Digital Spatial data: Problems of Property, Access, Pricing and Quality

Spatial information data has become widely available in a variety of digital forms, and is of great interest to users and potential of Geographical Information Systems. Most of the data has come from the work in the cartographic and land information organisations, and the majority of these have been from the public sector. As a wider community of interested parties seek to apply the combination of spatial data and GIS, a series of practical problems arise which reduce the opportunities for the community to realise the potential productivity gains. These concern several different areas: • Access to multiple sets of spatial data • The terms and price of its usage • The ownership of the information obtained and subsequently created • The quality of the information obtained Each of these are explored from the point of view of a secondary data user wishing to take advantage of the possibilities inherent in integrating multiple types of data with the spatial information now available. These include the legal aspects of databases, the issues of usage licensing and the mechanisms needed to ensure that the cumulative results can be effectively realised in spite of the often conflicting interests of the many parties involved