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. Other
countries such as Australia, Canada and the US.
Whatever solution is adopted, it is essential
that awareness be created at the political
level that an information economy depends on
the efficient functioning of a national in-
formation infrastructure, promoting ease of
access to and use of geo-information. Different
mechanisms of public and administrative policy
can be employed, appropriate to different
countries, to support the leadership and
coordination needed to develop and implement
this in the interest of economic and social
development.
general points brought up in the
discussion on the role of NMA’s within a
national information infrastructure were:
- NMA’s must redefine their missions and secure
adequate funding for their more demanding
tasks, especially relating to the maintenance
of the national topo data base.
Important cost considerations in this regard
are to keep the data content as simple as
possible and to identify the user’s require-
ments for currency of the data items, to link
these with the data decay rates and thereby
establish revision priorities for the various
data items.
- NMA’s must organise workshops to generate
awareness of the technological changes taking
place and of their implications.
- Agencies just starting to implement digital
technology should examine the possibility of
attaching staff to organisations well esta-
blished in this field, in order to gain
experience.
- Given the above mentioned NMA responsibility
for the topo data base within a NSIS, there
was also agreement that NMA’s should intro-
duce digital technology as soon as possible,
in order gain experience and keep abreast
with new developments.
- As NMA’s enter into the digital field they
should identify at least one major user or
user group that is ready to apply digital
information and will thus become a strong
supporter for a sustained and relevant
digital production programme.
CHALLENGES RELATING TO ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES
The main organisational challenge, that of
developing the national information management
model and its infrastructure, has been sum-
marised in paragraph 8 and so will not be
repeated here. Other organisational challenges
include:
- NMA’s should develop clear plans for the
institutional changes necessary to implement
digital technology; these plans should
address new function descriptions and staff
development at all levels, including middle
and senior management, to prepare the or-
ganisation for the implementation of the new
technology. Investment plans should also be
developed.
- Linked to these plans should be strong
indications to equipment suppliers, speci-
fying equipment characteristics that will
vithstand adverse environmental conditions,
and are low cost/low maintenance.
- Data overlaps and the duplication of effort
in data collection, storage and maintenance
must also be avoided when operating within a
341
system of linked data bases. This can be
achieved by carefully matching the design of
the general and comprehensive National Data
Base with what is known to exist or could be
included in the small, more specialised data
bases. An essential element in this matching
process is the efficiency consideration of
keeping the National Data Base as simple as
possible in terms of the number of data
items and the detaildness of data classi-
fication, this for its multi-purpose general
use.
If now specialist users are interested in
more detail in data classification, the
responsibility for data collection, storage
and maintenance of the more specialised
attribute information would be transferred
to the single or main user requiring this.
CHALLENGES RELATED TO TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
AND
11.
12.
13.
THE INTRODUCTION OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN A NMA
Consideration has to be taken of the rapid
technological developments occurring in the
fields of expert systems, data bases, navi-
gation systems, point positioning systems,
satellite technology and image processing.
These new integrated tools and techniques are
either replacing or complementing established
technologies in map production, but either way
they are revolutionising mapping processes
through their impact on the traditional disci-
plines involved and on how the information
needs of the user community can best be
served. Coupled to this is the fact that the
user community is becoming accustomed to rapid
response digital technology in day to day
life: television, telecommunication, banking,
travel and publishing. As a consequence, users
will expect the same efficiency and response
in the handling of geo-information, forcing
national mapping agencies to deal vith less
patient, more knowledgeable and more critical
clientele.
As the introduction of computer technology is
a must and not an option in the information
production environment, it. .is . strongly
recommended that national mapping agencies
establish simple but improvable digital topo
data bases now.
This recommendation is made in spite of the
problems known, such as:
- technological developments are so fast that
it is difficult to decide what systems
should be adopted,
- new systems should only be employed when you
have trained staff to operate and maintain
the systems,
- new systems should only be introduced when
the operating environment (air conditioning,
dust control, power supply) is in order.
The type of sophistication of technology
needed | in geo-information production is
dependent on the planning level at which the
information is required. If this is at the
national level, the information requirements
are coarse and simple systems can be used in
data collection and handling. If, however, the
users are utility companies who are prepared
to pay for the digital data, then more
sophistication is needed in the technology
used to create a large scale digital data
base.