Spatial data infrastructure
A spatial data infrastructure (SDI), also called geospatial data infrastructure, is a data infrastructure implementing a framework of geographic data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficient and flexible way. Another definition is "the technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data". Most commonly, institutions with large repositories of geographic data (especially government agencies) create SDIs to facilitate the sharing of their data with a broader audience.
A further definition is given in Kuhn (2005): "An SDI is a coordinated series of agreements on technology standards, institutional arrangements, and policies that enable the discovery and use of geospatial information by users and for purposes other than those it was created for."
01General
Some of the main principles are that data and metadata should not be managed centrally, but by the data originator and/or owner, and that tools and services connect via computer networks to the various sources. A GIS is often the platform for deploying an individual node within an SDI. To achieve these objectives, good coordination between all the actors is necessary and the definition of standards is very important.
The original example of an SDI is the United States National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), first mandated in the OMB Circular A-16 in 1996. In Europe since 2007, INSPIRE is a European Commission initiative to build a European SDI beyond national boundaries; the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) plans to do the same for over 30 UN Funds, Programs, Specialized Agencies and member countries.
02Software components
An SDI should enable the discovery and delivery of spatial data from a data repository, via a spatial service provider, to a user. As mentioned earlier it is often wished that the data provider is able to update spatial data stored in a repository. Hence, the basic software components of an SDI are:
- Software client - to display, query, and analyse spatial data (this could be a browser or a desktop GIS)
- Catalogue service - for the discovery, browsing, and querying of metadata or spatial services, spatial datasets and other resources
- Spatial data service - allowing the delivery of the data via the Internet
- Processing services - such as datum and projection transformations, or the transformation of cadastral survey observations and owner requests into Cadastral documentation
- (Spatial) data repository - to store data, e.g., a spatial database
- GIS software (client or desktop) - to create and update spatial data
Besides these software components, a range of (international) technical standards are necessary that allow interaction between the different software components. Among those are geospatial standards defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (e.g., OGC WMS, WFS, GML, etc.) and ISO (e.g., ISO 19115) for the delivery of maps, vector and raster data, but also data format and internet transfer standards by W3C consortium.
03National spatial data infrastructures
List by country or administrative zone. It is not complete, is a sample of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) official websites.
| Admin. Region | NSDI name and ext. link |
|---|---|
| United Nations | United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Argentina | Spatial Data Infrastructure of Argentinian Republic (IDERA) |
| Australia | Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure and its centre |
| Bogotá | Bogotá Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Bolivia | Bolivia Spatial Data Infraestructure (IDE-EPB) |
| Brazil | Brazilian Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE) |
| Canada | Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure |
| Chile | Chilean Spatial Data Infrastructure and Blog |
| Colombia | Colombian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ICDE) |
| Costa Rica | National Service of Territory Information |
| United States | U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Europe | The European INSPIRE initiative |
| Andorra | Andorran Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDEAnd) |
| Estonia | Estonian National Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Finland | Finnish National Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Germany | German National Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Hong Kong | Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) |
| Lithuania | Lithuanian geographic information infrastructure |
| Netherlands | Dutch Geo register |
| Spain | Spanish National Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDEE) |
| Andalusia | Andalusian Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Basque Country | Spatial Data Infrastructure and Portal of the Basque Country. geoEuskadi |
| Canary Islands | Canary Islands Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDECanarias) |
| Catalonia | Catalonia Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Gipuzkoa | Gipuzkoa Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Sweden | Geodata.se |
| Switzerland | Swiss Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi SDI |
| India | National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) |
| Indonesia | Ina-Geoportal |
| Malaysia | Malaysia Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MyGDI) |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Spatial data infrastructure”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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