A Showcase of Spatial Data Infrastructures and Related Technologies

This chapter first gives a rational perspective why spatial data infrastructures are getting more and more importance. Different application fields and necessary services are introduced. The chapter tries to clean-up with the misleading usage of SDI, denoting concepts, technologies and implementations. Afterwards, it embraces on existing and necessary technologies — especially data harmonization. Data harmonization is a crucial element in sharing pan-national data. Examples are given showing working applications of these technologies in different organizations. Finally, critical question about future and missing parts of SDI are stated.