This book draws on author's wealth of knowledge working on numerous projects across many countries. It provides a clear overview of the development of the SDI concept and SDI implementation and brings a logical chronological approach to the linkage of GIS technology with SDI enabling data for the benefit of society from local to global scales.

Geographical Information Systems: Introduction. 1 Urban Planning and Geographic Information Systems. Theory. 2 The Regioinal Research Laboratory Intitiative: An Overview. 3 Data Integration Research: Overview and Future Prospects. 4 Brave New GIS Worlds. 5 Geographic Information: A Resource, a Commodity, an Asset or an Infrastructure. Practice. 6 The Development of Geographic Information Systems in Britain: The Chorley Report in Perspective. 7 The Impact of GIS on Local Government in Great Britain. 8 Information Sharing and Implementation of GIS: Some Key Issues. 9 The Diffusion of GIS In Local Government in Europe. Spatial Data Infrastructures: Introduction. 10 Managing Our Urban Future: The Role of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems. Theory. 11 All Shapes and Sizes: The First Generation of National Spatial Data Infrastructures. 12 The Future of Spatial Data Infrastructures. 13 What's Special About SDI Related Research? 14 Changing Notions of Spatial Data Infrastructures. Practice. 15 A European Policy Framework for Geographic Information. 16 Reflections on the Indian National Spatial Data Infrastructure. 17 Geographical Information and the Enlargement of the European Union: Four National Case Studies. 18 Operational SDI: The Subnational Dimension in the European Context. 19 Learning from INSPIRE.