GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION-SYSTEMS, SPATIAL-ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC-POLICY - THE BRITISH-EXPERIENCE

Geographic information systems (GIS) have received considerable academ ic and practitioner attention in the last ten years, It is our view th at these tools have been considerably oversold to public sector organi sations-particularly local government-many of whom have failed to achi eve the benefits they expected, In our paper, we attempt to develop a broad definition of GIS and discuss the relationship between GIS and p olicy analysis, spatial decision support systems, spatial analysis and spatial modelling, We also seek to explore how GIS fits into the mana gement information systems and information architectures of public sec tor organisations and examine some of the human and organisational ten sions which GIS adoption and use have brought about, Where possible, w e have used examples of how GIS has been used to inform public develop ment in several areas though these have generally been in academic set tings and not in public sector organisations.