GIS is not part of a city, a city is a GIS...

I have worked in Government GIS for almost 17 years, and during that time I have had conversations with people from all types of government agencies across the world. Through those interactions, I have learned a lot. The most important thing I have learned though has to be that GIS is not just a part of a city or county. For the most part, a city or county is a GIS inherently.?

For those of you who may not know the term "GIS"...

What is GIS? GIS = (Geographic Information System)

GIS is an information system that is location-aware and designed with location as its main element. Where is it, what information about it, and what conditions surround it?

Let's ask some common questions you would want to know that involve local government and see if you can spot the Geography/Location or the Information System component.

The Where, What, Why, and How...

Hey, do you know where the city park is, and if it's open? I want to take my daughter to go play catch. When did they build that new playground? I love those trees they put next to the playground. What type of trees are those? I wonder where the city bought those trees? I need to hire someone to plant trees like that at my house. I wonder who planted them? This park is really nice. You know, I think I should rent a pavilion at the park for my grandma's 90th birthday next month. I wonder if there are any that are available that weekend? I would want one close to this playground. Also, one with one of these new metal picnic tables. I wonder if these improvements were all funded by that new tax?

If I had to guess… I bet, it was pretty simple for you to identify the location and information components in those simple questions…

I can say without a doubt, every local government is at a different stage of understanding in this journey. Some are pretty advanced, while others are just beginning. These GIS questions continue internally as well. Like a Parks Director asking… How many of those metal picnic tables have we bought this year with that new tax money? ?Or a Public Works Director asking when is the last time we paved this road? Or a Utilities Director asking where are we with the annual inspection and flushing of all the fire hydrants?

It really doesn’t matter whether the item you need information on is a water valve, a culvert, a streetlight, or a park bench. Everything exists somewhere and there is information you need to know about it. ?

As a local government grows, it adopts different systems. Through no fault of their own, the different departments in the government, end up putting data into separate systems. Typically, these siloed systems don't communicate well with each other. This results in, actionable data not being available to decision-makers when they are doing work.

Once a government adopts GIS. Slowly, the importance of this type of information system starts to become noticeable, and GIS begins to evolve. Unfortunately, we typically see that the responsibility of informing the stakeholders of the organization of what can be done, and slowly trying to migrate the whole operations to a GIS-centric workflow lies solely on GIS staff, (if you have one) or just the single “GIS person”.

This has always been the challenge… A single employee or department trying to get the managers and department heads of an entire city or county to not only listen, but to understand, and be willing to take on the task of migrating and changing. Going beyond - “how we have always done things” …?

Now, when I started at Esri I knew that I would be working with local governments. I knew I would be supporting and creating solutions that sold our technology. It didn’t take long to see that a main part of my job would be informing GIS personnel about the possibilities, and then helping them show managers, and directors, that GIS is not just part of a city, it is the city...

If you are a department head or manager of a city and your workflows are not location-centric in how you collect and maintain data and you have any questions about how GIS can bring a city together on a common platform... Let me know. If I am not your assigned Solution Engineer I can find out who is and get you in contact.

Let's make location-intelligent data-driven decisions...

Keep up the good work...?Until next time...