The application of GIS in geological cartography

Paper contains a description of uses of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the field of geological cartography, mainly at the Polish Geological Institute (PGI). The PGI uses GIS, since a dozen years, in several mapping projects to produce databases and state-of-the-art maps: Detailed Geological Map of Poland, Hydrogeological Map of Poland, Geoenvironmental Map of Poland (all in the scale 1 : 50,000, although maps in other scales are also created). Cartographic databases are used to solve practical and scientific problems; examples are provided. Thanks to the digital maps production, aided by GIS, the spatial geological data are made available and published as maps in digital formats like raster files or vector GIS data or as online map services. Spatial geological data are the crucial part of Spatial Data Infrastructure on every level, therefore, the data should be used to create corporate (geological) SDI and should be integrated with existing SDIs, like the national SDI (www.geo-portal.pl) and the European SDI (INSPIRE).