Vision and primary objective

We are living in a digital era, where we rely on geospatial information every single day. Both professionals and private individuals use geospatial information to visualise physical phenomena and events and increase the value of other information.

Geospatial information is required to meet social challenges, such as climate change, environmental challenges, transport, resource management, emergency planning and urbanisation. Geospatial information is also part of many commercial offerings and is an integral part of the digital services we all use in everyday life.

The creation of value based on geospatial information is significant, but there is still a great unused potential here. The needs and demand change over time. The development of technology will in itself also offer new opportunities and applications. In some areas, new needs arise for data other than what has traditionally been used. In other areas, data with an even higher degree of detail may be required to solve the tasks or realise the services.

Society needs good, up-to-date data in private and public activities, within all the specialist areas and sectors. Data must be available in ways that meet the needs. The data must have known coverage and a quality adapted to the needs of the various actors, so that it can support their specific applications and be part of the relevant decision-making processes.

A large part of the geospatial information is collected by public actors. A lot of information is also created in the private sector on assignments for the public sector, through commercial activity or the behaviour of consumers. The rapid digitalisation of society and a growing demand brings up the question of how the collection, management, distribution and collation of geospatial information should be organised. In some areas, data from the public (crowdsourcing) emerges as an important source of data.

Norway has made substantial investments in geospatial information and technology. In order for Norway to remain a leading nation in this area and realise further gains, cooperation between the various sectors of society must be expanded and reinforced.

The vision for this strategy is:

Norway shall be at the forefront in the use of geospatial information.

The Government will work for

• A national knowledge base of geospatial information that meets important societal needs
• Shared solutions and technology that support effective problem solving and enable new application opportunities in society
• Well-functioning interaction with respect to management, sharing, development and innovation between both public and private actors
• Framework conditions that are predictable and well suited to the challenges of digital society

Maps and location-based information shall act as a guide for the creation of value and better decisions.