Information and Technology Development Index (IDI) |
|
|
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has developed a tool
known as the Information and Communication Technology Development
Index (IDI) for measuring the development of countries as information
societies. They found a close correlation between IDI and the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of countries. In this paper on the
basis of this relationship we have tried to create a 30 arc-second
grid of IDI. At first a disaggregated map of total economic activity
was created from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) merged radiance-calibrated
nighttime image of 2006 and the LandScan population grid of 2006. The
GDP per capita was then calculated and an attempt was made to create
the IDI grid. However, at the 30 arc-second resolution the GDP per
capita was found to be less in the city centers than in the areas
surrounding the city centers. Thus an estimated IDI grid at 30
arc-second resolution could not be created based on the relationship
between GDP per capita and official IDI. Therefore, the finest
resolution at which the estimated IDI map was created was at the state
level for the South-East Asian countries.
|
|