|
 |
| Serving
the Needs of the King County Community for GIS |
| |
|
What
is Regional GIS?
GIS already exists throughout the region,
in many of King County’s cities, utility districts, schools, and
businesses, as well as within King County departments. To some degree
there is sharing and cooperation throughout the region already. GIS professionals
meet to exchange advice and expertise, and data is sometimes shared between
agencies.
Why
Regional GIS?
An objective analysis of the progress and
success of GIS throughout the region would find that its implementation
has been uneven. While there are many regional GIS success stories, some
other agency GIS programs have stalled or even failed, and most are struggling
with the substantial costs and development time needed to succeed. The
King County Regional GIS concept addresses business problems associated
with how GIS is organized locally now:
- GIS data and application
development and maintenance is occurring throughout the region
(in the County, cities, districts, etc.) but often in a redundant,
uncoordinated, wasteful manner. Regional GIS would establish a
regional institutional/infrastructure framework that would reduce
wasteful activity.
-
The region is hampered by multiple non-standardized data sources
both within and outside King County government. Even when GIS
data is shared between agencies, it is on a random, episodic basis,
via multiple bilateral MOU’s. Regional GIS would develop
an environment in which GIS data sharing was institutionalized
via a multilateral regional agreement.
- Agencies across the
region have invested in and maintain multiple redundant resources
like data and application servers, backup systems, and networks.
Regional GIS would develop an environment where core GIS resources
are shared and supported on a cooperative community basis to support
both County and regional agency business needs.
- Cost: All agencies
would benefit by sharing costs for the development and maintenance
of GIS data in a common environment. Agencies would benefit by
sharing future data maintenance costs and overhead expenses for
central resources (server, backup, administration, etc.).
- Effectiveness:
A regional standardized data environment and central data library
would also facilitate the development of business GIS applications
in a standard, regional environment. This would result in faster
development and deployment of GIS applications for business users
in all regional agencies.
|
|
King County Regional GIS Vision
2000+
Vision
King County Regional
GIS (KC R-GIS) will be a community geographic information system resources,
managed and deployed in an efficient and innovative manner.
Mission
KC R-GIS will manage
appropriate centralized community GIS resources efficiently. KC R-GIS
will lead the effective application of GIS for the distributed business
and personal needs of the community: government, industry, commerce, and
citizens in the King County Region.
Goals
-
Develop and
promote standards and infrastructure that support GIS reliability,
quality, and performance for the community.
Database
and application development standards will enable institutionalized
regional GIS cooperation, reliability, and quality. Infrastructure,
including metadata standards, centralized data and application servers,
and network components will support regional GIS as a viable alternative
to repetitive, redundant, infrastructure in dozens of county, city,
and corporate departments.
-
Provide
GIS services to the community that reduce cost and add value.
Rationalized
non-redundant development and maintenance of GIS data will reduce
costs and add value. Standardized development and maintenance of GIS
applications will reduce costs and promote wider business and personal
use of GIS. Centralized infrastructure management services will provide
opportunities to spread overhead and lower O&M costs.
-
Increase
GIS reliability, repeatability, quality, and performance to the community.
Standardized
core applications, a regional GIS database, and reliable, well sized
infrastructure will result in a resource that is viewed as an open
community resource, like a utility, rather than as multiple jealously
guarded but poorly performing individual efforts. Analysis, decisions,
and information derived from the GIS should be repeatable and consistent
within the community.
-
Promote
wider deployment of GIS within the community.
KC
R-GIS should promote wider use of GIS by cities, utilities, business,
institutions, and individuals, through standardized but customizable
deployment within an efficient and responsive community support environment.
-
Support
business specific GIS deployment for companies, governments, institutions,
and individuals within the community.
Continually
refine the structure, management, services, and support of KC R-GIS
to ensure that it meets the current and future core GIS needs of the
community.
|
| Revised
August 30, 2000 |
|
