>National Mapping Agencies have had the mission to collect the reference

>Geographic Information needed for the basic needs of their governments and

>citizens. The base maps of all European countries used to be quite

>comparable1:25,000 / 1:50,000 paper maps for many years, with a more recent

>shift to 1:10,000.

>The digital mapping and GIS revolution has dramatically change that

>landscape, and today NMAS are still looking for their place in the new

>world, and are working at redefining their national mission. Scale as well

>as content now vary widely from country to country, but there are signs

that

>basic data collection may rapidely become again uniform troughout Europe,

>due to the growing pressure coming from the applications and users

>community.

>Base maps will be replaced in the coming decade by data collection at the

>one meter resolution, and all will benefit from an early convergence to

>common standards.

>

>Claude Luzet

>Directeur Executif de MEGRIN

>http://www.megrin.org

>