ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impacts of innovations in communications and information technology on the nature of spatial data infrastructure (SDI). It examines the changes that have taken place in the conceptualisation of SDIs and discusses the nature of SDI implementation with particular reference to the concepts of multi-level governance that have been developed by political scientists. New technologies have played an important role in the evolution of the SDI concept. The earliest SDIs were conceived before the Internet and the World Wide Web came into being and the opportunities opened up by their development have dramatically transformed the way that way that data is delivered to users. Since the number of SDI initiatives has increased dramatically in all parts of the world to the extent that Joep Crompvoets et al.’s work on the development of clearinghouses suggests that as many as half the world’s countries were considering SDI related projects.
