Worldwide impact assessment of geoportals

This paper presents the main results of a worldwide impact assessment of geoportals undertaken during November 2003 – April 2004. At this moment, numerous geoportals have been established around the world. Until now, no extended impact assessment study has been performed to justify all the investments to establish and maintain these geoportals. For this reason, an impact assessment has been performed using several economic, social and environmental indicators. The assessment was mainly based on a questionnaire that was sent to (428) coordinators of (almost) all existing geoportals of the world. The main result is that geoportals have a positive impact on society! These impacts are mainly economic in nature (improved consumption of spatial data/services, and reduced data duplication). The social impact is also positive, although not as positive as the economic one (improved awareness of spatial data sharing). Finally, it seems that geoportals have no impact on the environment.