Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiatives Research Articles

SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE (SDI) IN OMAN AND QATAR – CURRENT STATUS AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract. Urban infrastructure deals with various objects, such as multi-floor buildings, underground utilities, and other typical two-dimensional (2D) geographic information system (GIS) objects. Currently, Oman and Qatar authorities attempt to manage and handle all these spatial objects and features via spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Qatar has a long tradition of applying SDI, while Oman has made rapid progress in building SDI according to the current practices in this field. Governments in both countries work toward smart cities and e-government to meet the fourth industrial revolution requirements. Current literature, indicate that SDI could be considered a major building block for such smart initiatives in the near future. This paper describes the status and challenges of developing SDI (including 3D SDI) for Oman and Qatar. We anticipated these 2D and 3D SDI initiatives would eventually provide future direction for the smart city and e-government. The current status and challenges form major discussions of this paper. It also discusses 3D SDI development. This paper ends by describing a framework for implementing the 3D SDI. The outcomes could significantly improve the awareness for developing 3D SDI in Oman and Qatar.

Annotating OGC web feature services automatically for generating geospatial knowledge graphs

AbstractThe Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives are now broadly developed and deployed. However, while plenty of tools use them, some tasks are still complex to perform by non‐expert users, such as finding, accessing, and using some of their related OGC Web Services (OWS). One of the main reasons for these challenges is associated with semantic heterogeneity within these services. This entails a lack of proper descriptions and requires knowledge about data structure and domain‐specific query languages to discover and retrieve these services. Semantic annotations of OWS play a crucial role in achieving semantic interoperability and addressing these associated challenges. In this article we describe an approach for enabling the automatic generation of semantic annotations of Web Feature Services (WFS) at their three request levels (GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType, and GetFeature), which are used to generate knowledge graphs. This approach uses various external services, ontological resources (POSM, DBpedia, GeoSPARQL, GeoNames, and datos.ign.es vocabularies), and knowledge bases (DBpedia and datos.ign.es). Moreover, this approach enables us to validate annotations obtained as a previous step to generating geospatial knowledge graphs. Additionally, we present our proposal through an application case and assess it using a representative set of 21 WFS services, achieving an average of 46.70% annotations, of which 22.29% and 35.52% were validated using DBpedia and datos.ign.es initiatives, respectively. This shows the feasibility of our approach to generate knowledge graphs from WFS services in an automatic way.

A multi-criteria method for assessment of spatial data infrastructure effectiveness

There is a demand for evaluation of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), to justify and monitor the relations between investments in SDI initiatives and the results obtained. It is also essential to pay particular attention to identifying user communities, and eliciting their assessment of effects deriving from an SDI. The paper introduces a concept of a multi-criteria method which allows to assess effectiveness of the SDI from the user perspective. The application of the proposed method in the Polish Spatial Data Infrastructure (PSDI) and its main access point to spatial data and services called ‘Geoportal 2’ as well as two groups of the national geoportal”s users (spatial planners and land surveyors) presents its potential. The total scores for the Geoportal 2 indicated the investment has potential and is quite effective, although some components of the PSDI (e.g. main access point, datasets, network services, software, hardware, procedures) may need improvements and additional analyses in the future. The contribution of this paper is the multi-criteria method which enables the analysis of outcomes, benefits (impacts) and business value of using SDI business project’s artifacts (outputs) considering the following dimensions: information and support provided, use process, user organizational performance, strategic alignment and business impact on user enterprise.

