544
R.A. Longhorn
However, researchers into coastal zone management (CZM) and other marine
research (MR) were already taking “global” views from the mid-1980’s (at least) and
major international conferences and conventions were being held or entered into from
the early 1990s. Key globalisation issues revolve around climate change and other
environmental aspects of ocean use - or misuse.
Several parallel activities led the way towards a more structured look at what
a GSDI might entail, how it might be implemented, and how much effort would be
involved, including:
rapid development of National Spatial Data Infrastructures, especially in the
developed nations
advances in GI standards work, at national and regional level, culminating in
the work now underway at ISO at global level, especially regarding GI
metadata
rapid advances in information and communications technologies (ICT),
including GIS and GPS, opening new data collection, processing, storage and
transmission possibilities at much reduced cost
increased focus on global environmental issues and the obvious need for GI and
GIS to monitor global climate change, at sea, on land and in the atmosphere
increased awareness by governments that no country can afford to ignore the
global environment and that many regional (multiple cross-border) problems
can be addressed more efficiently and more quickly if good quality GI exists
(e.g. flood control throughout major river basins, coastal flooding, etc.)
Thus, the time was considered right, in 1996, to convene a major international meeting
to investigate the extent to which a GSDI could be implemented and/or should be
implemented.
History of the GSDI Initiative
The first Emerging Global Spatial Data Infrastructure conference was held in
September 1996, in Bonn, Germany. It was organized by the European Umbrella
Organisation for Geographical Information (EUROGI), the German Umbrella
Organisation for Geoinformation (DDGI), the Atlantic Institute (AI), the Institute for
Land Information and its Land Information Assembly (ILI/LIA), the Open GIS
Consortium (OGC), the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the
Federation Internationale des Geometres - Commission 3 (FIG-COM3), under the
patronage of Dr. Martin Bangemann - Member of the European Commission,
responsible for Industrial affairs and Information and telecommunications
technologies.
The conference was attended by 63 invited representatives of
Précédent

- 544/596

Suivant