longterm.
2. The Department is also improving technologies used.
3. Continous awareness program
6.0 Spatial Data Infrastructure
What are the main data sets available within your National SDI? Please list.
Data Set Please Tick
1. Geodetic refrence, survey network /
2. Cadastral, ownership, property boundary information /
3. Topography /
4. Land use, zoning, planning /
5. Native title
6. Road networks, road center-line data /
7. Utilities ans essential services infrastructure /

8. Transportation /
9. Geographic names, localities and administrative boundaries /
10. Street Address /
11. Aerial or Satellite Imagery /
12. Elevaion and Bathymetry
13. Hydrology /
14. Vegetation /
15. Forestry /
16. Mineral resources /
17. Agriculture /
18. Environment /
19. Other /
What is the cost for data available through the SDI
Cost Please Tick
1. Free (open access)
2. Cost of ransferring the data /
3. Full cost recovery (cost of transfer plus cost of creation, updating
/
etc)
4. Other…………..