SEDRIS is fundamentally about: (a) the representation of environmental data, and (b) interchange of environmental data sets. SEDRIS does not try to judge, side with, separate, or distinguish how various domains use environmental data. Instead it provides a unifying mechanism for all of them to describe (and subsequently share) such data, without detracting from one or the other.

The representational aspect of SEDRIS is much like a language or a method used to unambiguously describe the environment, independent of whether the environment is geo-specific, geo-typical, or whether it is completely fictitious. The interchange aspect of SEDRIS is a mechanism for sharing the described environmental data. Put together, SEDRIS is simply an infrastructure technology. It provides the enabling foundation for Information Technology applications to express, understand, share, and reuse environmental data.

The SEDRIS web site, www.sedris.org, provides information and documentation describing SEDRIS, its data representation model, its application programmer's interface, and others. SEDRIS software and documentation may be retrieved for on-line viewing or downloaded for local use from the web site.