Understanding Online Geo-Spatial Systems

The acquisition and delivery of geo-spatial data are going through rapid changes. Data providers and spatial data practitioners are anticipating that the connectivity of the Internet and the popularity of the World Wide Web will accelerate and popularise the use of geo-spatial data across a wider audience. To demonstrate this change, this paper presents a general overview of twelve online geo-spatial systems from Australia, Europe, and America, which have impacted on the delivery of land parcel or cadastral data in their respective jurisdictions. Online cadastral systems represent the amalgamation of current technology and network applications that are significantly impacting across the geo-spatial industry. The increasing range of data available and the layout of the underlying databases are examples of the major differences that are discussed in the paper. This paper provides a “snap shot” of rapidly developing online systems with the objective to better understand the rapid developments and changes that are occurring in online government spatial systems worldwide.