literature dealing with the "informatie maatschappij" that suggests how impor
tant this perspective is. What is really at stake is the optimal and multiple use of
geographic information that is mostly resident in government data banks at all
levels. At the federal level in Canada, a study in which I was involved personally
estimated that 750,000,000 per year is spent on surveys of all kinds and on the
subsequent storage and management of this information. Surely, in an informa
tion economy, it would be a good investment to consider a geo-information infra
structure that promotes easy access to and use of this information for all sorts of
economic and social development decision making, environmental assessment,
public education etcetera. Electronic private sector publishing industries could
grow around the commercial value added use of this information.
To be sure, some hesitant and as yet not very influential (at the political level)
voices are beginning to be heard. The "Nederlandse commissie voor Geodesie"
under leadership of Professor Rummel has set up some working groups to study
some of these issues and particularly the development of a theory on Geographic
Information. Professor Molenaar is taking a lead role in this not just nationally
but also internationally, Professor Burrough has created Nederlands Expertise
Centrum voor Ruimtelijke Informatieverwerking (NexpRI) which is a typical
infrastructural entity.
But, from my rather superficial view in recent years I would suggest that a
process of developing recognition for the geomatics concept as it would apply in
the Netherlands ought to be set in motion. Obviously the key players are
Kadaster, Rijkswaterstaat, Topografische Dienst, Planologische Dienst, the
Geodesy Department of Delft, Geography Department of Utrecht, Molenaar's
group in Wageningen, as well as ITC. Out of this should grow a recognition that
the optimal use of information in the country cannot take place if these
organizations continue to work more or less in isolation. Some consensus needs
to be developed on what would constitute a geomatics infrastructure for the
Netherlands.
This is, in my view, the kind of challenge you need to focus on at the occasion
of Snellius' 50th birthday. I am sure that at first instance, Snellius' contempora
ries thought that he was a bit off-beat when he announced that he could measure
the distance between Bergen op Zoom and Alkmaar indirectly by measuring
linked triangles and a base line. We all know the result of his vision and we
should take courage in that. We are in a similar position in trying to formulate
the concept of geomatics and geomatics infrastructure and that, to me is one of
the major challenges of the new generation of geodesists, geographers and
cartographers. How are you going to manage your increasingly complex society
if the geographic information you need to do so is inaccessible and cannot be
used efficiently and electronically in the widest possible set of applications from
the development of public policy, to environmental monitoring to public
education in the broadest sense?
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