How to Improve the Social Utility Value of Geographic Information Systems for French Local Governments? A Delphi Study

Today, geographic information technologies (GITs) stand out as the unavoidable answers to the French local governments' new stakes. Yet, an important discrepancy has been noticed between the utility levels (in the qualitative sense) and the theoretical intrinsic potential of these technologies. The social utility value of GIT seems quite low compared with the quantitative level at which they are diffused. The authors focus on the ‘determination of value’, by considering the obstacles to the development of a spatial data infrastructure in the French context. From the results of a Delphi study, the authors bring to the fore the fact that the institutional and organisational barriers 0ack of a clear policy in matters of access and dissemination; cost of public data; absence of fully operational norms and standards; failure to raise the awareness of the potential users as a whole; etc) more than technical difficulties, are the prime causes of this phenomenon. Through this analysis, the authors emphasise the need to organise a French national spatial data infrastructure, strongly linked with most of the local initiatives developed by the local governments.