Status and Assessment of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
July 8, 2026 11:00 am (Central Time)
Abstract
As someone who works with geospatial data on a regular basis, do you think much about the NSDI? Per the Geospatial Data Act of 2018, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is defined as “… the technology, policies, criteria, standards, and employees necessary to promote geospatial data sharing throughout the Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, and the private sector (including nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education)”. The NSDI “shall ensure that geospatial data from multiple sources (including the covered agencies, State, local and tribal governments, the private sector, and institutions of higher education) is available and easily integrated to enhance the understanding of the physical and cultural world.
In this VCO, we will talk about the current status of the NSDI and the efforts undertaken by the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO, https://cogonetwork.org/) to advance the NSDI through its regular assessments, including a national survey currently underway.
Speakers
Diana Sinton
University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)
Diana Sinton is a Senior Research Fellow with the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), a non-profit organization based in the United States that supports a community of practice around GIScience in higher education. Through UCGIS she works with I-GUIDE, the Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment, to oversee evaluation, knowledge transfer, and contribute to their educational and community engagement activities. She also serves as the managing editor for an evaluation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), coordinated and produced every few years by the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO).