Value of spatial data: networked performance beyond economic rhetoric

Assessing the economic value of spatial data is problematic for various reasons – conceptual as well as operational. The paper argues that understanding the value of spatial data will benefit from the market discourse and salient conditions can be identified when viewed in terms of market transactions rather than in terms of neoclassical economic rhetoric. Therefore, spatial data markets can best be understood as socio-technical actor networks. Moreover, spatial data are multifaceted and are likely understood differently by different people. Space matters but differently at different spatial levels, and different decision-making contexts and styles may require different types of data and information. Hence, the paper argues that the value of spatial data is added through a complex value network rather than a sequential value chain. Consequently, the SDI-assessment discourse is of particular relevance for assessing the value of spatial data when understood as networked performance; specifically, the multi-view approach. In conclusion, the paper recommends a deliberative, pragmatic and actor-network focus on spatial data and transdisciplinary framing of assessing their value

Assessing Spatial Data Infrastructure Policy Strategies Using the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis

Assessments of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) strategies are rather scarce. When evaluations do occur, they usually cover only one aspect of a certain initiative or infrastructure, without taking into account all the other impacts it might have. Moreover, similar methods, such as the Cost-Benefit Analysis, are used in most situations. However, these techniques are only suited for very specific objectives as they require exclusively monetary information and they do not include the objectives or perceptions of the many relevant stakeholders of the SDI environment. This is why a new methodology for assessing SDI strategies is presented in this paper, namely the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA). This technique is an extension of the original Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and allows for structured and extensive stakeholder participation during the entire evaluation procedure. The methodology provides a new assessment framework that takes into account all the different criteria and actors of the complex SDI decision making context. In order to illustrate the opportunities and strengths of the MAMCA in the SDI context, a case study will be presented, where possible policy strategies for the SDI in Flanders will be assessed. In this paper, which forms the first section of a two-parted article, the methodology of the MAMCA method and its possible merits for the assessment of an SDI are illustrated, together with the first three steps of the case study. The second paper, which will be published at a later date, will document the four following MAMCA steps of the case study as well as its global results and possible future recommendations

Een verkenning van de weg richting Vlaanderen Geoland

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Spatialist: analysing the Flemish spatial data infrastructure as an operational network

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Het GDI-netwerk in Vlaanderen. Een kwantitatieve verkenning van het gebruik en de uitwisseling van geodata in Vlaanderen

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Interdisciplinary research project: SPATIALIST; Spatial Data Infrastructures and Public Sector Innovation in Flanders (Belgium)

In September 2007, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel started a four-year research project entitled “SPATIALIST; Spatial Data Infrastructures and Public Sector Innovation” funded by Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders. The strategic and generic character of this project is situated in its research object as well as its method. The research object of the project is the relation between Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) and Public Sector Innovation in the Flemish Region. A lot of information in the public sector has a geographic component, so the large-scale roll-out of an SDI will be of great strategic importance in itself and to the further development and innovation of public practices. The method of the project supports a generic approach of SDI-development. First, the project looks at SDI-development from an interdisciplinary perspective. A discipline combination of public administration, sociology, law, economics and geomatics has to guarantee a comprehensive view on the development of an SDI. Second, the development of an SDI is looked upon in all its phases. The central research question to be answered in this project is the following: “what are the technological, legal, economic, sociological and public administrative requirements to further develop an operational Flemish Spatial Data Infrastructure consistent with international standards that is efficient, effective, flexible and feasible?”. The aim of this paper is to present this unique strategic research project in terms of motivation, problem statement, state-of-the-art, strategic research question, analytical research model, research strategy, and valorisation potential.status: publishe