Implementation of spatial data infrastructures in transitional economies : Editorial introduction to part one of the special issue
✍ Scribed by Yola Georgiadou; Lars Bernard; Sundeep Sahay
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis Group
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 90 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-1102
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a particular type of information infrastructure specifically geared to geographic information (GI). Implementation of SDIs is inherently complex, for both technical and institutional reasons. Technically, SDIs are complex because they underlie as well as draw upon various technologies, including remote sensing, spatial modeling, database technology, computer networking, and geographical information systems (GIS), while catering to the demands of diverse application domains. Institutionally, tensions arise from various sources including the need for consensus on standards, for example, between the federal and local agencies (Harvey, 2003), and over the inclusion of users in the consultative processes to finalize the key components of the SDI (Longhorn, 2004). Despite sporadic reports of benefits of SDIs to local governments and community groups (Jacoby, Smith, Ting, & Williamson, 2002), systematic benefits of SDI investments are still not being achieved. These problems are further magnified in the context of developing countries not only for reasons of financial resources, but also because of a relative lack of spatial information, trained manpower, capacity of public institutions, and security concerns.
SDI research has taken place primarily within the geocommunity-comprising specialists in spatial data handling and professional users of geographic information-and focuses strongly on issues related to spatial data and their accessibility (for example, issues of standards and interoperability). The SDI discourse is underpinned by a predominantly positivist orientation that tends to separate the technical from the social. The technical SDI discourse is spiced with assumptions of technological determinism, postulating a causal model that increasing A will cause B to increase, in other words, that A will have a