16. Standards—Making Geographic Information Discoverable, Accessible and Usable for Modern Cartography

Cartography relies on data. Today, data is generated in unprecedented volumes, velocity, and variety. As a result, cartographers need ever more assistance in finding appropriate data for their maps and in harmonizing heterogeneous data before functional maps can be produced. Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) provide the fundamental facilities, services and systems for finding data. Implementing standards for geographic information and services plays a significant role in facilitating harmonization and interoperability in an SDI. This chapter reviews collaboration between standards development organizations in the field of geographic information, and describes resources available for a model-driven approach in the implementation of geographic information standards. Subsequently, good practice examples from Canada, Denmark, Japan, and Europe illustrate how standards implementation facilitates harmonization and interoperability, and how SDIs make geographic information discoverable, accessible, and usable for modern cartography.