Insights into Accessing and Using Geospatial Data from Open Data Sources

Success stories of how open access to geospatial data has enabled some significant advances in science and engineering will be discussed in this presentation. The integration of data from entities around the world has allowed the study of global issues with new insights into certain problems that were previously not investigated due to unavailability of some key data. Along with the accessibility of data are requirements for techniques and applications that enrich the usability of the geospatial data. The authors have been involved in ingesting, organizing, archiving, managing, and distributing geospatial data for many years in the international community. In both scientific studies and data center management, the importance of acquiring quality data from trusted sources has been encountered. Additional attention is required, in the ever changing data environment, to the security of data from unintentional or malicious breaches that could affect the quality and accessibility of the data.