GIS i Stockholms läns kommuner : En studie över utvecklingen från 2001 till 2016

Sammanfattning: Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is a tool well suited for municipal governments, and in 2001 Hanna Forslund wrote a thesis at KTH where she studied the implementation and diffusion of GIS in the municipalities of Stockholm County. This study uses her thesis as a starting-point and can be viewed as a continuation of her work. This study is based on a literature study and a questionnaire that has been answered by specialists in the field from all municipalities in Stockholm County. The purpose of this study is to examine how GIS-related work in the municipalities has developed over the last 15 years, which factors are responsible for the development, and how the municipalities have worked with these factors.   According to the respondents the biggest development has been centered around internal spread of the technology and development of the hardware and software. The study shows that the majority of GIS-related work is done in the technical departments, although roughly 90% of the municipalities has used the technology in the environmental sector, and in 65% of the municipalities it has also been used in the social sector.   Based on studied literature it is evident that the most important developing factor is connected to knowledge, a factor that all municipalities has identified and are actively working on improving.   Even though GIS as a tool has spread all throughout the local governments, GIS as a term has seen little development. This leads to relatively low knowledge about the technology outside of the more technical departments and a development that is based upon the initiative of specialists. This in turn results in that the development is unevenly distributed across the county and the rate of development can vary depending on the interests of the leadership.   The future progress of GIS will, according to the respondents, largely depend on the available resources, both in the form of money, but also in the form of time and educated staff, and this is something that will not happen unless the management realize the potential of GIS.