The emergence of geoportals and their role in spatial data infrastructures

An introductory overview is presented of the emerging concept of geoportals. Geoportals can be described as World Wide Web gateways intended to assist in the organization of content and services, including directories, search tools, community information, support resources, data, and applications. The most important developments in enterprise geographic information systems (GISs) and national spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are reviewed, with special attention to systems in the US. The study sought to relate the development of geoportals to SDI initiatives, and to identify the most important recent technological advances, such as the development of direct access facilities for application services and metadata records, and the use of services obtained directly from desktop GIS applications.