Geographic Information Systems: An Introduction, 3rd Edition

18.6 System Operation and Maintenance

Data must be maintained to retain their value. Normally, data maintenance in a major facility is considered only after the facility is fully operational, some three to seven years after the first data have been entered. However, data maintenance is vital from the very start.

Persons active in data acquisition are usually those most qualified to maintain the same data. Surveyors can both acquire and then maintain utility network data, planners can compile and then maintain zoning plans, and so on. The most direct approach is for the responsible professionals to maintain their own data by means of PCs.

Maintenance routines should include deletion of duplicate entries, which are common in conventional manual systems. This implies that the various organizations accessing common data are obliged to depend more on each other. Consequently, all organizations involved must agree upon the maintenance routines to be used.