A framework for the establishment and utilization of national geographic information systems

Abstract

This document attempts two things: (a) to provide those who are responsible of the management of the land and the protection of the environment (usually non-specialists on computer spatial data manipulation) with a simplified vista on the capabilities and potentials of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and to familiarize them with the means the computer uses to represent and manipulate the real world, and (b) to provide a set of general conditions and rules, exclusive of a particular sector or user's view, on how to proceed for the establishment of a national GIS composed by a network of databases and individual institutional GIS.