A First Look at Usage Patterns of Publicly Available Spatial Information

The development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) at global, national, and regional levels as well as the geo-portals to facilitate information sharing and access to web services has recently increased. Given the diverse geographical extents of these initiatives, from cross continental initiatives to neighbouring cities, one would expect to have access to solid evidence of the economic and social impacts of remotely accessible spatial data. Unfortunately, relatively few published studies have addressed this issue. Consequently, a study into the public use of freely available spatial data is necessary that is specifically focused on the experiences of the user. Our research into this topic will be based on the Image2000 (http://image2000.jrc.it/) and the European Soil (http://eusoils.jrc.it/) geo-portals. This paper summarises the initial results achieved during the first phase of our study and presents a plan of action for future studies aimed at filling the identified knowledge gaps.JRC.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure