The SpatialDev team has been integral to HarvestChoice at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2008. HarvestChoice generates and disseminates information that improves decisions that impact the well-being of smallholder farmers in developing countries. Delivery of spatial information is key to this mission.

SpatialDev provides HarvestChoice with the technical infrastructure that enables wide information access. Our system combines open-source tools GeoNetwork, GeoServer, and OpenLayers to enable unique mapping interfaces for data discovery and download.

The SpatialDev team is at the core of AGCommons, an African-based service and infrastructure organization that supports information communications technology and mapping in agriculture.

Using a combination of open-source and proprietary ESRI server technology, SpatialDev has defined the program use cases and the overall technical direction and has also built out the initial mapping platform. AGCommons is poised to become the premier hosting and mapping platform for spatial information related to agriculture throughout Africa.

SpatialDev is building a mapping tool for a large agricultural development program at an international donor organization. The application allows program officers and grantees to make connections and identify opportunities for greater impact.

The application uses a variety of proprietary and open-source components to provide sophisticated query and filter controls, to layer externally hosted geographic data with project data, to create and save custom maps, and to share those maps with collaborators.

One of our strengths is leveraging best of breed components and integrating what works into an elegant solution. It’s a practical and cost-effective approach that avoids re-creating the wheel.

While we stay true to our requirements-driven ethos, there is some great stuff we work with frequently. Some key technologies we use include DOTGO SMS engine, Safe Software FME, PostGreSQL and PostGIS, Python and PHP.