Date modified: 2025-02-25
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Responding to User Needs
Making the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) community requirements count
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User Needs Assessment (UNA)
User requirements and capacity have changed since the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) began in the 1990s. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) commissioned reports to identify these needs. NRCan discovered that spatial data users require diverse spatial data from different sources. Indigenous organizations are eager to increase their access to geospatial data layers and tools for land use and management purposes.
In response to these findings, thematically grouped ‘Starter Kits’ – two national kits, 1 territorial kit, and 1 provincial kit were created to demonstrate how users can quickly gain access to analysis ready data.
Preview Starter Kits
Explore a selection of data layers from the Climate Change and Water Resources Starter Kits. These previews offer a glimpse into the valuable geospatial resources each kit provides, helping users quickly assess how these datasets can support their analysis and decision-making needs.
Climate Change Starter Kit Preview
This preview map displays wildfire hotspots in Canada overlaid with absolute mean temperature and total precipitation intensity.
Water Resources Starter Kit Preview
This preview map displays water temperature along with the tide and water level stations across Canada.
Key Findings from the UNA
From the UNA report, CGDI identified key findings from the community, including benefits and needs, more details can be found below.
Identified Benefits of the CGDI Community
- Access to geospatial information
- Keeps pace with digital technology development
- Ensures systems can communicate and are interoperable
- Builds capacity and fosters collaboration
Identified Needs of the CGDI Community
User needs analyses were done to explore the current needs and expectations of the CGDI. The main findings were:
- Diverse Data Needs: Users require a broad range of thematic spatial data.
- Technology Shift: Users are transitioning to web services and cloud computing for data access.
- Open Data Priority: Clear access, licensing, intellectual property, and cost information are crucial.
- Indigenous Engagement: Indigenous organizations are eager to participate but face challenges like internet bandwidth limitations.
- Capacity Building: Users need support and training for effective data use and collaboration.
CGDI starter kits, factsheet, primer, and a cookbook were generated to address some of these key findings.
Access Starter Kits
These starter kits were created in response to identified user needs and to demonstrate how users can quickly gain access to analysis ready data. Each kit offers a compact, comprehensive, and user-friendly gateway to thematically/geographically grouped sets of information. Four starter kits are demonstrated below: 2 national, 1 provincial, and 1 territorial.
Climate Change Starter Kit
This kit includes national geospatial data relevant to climate change, such as climate models, wildfire, sea and ice data.
Water Resources Starter Kit
This kit includes national geospatial data relevant to water resource analysis, such as hydro network, precipitation, and shoreline data.
British Columbia Starter Kit
This kit features geospatial data relevant to British Columbia such as aquatic information, wildlife, infrastructure, and oil and gas data.
Northwest Territories Starter Kit
This kit features geospatial data relevant to the Northwest Territories such as forestry, resource management, and infrastructure data.
Key Resources
To Learn more about the User Needs Assessment and Starter Kits, view the links below:
CGDI Starter Kits
Download a starter kit to access curated spatial data for Canada.
CGDI Factsheet
View a summary and the benefits of the CGDI.
CGDI Primer
See detailed examples of the CGDI components.
CGDI Cookbook
Get started with step-by-step CGDI recipes.
CGDI UNA Report
Learn more about the needs of Canadian stakeholders and Indigenous organizations.
Arctic UNA Report
Discover more about the needs of the international Arctic community.
