Applied GIS: Web GIS Serving Public Safety in Central Asia

    Central Asia as well as a surrounding web of nations are widely affected by illicit drug trafficking, specifically due to the “poppy seed cultivation in Afghanistan” (Kurbanov, 2015, p. 69). The wide trafficking of this drug continues to cause  issues within Afghanistan and surrounding nations relating to “security, good governance, and socio-economic development” (p. 69) causing instability within these countries as a result. By making spatial analysis and GIS based databases more accessible across the public, the United Nations on Drug and Crime worked to combat this issue.

    The Drugs Monitoring Program (DMP) is one GIS web sharing tool that specializes in “collecting, monitoring, and sharing drug-related data” (p. 70).  This tool is comprised of a layering system including the “user interface layer, application layer, and database layer” (p.79). Interactive maps concerning drug trafficking has resulted from this tool providing not only a  “provincial and district” measure of drug data within Afghanistan, but also current drug data and analysis worldwide as well. According Kurbanov (2015), “As of June 2015, over 180,000 drug seizure cases are registered on the [DMP] platform” (p.70). Below depicts worldwide global seizures of drugs.

Additionally, information such as “drug and precursor substance prices” as well as the significant drug affecting as specific area within an individual country can also be provided using the DMP.

With tools such as Web-based GIS providing up-to-date statistics, trends, and “hot spots” on issues such as illicit drug trafficking, a comprehensive analysis of these issues can be made and the results of such analysis can be widely accessible to both GIS experts and non experts. Global awareness and collaboration provided by such accessibility would allow for more logical, effective policies to be made in order to combat the impacts that crimes such as drug trafficking are having on populations and environments affected.

Kurbanov, O. (2015). Applied GIS: Web GIS Serving Public Safety in Central Asia. International Journal Of Geoinformatics, 11(4), 69-74.

I have acted with honesty and integrity in producing this work and am unaware of anyone who has not. Hailey Johnson