• Resolutions
• Recommendations
• Findings
• Agreement

The GSDI Conference Participants Resolved That:

Resolution 1

The conference resolved that a global umbrella organisation, which brings together regional committees, national committees, and other relevant international institutions be established. As an interim measure, the GSDI Steering Committee should be restructured modestly and continue to serve as the guiding body for the GSDI as a step toward a permanent umbrella organisation.

Resolution 2

The conference resolved that the GSDI Steering Committee support and advocate for transitional initiatives, in particular, Permanent Committees for GIS Infrastructure for the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

Resolution 3

The conference resolved to request the Statistics Division of the United Nations to submit the following statement to an appropriate United Nations body for consideration:

"Recognising that implementation of the objectives of Agenda 21 requires transnational understanding and analysis of environmental data the ECOSOC urges countries, to the extent possible and consistent with national priorities, to develop national spatial data information systems and cooperate to develop international spatial data standards."

Resolution 4

The conference resolved that the GSDI Steering Committee commission a major study into the business case for SDI development. The study will identify the economic, social, environmental and disaster management benefits that can be achieved through development of national and regional SDI's and the global SDI.

Resolution 5

Participants at this conference endorsed the need for a future meeting to continue activities of the GSDI begun in Konigswinter, Germany and carried forward at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and at Canberra, A.C.T., Australia. There was consensus to accept the invitation of South Africa that the next meeting is early in the year 2000 in South Africa. Further, there was consensus to accept the invitation of South America to hold the following meeting in 2001 and Colombia was requested to accept responsibility to develop the conference site. Finally, there was consensus that the conference should rotate after 2001 to other regions of the world.

During The GSDI Conference Participants Made The Following Recommendations That Led To Conference Resolutions:

Recommendation 1

The organisational model recommended for the GSDI in the long run is the global umbrella organisation, which brings together regional committees, national committees, and other relevant international institutions e.g., ISO, OGC, ISCGM, ISPRS, ICA, etc. in the context of principles of flexibility, inclusivity, simplicity and subsidiarity.

Recommendation 2

The ad hoc GSDI Steering Committee, including the Executive Committee, the Advisory Group, and standing subcommittees should be restructured modestly and continue to serve as the guiding body for the GSDI as a step toward a permanent umbrella organisation. It will operate in a manner consistent with the principles described in the theme paper "Global Spatial Data Infrastructure: Policy and Organisational Issues."

Executive Committee:

The Executive Committee will consist of the chair and vice chair; the past chair of the Steering Committee; representatives from each of the four regions of the world: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa-Middle East, and the Americas; and members at large who represent nations and a cross section of the GSDI stakeholder community. The chair shall be a representative of the region or nation that hosted the most recent GSDI Conference. The vice chair shall be selected by the host organisation of the next GSDI conference and shall be responsible for conference planning. The current chair shall be a representative of the Asia-Pacific region, host of the Canberra meeting. Membership on the Executive Committee will rotate with each GSDI Conference. Each regional and national SDI and stakeholder organisation shall be encouraged to name a representative to the Advisory Group. The chair and vice chair shall propose regional representatives and stakeholder community representatives from participants of the GSDI meetings and other interested, appropriate individuals as needed to ensure balanced representation of interests from around the world.

Secretariat:

A GSDI Secretariat is needed to ensure and facilitate communications among members, oversee fund raising, and assist work groups.

Working Groups:

Four initial Working Groups are proposed.

• Operations Working Group - to oversee the implementation of the umbrella organisation structure, and general administrative issues related to the GSDI.

• Technical Working Group - to advise the Steering Committee on technical aspects of the GSDI.

• Communication and Awareness Working Group - to inform the broad community about GSDI and the value of spatial data, and to promote the GSDI concept.

• Legal and Economic Working Group - to advise the Steering Committee on economic, legal and funding mechanisms underpinning the GSDI.

Terms of reference for each working group should be written and agreed by the Executive Committee.

Recommendation 3

That the GSDI Steering Committee commission a major study into the business case for SDI development. The study will identify the economic, social, environmental and disaster management benefits that can be achieved through development of national and regional SDI's and the global SDI, through:

• Financial support and capacity building, by national governments and international agencies; and
• Policy changes to enable wider access to public sector spatial data, by national governments.

