Grounded Design and GIScience - A framework for informing the design of geographical information systems and spatial data infrastructures

Geographical Information Science (GIScience), also Geographical Information Science and Systems, is a multi-faceted research discipline and comprises a wide variety of topics. Investigation into data management and interoperability of geographical data and environmental data sets for scientific analysis, visualisation and modelling is an important driver of the Information Science aspect of GIScience, that underpins comprehensive Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) research and development. In this article we present the 'Grounded Design' method, a fusion of Design Science Research (DSR) and Grounded Theory (GT), and how they can act as guiding principles to link GIScience, Computer Science and Earth Sciences into a converging GI systems development framework. We explain how this bottom-up research framework can yield holistic and integrated perspectives when designing GIS and SDI systems and software. This would allow GIScience academics, GIS and SDI practitioners alike to reliably draw from interdisciplinary knowledge to consistently design and innovate GI systems.