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Are spatial data infrastructure (SDI) worthwhile? A survey was made of users for a Geoportal in Spain recently. The feedback results were tabulated for 80 users (65 Catalans) of the Geoportal IDEC and its services provides an important glimpse into the value of SDI.   

The SDI concept “is worthwhile”  and has several meanings. Are SDI’s useful for many users, as the theory suggests? Do they bring added value to people and communities? As an investment (like other infrastructure),  can we talk about an acceptable return on investment for SDI? The answer to these questions is a clear affirmation: Yes.

We evaluated some of the results of a survey conducted with 80 users (65 Catalans) of the Geoportal IDEC and the services it provides over a one year period. To complete the survey we asked each user entering the Geoportal to participate in the survey before finishing the session.

The survey was conducted online using Survey Monkey, a free online survey and polling website that processes the answers and presents the results automatically.

During 2008 about 96,000 visitations to the IDEC Geoportal were made. Although less than 1 person per 1000 visits filled in the survey, the results from 80 completed surveys provide a representative example of opinion and response. Similar results were observed when 50 responses had been received. 

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From the results we learned that 73.4% of the users had visited the Geoportal previously. About 42% of the respondents were from public administration, 40% from the private sector and 14% from universities.                              

{sidebar id=289 align=right}It is important to highlight the balanced distribution of the users coming from the public and the private sectors, which indicates, a prioiri, that the utility of the geoportal services goes beyond the borders of the public tasks.

This last table demonstrates the value that users grant place on the various services of the Geoportal.  From these we learned that 66% of respondents value quality and qualify the Catalog of Metadata with a high interest (value 4) or very high (value 5).

We can say that, in spite of the apparent scarce usability of the Catalog and its difficulty of understanding, with less than intuitive interaction, that professionals who consult it find it of great interest. The rest of services are also very appreciated for 80% of the users.

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Time savings were valued by 55.7% of users, quality improvement by 50.8% and the ability to increase better decision making was chosen by 27.9% of the sample population. 

In general, most users response values benefits and advantages that relate to saving time, costs and investments (elements that have a clear quantitative economic translation). Subjectively they value the contribution SDI make toward improvement of the quality of the work and to support better decision making. 

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This confirms the more detailed study made by the Politechnical University of Catalonia, with the collaboration of the CS IDEC, comissioned by the European Commission [1] about the political, economical and social impact of the IDEC in the local authorities area.

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Some very clear conclusions about the benefits, obtained in the organizations making use  of the available resources in the Infrastructure can be summarized:

• A moderate estimation of the economic effects of the IDEC is that the total of  investments along 2002-05 have been retrieved in less than 6 months on the basis of the benefits identified only for year 2006. The results of the study  bring to light, therefore, that the  investments and the expenses in the development of the IDEC are of high perfomance, even considering that the number of current users is relatively small in comparison to the number of potential users

• As the number of users of the local administrations is expanding the benefits will  expand too.

• The  investments and expenses related with the launch and one maintenance of the IDEC represent a mere fraction (less of 0,5%) of the total economical volume of operations in the GIS sector

• One of the most important socio-political implications is the application of the services IDEC in the local entities of the rural zones, which has contributed to reducing the digital gap between these small towns and the other larger ones. 

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Jordi Guimet is responsable for the Centre of Support of the Catalan Spatial Data Infrastructure.

For more information:
Catalan SDI – www.geoportal-idec.net/geoportal/eng/inici.jsp
Survey Monkey – www.surveymonkey.com
IDEC Geoportal – www.geoportal-idec.cat

References
[1] http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports/Study_reports/catalonia_impact_study_report.pdf