Athens County
Cooperative Land Administration
and Information Mapping system
September 16, 2004
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
Commissioners:
The GIS Steering Committee met:
JB reported on a project that ILGARD is doing for ODNR Statewide
mapping the underlying bedrock layers.
Darren demonstrated "Zoomify" and ESRI ArcScene/3D Analyst software.
Ric indicated his desire to have a 3D display of proposed subdivisions
to use in making planning decisions. Ric and Ron Lucas will get two
proposed subdivisions to ILGARD and the plats will be superimposed
over our Digital Elevation Model (DEM) developed as part of our most
recent Orthophoto project, and the orthophoto for the site so that a
3D view and "fly-by or drive-by" movies may be presented through
MS Powerpoint software. This will literally add a new dimension of
practical use to our GIS.
Ken presented four townships of updated splits to ILGARD.
Tim is working with the City of Athens to rectify some discrepancies
found in the floodplain data.
Our GIS Technical User's Group met:
JB Hoy and Ron Lucas provided an update on where we are in County/City
GIS. The City is in test mode and placing Street, parcels, and
structures, and floodplain data on their new ArcIMS website.
Gregory A. Palovchik, Taratec Corporation was introduced and is
assisting ILGARD with several detailed programming solutions.
The County has data in ESRI Coverage format and is doing parcel splits
in ArcINFO Workstation. Some AMLs have been written and we are doing
some of the joins with the County Auditor's CAMA data. Our current
platform is headed toward a streamlined SDE format goal so we can do
versioning editing and a use more efficient data model, and have a
centralized data server that all GIS departments within the County
would be able to access through a shared Enterprise system. We
convert everything over through Avenue Scripting to produce 400 scale
PDF maps that we run through Image Mapper to allow users to download
the PDF maps from our Website, which mimic the former One Mile Section
Parcel Maps that everyone has been accustomed to using. We have
developed a template for every One Mile Section Map and 50 scale City
Map and update those maps every time data from the Auditordatabase is
received. AMLs are run initially to get the Coverage data
in line, converted to Shapefiles, sent through the scripts, and into
the PDF format. Then the image map is set up through html on line to
publish the PDF Maps. This process enables users to always have the
most currently received data drawing a new updated PDF map through the
template process. We also have several versions of some historical
documents for viewing. We have a Data Download page where Shapefiles
of all Countywide parcels, road centerlines, orthophotography,
streams, floodplains, etc. may be downloaded by users. We are running
Extract Server through ArcIMS so that users can do data extract clip
to their computer.
Mark Dann from ESRI Columbus spoke about the direction we should take
in moving our GIS to an Enterprise System. Mark says taking our
existing Coverage data and migrating it to the new Geodatabase
(geographic database) format will give us a ton of advantages over the
Coverage System. The first is that we may define our own Topology
Rules rather than being forced to use the ESRI built in Topology
Rules. Next we will have much improved data maintenance efficiency.
Lastly we will be able to move directly into an SDE System which makes
our ArcIMS applications operate much more efficient. SDS is designed
for multi-user data access. Also in ArcGIS 9 the geoprocessing
diagramming tools are very capable of converting our existing Avenue
Scripts into Python Scripts so that they will operate in the
Geodatabase/SDE Environment. Mark says that it is a very good thing
that we are headed in this direction.
The first step in migrating will be to develop a Data Model as we
convert from Shapefiles to a Geodatabase. Next we should receive ESRI
Geodatabase training and possibly have an ESRI Studio Session here to
begin to set up our migration. ArcGIS Server can be used to set up
Web-based applications available on our website. Much of our GIS data
would then not only be available to view by users, but also GIS
editing can take place by the user using only html software. Mobile
GIS is a new framework being expanded that also can be used under the
SDE System.
Mark covered the major areas of ArcGIS 9:
* Desktop GIS - The primary seat from which GIS professionals compile,
author, and use geographic information and knowledge.
* Embedded GIS - Used to add selected GIS components to deliver GIS
functionality anywhere in an organization.
* Server GIS - A centralized server GIS may be deployed to publish
and share geographic knowledge within large organizations and the
Internet.
* ArcSDE - An advanced spatial data server
* ArcIMS - A scalable Internet map server
* ArcGIS Server - An application server
* Mobile GIS - From the office into the field, GIS is traveling by
means of focused application solutions on mobile GPS-enabled
computing devices.
I arranged with Mark to convert all our ArcView license seats to
ArcView 9.
At our next User's meeting Wayne National Forest will demo
their Geodatabase.
We received our new GIS Website Server. We will utilize the
Athens County ArcIMS software to power the new server.
Our Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) committee met. B&C Radio, Inc.
presented a demonstration of this technology. With the future move by
the County Engineer Operation to VHF radios being planned, the
existing County Engineer UHF Infrastructure might be used as a
dedicated AVL data frequency.
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting will be held November 18, 2004
at 10:00 A.M. in the ILGARD conference room. Our next GIS User's
Committee meeting will be October 21, 2004 at 10:00 A.M.
in the ILGARD conference room.
Sincerely,
Archie Stanley - GIS Coordinator
555 East State Street - Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone (740) 593-5514 - Fax (740) 592-4616
E-mail:
astanley@AthensCountyGovernment.com