The research presented in this paper introduces the princi- ples of a multi-dimensional contextual approach for adaptive GIS. The framework makes the dierence beetween the user, geographical and de- vice contexts. The geographical context is modelled according to the location of the user, the region of interest, the extent of the region cov- ered by the diusion of the data, and the place where the information is processed. This characterization allows for the study of the dierent con- textual configurations, and their impact on the design of mobile services. The framework is applied to maritime navigation.