ABSTRACT
Organizations that have a planning, research, and/or regulatory responsibility at the county, state, or federal level are increasingly turning towards geographic information system (GIS) technology as an approach to data integration, synthesis, and modelling. The lack of spatially trained and sophisticated GIS specialists, however, is adversely impacting upon the level and effectiveness of GIS use by decision-makers. Too many users are permitting their GIS software to drive their spatial analyses without sufficiently appreciating and incorporating spatial considerations that represent a blending of spatial and natural sciences combined to mold and shape the analyses and interpret the results. In general, users are not sufficiently concerned with sources of error within their base products nor the appropriateness of generated and acquired data integrated within the GIS. GIS users, representing a wide spectrum of spatial sophistication, need to be cautious and suspicious of products utilized within a GIS and the specifications followed in their creation, since data quality can be affected by conspicuous and subtle, but nonetheless important, error considerations.
