Spatial Data Infrastructures
Theme Overview
The US Office of Management and Budget in its Circular A-16, August 19, 2002, established a coordinated approach to electronically develop the US National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) describing this as “the technologies, policies, standards, human resources and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain and preserve spatial data.”
One only needs to go back 20 years to recall heated debates about the relative merits of the raster and vector approaches to representing geographic data. And while this particular debate raged many other discrete geospatially relevant technologies were developing, in areas such as imaging, communications, search and analysis. The result was that users would spend hours struggling with data to make it compatible for use with the multiple specialist tools for data analysis and application.
Only in the last few years have we started to emerge from that world into a future of broad-spectrum interoperability. Standards first started to address data interoperability and then services that can be chained using business process management software. Clients can find servers and invoke operations as if the clients and servers were functions or subroutines in a standalone software system. This was the original vision of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), a vision that has been increasingly realized through the work of OGC members building open interfaces and encodings in a well-documented and highly disciplined consensus process.
This vision fed the concept of “National Spatial Data Infrastructures” (NSDI). Originally constrained to focus on issues of data, metadata, clearinghouses and data coordination, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) policy makers began tracking the emerging concepts of interoperable information processing and embraced the vision of pervasive Web-based environments for the collaborative development and use of geospatial information and services.
In the EU in response to the INSPIRE Directive, scores of agencies are now in the process of coordinating their SDI activities. In Canada, GeoConnections, a national partnership program led by Natural Resources Canada, provides guidance and motivation for partnering agencies at all levels of government to join the Web-based Canadian NSDI. In the US, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), an interagency committee presently under the supervision of the Executive Office of Management and Budget (OMB), promotes the coordinated development and interoperability of geospatial data on a national basis, administering both the National Map and Geospatial One-Stop. In Australia and New Zealand, the inter-governmental council (ANZLIC) is responsible for the coordination of spatial information management, working with other agencies such as Geoscience Australia, to provide a range of national fundamental datasets and manage the gateway to the Australia Spatial Data Directory (ASDD).
As interoperability becomes a reality, and as increasingly diverse data sources can be merged and operated on in a synergistic manner, we are beginning to see an explosion of innovation in geospatial services. This interoperability both influences, and is influenced by, the convergence between formally discrete technologies such as data collection technologies and sensor webs, mobile broadband communications, spatial search and visualisation.
But are things changing too fast for agencies responsible for NSDI to keep pace with?
It is pleasing to see innovative growth and “bottom-up” initiatives from industry and NGO’s that cut across the institutional domains that have traditionally characterized SDI. It is exciting to observe the accelerated pace of SDI development enabled by the many novel and productive connections made possible through the use of standard interfaces and encodings that we and our colleagues have created.
But we must also understand that the pace of technological change brings challenges. Not only academics, but commercial and public sector policy planners must recognise their responsibility to carefully examine the rapidly evolving interplay of technology and market forces. We are experiencing significant and largely unplanned change due to the rapid evolution of geoprocessing. The pace and nature of this change significantly affects society’s ability to assimilate new capabilities and practices efficiently into the market process. This will have major and potentially very negative consequences unless addressed.
Fast development and converging technologies can be, and frequently are, disruptive technologies. If the disruption were only “creative destruction” of slower-moving technology providers, it would be of limited concern. But creative destruction can also apply to the efficiency and integrity of government programs and policies. The problem is more complicated than workers adjusting to new business processes or recasting of job descriptions to fit new “geoenabled” workflows.
The above text is drawn from:
Jackson, M. J., Schell, D., Taylor, D.R.F., (2009b). National spatial data infrastructures: coordinating framework or battleground for the management of geospatial data. GIS Professional. Issue 28:20-22, and explains the motivation for much of the SDI research at CGS. SDI research has been a key component of the Centre’s research programme.
CGS members who focus on this theme are:
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Mike Jackson
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Jeremy Morley
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Gobe Hobona
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Kristin Stock
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Claudia Cialone
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Didier Leibovici
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Amir Pourabdollah
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Hanif Rahemtulla
CGS publications on this theme:
2010
Stock, K., Robertson, A., and Small, M. (2010 forthcoming). Representing OGC Geospatial Web Services in OWL-S Web Service Ontologies. Submitted to International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research.
Stock, K., Reitsma, F., Ou, Y., Bishr, M., Ortmann, J., Stojanovic, T. and Robertson, A. (2010 forthcoming). To Ontologise or Not to Ontologise: Foundations for an Ontology-Registry for a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure. Submitted to Computers and Geosciences.
Stock, K., Small, M., Robertson, A., Reitsma, F. and Ou, Y. (2010 forthcoming). The Machinery of Knowledge: An Ontology-Registry for a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure. Submitted to Geoinformatica.
Stock, K. (2010 in press). Review of 'Creating Spatial Information Infrastructures: Towards the Spatial Semantic Web'. Peter van Oosterom and Sisi Zlatanova (editors). Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
Stock, K., Atkinson, R., Higgins, C., Small, M., Woolf, A., Millard, K. and Arctur, D. (2010). A semantic registry using a Feature Type Catalogue instead of ontologies to support spatial data infrastructures. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. 24(2): 231-252.
2009
Hobona, G., Attardo, C., Laurini, R., Jackson, M., Pla, M., de Zorzi, S., Breu, A., Roussey, C., Kmiecik, A. (2009). Considerations for Harmonising Cross-Border Geospatial Datasets. In: Proceedings of the “Challenges in Geospatial Data Harmonisation” Workshop at the 12th Conference of the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE), Hanover, Germany, 2nd-5th June 2009.
