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GIS Partnership Summary

Schenectady Internet Mapping Systems (SIMS)

Partnership Purpose and Goal

To foster economic development and community revitalization projects in Schenectady County by enabling municipal and economic development organizations to better manage and analyze geographic information. The goal is to provide partners with convenient access to a powerful GIS with data and functions pertinent to economic development and community revitalization projects.

Participants and Resource Contributions

Time Frame

Date Partnership Began: August 2001
Completion Date: August 2003

Deliverables

Schenectady Internet Mapping System (SIMS): a web enabled GIS open to partnership members only. The GIS provides users with access to a large inventory or map layers and key functionality to locate features, building mailing lists, edit project databases, and print maps.

Brief Summary of Partnership

The impetus of the project originated within the community-based economic development agencies of Schenectady County who sought access to and analysis of geographic information. These agencies, as well as their counter parts in local government, typically relied upon traditional hardcopy methods for storing and updating information about properties. Since many agencies routinely collaborated on development projects there were inefficiencies in the non-relational approaches to mapping and analyzing the impact of a project as well as redundancies to the storage and management of the same data (hardcopy and digital) by multiple agencies. The economic development agencies understood that GIS could improve all facets of revitalization planning and sought assistance from the County Department of Planning.

The Planning Department had long been an advocate for GIS and a source of technical support to municipal and community-based agencies in the County. Recognizing similar needs across a wider audience of users in the county, the Planning Department took the lead in assembling a group of partners to invest in a solution that would provide for a robust GIS that could serve multiple purposes. For example, the Department had long understood that municipalities lacked the resources to fully implement GIS across multiple departments. The Department looked at the emerging Internet GIS technology as a way to integrate data needed by multiple partners and deliver functionality that could be customized to meet individual needs - no matter the location of the office, unit or division of the organization.

The Department of Planning approached all municipalities and economic development agencies in the county with the concept of an Internet GIS application. The Department asked for an on-going commitment from the agencies to support the GIS. Initially four agencies signed: Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, Town of Niskayuna, Town of Rotterdam, and the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation. The County provided project leadership and contributed a significant amount to the up front cost of development (software customization) and hardware (Internet server). All partners contributed monetarily to the project with Applied GIS, Inc., contracted for all technical components of the project.

In August 2003 the Schenectady Internet Mapping Systems (SIMS) was officially launched. SIMS integrates information from several independent agencies, fostering collaboration among local government and community organizations. This collaboration allows for a more efficient delivery of GIS tools and services to the partners. The chief tangible benefit is that partner agencies have a robust, easy-to-use GIS for use in neighborhood revitalization efforts such as targeting urban in-fill projects, marketing available properties, planning for infrastructure improvements, and tracking commercial and neighborhood redevelopment projects.

During development of SIMS, the Department was able to demonstrate the features of SIMS to other perspective partners including the City of Schenectady, Town of Glenville and the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, the City, town and Chamber anticipate becoming members of the SIMS partnership.

Additional Information Available On-line

None

Contact Information

    Mark Storti
    Senior GIS Specialist (Project Manager)
    Schenectady County Department of Planning
    107 Nott Terrace
    Suite 303 Schenectady, NY 12308

    Phone: (518) 386-2225
    Fax: (518) 382-5539
    E-mail


    Austin Fisher
    President (Project Consultant)
    Applied GIS, Inc.
    137 Jay Street, Schenectady, NY 12308

    Phone: (518) 346-0942
    Fax: (518) 346-5322
    E-mail

Information last updated: Sept. 4, 2003