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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.