Spatial data infrastructures: concept, SDI hierarchy and future directions

Abstract

The world as we know it is changing. Economies world wide are undergoing a process ofprofound and continuing structural change, and the global village is becoming a reality driven byIT and communication technologies. With this in mind, many countries believe that they canbenefit both economically and environmentally from better management of their spatial data assetsby taking a perspective that starts at a local level and proceeds through state, national and regionallevels to global level. This has resulted in the development of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)concept at these levels.SDI is fundamentally about facilitation and coordination of the exchange and sharing ofspatial data between stakeholders from different jurisdictional levels in the spatial datacommunity. Understanding of its role and nature are important to the acceptance of the conceptand its alignment with spatial industry objectives.The aim of this paper is to present the nature and concept of spatial data infrastructures,including the SDI hierarchy, which have helped to build understanding about the importance ofthe relationships within different levels of SDIs to support the interactions and partnerships of thespatial data communities. Moreover, the paper will highlight the importance of sharing andunderstanding its special social system, followed by a discussion of the future direction of SDIs. Itis argued that by better understanding the future direction of SDIs, any SDI development can gainsupport from a wider community of both government and non-government data users andproviders.