Challenges for Promoting the Decision-Making Processes Based on Spatial Data Analysis

Abstract

Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) provide members of society with access to and sharing of spatial and conventional data related to different aspects of human activities, e.g., social, economic, environmental, etc. However, to make this data available to a wide variety of users, several challenges must be overcome. These challenges refer to different aspects, e.g., the expansion of the vision about the purpose of SDIs that allow citizens to improve the information literacy level, the establishment of a governmental strategy and national standards to publish and consume data, the awareness of issues related to data quality and integration as well as the changes that are necessary to implement at the educational and social levels. In this article, we refer to the role of SDIs and the challenges that need to be faced, especially in developing or newly-industrialized countries to shorten the gap with developed countries.