>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
>