By Lon Anderson
Moorefield Examiner
Wednesday, Nov. 13, is National GIS Day, and for Hardy County that’s really something to celebrate. Hardy County is, after all, a state leader in the realm of GIS.
What, you ask, is GIS and why is Hardy County at or near the head of the line in West Virginia involving GIS? GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. It is a high-tech system of managing data that’s related to locations. Simply, it creates maps with a whole lot of detail on a large variety of subjects that can be manipulated to analyze and manage all types of geographical data for their particular purposes.
For example, GIS is the data system that our ambulance drivers and first responders use to quickly pinpoint the exact locations of emergencies to help them respond quickly and efficiently. It’s the system that tax assessors use to track home assessments and that planning offices use to see how a parcel is zoned. It can tell flood plain managers what parcels are within 50 feet of a flood plain and who owns them, or allows officials to see where the utilities are[private] located.
In short, GIS is, or should be, a critical tool for managing just about any issues related to any locations in Hardy County. And, even better, it allows users to sort and analyze the data in a variety of ways that can be very helpful for local leaders and government managers as they seek solutions to many vexing local issues.
So why is Hardy County a GIS leader? At their November meeting, the Hardy County Commissioners signed a resolution officially establishing a County GIS Board, which likely makes Hardy County the first county in West Virginia to have one, according to County Planner Melissa Scott.
And she should know. Scott has been involved with the GIS programs in West Virginia for about 25 years, and first called for the creation of county boards to deal with GIS programs in 2011 in a slide presentation she made to a WV County Commissioners Association meeting. Today, her call has been answered, at least in Hardy County.
Scott drafted the Hardy County resolution passed by the County Commissioners at their October meeting that they just signed at their November meeting. Scott was the driving force behind its passage. “Almost everything in local government has a location component,” Scott explained.
So, the GIS program becomes a crucial part of many government processes, involving an array of county offices.
The GIS operation is usually housed in 911 offices or in the Assessor’s office because of government mapping requirements or funding necessities. A better way, would be the joint management and shared expense of the GIS function by all those who will be using it–just like what will be happening in Hardy County as a result of the newly-signed resolution.
Shared management and funding, Scott explained, ensures that all departments have access to it, and also ensures that proper data standards are set and then maintained. So, in Hardy County the new GIS board has representatives from the offices of: Assessor, Clerk, Sheriff, OEM/911 Director, Surveyor, Planner, PSD Manager and the County Commissioners.
The GIS Board, according to the County Resolution, will coordinate GIS efforts and usage, and thus reduce both duplication and expense, while ensuring that the data quality meets required industry, state and federal standards.
So how does the GIS work?
GIS maps have layers, Scott explained, with each layer containing a particular kind of data which can be combined to provide a much more complete picture including, land parcels, roads, utilities, land use, zoning, and environmental issues. Additionally, these layers can interact with one another, thus creating “Intelligent maps” that can create new information and analysis that can be very helpful in local problem solving.
Interestingly, Google Maps and GIS use the same technology, Scott noted, but Google Maps focus on national level data. County GIS data is almost all local, which means it must be collected, updated and managed at the local level. After all, she continued, only local agencies know what is happening on the ground with such things as zoning, property boundaries and ownership, and building permits, etc. If the system is to work properly, such data must be constantly updated regularly to ensure its accuracy.
The data you get from GIS, Scott said, is only as good as the data you put into it. In her report to the County Planning Commission at its November meeting, Scott indicated there were many issues with the data currently in the County GIS system, and that some 6,000 addresses in the County may need data revisions. The Planning Office has thus far reviewed about 1,000. She estimated that as many as 30 percent of the addresses may require on-site visits to ensure their accuracy.
The good news, she said, is that the addresses of approximately 300 new homes that have been built in the County in recent years but had not been added to the GIS system, have all been updated and thus can be much more easily located by the County’s emergency service providers, among others.
Scott indicated that with the GIS Board now in place to set and monitor the standards for data and its maintenance, the County is better positioned to ensure that the resulting data will be high quality and will assist County leaders in making better decisions and help all the offices involved better manage their work.[/private]