ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and evaluates the findings of the two comprehensive telephone surveys of British local authorities that were carried out in spring 1991 and summer 1993. The findings demonstrate the high level of awareness of GIS in local government circles in Great Britain even among authorities that had no plans to invest in such systems. The picture of geographic information system (GIS) adoption in summer 1993 that emerges from these survey findings is very clear. Overall levels of adoption were highest in the shire counties and the Scottish regions where nearly all authorities had GIS facilities, and lowest in the shire districts and Scottish districts where less than 20 per cent of authorities had GIS. The growing fragmentation of GIS in British local government which is evident in the number of authorities that have acquired more than one system, especially at the shire county and Scottish region level, is also apparent in the configuration of systems.
