Survey of National Coastal and Marine SDI geoportals: a first typology of the worldwide developments

Résumé En

The intensity of current changes that characterize marine and coastal areas demand the implementation of collective processes and tools to enhance knowledge and management of these territories. To contribute to these goals, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) aim to facilitate the sharing and the use of spatial data between a broad range of stakeholders by promoting data and metadata harmonization and services interoperability. This paper describes the first results of an international Web survey undertaken to assess the developments of existing national marine and coastal geoportals of SDIs or similar Web services. A Web survey done in October 2014 led to an inventory of 81 national operational geoportals. Based on the survey results, a preliminary typology can be made. Four types of geoportals can be distinguished: (1) National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC) geoportals, (2) Marine/Coastal Atlas geoportals and (3) Hydrographic Office geoportals, (4) Hybrid geoportals.