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expansion are:
a. The cost of hardware and software for GIS
have largely reduced.
b. The development of database, which is the
most expensive part of the installation of GIS,
has been performed cooperatively by various
related divisions. This trend reduces a financial
burden in one division.
c. People of local governments have got know-
how of the use of GIS and understood the
effective use of GIS. This enables the
development of practical GIS to meet their
needs.
The reason b. is important because, in large local
governments, GIS was used mainly by
individual divisions, not for common use by
several divisions. There were other trends
which expand the use of GIS. They are the
publications of manuals or guidelines for the use
of GIS, the establishment of consultant company
for GIS, and the education through seminars of
GIS.
3.2 Development of digital map data
and spread of car navigation system
The basic requirement for the use of GIS is the
preparation of geographic data. Geographical
Survey Institute of Japan published DEM with
the grid of SO m and digital topographic map
data with a scale of 1:10,000 for large cities.
7,000 sets of this digital map data were sold for
the first one year. This indicates strong needs
for digital map data.
Annual updating of the national digital map data
for car navigation has been going on by the
Japan Digital Road Data Association, which is a
semi-governmental organization. The data with
various value added information to the national
digital map data became available and were
circulated. As a result, car navigation system
has spread widely, and several hundred
thousand sets are used in Japan. As an
additional information, the cost of a car
navigation system with data is about two
thousand US dollars.
43
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996
3.3 Expansion of social interest in GIS
by the effect of the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake
One of the problems in the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake was information management, that is
the situation of the disaster could not grasped
timely. GIS is recognized as an important tool
which manages various information in a disaster
and display its situation plainly. The term "GIS"
was first on a large nationwide newspaper when
the database of the damage by the earthquake
was developed and published by university
researchers. In the damaged city, Kobe, GIS
was used effectively for the management and
planning for the activity to remove collapsed
houses. Due to these experiences, many
organizations from local governments to national
government has started to investigate the GIS
use for the management of disaster information.
The next item, Japanese NSDI, is one of the
results of this tendency.
3.4 Japanese National Spatial Data
Infrastructure (NSDI)
The understanding of the effectiveness of GIS
for various fields including disaster makes the
recognition that the development of the basic
geographic data is important. ^ Therefore a
committee on GIS has started mainly by
government with the intention of the
standardization of basic geographic data and its
development and circulation. This movement is
a similar one to the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure(NSDI) in the National Information
Infrastructure(NII) in the USA. Therefore it can
be said that the Japanese NSDI has started.
4. ORGANIZATIONS
4.1 Academic Societies
The Japan Society of Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing (JSPRS) was founded in 1962.
Its academic field covers photogrammetry,
remote sensing, geographic information