Evaluating a public sector organisation for SDI Readiness – The case of a South African government department

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) facilitates the collection and sharing of geographic information developed by different organisations. As a result, SDI initiatives are occurring in different countries. Various government departments are implementing SDI in order to contribute to the achievements of its objectives. SDI assessments to evaluate the implementation thereof is also occurring from local levels to international levels. This paper establishes the availability of geographic information within the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) by describing DEA’s contribution to the South African SDI objectives and by assessing DEA’s SDI readiness. The qualitative method was used to collect data. The techniques used in this research were literature review, interviews, mainly in-depth interview, document and internet analysis. The results indicate that geographic information is available and the department continues to make more means to make it available. They also reveal that there are some challenges with respect to accessibility. Currently there is a process to make it even more easily accessible. The results show DEA’s willingness and capacity to contribute to the South African SDI. The voluntary participation in SDI activities and the ability to obtain additional funding for geographic information is a clear indicator of DEA’s willingness to contribute to SASDI’s objectives. The results contribute to the body of knowledge that if an SDI is still in the early stages of development, it is challenging to make conclusions on some of the key SDI assessment indices. Future research is required once South African SDI has reached mature stages.

ENRICHING SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE (SDI) BY USER GENERATED CONTENTS FOR TRANSPORTATION

Abstract. Spatial data is one of the most critical elements underpinning decision making for many disciplines. Accessing and sharing spatial data have always been a great struggle for researchers. Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) plays a key role in spatial data sharing by building a suitable platform for collaboration and cooperation among the different data producer organizations. In recent years, SDI vision has been moved toward a user-centric platform which has led to development of a new and enriched generation of SDI (third generation). This vision is to provide an environment where users can cooperate to handle spatial data in an effective and satisfactory way. User-centric SDI concentrates on users, their requirements and preferences while in the past, SDI initiatives were mainly concentrated on technological issues such as the data harmonization, standardized metadata models, standardized web services for data discovery, visualization and download. On the other hand, new technologies such as the GPS-equipped smart phones, navigation devices and Web 2.0 technologies have enabled citizens to actively participate in production and sharing of the spatial information. This has led to emergence of the new phenomenon called the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). VGI describes any type of content that has a geographic element which has been voluntarily collected. However, its distinctive element is the geographic information that can be collected and produced by citizens with different formal expertise and knowledge of the spatial or geographical concepts. Therefore, ordinary citizens can cooperate in providing massive sources of information that cannot be ignored. These can be considered as the valuable spatial information sources in SDI. These sources can be used for completing, improving and updating of the existing databases. Spatial information and technologies are an important part of the transportation systems. Planning, design and operation of the transportation systems requires the exchange of large volumes of spatial data and often close cooperation among the various organizations. However, there is no technical and organizational process to get a suitable data infrastructure to address diverse needs of the transportation. Hence, development of a common standards and a simple data exchange mechanism is strongly needed in the field of transportation for decision support. Since one of the main purposes of transportation projects is to improve the quality of services provided to users, it is necessary to involve the users themselves in the decision making processes. This should be done through a public participation and involvement in all stages of the transportation projects. In other words, using public knowledge and information as another source of information is very important to make better and more efficient decisions. Public participation in transportation projects can also help organizations to enhance their public supports; because the lack of public support can lead to failure of technically valid projects. However, due to complexity of the transportation tasks, lack of appropriate environment and methods for facilitation of the public participation, collection and analysis of the public information and opinions, public participation in this field has not been well considered so far. This paper reviews the previous researches based on the enriched SDI development and its movement toward the VGI by focusing on the public participation in transportation projects. To this end, methods and models that have been used in previous researches are studied and classified initially. Then, methods of the previous researchers on VGI and transportation are conceptualized in SDI. Finally, the suggested method for transportation projects is presented. Results indicate success of the new generation of SDI in integration with public participation for transportation projects.

The Socioeconomic Impact of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Lombardy

In this paper we present the findings of a study undertaken by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in collaboration with the regional authority of Lombardy, in northern Italy, on the socioeconomic impact of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of that region. The study took place in 2009 and focused primarily on assessing the benefits of the SDI to the organisations outside public administration, that is, developers and consultants involved in planning, design, and impact assessment. We report the results of two surveys undertaken in 2009. The first addressed consultants involved in the preparation of environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments, and found significant economic and policy benefits resulting from the use of the regional SDI. The second survey focused on professionals involved in planning and design (architects, engineers, planners) and found a much more varied landscape characterised by lack of awareness and skill in taking advantage of the new infrastructure of analytical tools. The results of this study demonstrate that the maturity reached by some of the existing SDIs now makes it possible to evaluate tangible benefits, and act as an incentive to analyse further how SDIs are producing positive externalities. The knowledge gained by monitoring the impacts of on-going SDI initiatives can be used to justify investments ex post, and inform further SDI development and wider positive impacts.

