ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the diffusion of Geographic information systems (GIS) in Italian local government based on two comprehensive surveys of Regions and Provinces carried out in 1993-94 by the Environment Department of ENEA, the Italian agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment, in partnership with the Universities of Sheffield and Bologna. In the absence of a comprehensive survey among the over 8000 municipalities in Italy, information on GIS diffusion at this level is based on a number of studies carried out among metropolitan areas. To give context to the research findings, the chapter provides an overview of information technology in local government, availability of digital topographic data and structure of Italian local government. In Southern Italy the diffusion of GIS is as yet limited in line with the smaller diffusion of information technology as a whole: only two out of seven regions have GIS and only one has plans to acquire it in the short term.
