This paper addresses two central questions relating to the future of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) Where have we got to now? Where should go from here? The answers to the first question are to be found in a review of the main milestones of SDI development over the last two decades and a comparative evaluation of SDI experiences in different parts of the world which constitutes the first m...

The practical exploitation of SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructures) raises number of issues as far as it grows. Among them is the heterogeneity of data sources and thus the difficulty for GIS users not to depend on the data source format and of course to learn different systems. This a major flaw with respect to reuse and data sharing. The purpose of our work is to propose a new semantic layer der...

A more integrated and holistic approach to management of spatial information relating to coastal and marine environments is needed and this can be facilitated by the creation of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) on a seamless platform. There is a growing and urgent need to create a seamless SDI model that bridges the gap between the terrestrial and marine environments, creating a spatially en...

The use of 3D technologies in archaeology and architectural history has grown enormously. Nowadays, 3D technologies are used to record, present, analyse and reconstruct archaeological sites. Since the used tools mostly originate from other domains, the developments are characterised as technology-driven rather than methodology-driven. The recent trend of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and...

This paper presents an approach for rapid assessment of sustainability for Mainland China based on a multilayer index system. Efficient assessment is conducted with the basic mapping units at county and city levels. After evaluating a comprehensive sustainable development index, SDI, for each unit, five rankings of sustainability are determined, and a zonation map produced. Regional characteris...

The lack of reliable data for ground solar irradiance (direct normal and global irradiance) is a major obstacle for the development of adequate policies to promote and take advantage of existing solar technologies. Although the radiation that reaches the outer layers of the atmosphere is well defined and can be easily calculated, the solar irradiance that reaches the ground level where solar co...

1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, 382 Fitzpatrick Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, [email protected] Abstract  Safety-critical software is a core topic in courses on “ethics and computing” or “computers and society,” as well as in software engineering courses. The Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was the focus of a great deal of technical arg...

Today, the existence of metadata is one of the most important keys for an effective discovery of geospatial data published in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). However, due to lack of efficient mechanisms, integrated in user daily workflow, to assist users in generating metadata, little metadata is produced. This paper presents a mechanism for generating and publishing metadata with a Publica...

A huge amount of geographical datasets are becoming available in distributed environments like Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). These datasets are very heterogeneous since they come from different independent sources and surveys and are structured in different formats. In the context of a national SDI that needs to assure an adequate quality level of the data it provides, it is necessary to ...