Enlisting SDI for urban planning in India: local practices in the case of slum declaration

Abstract

Initiatives to develop spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) have been taken up since the early 1990s in many countries around the world, including India. However, the spirit of global SDI convergence that dominated the 2009 GSDI conference is more of an aim for the future than an empirically grounded phenomenon. Whether or how “the walls of SDI are coming down” (Van Loenen, Besemer, and Zevenbergen 2009, pp. 1-2) remains to be seen. It is also too soon to conclude that these initiatives automatically and unequivocally lead to wider societal benefits.