Towards institutional and organisational framework for the National spatial data infrastructure development in Serbia

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) represents a concept that tends to create a context for cooperation and exchange of data, information and knowledge between a particular spatial data community’s stakeholders. Thus, the aim of SDI concept development is to establish a common spatially supported platform for making right decisions relevant for economic progress, good governance and sustainable development within a certain domain or jurisdiction, i.e. administrative level. Today, the majority of launched SDI initiatives are on the national level that is also identified as the crucial one for evolution of this concept in general. Additionally, recent research has proven that national SDI (NSDI) developments have become prevailingly social phenomena since interactions between their stakeholders appeared to be critical for achieving purpose of these initiatives, and SDI concept vision in general. Therefore, the aim of this article is to propose an appropriate social, i.e. institutional and organisational framework, for NSDI development in Serbia.

The role of sub‐national government and the private sector in future spatial data infrastructures

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) facilitates and coordinates the exchange and sharing of spatial data between stakeholders in the spatial data community. With this objective in mind, countries throughout the world are developing SDIs to manage and utilize their spatial data assets more effectively. These countries are developing SDIs to assist in various kinds of decision‐making at different levels of government jurisdictions that have an important impact within their national boundaries. However, current research shows that SDI is understood and described differently by stakeholders from different disciplines and different jurisdictional levels. Therefore, in many cases, SDI initiatives remain very much an innovation, even among practitioners. There are still uncertainties regarding the benefits and identities of SDIs, particularly in connection with how they evolve over time to meet user needs. This paper reviews and assesses the development of SDIs throughout the world over the past 15 years and the leadership role of national governments in SDI creation. This assessment is based on the SDI activities of various jurisdictions including Asia‐Pacific, Australia, North America, and Europe, and research into the worldwide effects of spatial information clearing houses. This assessment includes a discussion on emerging trends in SDI development, with particular reference to the increasingly important role played by sub‐national governments and the private sector within the framework of SDI development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for future SDI development, including the delivery of a virtual world that has a particular focus on facilitating decision‐making at a community level within a national context.

Virtual Australia: Developing an enabling platform to improve opportunities in the spatial information industry

The role that the development of Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives is playing within the modern world is changing. Initially SDIs were implemented as a mechanism to facilitate access and sharing of spatial data hosted in distributed GISs. Users however now require precise spatial information in real time about real world objects and the ability to develop and implement cross‐jurisdictional and inter‐agency solutions to priorities such as emergency management, natural resource management, water rights, and animal, pest and disease control. In order to achieve this, the concept of an SDI is moving to a new business paradigm, where SDI is emerging as a ‘virtual jurisdiction’ or ‘virtual enterprise’ to promote the partnership of spatial information organizations (public/private) to provide access to a wider scope of data and services, of size and complexity that is beyond their individual capacity. The development of such an SDI requires an enabling platform to support the chaining of services across participating organisations. This paper outlines the outcomes of research on the development of such an enabling platform within the context of a Virtual Australia. This includes a review of the spatial information and SDI developments in selected Australian states (Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales) and international (Europe, Canada and USA) jurisdictions, which are helping to move the concept of an enabling platform forward, the improving opportunities for the spatial information industry through the development of an enabling platform, concepts and principles to aid in facilitating a Virtual Australia, and recommendations for the future.

