Governing Open Spatial Data Infrastructures: The Case of the United Kingdom

In order to facilitate and coordinate the sharing of spatial data, governments worldwide have been developing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) for many years. Recently, technological, institutional and societal developments have caused these SDIs to shift towards more open infrastructures in which non- governmental actors are embraced as key stakeholders of the infrastructure. This move towards more open SDIs created additional challenges related to the governance of the infrastructure and required the implementation of new and additional governance approaches and instruments. This chapter analyses the governance of the UK open spatial data infrastructure, by examining the different governance instruments used in the past 10 years for governing the relationships and dependencies with non-government actors. The analysis demonstrates how governance of the open spatial data infrastructure in the UK is achieved by combining various traditional governance instruments such as strategic management, joint decision- making, allocation of tasks and competencies, market-based governance and interorganizational culture and knowledge sharing.