The impact of geographic information systems on British local government

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that personal, organisational and institutional factors are likely to have a profound influence on the extent to which the potential of geographic information systems (GIS) will be realised in practice. One of the most important groups of users of GIS is local government. It is generally assumed that the costs of equipment and data preparation combined with the capacity of GIS to integrate data sets from a wide variety of sources makes the development of departmental systems inappropriate. As a result, the implementation of GIS is likely to be accompanied by an extension of corporate activities which could have important implications for existing practices in local government. However, as yet, little systematic analysis has been undertaken which evaluates the underlying assumptions concerning the process of implementing GIS. With these considerations in mind, this paper outlines the conceptual framework and methodology for a project currently underway in Britain, which is exploring the relationship between the organisational context into which GIS are being introduced and the development of corporate practices in local government.