Recent Development and Future Trends in Geo-Information Systems

Geographic information systems which store, manipulate and display spatially-referenced datasets have been in existence for many years. These systems have traditionally been used to handle digital map data in vector form, but more recently they have been used to handle raster-based imagery of the Earth's surface. There is now a need to establish integrated geo-information systems (IGIS) based on major environmental databases with intelligent front-ends, and knowledge-based systems for data management, selection, integration and display. This paper reviews the developments in these areas and assesses the potential impact of advanced information technology in the IGIS field.