Chapter 1. Introduction
2 Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic and their representative organizations are in-
creasingly active in using information and communications technologies ICT to access data and share their information and knowledge. This includes the
establishment of protocols for ethical and culturally appropriate development of ICT.
This report presents the results of a concept development study on SDI for the Arctic, sponsored by US Geological Survey and Natural Resources Canada, ex-
ecuted by the Open Geospatial Consortium. The focus of this study was to understand how to best support the development of an SDI for the Arctic and
how to make existing implementations i better known to stakeholders, and ii better serving stakeholders’ needs. The study included an open Request for In-
formation RFI with the objective to gather external positions and opinions on the optimal setup and design of an SDI for the Arctic. Responses to this RFI
have been integrated into this report.
The report discusses the various types of stakeholders of an SDI for the Arc- tic chapter
2 with their specific needs and requirements on aspects such as
data sharing, standards interoperability, funding and investment, integration with existing systems, architecture and platform as well as security, privacy,
and safety chapter 3
. The report further discusses governance goals chapter 4
before concentrating on more technical aspects such as architecture models chapter
5 , data chapter
6 , and standards interoperability aspects chapter
7 to optimize discovery, usage, and processing of data in an highly heteroge-
neous network of SDI data and service providers. The report concludes with a number of demonstration applications scenarios that could be used in the pi-
lot’s second phase to demonstrate the value of an SDI for the Arctic to a broad range of stakeholders chapters
8 and
9 .
1.1 Pilot Participants and Goals
The Arctic Spatial Data Pilot is sponsored by Natural Resources Canada and the United States Geological Survey USGS with a North American focus, yet is
scalable to the circumpolar community. It supports the evolvement of the Cana- dian Geospatial Data Infrastructure and National Spatial Data Infrastructure in
the Arctic i.e. Canadian Territories, Northern Quebec, Northern Labrador and Alaska. To be successful, the Arctic Spatial Data Pilot has to take particular
requirements into account, including responding to priorities of Northerners
Chapter 1. Introduction
3 and Indigenous Communities, working in zerolow bandwidth regions and
considering the realities of frontier economies.
The Arctic SDI will play a key role in a range of complex issues where geospa- tial data are necessary, such as responsible resource development, environmen-
tal management and assessment, regulatory reviews, and safety and security. The Arctic SDI aims to make geospatial information available in a standardized
way to the public, academic institutions, the private sector and others who are involved in to conducting research or produce value-added products and appli-
cations, driving innovation and stimulating economic development. Geospa- tial data, services and applications accessed through Arctic SDI will help agen-
cies understand the impact of climate change and human activities in the Arc- tic, facilitating monitoring, management, emergency preparedness and deci-
sion making. Moreover, Arctic SDI will support Canadian research on climate change and enable decision-makers to take effective decisions and implement
mitigation strategies.
Organization managing the RFI
The Open Geospatial Consortium OGC
is an international consortium of more than 500 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and univer-
sities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospa- tial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that geo-enable
the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC stan- dards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and ser-
vices accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.
Sponsors
Natural Resources Canada NRCan seeks to enhance the responsible develop-
ment and use of Canadas natural resources and the competitiveness of Canadas natural resources products. We are an established leader in science and technol-
ogy in the fields of energy, forests, and minerals and metals and use our exper- tise in earth sciences to build and maintain an up-to-date knowledge base of
our landmass. NRCan develops policies and programs that enhance the contri- bution of the natural resources sector to the economy and improve the quality
of life for all Canadians.
As the largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency of the United States, the
U.S. Geological Survey USGS collects, monitors, and
Chapter 1. Introduction
4 analyzes data and information, and provides scientific understanding about
natural resource conditions, issues, and problems. The diversity of its scientific expertise enables USGS to carry out large-scale, multi-disciplinary investiga-
tions and provide impartial scientific information to resource managers, plan- ners, and other customers.
1.2 ArcticSDP: CGDI, NSDI and Arctic SDI Link-
