Participation in the network is open to any spatial data producer that is willing to place their geospatial information at the public's disposal and for the development of the region.
[1][2] GeoSUR has received five international awards: In Latin America and the Caribbean, the construction of some of the key technical components of a regional spatial data infrastructure has taken over 15 years of efforts by multiple players.
Following are the key milestones of this process: The Geographic Information Network of Latin America and the Caribbean was launched in 2007, during PAIGH's annual meeting in Brasilia, it is supported by the GeoSUR Program, and aimed at the development of national and regional geoservices open to the public.
During the first years of the Network's operation, diverse regional geoservices were developed and staged on the web, and the participation of a large number of national institutions was consolidated.
In 2012, in the framework of the 44th Meeting of PAIGH's Executive Board, which took place in Buenos Aires, a document was subscribed with the purpose of strengthening, harmonizing, and accelerating the development of the spatial data infrastructures of the Americas in a coordinated and effective manner.
These institutions provide geographic information which is useful for the planners of the region, using modern technologies to manage geo-information, spatial data infrastructures, and several geospatial components.
The portal offers free access to an important collection of regional geospatial information, it contains detailed descriptions of thousands of spatial datasets, and connects the user to a great variety of maps and geographic services operated and maintained by participating institutions from 24 countries.
To date, the viewer has more than 700 regional maps, among which the following stand out: GeoSUR developed a free access Topographic Processing Service (TPS) which is available on the web and allows for the generation of data derived from digital elevation models (DEMs) of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The participating institutions have the liberty to choose the hardware and software platforms to share data with the Network, under the condition that they use regionally recognized standards.
GeoSUR offers capacity-building, technical assistance, and support to the institutions that are planning - or in the process of developing - their geoservices, and also helps stage some of them to the Cloud.
The GeoSUR 2013 Award was granted to the Project “Terra-i, a system that monitors natural vegetation change in Latin America and the Caribbean in real time, presented by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).