The study should:

• Build on existing national and other economic, social, environmental and disaster management studies, and refer to the development policies of international bodies;
• Be undertaken by independent experts, with funding from independent sources;
• Include real multi-national and/or global case studies that illustrate SDI benefits; and
• Be suitable for submission to national governments and international funding agencies.

The draft business case should be presented to the 4^th GSDI Conference for approval. It is anticipated that the document will then be used by the GSDI umbrella organisation in a major campaign to secure government and funding support for national, regional and global SDI development.

Recommendation 4

That standards for Geomatics/Geographic Information and Services now being developed through ISO/TC 211 and the OGC be supported, and that participants actively encourage organisations in their countries to actively participate in the development, implementation and maintenance of these standards and of compatible regional and national profiles.

Recommendation 5

That the GSDI Steering Committee endorses the efforts of the ISCGM and participants in the VMAP programs, and encourages further contributions to and participation in the creation, maintenance and use of shareable, robust and interoperable global spatial datasets.

Recommendation 6

That the GSDI Steering Committee encourages organisations in individual countries to develop datasets that can be related to these global spatial specifications and datasets.

Recommendation 7

That the Technical Working Group is tasked with development of detailed proposals by or before the next GSDI Conference that:

• Propose reference models or best practice recommendations for data documentation and data discovery and access;
• Define core data categories, their resolution and content for the GSDI;
• Provide a working model of this core data using metadata and clearing house best practices; and

• Define a single standard for spatial referencing by geodetic coordinates that may be adopted as a standard to which countries may move toward and - in the interim - to which countries relate their own respective standards.

The GSDI Conference Participants Found That:

Finding 1

The achievement of GSDI will depend upon partnerships among many groups including industry, consumers, academia and government. GSDI must develop outreach activities to ensure that institutions and organisations that can and will benefit from an improved global spatial data infrastructure have an opportunity to participate. At this meeting it was obvious that national mapping organisations/agencies, state level mapping organisations/agencies, industry, academia and a variety of governmental agencies are very interested in GSDI development.

National mapping organisations/agencies

National mapping organisations/agencies play a key role in ensuring that accurate, up-to-date geospatial framework data are developed and maintained. Such data are key to, among others, the promotion of sustainable economic development, improvement of environmental quality, resource management, upgrading public health and safety, modernisation of governments either local, national or regional, and the responses to natural and other disasters. Therefore such organisations play a vital role in facilitating the development of a GSDI.

Industry

Industry is working to provide technology, data and services in support of GSDI activities. In particular, industry plays a key role in ensuring that effective information technologies (consistent with standards and specifications being developed by such groups as ISO and OGC) exist and that these technologies support GSDI requirements. Therefore it is imperative that such organisations play an important, proactive role in the development of a GSDI.

Other agencies, organisations and institutions

There are many other agencies, organisations and institutions that collect and use geospatial data that along with national mapping organisations/agencies and industry can and should play an important role in GSDI activities. It is important here that ways be sought to encourage cooperation, collaboration and communication among as many GSDI stakeholders as possible.

Finding 2

Agreement on the goals and objectives of GSDI will be vital to promoting the efforts to establish NSDI's and leverage resources at the national level.

Finding 3

It will be important for GSDI to encourage and facilitate capacity building efforts in developing countries and countries in transition so they can effectively participate.

Finding 4

There are a growing number of significant SDI initiatives at national and regional level that can and will act as a stimulus to GSDI development. Several of these initiatives were highlighted at the 3^rd GSDI Conference - national developments in countries such as Malaysia, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Canada - regional developments in areas such as South America, the Baltic Sea Region, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. These initiatives are now being documented in several ways and this documentation provides a valuable resource for proponents of the GSDI.

Finally, The GSDI Conference Participants Agreed That:

Agreement 1

The meeting recognises and appreciates the efforts provided by the GSDI Steering Committee, the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific and, especially, the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group in support of this conference and its constituency as a whole by their example.

Agreement 2

These resolutions should be disseminated as widely as possible at the local, national, regional and international levels.