From Global to Local: The Development of Local Geographic Information Strategies in the United Kingdom

The focus of recent debates over geographic data infrastructures has tended to be at the national, pan-European, or global levels. Relatively less attention has been paid to the development of local data infrastructures even though this is the level where they have the potential of making the greatest impact on everyday life. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the opportunities and barriers to such local developments in Great Britain as a starting point for a much wider debate and sharing of experience. The paper is divided into four sections. Sections 1 and 2 introduce the topic, and provide an overview of recent policy developments at the European and national levels, respectively, that should encourage the creation of such local infrastructures. In section 3, examples are given of best practice from selected case studies being developed across the country, and in section 4 the political and organisational issues that need to be addressed to make these infrastructures work successfully are identified.