Smits, PaulPillmann, W.Schade, S.Smits, P.2019-09-162019-09-162011https://dl.gi.de/handle/20.500.12116/26055Many different information infrastructures and systems co-exist that host precious information resources that could help answering important questions about our environment, and could contribute to making better decisions. These include governmental initiatives as well as those from the private sector. Getting access to the resources provided by these infrastructures systems is important, but not trivial, even if all of them use location as a fundamental organizing principle. They have their own political, economic, social, technical, and legal contexts, boundaries, and constraints. Moreover, none these infrastructures is accepting to be coordinated by an overarching initiative. The different approaches to architectures and the standards need therefore to be respected. Examples of supra-national and cross-thematic initiatives are INSPIRE, GEOSS, GMES, and, more recently Eye on Earth.Text/Conference Paper