Linked to the constantly changing computer infrastructures and the analysis of spatial datasets, there currently exist networks which are capable of processing all types of information over many administrative domains and regulations.
The background of such networks (also known as Grids or e-Infrastructures) is to combine complex datasets, which may come from all parts of the world, to process them using distributed computing and to allow an interdisciplinary interpretation of the results by scientists, engineers and administrations.
The potential application areas for such spatial data networks ranges from e.g. agriculture, energy supply and medical care to themes such as catastrophe management.

After a few examples for established national and international networks for the analysis of spatial information, this article presents work on the worldwide development and integration of geodata by easing the combination of the initiatives of the Open Grid Forum (OGF) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). With this, the need for a standardisation of web-services, transfer protocols and description languages will be shown. Finally, based on the example of Hurricane Katrina (2005) which caused immense damage, it will be shown which steps will be necessary in the future in order to better predict such catastrophic weather events.

Schlüsselwörter: Grid Computing, e-infrastructures, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Open Grid Forum (OGF), OGC Web Service Standards