Although there is a vast literature available on interoperability models, and their respective interoperability levels, limited research has been carried out on the development of interoperability models for the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures. This article demonstrates the important role of metadata elements in the formalisation of interoperability models for the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures. It describes an approach for designing an integrated interoperability model based on the definition of a common template that integrates seven interoperability levels. They are: technical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, dynamic, conceptual and organisational levels. A non-hierarchical structure is proposed to ensure the relationship among these interoperability levels.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are data-centric applications that rely on the input and constant maintenance of large quantities of basic and thematic spatial data in order to be useful tools for decision- making. This chapter presents the institutional collaboration framework and the major technology components to facilitate discovery and sharing of spatial data: Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). We review the essential software components –metadata editors and associated catalogue services, spatial data content repositories, client applications, and middleware or intermediate geospatial services– that define SDIs as heterogeneous distributed information systems. Finally we highlight future research needs in the areas of semantic interoperability of SDI services and in improved institutional collaboration.

Abstract. This work describes the structure and characteristics of the geographic information system (GIS) developed for the urban seismic risk study of the city of Almería (southern Spain), identifying the stages in which the use of this tool proved to be very beneficial for adopting informed decisions throughout the execution of the work.After the completion of the regional emergency plans for seismic risk in Spain and its subsequent approval by the National Civil Defence Commission, the municipalities that need to develop specific local seismic risk plans have been identified. Hence, the next action is to develop urban seismic risk analyses at a proper scale (Urban Seismic Risk Evaluation -Risk-UR).For this evaluation, different factors influencing seismic risk such as seismic hazard, geotechnical soil characteristics, vulnerability of structures of the region, reparation costs of damaged buildings and exposed population are combined. All these variables are gathered and analysed within a GIS and subsequently used for seismic risk estimation. The GIS constitutes a highly useful working tool because it facilitates data interoperability, making the great volume of information required and the numerous processes that take part in the calculations easier to handle, speeding up the analysis and the interpretation and presentation of the results of the different working phases.The result of this study is based on a great set of variables that provide a comprehensive view of the urban seismic risk, such as the damage distribution of buildings and dwellings of different typologies, the mean damage and the number of uninhabitable buildings for the expected seismic motion, the number of dead and injured at different times of the day, the cost of reconstruction and repair of buildings, among others. These results are intended for interpretation and decision making in emergency management by unspecialised users (Civil Defence technicians and managers).

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The great availability of geographic information, due to Spatial Data Infrastructure development, the existence of data collected by volunteers, etc., makes the problems of geometric interoperability of data very conspicuous. Traditionally, conflation is being carefully carried out and evaluated by experts. Yet there are practices that involve occasional users who will look up the information in mobile devices without the intention of keeping a copy. Evaluation will be carried out ?with different criteria, involving the Human Visual System and perhaps even the characteristics of the physical devices ?as well. In this paper, we coin the term 'Ephemeral Conflation' to characterize that context and the procedures to evaluate it.