Using the Tool

• If you don’t already have one, create a jurisdiction-wide GIS Users’ Group of local departmental reps as well as key utilities, non-profit service providers, schools, etc. The core of this group will be local departmental reps, who can use the larger group with external partners for input, feedback, and planning. The core group will become your go-to set of advisors on what data needs to be kept, and how, to best facilitate strategic use for community planning and service delivery. Use this group to:
  • Review existing GIS capabilities with staff to understand how GIS technology is being used and how data is shared with the community and between existing agencies.
  • Identify the data needs that are NOT being met—what planning and service delivery needs COULD be addressed using GIS?
  • Identify what needs to happen to enable those needs to be addressed more fully using GIS, how it could happen, and who will take the lead
  • Identify where data and analytical tools are available but are not being used, or where they are being used but no one is paying attention to them.
  • Formulate recommendations to management and/or the governing board regarding GIS and related needs.
  • Track progress, consistency, and utilization of GIS data—what’s working, what’s not, and what is proving to be unnecessary?
• Work with your regional COG to maintain and share GIS data (e.g., CONNECT region CommunityViz data for land use modeling) and analysis, and consider cross-jurisdictional consistency needs to be able to do so.
• Create a schedule for regularly developing and updating community assessments using GIS. Include analysis maps showing location of existing and projected population and housing, existing services, needs, and gaps in coverage areas. Develop the community assessment to include key findings, priorities, and an action plan for addressing gaps across departments and agencies. As a shared product of the Users Group and the Manager’s Office, this tool can become an important barometer of community progress.
• Provide budgetary and policy support to maintain the ongoing use of GIS and training to support staff. Input from the users, as well as requests from the public or from the business community, can be used to target additional updates needed or training needs. .
• Train GIS users into making their data and analytical results understandable and compelling to non-technicians, or to work with others with this expertise. The “delivery” of GIS data to decision-makers is an art, as much as the analysis is!
• Market local GIS data and capacity to the business community and to local community service agencies, through your enlarged Users Group. While it may not be possible to be paid for the data, its use will yield a good return on investment if the private and non-profit sectors buy in to community plans and align their work in support of GIS findings.