The development of SDI in Indonesia has been started since more than 20 years ago. It was initially named as National GIS initiative, although what it meant was SDI. Only recently SDI has just got more attention both from central government and local governments.  The enactment of Law on Geospastial Information (4/2011) was a milestone that significantly speed up the geospatial information development. The law strengthened the previous legal umbrella of the Presidential decree 85/2007 on the National Spatial Data Network. After the enactment of the law, the presidential decree was revised in the Presidential Decree of 27/2014 on National Geospatial Information Network. In it, the number of government agencies who were mandated to develop SDI was expanded from 14 central government agencies/ministeries to whole of central government agencies/ministeries and all level of local governments. Before the issuance of the Presidential Decree 27/2014, development of local government SDI was voluntarily. In effect, only small number of local governments built local SDI and less than 10% of local government able to join national geoportal.

Assessment of SDI readiness in Indonesian local government was based on five pillars stated in the Law of Geospatial Information as well as in the Presidential Decree 27/2014. They consist of the following elements: policy, institutional arrangement, human resources, technology, and standards. For the purpose of this research, these five pillars were regrouped into four aspects: policy and regulation, institutional arrangement, human resources, technology and standards, and added with geospatial data aspect. A questionnaire was then developed and  distributed to the Local Development Planning Agency (LDPA) in all local governments. The questionnaires were sent to 510 districts and cities which resulted in 155 responses coming from 33 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia. Of the 155 responses, they come from 120 districts and 35 cities. The SDI readiness index was developed by putting appropriate scores to the responses in each question.

From the calculation of SDI readiness index, the average score was 32.39, with the highest was 84.11 and the lowest was 3.74. The average score for districts and cities was 36.66 and 31.14, respectively. Cities’ SDI readiness index was higher in all aspects compared to that of districts’. Only 17% of the cities has readiness index above 50, while for the districts only 9%. Among the five aspects investigated, the availability and management of geospatial data obtained the highest score  followed by technology, human resources, policy, and institutional arrangement, with the following score of 58.49, 28.03, 26.54, 23.84, and 23.00, respectively. To accelerate and sustain the development of local SDI, attention need to be put on the two lowest aspects as they form the foundation of local SDI. This first comprehensive national survey was able to portray SDI readiness in Indonesian local governments. Although there was significant development in the last few years, the SDI development in Indonesian local government still faces difficult challenges ahead.