Atlas information systems and geographical names information systems as contributants to spatial data infrastructure

Abstract National and international programs dealing with spatial data infrastructures (SDI) made it possible to compile a uniform digital base and a universal toolkit for the integrated description of territories on global to national scales. Atlas information systems (AIS) are considered to be an integrating tool for diverse information resources (modelling, visualisation and analysis), as well as for the elaboration of various scenarios and the possible development of alternatives for such complex systems as those of nature-society-economy. As there is an increased use of digital maps at spatial data infrastructures all aspects related to geographical names are of particular importance in this application of AIS to SDI. It is important to realise a toponymic project, dealing with place-names and their variants depending on the language and time period when a specific place-name was used. The layer of geographical names is considered to be one of the three most important data components of AIS.