Spatial data infrastructures (SDI) play an increasing role in the governance of society. Many societal issues are supported by spatial data infrastructures. Considering the importance of SDI’s it is surprising that the governance of SDI’s itself did not receive a lot of scientific and practical attention. This is partly due to the complex, multi-stakeholders, multi-level, technical and open character of SDI’s. However, with the increasing role of SDIs, more insight in appropriate governance models is essential.

The governance of SDIs is at this moment in The Netherlands, Belgium and other countries, world-wide quite often a matter of trial and error. There is hardly any evidence-based research on the effect of potential governance interventions (e.g. open data policy, change in funding, coordination structure, participation of the private sector) on the effectiveness and efficiency of SDIs. The governance issue has become more urgent over the years. Former weaker SDI-components, such as standards, technology and data have significantly improved over the years (Bregt & Crompvoets, 2000; Bregt, 2006). It might well be that SDI-governance is the “weakest link” of current SDIs.

The overall long-term objective of  a new research  project is to develop effective governance models for spatial data infrastructures. As a first step the following concept research results based on literature review and qualitative research will be presented:

• A definition of governance within the context of SDI’s;
• A view on the current SDI governance practices in the Netherlands and Belgium;
• An outlook towards promising SDI governance models,

Due to the complex nature of SDI's, it is the question what effective governance of SDI's exactly is. How can we define this and how do SDI practitioners think about effective governance?  Can it be achieved? This presentation will discuss the answers for these questions and will give an outlook on research and practical challenges of SDI governance.