Scientific geodata infrastructures: challenges, approaches and directions

Abstract

Based on various experiences in developing Geodata Infrastructures (GDIs) for scientific applications, this article proposes the concept of a Scientific GDI that can be used by scientists in environmental and earth sciences to share and disseminate their research results and related analysis methods. Scientific GDI is understood as an approach to tackle the science case in Digital Earth and to further enhance e-science for environmental research. Creating Scientific GDI to support the research community in efficiently exchanging data and methods related to the various scientific disciplines forming the basis of environmental studies poses numerous challenges on today's GDI developments. The paper summarizes requirements and recommendations on the publication of scientific geospatial data and on functionalities to be provided in Scientific GDI. Best practices and open issues for governance and policies of a Scientific GDI are discussed and are concluded by deriving a research agenda for the next decade.

Keywords:

• scientific geodata infrastructure
• sharing environmental models
• geospatial cyberinfrastructure
• e-science
• spatial data infrastructure

Acknowledgements

Several findings presented in this paper stem from work on the GLUES GDI as part of the research programme ‘Sustainable Land Management’ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and the journal editors helped to improve this submission and are gratefully acknowledged.