‘Universal’ GIS versus national land information traditions: Internationalization of software or endogenous developments?

Abstract

There are large and surprising gaps between the diffusion of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in European countries. Whereas in some countries, notably in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, GIS technology has already become standard practice in cartography, local land management, and planning, other countries have been extremely slow in adopting the new technology. This paper discusses why this is so. The hypothesis is that national land information traditions determine the institutional environment and procedures into which the new technology needs to be integrated, and that this restricts the transfer of ‘universal’ GIS software developed in different national settings. The paper ends by drawing some conclusions out of this for a European GIS research agenda.