ABSTRACT
It has only been within the past five to ten years that applications of the state-of-the-art technologies of computer mapping and resource information systems have been realized on an operating basis. The capabilities of these systems, in conjunction with increasing pressures and new mandates to address land use and natural resources planning, have resulted in the creation of a growing number of such systems. State and regional governments have largely brought computer capabilities in this regard from the domain of research and development into the dynamic world of practical analysis. In April, 1974, the Maryland Department of State Planning acquired the capability for the State to perform such analysis by the establishment of the Maryland Automated Geographic Information (MAGI) System. By 1975, a survey by the U.S. Department of the Interior rated the MAGI System as having the most comprehensive capability for statewide manipulation of spatial data currently in existence.
