Chapter 1 National Mapping As A Business-Like Enterprise

Abstract

Government is almost everywhere the primary sponsor of the national geodetic framework and the source of'framework' data provided by the topography (used in the widest sense). In the past this has been made available in the form of maps, usually provided by National Mapping Organisations (NMOs). Government is also typically the source of geological, soils, meteorological, pollution, demographic, land ownership, taxation, employment and unemployment and many other national data sets, including statistical time series. Since most datasets of this kind include geographical keys (such as administrative areas, sampling points, etc.) locating units in relation to the surface of the earth, they can be described as 'geographic' or ‘spatial’. Virtually all of this data was originally collected for the purposes of the nation state or subsets of it. In Britain this includes considerable local detail — such as the 1:1250 and 1:2500 scale map data collected by Ordnance Survey (OS). This chapter is founded on three contemporary realities. The first is that technological change has greatly affected activities of many organisations but technology itself is no longer a primary differentiator between how these different bodies achieve their ends; thus it need no longer be the primary focus of senior management attention. The second reality is that topographic data is the core data set required to permit the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and desk-top mapping. Such systems are now in use by tens of thousands of individuals and organisations and there is a general expectation that user numbers will continue growing at over 20% compound annually for the foreseeable future. As a result of the ubiquity of low priced technology, the information rather than the technology is a key concern and central to the use of all GI is the topographic framework. The third reality is that many governments are involved in major reconstructions of the functions of the public service, invariably aimed at making this sector less costly and more efficient; some governments are also actively seeking to reduce the size of their public service. In the British context, the national mapping organisation — Ordnance Survey — has increasingly been required to act in a business-like manner and fund its activities from the end-user, rather than from the taxpayer. The chapter assumes each of these realities and examines the proposition that government spatial data (especially that of topography) can be viewed and marketed as a commodity by National Mapping Organisations. The benefits and disbenefits of this approach and others are considered. Based on the results achieved by OS, it is shown that cost recovery policies can be made to work effectively under certain conditions and that users can benefit from the access to much more up-to-date and high quality data tailored to meet their needs. But this change has many cultural ramifications, notably for internal structures, management skills, staff skills and rewards, attitudes to customers, and levels of public awareness of the mapping organisation.