ABSTRACT
Navigating the complexity of communications and relationships between sectors and agencies to achieve a common understanding of spatially-related issues across a nation is paramount for any economy, management of the environment, social issues and security. SDIs are established at this level to form a framework to share and exchange data across agencies and between disciplines to achieve these and other objectives. National SDIs create an environment where a wide variety of users are able to access and retrieve complete and consistent data in an easy and secure way. When coordinated nationally such an infrastructure provides the means to support and improve existing and potential bilateral and multilateral interactions as well as strengthen domestic institutional and commercial interactions.
