Abstract
INSPIRE is the EU’s authoritative Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in which each Member State provides access to their
spatial data across a wide spectrum of data themes to support policy making. In contrast, Volunteered Geographic
Information (VGI) is one type of user-generated geographic information where volunteers use the web and mobile
devices to create, assemble and disseminate spatial information. There are similarities and differences between SDIs and
VGI initiatives, as well as advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the integration of these two data sources will enhance
what is offered to end users to facilitate decision makers and the wider community regarding solving complex spatial
problems, managing emergency situations and getting useful information for peoples’ daily activities. Although some
efforts towards this direction have been arisen, several key issues need to be considered and resolved. Further to this
integration, the vision is the development of a global integrated GIS platform, which extends the capabilities of a typical
data-hub by embedding on-line spatial and non-spatial applications, to deliver both static and dynamic outputs to support
planning and decision making. In this context, this paper discusses the challenges of integrating INSPIRE with VGI and
outlines a generic framework towards creating a global integrated web-based GIS platform. The tremendous high speed
evolution of the Web and Geospatial technologies suggest that this “super” global Geo-system is not far away.
