ABSTRACT
Natural resources management, land use planning, and facility planning and implementation are activities that depend on the availability of an integrated set of multisectoral data related by the common reference of geographical location. The creation of a national geographic information system (GIS) that would make geographic information accessible at central, regional, and local levels therefore has a high priority. The Sistema Nacional de Informacao Geografica project will provide many research opportunities and contribute to significant advances in the state of the art of GISs. Major digitizing, image processing, and GIS facilities are planned for the central node, whereas only a GIS will be implemented at the experimental node. Many implementation issues concerning hardware, software, and institutional arrangements are being studied. The system is being planned in a modular and incremental fashion with a decentralized, distributed, and least-cost philosophy.
