Nguyễn Toàn Thắng (standing), director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, speaks at a press conference to announce the launch of a natural resources and environment data sharing platform. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — HCM City authorities have announced a database sharing platform on natural resources and the environment, offering the public greater access to geospatial data to help improve land use management in the city.

Nguyễn Toàn Thắng, director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said the digital platform hosting standardised data on natural resources and the environment is readily accessible by the public and local authorities.

The platform is capable of hosting, integrating, and managing information on land use, property ownership, and other cadastral data citywide according to international standards.

The platform provides timely public services on natural resources and the environment and creates an open Government data system in the field, he noted.

The department will regulate how spatial data is collected and shared based on global best practices, according to Thắng.

The integrated platform for easy and remote access to transparent and accurate land information will also create efficiencies in the real estate market and in policy making around land use in the city.

The department has conducted training on how to use the data on the platform for its divisions and units as well as some districts and agencies. It will later provide the training to all districts in the city.

The department is now completing the city’s official land price data to be updated on the platform to serve state agencies, people and businesses.

Every year, the department advises the municipal People’s Committee on land use and management at the city level to ensure decisions are based on evidence and stand up to public scrutiny.

The department last year completed a data portal on resources and the environment (https://geoportal-stnmt.tphcm.gov.vn).

According to Bùi Hồng Sơn, director of the department’s Information Technology Centre, in HCM City, much of the land registry record keeping and other cadastral data is currently paper-based, which hinders the city’s capacity to manage land use.

An integrated geoportal will allow information sharing among different government agencies, improving land resources management and public services delivery.

As land is a limited resource, where and how it is used needs to be carefully considered to ensure land is used in the most effective way possible, requiring a data platform as a single source for coherent data about land use, experts say.

Information on land use and management is essential to support the city in making decisions about the impact of human activities on the environment, planning the use of natural resources, conserving biodiversity, and monitoring climate change, they add.

The project to complete a database sharing platform on natural resources and the environment was approved by the Government in 2020. — VNS