ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests a number of scenarios of possible future Geographic information systems (GIS) diffusion which capture the range of perceptions of the impact of GIS on society found in different countries of Europe today. The already account for 8% of the GIS market and it is forecast that their share will rise to at least 15% over the next 5 years. As goods production now largely takes place in the developing countries and in eastern Europe, more than 70% of all economically active persons in western Europe primarily handle information during their daily work. In particular the need to redirect urban development towards sustainability gave an unexpected boost to local government GIS as it became apparent that environmental analysis in fields such as air pollution, noise propagation, vegetation, wildlife or micro climate required a more disaggregate spatial scale than conventional aggregate methods.
