Geographic information systems in China

Geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming an increasingly important component of business operations in China and GIS software are playing an increasing role in the way Chinese companies and analyze and manage business operations.

History
When GIS first became widely available in the 1980s and 1990s, the only source of geographic data for China was paper maps. Several universities elected to undertake the huge task of digitizing this information so that other researchers could use it.

The two earliest projects were conducted by The Australian Consortium for the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN) at Griffith University and the China Data Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. ACASIAN specialized solely in spatial coverages while the China Data Center included GIS coverages as a supplemented to their primary mission of providing Chinese statistical and census data.

There is a great deal of high quality GIS data being produced in China by both government organizations and private companies. Today, China's National Spatial Data Infrastructure Project, uses the WGS84 standard.

Notable persons
Prof. Chen Shupeng, born in 1920, is considered the founding father of Remote Sensing and GIS in China, died on 25 November 2008. Chen started the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System (LREIS) in 1987.

Institutions
Major institutions include:
 * National Geographic Information System (国家基础地睆信杯中心)
 * National Fundamental Geographic Information System
 * National Geomatics Center of China
 * State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping
 * Institute of Soil Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences
 * The Data Sharing Network of Earth System Science
 * SuperMap is a stand alone GIS program and data provider.  They have several large contracts with the Chinese government and are one of the few sources for 1:500 scale map data which they offer for a limited number of cities.
 * MapWorld provides 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scale data on a range of topics from administrative boundaries to facilities management. They provide datum and projection information and prepare data in either ESRI or MapInfo formats.
 * Beijing Creation Science & Technology Development specializes in personalized data sets at any scale. They also prepare and process satellite images.

Global navigation satellite system

 * Beidou navigation system is used for GIS data gathering