Government

Local and regional government is an important provider of services, ranging from transport and planning to housing, social services and refuse collection. GIS is almost invariably central to their provision.

The fiscal crisis has meant that many local authorities now view GIS as an integral part of their efficiency programme. They recognise that GIS and web mapping have an important role to play in cost reduction by enabling self-service through local government websites. Many agencies are also benefitting from the economies of scale that come from taking a corporate rather than departmental view of their investment in GIS. They are standardising on common platforms, deploying web mapping, integrating geographic information, and eliminating proprietary technologies in favour of those that are open. In short they are sharing spatial data between people and between systems.

Local authorities in the UK, Japan, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Australia and elsewhere have recognised the strengths of Cadcorp Spatial Information System technology in sharing geographic information.