Opportunities for using the volunteered geographic information within the national spatial data infrastructure

Abstract

New sources of geospatial data and information have recently become available in the form of user-generated web content. The integration of these sources, often termed Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) or Crowdsourced Geographic Information (CGI), offer various options for geospatial applications: From monitoring natural disasters and their damages, analysing and monitoring of land cover to various cartographic and societal initiatives, to name just a few. Among other things, VGI brings new challenges in the field of National Spatial Data Infrastructure – NSDI. The paper aims to review the currents state of the art in the VGI research field focusing on the voluntary geographic information in national surveying and mapping agencies often competent for NSDI. As case studies, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland have been chosen. Furthermore, various initiatives for topographic and land-cadastre mapping in developing countries and potentials offered by VGI are presented.