Abstract

GeoSUR, the Latin American and Caribbean Geospatial Network
Track: Spatial Data Infrastructure
Authors: Eric van Praag, Santiago Borrero, Mathew Cushing, Carolina Morera, Michelle Anthony

GeoSUR is a regional program whose aim is to implement an effective inter-institutional mechanism for generating, disseminating, and exploiting geospatial data useful for decision-making in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Program has developed five main components: i) a Regional Geoportal, ii) a decentralized network of map services, iii) a LAC regional Map Service, iv) a Topographic Processing Service, and v) regional geoprocessing tools for hydro power assessment and disaster early warning. More than 60 agencies from 23 countries participate in this initiative. The GeoSUR Portal features today more than 130 WMS services, 10,000 metadata records (harvested), 160,000 metadata records (searchable), and around 60 map viewers.

The GeoSUR Program has been instrumental in making available on the web a vast array of geospatial and environmental datasets that, until now, have scarcely been distributed, and have had insufficient impact on decision making.

For more information visit: www.geosur.info.