New York State Office of Cyber Security
Geographic Information Systems Clearinghouse
A Compendium of Community Models
|
 |
Town of Colonie || Town of Plattekill || Ulster County || Warren County
Quality Communities Initiative
The Quality Communities Initiative demonstrates New York State's commitment to working with local government leaders and community organizations to find smart, innovative solutions to strengthen our economy and environment, and improve the quality of the place we call "home." There were several recommendations made to achieve the goals of this initiative, one being to support the development of GIS in Communities across the state and encourage membership in the GIS Data Sharing Cooperative. One of the methods of accomplishing this is to present examples of how GIS is used in municipalities. We hope that these models, which provide concise "how to" descriptions of differing uses of GIS, will inspire development of new programs and assist current users of GIS as well.
What is GIS?
A GIS is an electronic information system that analyzes, integrates, and displays information based on geography. GIS systems have powerful visual display capabilities that present the results of analysis on maps at a wide variety of scales, ranging from very large (accurate to within inches) to very small (accurate only in broad overview). GIS is regarded as the best technology to understand and solve problems associated with data whose common attributes are related to place and geography.
What is a Cost-Benefit of GIS?
Determining the cost-benefit of an investment in GIS is an important and often difficult undertaking. One of the reasons for the difficulty is that GIS programs often allow communities to do things they have not been able to do before--therefore there is no obvious basis for before and after comparison. Nevertheless, the costs and benefits of a GIS program can be identified and estimated and this kind of assessment should help you make sound investment decisions. Some of the costs to consider include: a feasibility study or needs assessment, hardware, software, maintenance contracts, data entry, data transfer, data purchases, data development, training and technical support for system users, supplies, overhead such as rent and utilities, and salaries. Benefits are much more difficult to quantify than costs and they depend on the applications you will run. Some common benefits are increased revenue from making land parcels more productive; decreasing the costs of providing some public services; attracting additional commercial activity and jobs; increasing the efficiency and timelines of public services such as fire protection; and preventing or discovering the cause of health problems stemming from conditions of the environment.
What can GIS do for my Community or Organization?
A well-designed GIS can help you answer questions like these:
- Where are the most desirable locations in our community to locate a new business or recreational facility?
- What is the most efficient route from the fire house to a fire at the Industrial Park at various times of day?
- Is there a relationship between the location of an old dump site and the incidence of childhood cancer nearby?
- How has the habitat of the white tail deer changed over the last five years and what is causing the change?
- What intersections have been the site of personal injury accidents in the past three years?
- How will a proposed manufacturing plant affect our community's water supply?
The value of GIS and spatial data can be seen most dramatically in applications like these that promote economic development, public health and safety, and environmental quality. Moreover, these applications share many common information needs, so information collected by one organization can often be reused by others, thus reducing the cost of the most expensive GIS resource--the information itself.
Community Models
(Summer 2003)
The Community Model descriptions below are brief highlights of these programs with a link to the more comprehensive outline. The models all handle GIS a little differently
and hopefully you will see one or more which can be of benefit to you in your efforts to develop or enhance your GIS programs. Contact information is also included for any questions you
may have. |
Town of Amherst and the Town of Clarence
Towns of Amherst and Clarence: The Amherst and Clarence Youth Planning Project's primary objective was to encourage students to participate in the ongoing comprehensive planning efforts in their
communities. By involving students in the process of planning using GIS and other means, town officials hoped that students would develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the influences
and impacts of planning decisions on their hometown and surrounding communities.
Broome County
This program involved early on coordination of GIS program development with a Master Plan for sustainable economic development. It demonstrates a successful collaborative effort with community
organizations. GIS included; brownfield identification as well as parcel information, transit route locator, road information, census tract, and block locator information.
The Town and Village of Camden - located within the Tug Hill Region
This model highlights a GIS Starter Kit created by the Tug Hill Commission for use by the Town and Village of Camden in a pilot capacity. The Kit includes customized GIS data on a CD as well as
programming to manipulate the data. Training on use of the Kit is also provided. The Commission is a member of the NYS Data Sharing Cooperative and serves as an Intermediary Custodian of the
data from the Cooperative. The Commission downloads it, reprojects it and passes it along to Cooperative member municipalities in the region. The Kit is user friendly and serves primarily as
a reference for planning and zoning administration.
Town of Colonie
This program got off the ground in 2 years with a good planning effort and limited staff. At this time the GIS program contains volumes of valuable data and all Town departments can access the
information online. Residents can also view parcel information and other geographic information online. The asset management program could be a good model for other Towns required to report for
GASB34, a new federal finance regulation for the reporting of assets by municipalities. This may also serve as a quick-start model under certain circumstances.
Town of Plattekill
The GIS program highlights a collaborative effort in starting a GIS program with surrounding municipalities. The development focused on zoning, wetland and property use data which was used to build
a master plan. They realized larger entity support through data sharing with the County and State and took advantage of the Ulster County Environmental Management Council Training program.
Ulster County
This program highlights a successful partnership with municipalities and an effective community oriented training program operated by the County Environmental Management Council which includes
the school district, faculty, students and local officials.
Warren County
This program has many strengths and is also a great model for how a larger entity can assist smaller ones to develop their own GIS programs. The county's GIS is available to all County and municipal
employees over the Internet or Intranet. Activities such as training, data, and map production to name a few, are available to employees over the Intranet. This model also demonstrates successful
management of municipal GIS implementation from the County level.