Assessing the worldwide comparison of cadastral systems

There is growing interest internationally in land administration and cadastral systems and especially in their role as part of a national Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The important role the cadastre plays in supporting sustainable development is also well recognised. Both developed and developing countries accept the need to evaluate cadastral systems to help identify areas of improvement and whether their systems are capable of addressing future needs. Countries are continually re-engineering and implementing various aspects of the cadastre, comparing systems and trying to identify best practice within nations of the same socio-economic standing. In order to address this need, members of a team from the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration at the Department of Geomatics, the University of Melbourne, with the support of the United Nations Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP) and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), have developed a cadastral template. The template aims to assist the evaluation and benchmarking of cadastral systems and the role they play in SDIs. This paper aims to outline the concept and theory behind the cadastral template as well as analysing the results from 34 completed country templates. Several indicators have been used to analyse and benchmark countries cadastral systems, results of which will contribute to an improved understanding of the complex relationship between cadastral, land administration system and National SDI initiatives. This will also enable a worldwide comparison of cadastral systems, forming the basis for best practice and a tool to improve national cadastral systems.

The emergence of geoportals and their role in spatial data infrastructures

Geoportals are World Wide Web gateways that organize content and services such as directories, search tools, community information, support resources, data and applications. This paper traces the emergence of geoportals, outlining the significance of developments in enterprise GIS and national spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), with particular reference to the US experience. Our objectives are principally pedagogic, in order to relate the development of geoportals to SDI initiatives and to review recent technological breakthroughs––specifically the development of direct access facilities for application services and metadata records, and the facility to utilize services directly from conventional desktop GIS applications. We also discuss the contributions that geoportals and SDI have made to simplifying access to GI, and their contribution to diffusing GI concepts, databases, techniques and models. Finally, the role of geoportals in electronic government (e-Government) is considered.

The emergence of geoportals and their role in spatial data infrastructures

Geoportals are World Wide Web gateways that organize content and services such as directories, search tools, community information, support resources, data and applications. This paper traces the emergence of geoportals, outlining the significance of developments in enterprise GIS and national spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), with particular reference to the US experience. Our objectives are principally pedagogic, in order to relate the development of geoportals to SDI initiatives and to review recent technological breakthroughs––specifically the development of direct access facilities for application services and metadata records, and the facility to utilize services directly from conventional desktop GIS applications. We also discuss the contributions that geoportals and SDI have made to simplifying access to GI, and their contribution to diffusing GI concepts, databases, techniques and models. Finally, the role of geoportals in electronic government (e-Government) is considered.

Improving the rural data infrastructure: the problem of addressable spatial units in a rural context

The transition from sectoral to integrated rural policy has highlighted the fact that data are highly institutionalised resources that are collected to satisfy the specific remit of the collecting organisation, often without reference to wider potential uses. This has led to a wide range of different spatial units being used for data collection, analysis and representation of data for the same location. These different spatial units are a significant barrier in creating a more integrated spatial data infrastructure to support Joined-Up Government. This paper uses Scotland as a case study to illustrate some of the barriers to integration. It has three aims. The first is to highlight the significance of these different spatial units in terms of their potential impact on statistical information derived by spatial overlay of data sets. The second is to review some of the potential solutions to defining consistent spatial data sets, as currently being developed through national spatial data infrastructure initiatives in the UK. The third is to identify the options for developing a system of addressable spatial units appropriate to sparsely populated rural areas.

Future directions for SDI development

Understanding the role of spatial data infrastructure (SDI) in the society is important to acceptance of the concept and its alignment with spatial industry objectives. Much has been done to describe and understand the components and operation of different aspects of SDIs and their integration into the spatial data community. However, what is often miss-understood is that the role SDI plays is by necessity greater than the sum of individual components of SDI and stakeholder groups.SDI is fundamentally about facilitation and coordination of the exchange and sharing of spatial data between stakeholders in the spatial data community. To this end, the authors propose that the roles of SDI have been pursued through two different approaches: product- and process-based. Both approaches have value, but contribute to the evolution, uptake and utilization of the SDI concept in different ways. They provide different frameworks for dealing with SDI mandates for the objectives of spatial data access and sharing.This paper reviews the nature and concept of SDI, including the components, which have helped to build the current understanding about the importance of an infrastructure to support the interactions of the spatial data community. Several examples of how SDIs have been described are offered to aid understanding of their complexity. The need for descriptions to represent the discrepancies between the role and deliverables of an SDI, and thus, contribute to a simpler, but dynamic, understanding of the complexity of the SDI concept, are postulated. The transition between the understanding of SDIs from product-based to process-based approaches is investigated, with a review of the positions taken by current SDI initiatives throughout the world. A model of how these approaches provide a framework to meet the mandates of the relevant jurisdictions is proposed, and factors contributing to the success of such positions in the future are discussed.

