Fundamental Principles of Geographic Information Systems

The primary goals in GIS design to date have been focused on technical efficiency. The fundamental principles for an information system do not derive from pure laws of geometry or from computing theory, because they must reflect the basic goals of society. While social goals may seem nebulous, they can be described adequately for resolving some of the basic technical choices. Certain fundamentals can be determined by digging deeper into the reasons behind an information system. Important social functions lead to mandates that provide the impetus for custodian agencies. Even more fundamentally, geographic information systems should be developed on the primary principle that they will ensure a fairer treatment of all those affected by the use of the information (equity). Certain solutions, though efficient in their use of computing do not support the effective use of institutions or the equitable results of the analysis. WHAT IS A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE? GIS has come of age. Over the past twenty years, those inside the community have marvelled each year at the expanding sophistication and power of our tools. Success and expansion are nice, but dangerous. Those who have built the tools know how fragile they are, and particularly how fragile our fundamental understanding. Some of the current success is achieved by exploiting the easy parts of the problems. The tough issues, temporarily swept under the rug, will reemerge, perhaps to discredit the whole process. This article has a presumptuous title for anything of the length of a proceedings paper. However, as Director of this Symposium, I felt it important to discuss the fundamentals because they may be obscured if the papers concentrate exclusively on specific technical developments. A number of recent symposia on research needs have emphasized the lack of fundamental theory for GIS and related fields (Smith, 1983; Onsrud and others, 1985). Each report calls for more theory, but without specific sug gestions. The field of GIS involves some components, such as knowledge engineering or Geo-Positioning Satellites, that are emerging technologies in the joyful chaos of discovery. The field also involves some of the oldest sciences and professions, such as geometry and land surveying that trace origins back for millennia. It is hard to invent a geometric problem for modern computer displays which was not drawn with a stick on the