SPATIAL DATA

INFRASTRUCTURES
---FROM A NB/NS PERSPECTIVE












Date
February, 12 - 2013

February, 12 - 2013


2
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick
1. OVERVIEW OF BORNAGE
With the fast development of the society and the globalization process, issues are
becoming less local, instead, increasingly national/ provincial in scope. All levels of
governments and private sectors have gradually recognized the importance of
harmonizing their mapping resources to increase efficiencies, reduce duplication and
provide easy access to publicly held geospatial information.
Therefore, in many countries spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are developed to
facilitate the availability and access to spatial data for all levels of government, the
commercial and non-profit sector, academia and citizens.
SDIs are defined by Dr. Kuhn as [1]:
An SDI is a coordinated series of agreements on technology standards,
institutional arrangements, and policies that enable the discovery and use
of geospatial information by users and for purposes other than those it was
created for.
With the help of SDIs, stakeholders are able to have a single access, where they can
discover, access and analyze geographically related data about the place they
interested in. In this article, we will mainly focus on two similar provincial SDIs ---
GeoNB and GeoNOVA, which are used in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
respectively.
2. SIMILARITIES OF GEONB AND GEONOVA
As their names implies, they are both spatial data infrastructures, which share some of
the basic features [2]:
Geospatial
February, 12 - 2013


3
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick
All the information/data in the system that can be related to a position
on the earths surface
Government is the biggest producer & user (about 75% of government
information can be depicted geographically)
80% of the cost of using geographic data is creating and maintaining
the data
Infrastructure
All the information/data exist in a common consistent format
Built once and used many times
Requirement to coordinate across governments to reduce duplication
Used by government, private sector and communities
Easily accessible by users
Requires large initial investment for downstream benefits ($70M for
NS foundation databases )
To build such a data infrastructure, GeoNB and GeoNOVA along with other
provincial data infrastructure, such as GeoBC and GeoSask, peoples using a same
architecture as shown in figure 2.1.

Display
Figure 2.1 SDI Architecture CIMS
February, 12 - 2013


4
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick

Data custodians firstly publish their geospatial data to local provincial and national
servers. In other word, they make it easily discoverable. Then, users can search for
geospatial data through discovery mechanism such as a web data portal (GeoNB,
GeoNOVA etc.). According to users search criteria, requests are emitted to the
servers and corresponding datasets are returned to the users who can directly use and
display. Once the user found relevant datasets, he or she can combine them into its
map. At the same time, data custodians are also able to update the data and the
changes will be immediately reflected at the user end [3].
Thus, as a result, such an online mapping system like GeoNB/NOVA will be more
efficient in using and storing data. It has the following advantages compared with the
traditional method,
Accessing data from the closest point to the source, ensuing the users get
quickly and easily information that is up-to-date, accurate, authoritative and
avoid versioning and duplication
Able to create one map with data from various sources
Providers can maintain control over their data with privacy and security
safeguards in place
Reduce the costs
Enhancing decision making
3. GEONB & GEONOVA
Generally speaking, GeoNB and GeoNOVA are quite similar systems since they are
both provincial special data infrastructures.
February, 12 - 2013


5
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick
3.1 GeoNB
GeoNB is managed by the SNB Land Information Section (LIS), collaborating with
Dept. of Transportation, Public Safety, Natural Resources, Environment; Local
Government; Cities of Fredericton, Miramichi, Bathurst and; University of New
Brunswick.
The GeoNB was launched in late 2009. Through all these years it has set up its
governance structure, data standards (which are of great significance in SDIs, for
sharing and transmitting data), hardware infrastructure and software. Now, it provide
public access to the base maps, thematic maps, various map services and the online
map viewer.
As the figure (Figure 3.1.1) depicted, we can see a rising numbers of visitors since the
system was launched in 2009 [4].
February, 12 - 2013


6
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick

Another survey showed among all visitors, most of people use the system for
academic purposes. And the result is the same for GeoNOVA as well.
3.2 GeoNOVA
The GeoNOVA Program implements a multi-levels, need driven governance structure
that includes a Steering Committee and several nodes (committees) that are formed
around specific issues, as shown in the figure below (Figure 3.2.1).
Figure 3.1.1 GeoNB Map Viewer Total Visitors per Week GeoNB
February, 12 - 2013


7
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick


The Steering Committee launches nodes as specific interests or issues arise. For
example there is both a Municipal Node and a Provincial Node, which are concerned
with geospatial issues facing Nova Scotia municipalities or on a provincial scale
respectively.
The services offered by GeoNOVA are goal-oriented basically same as the services
offered by GeoNB, which are depicted in Fig 3.2.2 [5].
Figure 3.2.1 Governance Structure of GeoNOVA GeoNOVA
February, 12 - 2013


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Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick


According to its Five Year Strategy, GeoNOVA is moving into data maintenance
activity and offering more complex uses for the data.
4. Conclusion
Based on all the facts described above, we can safely say that building spatial data
infrastructures is the future tendency. Currently, almost all provinces in Canada have,
or ready to build a provincial SDI.
The advantage of having a SDI is obvious. It will benefit all citizens by providing a
simple access point to the geospatial data (or we can say portal) and a powerful user-
friendly GIS, reducing duplication and making data management and maintaining
process much easier.
Figure 3.2.2 Services Offered by GeoNOVA GeoNOVA
February, 12 - 2013


9
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick
According to the current SDIs in Canada, the basic functions and architectures are
almost the same. More importantly, they applied the same standard for data, which
will make it possible to make/support national/international SDIs. The current
Canadian national wide SDI is called Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure, which
is heavily relying on the provincial spatial information [6].

February, 12 - 2013


10
Tianyu Liu
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
University of New Brunswick
References
1. Kuhn, W. (2005) Introduction to Spatial Data Infrastructures. Presentation held on
March 14, 2005. Presentation
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2697206/Introduction-to-Spatial--Data-
Infrastructures
2. Sierra Systems Group Inc. (2010). Service Nova Scotia & Municipal Relations
GeoNOVA Initiative, Appenix A 5 Year Strategy. Retrieved from
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/land/geonova/strategy/pdf/deliverables/usereval/App
endixB-GeoNOVA_Program.pdf
3. Community Information and Mapping System. (2009). Community Information
Mapping System. [power point slides]. Retrieved from http://www.cims-
scic.ca/sites/cims-
scic.ca/files/administrators/RN1_Canadian%20Geospatial%20Data%20Infrastruct
ure%20%28CGDI%29.pdf
4. B, Connors. (2011). GeoNB: New Brunswicks SDI. [power point slides].
Retrieved from
http://coinatlantic.ca/documents/aczisc_meeting_presentations/63GEONB.pdf
5. GeoNOVA. (2013). GeoNOVA Governance and Structure. Retrieved from
http://www.gov.ns.ca/geonova/about/geonova_governance.asp
6. GeoConnections. (2013). Retrieved from http://geoconnections.nrcan.gc.ca/6