Global Spatial data Infrastructure: Current Developments

A number of Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives at local, national and European levels have been progressing since the early 1990s with a parallel global one emerging, beginning at the Bonn 1996 and continuing at the North Carolina 1997 meeting. This paper outlines some of the issues involved. Many of these are similar to those being experienced at the national and regional levels, but the solution to many of them will be different as will their implication. In particular it sets out the conclusions of the Chapel Hill, North Carolina meeting. The implementation of which is ongoing.

Building a North American Spatial Data Infrastructure

ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the state of spatial data infrastructures within North America in late 1997. After providing some background underlying the philosophy and development of the SDI concept, the authors discuss effects of technology, institutions, and standardization that confront the cohesive implementation of a common infrastructure today. The paper concludes with a comparative framework and specific examples of elements and initiatives defining respective spatial data infrastructure initiatives in the United States and Canada. Introduction Over the last three decades, governments and industry in countries around the world have invested tens of billions of dollars in the development of independent land systems designed largely to serve specific communities (forestry, land records management) within a local and regional framework. During the next decade the focus will increasingly shift to the challenges associated with integrating these systems together into--in each case--a national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI). This infrastructure will have the potential to act as an highway which links together environmental, socio-economic, and institutional databases (the horizontal highway) and provides for movement of from the local to national levels and, eventually, to the global community (the vertical highway). Proponents of the infrastructure concept often envision a data infrastructure as being analogous to networks of national highways (Branscomb 1982) or electric power grids in countries around the world. The highway metaphor conveys the notion of new or heightened connections to different locations. Further, as with electric power grids, the physical location of the source is usually less important to the end user than the continuing availability, reliability, and cost of the itself (Anderson 1990). These two metaphors have been widely employed over the past five years in defining and promoting a shared vision of the development of strategic networks and databases. Especially since 1990, a third metaphor--the information marketplace--has attracted the imagination and support of the business community (Coleman and McLaughlin 1998). The proposed development of national spatial data infrastructures has received considerable attention from institutional suppliers, the private sector, and user communities in developed countries around the world. Evolving from earlier data-sharing and program coordination efforts, the term NSDI has come to encompass the sources, systems, network linkages, standards, and institutional issues involved in delivering spatially related from many different sources to the widest possible group of potential users. The development of common frames of reference, technology, and related standards is crucial to the evolution of a data infrastructure that can support interoperability across provinces, states, and countries. This paper outlines the current state of corresponding spatial data infrastructure initiatives in North America and the issues affecting their implementation. From Integrated Mapping to Spatial Data Infrastructure The data-sharing paradigms underpinning the development of geo-spatial networks today are not new. In the 1960s, proponents of integrated mapping practices advocated the registration, overlay, interpretation and analysis of different layers or disparate themes of spatially related data sets to the practical solution of problems in land-use planning and inventory (McHarg 1969). Through the 1970s, the multipurpose cadastre concept launched major topographic and cadastral base-mapping megaprograms to support land administration at the local, state, and federal levels across North America, Australasia, and in emerging nations (McLaughlin 1975). By the early 1980s, the notion of information as a corporate resource (Diebold 1979) emerged, and the resources management movement encouraged individual organizations to implement enterprise approaches to the collection, management, and sharing of designated hard-copy and computer-based data holdings of corporate-wide interest. …