On the development of open geographical data infrastructures in Latin America: progress and challenges
🤖 AI Summary
Latin America’s Open Geospatial Data Infrastructure (OGDI) remains in its nascent stage, severely constrained by technological divides, institutional fragmentation, and sociocultural–economic disparities that exacerbate digital inequities—undermining governmental transparency, civic participation, and geospatial data–driven governance. This study presents the first systematic assessment of OGDI development across Latin America, employing a multidimensional analytical framework integrating policy document analysis, platform functionality benchmarking, institutional capacity diagnosis, and cross-national case comparison. It identifies four persistent bottlenecks: limited data availability, restrictive or ambiguous reuse licensing, poor interoperability, and low governmental readiness. The study proposes institutional innovations—including intersectoral coordination mechanisms and a regional research agenda—and underscores the critical role of non-state actors in articulating user needs and co-producing geospatial knowledge. Findings offer theoretically grounded, context-sensitive insights for OGDI implementation in the Global South.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Open data initiatives and infrastructures play an essential role in favoring better data access, participation, and transparency in government operations and decision-making. Open Geographical Data Infrastructures (OGDIs) allow citizens to access and scrutinize government and public data, thereby enhancing accountability and evidence-based decision-making. This encourages citizen engagement and participation in public affairs and offers researchers, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and business sectors novel opportunities to analyze and disseminate large amounts of geographical data and to address social, urban, and environmental challenges. In Latin America, while recent open government agendas have shown an inclination towards transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration, only a limited number of OGDIs allow unrestricted use and re-use of their data. Given the region's cultural, social, and economic disparities, there is a contrasting digital divide that significantly impacts how OGDIs are being developed. Therefore, this paper analyses recent progress in developing OGDIs in Latin America, technological gaps, and open geographical data initiatives. The main results denote an early development of OGDIs in the region. Nevertheless, this opens the door for the timely involvement of citizens and non-government sectors to share needs, experiences, knowledge, and expertise, as well as to address a transboundary research agenda. Challenges are discussed from multiple perspectives: data, methodological, governmental and readiness, and potential impact. This analysis is aimed at researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the specific challenges and progress of OGDIs in Latin America, while also contributing to the global conversation on best practices and lessons learned in implementing OGDIs across different contexts.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Open Geographic Data Systems
Latin America
Government Transparency
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Open Geographic Data Initiatives
Latin America
Transparency and Participation
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