The development of the geographic information system (GIS) was influenced by the advancement of software techniques and the information architecture combined. The cloud architecture and the service oriented architecture (SOA) provided the future trend for the next generation GIS. It was proposed in the planning report that the GIS environment of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources conform to the requirements of the next generation GIS. The proposed planning blueprint was based on the principles of the SOA and the cloud architecture. The blueprint analyzed issues from three aspects: the data architecture, the technical architecture, and the management architecture. After analyzing the current issues the desired goals and action plans were proposed. The action plans served as the guidelines for the development of the Ministry’s GIS service architecture. The planning report suggested that a unified internet service platform be developed as the one-stop portal of data services and function services for the Ministry as an integrated system. The unified internet service platform would be supported by robust manpower and effective managerial institutions to provide uninterrupted services to all uses. In the initial stage of the government reengineering the changes in the GIS architecture should be kept to the minimum in order to avoid business overloading and confusion. The report suggested that the integration of the GIS architecture after the government reengineering proceed in three temporal stages: the short-term, the mid-term, and the long-term stages. Action plans and corresponding budgets were proposed for different stages.

Geographic Information System;Integrated Planning;Service Oriented Architecture;Cloud Architecture;Web Service Platform