Geographic information portals––a UK perspective

The sources and levels of UK central government support for e-government, and the ways in which these have been used, alongside existing sources of spatial framework data, to develop geoportals are described.

Abstract

This paper presents a review and interpretation of the development of geoportals in the United Kingdom. We describe the sources and levels of UK central government support for e-government, and the ways in which these have been used, alongside existing sources of spatial framework data, to develop geoportals. We then summarise the salient technical and organisational characteristics of geoportals that have been created at the local, regional and national scales, before assessing the state-of-play in the development of geoportals and evaluating future prospects.