Spatial Data Infrastructures. Prospects and challenges

Abstract

Geography, often undervalued in its social value, has today an opportunity to affirm itself by the multiplicity of areas that uses its principles and applications, much by means of geographic information technologies. Indeed, for the geographic data, the past 30 years have been profoundly rich in terms of challenges and solutions, driven by a high rate of transformation of society and technology platforms. In this context, the emergence of spatial data infrastructures (SDI), the democratization of access to geographic data and, more recently, the simplification and generalization of use of mobile platforms to access and produce geographic data deserve particular attention. This talk will develop and outline how three key concepts are articulated to provide a basis for responding to societal challenges: spatial data infrastructures, voluntary geographic information and data quality. It is important to have a sense of how network society paradigms can be combined to support effective territorial promotion and management, the basis for sustainable development.