SDI Modernization
A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) combines the technology, policies, standards, and workforce needed to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve the use of geospatial data, from popular mapping apps on mobile phones to satellite sensing and imagery. SDIs can be local, statewide, tribal, regional, national, and more.
This website points the way to the future of SDIs around the globe. It helps more closely interconnect people, data, resources, and services from a variety of contributors: governmental, academic, commercial, and individual. The goal: better SDI coordination, governance, architecture, and technical progress in the United States and abroad.
Spatial Data Infrastructure in the United States is undergoing a transformation in line with a 10-year strategy. Its mission: delivering highly responsive, timely, dependable, and interoperable public and private geospatial data, applications, and services that provide knowledge on demand and actionable insights to inform decisions; address local, regional, national, and global challenges; and benefit all people.
The U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and its public and private sector stakeholders have been working to realize a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Great progress has been made through the years, but to truly derive its full benefit, we must create new and innovative partnerships, leverage emerging technologies, find more efficient ways to develop, maintain and integrate national datasets, and deliver the right information at the right time in the right place.
By modernizing Spatial Data Infrastructure, we not only advance technologies and foster collaboration across sectors, but also drive innovation, improve crucial services, and enhance lives worldwide, establishing an accessible system that benefits everyone.
The Spatial Data Infrastructure Modernization Project will foster a seamlessly interconnected national geospatial ecosystem, connected to a larger global geospatial system, that delivers actionable insights to address local, regional, national, and global challenges across the terrestrial, maritime, and space domains. Successfully addressing these challenges will require inclusive governance, and it will best be achieved by filling data gaps, leveraging new and impactful technologies, and developing the workforce.
Widespread participation, sufficient resourcing, and meaningful accountability in decision making are key to developing this system, alongside effective oversight and management mechanisms. This includes refining policy and legal frameworks to support data management, sharing, and use, and identifying and meeting financial resource needs for successful implementation.
Now is the time to update infrastructure and leverage advanced technology to improve data usability, quality, accessibility, and interoperability. Achieving this goal involves evaluating, improving, and maintaining an integrated geospatial data foundation; embracing such technological innovations as artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning; and ensuring adherence to national and international standards.
At the heart of it all, amid the governance mechanisms and technological solutions, are people. It is absolutely critical to build a skilled geospatial workforce that is equipped to advance and leverage the full potential of SDI by applying transdisciplinary skills. Achieving this goal includes fostering multisector partnerships, promoting continuous learning within the geospatial community, and actively promoting the use and understanding of geospatial data and technologies.
