SDI for Good Governance
We live in an age of information and geographic information is one of the most crucial ingredients for improved decision making. Thus, many of society’s objectives including better governance can only be achieved if good, consistent geographic information is readily available and accessible. However, the production and use of spatial data is still a time consuming and expensive process. SDIs or Spatial Data Infrastructures can play an important role in such a scenario as they help to save a lot of valuable time and money while at the same time offer access to reliable spatial data.

INSPIRE or Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe initiative is an excellent example, which has the primary objective of making various regional and national SDIs interoperable and thus support the objective of promoting better governance. SDIs also play an important role in poverty reduction, promoting sustainable development and better land administration.

Land administration being an integral component of good governance, the land administration systems in future must be well equipped to deal with ever increasing complexity of land rights, responsibilities and restrictions. The need of the hour is to have spatial data infrastructures embedded in the socio-economic framework for good governance for it to become a successful tool for decision making. The session on SDI for Good Governance will highlight the role of geospatial technology and spatial data infrastructures for good governance.