Digital technology and geodetic infrastructures in Italian cartography

Traditional paper-based cartography was already being pushed aside decades ago by digital storing and pro-cessing of geographical information, meaning that information is now more easily accessible and can be transferred directly to the numerous software applications designed to manage all kinds of land-related tasks including planning, transportation, land management and emergency relief operations. It is now possible and economically viable to keep information constantly up to date with maps that describe a real-time situation rather than being narrowly confined to conditions on the ground at the moment of its creation. Software like the Geographic Information System (GIS) make it possible to capture, store, manipulate, ana-lyze, and manage visual representations of data in an extremely efficient manner, but it is precisely the geo-graphical nature of the information they work with that makes the support of digital cartography indispensa-ble, without which it would be impossible to position data spatially with the precision and reliability of a traditional map. Incorrect georeferencing of data severely diminishes its significance and usefulness. A map, whether it be traditional or digital, is closely linked to the geodetic system of which it is a part, and may in turn need to be updated in response to new technologies, specifically those which introduce new ways of acquiring geographical information in the field . It is therefore necessary to strictly define the meaning of the coordinates associated with each source, and the positioning of territorial information should be dependent on the geodetic and cartographical system. The current position of Italy on this subject is one of transition. The Italian authorities recently (2012) decid-ed to approve a new geodetic (and cartographical) system to facilitate harmonization with the geographical data of other European countries in accordance with the INSPIRE directive (INfrastructure for SPatial In-foRmation in Europe) , which Italy adopted through a legislative decree (DL 27 january 2012, n. 32), aimed at creating universal standards among European Union (EU) members in the interest of harmonization and information exchange. The current situation is an incentive for those authorities concerned with the man-agement of cartographical data to embark on a campaign of transformation and integration, and to overcome the complexities represented by an initial lack of homogeneity and by the excessive number of organizations responsible for cartography-related data: including ministries and cartographical institutes, regional govern-ments (who are the principal consumers of technical topographical and cartographical databases), local gov-ernments, and service providers.