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The Deqing meeting of the Working Group on Legal and Policy Frameworks for Geospatial Information Management was the first expert meeting of the Working Group since its establishment by the Committee of Experts at its seventh session in August 2017. Prior to this face-to-face meeting, the Working Group carried out its tasks and activities online. The meeting brought together ten members of the Working Group who were joined by another four invited participants and two Â鶹APP staff member from the Secretariat. The Deqing meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources of China and the Zhejiang Provincial Government at the Novotel Deqing Moganshan Hotel on the margins of the Â鶹APP World Geospatial Information Congress held from 19 - 21 November 2018.

The Â鶹APP Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) at its seventh session in August 2017 established the Working Group on Legal and Policy Frameworks for Geospatial Information Management (Working Group). The objectives of the Working Group are to:

• Play a leading role in raising awareness and highlighting the importance of sound policy and legal framework for geospatial information management at the highest levels in order to promote development, innovation, production consumption, distribution of geospatial information in the midst of rapidly changing societal norms towards access to Big Data and other types of information;
• Explore appropriate policy and legal frameworks for geospatial information management proactively, taking into consideration that good policy and legal frameworks will evolve over time, and respond to societal progress and technological developments; and
• Support the Committee of Experts in the development of norms, principles and guides, including any regional capacity development initiatives, to significantly increase the availability and accessibility of geospatial information so as to create high-quality, timely and reliable products and services from geospatial information to address the Sustainable Development goals and other critical local, national, regional and international issues.

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The Working Group fostered a participatory and welcoming working environment for the two days that promoted camaraderie and allowed the Working Group to work together as a team. Participants readily shared and exchanged knowledge and experiences to identify and deal with issues and challenges related to legal and policy frameworks for national geospatial information management, including but not restricted to: the growing dependency on geospatial information in daily activities and transactions; the emergence of innovative approaches and technologies in the collection, production and delivery of geospatial information; the need for geospatial information to be "machine-readable"; and the need for better awareness of legal and policy challenges more broadly within Member States. One area of focus of the Working Group - the issue of authoritative data was also discussed. The meeting discussed the continuum of mechanisms that support authority, such as approaches or mechanisms for compliance, for compulsion, and for cooperation. It was also noted that some jurisdictions shifted the recognition of authority from policy measures to legislative mandates.

At the end of two productive days, the Working Group agreed that its current work plan will need to be updated and revised to reflect an expanded work streams that included supporting the operationalization of the Â鶹APP Integrated Geospatial Information Framework.