The Availability Of Spatial And Environmental Data In The European Union

Because the original and essential value of spatial data ' data that refer to specific geographical locations or areas ' lies in environmental decision-making, such data mostly originate in the public sector and are made available to people,

The Availability of Spatial and Environmental Data in the European Union

This highly technical work is at the leading edge of spatial analysis. It covers the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative in the international context of access to environmental data. This book identifies the data policy issues, such as intellectual property rights, privacy, licensing and archiving policies, that affect environmental monitoring organisations, statistical institutes, mapping agencies, institutes for natural resources and Earth observation. It recommends courses of action to improve information services in GMES and assesses the impact of data policy on access to and cost-efficient use of information services in GMES. This title will be essential reading for government institutions such as mapping organisations, space agencies, environmental departments, military and defence departments; it will also be useful to students of environmental policies and industries involved in mapping, cartography, aerial surveys and the space industry.

This book covers some of the most prevalent policy issues evolving around spatial data infrastructure. First, the book addresses a variety of European SDI projects aiming at the creation of regional spatial data infrastructure. Secondly, the Dutch and American situation are described, providing insights on how two rather different legal and economic SDI settings can still allow for and serve very similar infrastructure functions. Keywords: spatial data infrastructures, development, legal and economic, Europe, United States, Netherlands.

Understanding the legal challenges relating to spatial data information (SDI).

Land use change is driven by a variety of forces, including spatial policies formulated at supra-national, national, regional and local levels. The main focus of this book is to contextualise, explain and illustrate a new methodology for simulating land use change in different parts of Europe. It considers some of the more important causal factors and identifies state-of-the-art approaches to modelling human and environmental systems, and for evaluating and visualising altenative scenarios. The last part of the volume presents material from two case studies, one from The Netherlands and one from Portugal, of the implementation of a new simulation model called EuroScanner. Audience: This work will be of interest to researchers and practioners whose work involves geography, simulation and modelling, environmental planning, spatial decision making, the methodology of social sciences, and economics.

This book draws on author’s wealth of knowledge working on numerous projects across many countries. It provides a clear overview of the development of the SDI concept and SDI worldwide implementation and brings a logical chronological approach to the linkage of GIS technology with SDI enabling data. The theory and practice approach help understand that SDI development and implementation is very much a social process of learning by doing. The author masterfully selects main historical developments and updates them with an analytical perspective promoting informed and responsible use of geographic information and geospatial technologies for the benefit of society from local to global scales. Features Subject matter spans thirty years of the development of GIS and SDI. Brings a social science perspective into GIS and SDI debates that have been largely dominated by technical considerations. Based on a world-wide perspective as a result of the author's experience and research in the USA, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Peru, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, and Japan as well as most European countries. Draws upon professional and academic experience relating to pioneering UK and European GIS research initiatives. Includes updated historical material with an analytical perspective explaining what was done right, and what didn't work.