Hobona, G., and Jackson, M. (2009). Specification and analysis of common data models within GIS4EU. News Letter No. 4, GIS4EU – Provision of Interoperable datasets to open GI to EU communities. Available online 
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Hobona, G., Jackson, M., Anand, S., de Zorzi, S., and Leibovici, D. (2009). Rule Specification for Semantically-oriented Harmonisation of European Datasets. In: Proceedings of the 2009 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union(EGU), Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-10589, Vienna, Austria, 19 – 24 April 2009.
Hobona, G., Jackson, M., Anand, S., de Zorzi, S., and Leibovici, D. (2009). Modeling rules for integrating heterogeneous geographic datasets. In: Proceedings of the 17th GIS Research UK conference, Durham, United Kingdom.
Hobona, G Jackson, M., Anand, S., de Zorzi, S., and Leibovici, D. (2009). Modeling Rules for Integrating Heterogeneous Geographic Datasets. European Geosciences Union, General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 19-24th April 2009.
Hobona, G., Jackson, M., Gould, M., Higgins, C., Brauner, J., Matheus, A., Foerster, T., Nash, E., Lemmens, R., Abele, S., Swan, J., Anand, S., Strobel, S., Bishr, M., Korduan, P., James, P. (2009). Establishing a Persistent Interoperability Testbed for European Geospatial Research. 12th conference of the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE), Hanover, Germany, 2nd-5th June 2009. In: Advances in GISscience : proceedings of the 12th AGILE conference, edited by Haunert, J., Kieler, B., and Milde, J. (2009). Hanover, Germany: IKG, Leibniz University of Hanover. 10 pp.
Jackson, M. J., Schell, D., and Taylor, D. R. F. (2009a). The evolution of geospatial technology calls for changes in geospatial research education and government management. Feature Article for Directions Magazine, April 6th, 10pp.
Jackson, M. J., Schell, D., and Taylor, D. R. F. (2009b). National spatial data infrastructures: coordinating framework or battleground for the management of geospatial data. GIS Professional. Issue 28: 20-22.
Jackson, M. J., Schell, D., and Taylor, D. R. F. (2009c). Revising the concept of national spatial data infrastructure. GIS Professional. Issue No. 30:28-30.
Jackson, M. J., and Woodsford, P. A. (2009). Advances in managing LBS and framework data: Spatial Database challenges. GIM International. February 2009: 21-23.
Schell, D., Jackson, M. J., and Taylor, F. (2009d). Reinventing NSDI in India: A Place-based Technological Strategy to Respond to India’s Needs. Perspectives: Indian Geospatial Market Report, 2009. Published by IMRB International in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Stock, K. (2009). OWL Application Profile for CSW 2.0. Open Geospatial Consortium Application Profile 09-010.
Stock, K., Robertson, A., Bishr, M., Stojanovic, T., Ortmann, J., Reitsma, F. and Medyckyj-Scott, D. (2009). eScience for Sea Science: A Semantic Knowledge Infrastructure for Marine Scientists. 5th IEEE International Conference on e-Science, Oxford, UK, 9-11th December.
2008
Jackson, M. J. and Woodsford, P. A. (2008). Spatial database challenges for framework data and location-based services. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII, Part B4 pp.1431-36, Beijing 2008. ISSN 1682-1750.
Swan, J., Foerster, T., Lemmens, R., Hobona, G., Anand, S. and Jackson, M. (2008). Discovery and invocation of schematization services: A use case for OGC-EuroSDR-AGILE Persistent Test-bed for Europe. GEOconnexion International Magazine. 7: 24-27.
2007
Gould, M., Jackson, M. J., Klien, E., and Lemmens, R. (2007). Design and Implementation of a Persistent Testbed for GeoWeb Services. 13th EC-GI & GIS Workshop, Porto, Portugal, 4-6 July 2007. Available online .
Ormerod, T., Bull, R., Jackson, M. J., Bai, L., Bhatti, S. and Guest, E. (2007). Countering terrorism in public places: the D-Scent approach. Contingency Today. 6th November 2007.
2006
You, J. and Jackson, M. (2006). The Development of a Persistent Test-Bed Facility for Geospatial Interoperability Research and Standards. 2006 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2006), Denver, Colorado, 1st August 2006.
You, J., Nurutdinov, K., and Jackson, M. (2006). Implenting the GEOSS Architecture using Open Standards, GEO Data and Architecture. WG Meeting, “The User and GEOSS Architecture”, Beijing, China, 22nd-23rd May 2006.
Earlier (in reverse chronological order)
Jackson, M. J. (1992). Integrated Geographical Information Systems. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 13(6-7): 1343-1351.
Jackson, M. J., James, W. J. and Stevens, A. (1988). The design of environmental geographic information-systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A - Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences. 324 (1579): 373-380.
Jackson, M. J. and Mason, D. C. (1986). The Development of Integrated Geo-information Systems. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 7(6):723-740.
Jackson, M. J. (1985). Digital Cartography, Image-Analysis, and Remote-Sensing - Towards an Integrated Approach. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 12(1):33-40.
Jackson, M. J. (1984). Image-Analysis and Digital Cartography within the NERC Thematic Information Service - The Development of a Unified Spatial Model. Photogrammetric Record. 11(64):383-393.
Bell, S. M. B., Diaz, B. M., Holroyd, F. and Jackson, M. J. (1983). Spatially referenced methods of processing raster and vector data. Image and Vision Computing. 1(4):211-220.