# Towards the Development of Agenda 2063 Geo-Portal to Support Sustainable Development in Africa
## 6 Discussion and Future Direction  
While our prototype geoportal provided the basic functionalities of a geoportal such as data uploading, querying, visualization, graphical functionality, and downloading capability for demonstration purposes, additional functionality is required for an operational geoportal. Future work will be oriented towards enhancing the analytical capability of the geoportal, dynamic visualization, 3-dimensional visualization, metadata cataloguing, provenance tracking, user feedback functionality, and enhancement of the search functionality using grid-enabled search techniques and web crawlers. [PERSON] [34] provides a valuable overview of advanced search techniques optimized to improve the discovery of geospatial data on the internet. Given the sheer volume and variety of data to be stored on the geoportal, cloudification of the geoportal will be considered. [PERSON] [35] indicates that auto-scalable cloud-based architectures using virtual servers and autoscaling have advantages such as rapid elasticity and on-demand self-service. Alternatively, a federation or hybrid system architecture that is capable of connecting to multiple distributed systems will also be considered. Recently, [PERSON] [31] suggested solutions and recommendations regarding geoportal architectures, services, and state of the technologies to deal with common geoportal problems. [PERSON] [36] showcased many visualization techniques based on spatial scale and temporal primitives that have the potential for adoption. The visual information seeking mantra (VISM) technique showcased in their paper is beneficial when exploring data at a global, group, and local scale while classic visualization templates offer an opportunity to present charts and graphs to support monitoring and evaluation. While we managed to demonstrate the spatial functionality of the geoportal, future work will be dedicated towards enhancing this functionality. Future upgrades will be directed towards the integration of the open-source R statistical software to enhance the statistical and spatial data analytical capability of the geoportal. Advanced spatial analysis is currently feasible through a QGIS software WMS connection. Future developments of the geoportal will also be directed on customizing the geoportal in line with the requirements of the various user segments. The front end interface of the geoportal accessed will be configured by changing language options and providing menu choices and buttons that are specific to countries and regional economic communities. Using interactive graphical customisation, the geoportal will also be adapted to change colour schemes and icons in line with the user needs. Planning officers that use the geoportal frequently for reporting purposes will have access to programmed functionality aimed for optimized reporting. Customization of the geoportal will also include the provision of spatial and statistical analysis tools and data translators designed to support advanced spatial planning and analysis. Besides, database management systems will be customized to enable connectivity and interoperability with other ratified geographically distributed spatial databases. The operational implementation of the geoportal should conform to international geospatial standards such as the OGC, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), Dublin Core metadata standard, Schema.org standard, and 1 SO/TC211 standards. Best practices and guidelines provided by UN Statistics such as the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, Shared Guiding Principles for Geospatial Information Management and the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework will also be adopted to ensure data quality. Data integrity shall also be ensured by a peer-review process as set out by in the African Union Implementation Plan.