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TextCounty's GIS Program Receives 'Best of Breed' Award
Office of Public Affairs
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 551
Fairfax, VA 22035-0065
703-324-3187, TTY 703-324-2935, FAX 703-324-2010
Oct. 10, 2003
County's GIS Program Receives 'Best of Breed' Award
Fairfax County’s GIS program received a “Best of
Breed” award in the 2003 Digital Counties Survey. This survey and award
recognition was conducted by the Center for Digital Government, in
partnership with the National Association of Counties. CDG is an
international research and advisory institute on information
technology.
This survey, underwritten by Microsoft Corp., was open to applications
from all counties in the United States. Awards were given to the nine top
counties for their technology-savvy projects that improved government
operations and customer service to their citizens.
“We’ve implemented an infrastructure that makes GIS widely available in
the county,” said
Thomas Conry, branch manager of the GIS Branch of the Department of
Information Technology.
“We now have nearly 400 layers of information and it’s growing. We’ve
worked with different agencies to enable them to understand GIS and
integrate it into their operations.”
The majority of county agencies now use GIS or GIS products as part of
their operations. Some of the ways agencies have used GIS to improve
operations include:
• Part of the planning response to the West Nile virus threat (Health
Department).
• Digitized bus routes for transit planning (Department of
Transportation).
• Direct digital updating and a new data structure for digitally storing
the parcel and zoning data that enables users to view the status of
county property maps online at any time.
• A pioneering and award-winning project with the Virginia Department of
Transportation to jointly maintain street center line information. This
data sharing helped the response to Hurricane Isabel and will be used to
aid snow plowing effectiveness.
• Dramatically accelerated the analysis and display of the Chesapeake
Bay Preservation Ordinance project, enabling citizens to view results
over the Internet as the project proceeds, rather than many months
afterward.
Citizens also benefit from the GIS technology. Anyone can use the
following GIS products and services by visiting the county’s Web site at
www.fairfaxcounty.gov
and clicking on the Maps, Facts and Stats section:
• Map Gallery: Find many of the common maps that are produced by the GIS
& Mapping Department. The maps are letter-size and available in many
formats for downloading and printing.
• Aerial/Ortho Photo Viewer: View Fairfax County by jumping to one of
the predefined “points of interest,” or panning and zooming to any part
of the county.
• DTA Parcel Finder: Find detailed information about property and view
that parcel with the parcel viewer along with an aerial photograph of the
area. This application now serves over 2 million map views per
year.
• Fairfax Time Machine: Pick a highlighted area of the map to see an
animation of that area from 1937 to 1990.
• Digital Map Viewer: Over 2,200 highly detailed maps are available for
free viewing, downloading and printing. These maps include property data,
the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance – Resource Protection Areas,
contours, building outlines and zoning information. These maps are
updated daily as changes occur. Some of these maps were never publicly
available before, and those that were, were only updated annually. Those
map books cost over $60. Over 41,000 detailed maps were viewed over the
past year.
• Free GIS Data: Selected sets of GIS data are available for download
for use with GIS software.
Individuals, businesses and organizations that are interested in detailed, up-to-date county GIS data for use with GIS software can purchase that data on CD from the GIS office. Information is available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/cd.htm.
For more information about the county’s GIS program, contact the GIS Front Desk at 703-324-2712, TTY 711.
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