At the Province of Flevoland in the Netherlands, dynamics in the field of land use planning have led to the development of a chain-specific working method within the geo-information flow. Within this innovative method of working, policy makers, geo-visualisation and geo-ICT specialists work closely together with the objective to improve transparency and exchange of (visual) information with regional partners and citizens in a unambigious way. Cartography as a tool for geo-communication plays a key role within this process and is involved directly in modern policy making.

Policy Context

The Province of Flevoland is a regional administration and is one of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is the newest an fastest developing province.

Description of target users and groups

Target group are the regional partners of the Province of Flevoland: ministries, provinces, water boards, municipalities, fire brigades, police forces and citizens. The Province of Flevoland has about 375.000 citizens devided over the 6 municipalities.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

Within the project, the Province of Flevoland has worked together with the Ministy of VROM en lower governmental organisations to optimise the scope of the site. Multi-channel issues: www.omgevingsplan.flevoland.nl/ offers all information online.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The results of an interview with the municipalities show that they are very enthusiastic about the content and user interface of www.omgevingsplan.flevoland.nl/. No quantitative indications available. Innovation: Exchange of geo-information in combination of related documents on the subject via state of the art geo-ict interface and architecture.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

www.omgevingsplan.flevoland.nl/ is one of the first examples of online dissemination of regional spatial policy via a geoservices portal. It serves as an example for the other provinces in setting up similar services.

Lessons learnt

- open standards are important - need voor sufficient basis within the organisation for a successful realisation for a succesfull realisation of the project. - Adequate communication is necessary for creating sufficient basis within the organisation - we should work towards uniformity of geo-information (storage and dissemination) Scope: Local (city or municipality), National, Regional (sub-national)