GOVERNMENT DIGITAL CARTOGRAPHIC DATA POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL-RESEARCH NEEDS

Governmental digital cartographic data distribution policies can benef it environmental efforts and global change research. Currently, there are two main approaches towards data dissemination. The UK represents the cost-recovery approach where the data users help cover the costs o f data creation and data are copyrighted. Alternately, the U.S. federa l government distributes data on the basis of the marginal disseminati on costs and does not copyright data that have been generated using pu blic funds. The UK approach, which is typical of most of Europe, is mo re responsive to Its data users and can engage in partnerships with pr ivate companies in data development efforts, but the cost of data may limit basic research as its cost goes beyond the reach of many users a nd the copyright restrictions prevent open data sharing between scient ists. This can have a significant impact in the area of basic environm ental research, which is data intensive, and often requires many data sets from different time periods. In the United States, data are freel y available at minimal cost and unrestricted by copyrights. This has a llowed wide dissemination and supports greater innovation and public p articipation in environmental research. Interestingly, both of these p olicies find supporters in the business community. Government policy c an also benefit environmental efforts by leading in standardization an d cooperation on issues of scale, geodetic datum, terminology definiti on, and measurement consistency; both within country by coordinating l ocal and national data, and as a part of a larger regional and global realm. As data dissemination becomes a global issue, and as the demand for digital map and other data to support environmental problem-solvi ng becomes of critical importance, governments will increasingly have to choose a pathway between these dissemination strategies. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and offe rs some results and case studies to highlight the problems for those n ations that are only now becoming involved with digital maps for decis ion-making and information management.