Geospatial data infrastructure: The development of metadata for geo-information in China
Stores of geoscience records are in constant flux. These stores are continually added to by new information, ideas and data, which are frequently revised. The geoscience record is in restrained by human thought and technology for handling information. Conventional methods strive, with limited success, to maintain geoscience records which are readily susceptible and renewable. The information system must adapt to the diversity of ideas and data in geoscience and their changes through time. In China, more than 400,000 types of important geological data are collected and produced in geological work during the last two decades, including oil, natural gas and marine data, mine exploration, geophysical, geochemical, remote sensing and important local geological survey and research reports. Numerous geospatial databases are formed and stored in National Geological Archives (NGA) with available formats of MapGIS, ArcGIS, ArcINFO, Metalfile, Raster, SQL Server, Access and JPEG. But there is no effective way to warrant that the quality of information is adequate in theory and practice for decision making. The need for fast, reliable, accurate and up-to-date information by providing the Geographic Information System (GIS) communities are becoming insistent for all geoinformation producers and users in China. Since 2010, a series of geoinformation projects have been carried out under the leadership of the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR), including (1) Integration, update and maintenance of geoinformation databases; (2) Standards research on clusterization and industrialization of information services; (3) Platform construction of geological data sharing; (4) Construction of key borehole databases; (5) Product development of information services. "Nine-System" of the basic framework has been proposed for the development and improvement of the geospatial data infrastructure, which are focused on the construction of the cluster organization, cluster service, convergence, database, product, policy, technology, standard and infrastructure systems. The development of geoinformation stores and services put forward a need for Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI) in China. In this paper, some of the ideas envisaged into the development of metadata in China are discussed.
SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE. BENEFITS AND STRATEGY
Nowadays, the geoscience data have become widely available in different organizations, which play a very important role in decisions-making at different levels (social, economic, political…). However, these organizations use standards, technologies and policies that differ from one to another. Therefore, this information is increasingly being distributed widely and become divorced from their original context or had remained limited to a small scale. Hence, the need for a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) becomes a necessity in order to facilitate the creation, sharing, and access to geospatial data, thus the exchange of knowledge between them, using a minimum set of standard practices, protocols, and specifications. The establishment of a spatial data infrastructure is to create conditions to ensure free access of public authorities, local authorities, organizations and citizens to spatial data. This paper presents a preliminary study of implementation of a spatial data infrastructure. It introduced the SDI developments in USA, Canada and Europe and summarized the relevant benefits.
Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for sustainable land management
This paper elaborates on perspectives presented in the recent literature, which identify increased use of geoinformatics in the design of interdisciplinary geo-information systems and decision support systems for realizing sustainable land management at different scales and for specific user groups. The realization of the potential of geo-information systems in supporting sustainable land management depends on a number of factors. Efficient and reliable access to well-harmonized information is one of these. In this respect, the literature also alludes to an emerging digital geo-information infrastructure and policy framework at global, regional, national and local levels, which will make available, for example, significant soil research output that is now inaccessibly stored in archives and libraries. The paper presents the concept of geo-information infrastructure (GII) or spatial data infrastructure (SDI) as a tool to facilitate access to, and responsible use of geo-information at affordable cost in support of sustainable land management. It presents the notion that a national SDI is composed of networked SDIs which have been designed and implemented to serve very specific application sectors at the national, regional or municipal level. “Sustainable land management” could be such an application sector. The paper traces the history of the development of the SDI concept. It identifies the high expectations of national information infrastructure (of which SDI is a subset), in terms of achieving new economic and social development goals and improved public services, since President Clinton introduced the “electronic information highway” metaphor in his political platform. These expectations have also been expressed in the “information society” initiatives of the European Union. The paper illuminates the necessity of the legal and regulatory changes which will have to be made in order to achieve the open geo-information market that must be at the foundation of the expectations expressed. It will make the case that the technical developments and the institutional, organizational and human resources development in the design, implementation and maintenance of SDIs for a specific application sector must run in parallel. Successful sustained implementation will depend on clear “political” accountability for its integrity, and on a local regulatory environment that is in harmony with the more senior legislation and regulation at, eg, the national or supranational levels. The paper concludes with a set of recommended practices in the develop-