Diffusion of GIS at municipalities in İstanbul

Abstract

This study aims to develop a better understanding of diffusion of Geographic Information System (GIS) within municipalities and examines the infrastructure of İstanbul municipalities and whether they are ready for this technology or not. Moreover, failure and success factors of implementation of GIS have been analyzed in this study. This study has two research methods: The first one comprises interviews with the experts of GIS in Turkey. The second one comprises questionnaires conducted with GIS-related departments of İstanbul municipalities. 39 local municipalities and İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality have participated in this questionnaire. Data collected online from these municipalities have been analyzed by using descriptive statistics, reliability tests, Anova and regression to test the hypotheses and provide the findings. One of the findings is that almost half of the municipalities, which have started to implement GIS, do this without a vision or a plan for the future. Another finding is that GIS is mainly used to perform registration and maintenance functions instead of supporting the decision-making process. Although many of the municipalities accept the superiority of GIS tools over Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools, they are used to employing CAD tools. The main criteria for successful GIS projects are employee, managerial and budget considerations whereas the main problems about GIS projects are employee, budget and data constraints. Finally, there is an optimistic expectation of municipalities regarding the use of GIS in the future.