The National Land Centre (NLC), recently won the global award for the outstanding application of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, during the annual Special Achievement in GIS awards ceremony held at the annual Esri International User Conference (Esri UC) in San Diego, California.

The SAG Awards acknowledge innovative and intelligent applications of GIS technology.

"NLC has, over the past two years, registered tremendous steps in adopting and harnessing the possibilities offered by GIS in developing one of the most progressive national land use master plans as well as facilitating the land registration process that is underway across the country,” said Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Director General of Rwanda Natural Resources Authority.

He added that the land use master plan that is developed using GIS spatial analysis will ensure rational and optimal use of land across the country.

"Specific district land use plans are in the process of being developed using the same approach. In the land registration program, capture of geo-spatial data such as parcel shapes, dimensions and area is accomplished by the use of GIS,” he said.

He expressed gratitude to the Esri International User Conference for recognising the Rwanda land centre as one of the winners of the award.

Over 140 organisations from around the world including NLC won the award.

Thousands of SAG award nominations are submitted each year.

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