Jonas Beals
When Spotsylvania County received a questionable electricity bill from Dominion Virginia Power, the county's geographic information system was called into service. The streetlight map from Dominion was overlaid on the map of county property. It turned out that, of the lights the county was being billed for, many weren't even on county property. With the click of a mouse, the GIS had saved the county $25,000.
A GIS system is a database made visual. Any information that can be related to a map is collected and stored digitally. That information can then be graphically displayed on the map, giving the user the ability to selectively view the data to see how it relates to the physical world. Information from soil type to murder rate can be displayed on a map, in an instant.
John Ferketic, the GIS manager for Spotsylvania, has seen a shift in the focus of his department.
"We've made a lot of progress as a county in GIS over the last couple of years," he said. "We've switched from being mapmakers to being technologists."
Much of the work done by the GIS division these days is analytical in nature. It is able to use the technology to answer questions for other county departments.
For instance, adult businesses are highly restricted in the county. The question arose as to where, exactly, an adult business could locate in Spotsylvania. Using GIS information on zoning, churches, schools and home locations, the division was able to represent potential adult-business sites as purple flecks on a county map.
As with most technology these days, the future of GIS is interactivity. The Department of Information Services has been working closely with other departments to integrate the GIS into their operations.
Spotsylvania's Utilities Department now has digitized maps of the water and sewer system--nearly 10,000 paper maps condensed onto a hard drive. Utility workers can take those maps into the field on a laptop. What's more, their computers are linked to the Global Positioning System, so when a worker opens the GIS the map automatically focuses on his exact location.
The Utilities Department is also integrating repair-history data with the maps. "We're barely scratching the surface of its capability," said Henry Washington, a department employee.
"Probably the most exciting application is school transportation," Ferketic said. "By the end of this year, all of the buses will have GPS on them. We will know where every bus is in real time--every time a yellow light goes on, every time a red light goes on--they'll even know when the driver hits the brake."
The county hopes to use this information to calibrate more efficient bus routes, and as a forensic tool should a school bus be involved in an accident.
While most of this information has always been available to the public, it has never been so easy to access. For security purposes, maps of the county water and sewer system, the North Anna siren system and landowner names are not available on the county Web site.
County Administrator Randy Wheeler is impressed by the capabilities of the system. "Essentially, it's a basic tool put to extraordinary use," he said. "We have come light years in a very short time."
To reach Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036| For most people, Nov. 14 came and went quietly. For Spotsylvania's Department of Information Services GIS division, it was circled on the calendar.
Nov. 14 was National GIS Day, a part of Geography Awareness Week. GIS technology is the cutting edge of modern geography, and one of the most exciting advances in information services that Spotsylvania County has ever seen. To celebrate the event, the county's GIS division held a technology fair at the Marshall Center. Representatives from six county departments were on hand to show how they use the county's GIS. From traffic analysis to long-range planning to search and rescue, County managers are eager |