County, cities collaborate on use of GIS technology

Dakota County, Minn., and 11 communities within the suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul county have been using GIS for nearly a decade and have discovered a wide variety of applications.

Twenty-two of 28 county departments now use GIS in some form, says Gary Stevenson, director of survey and land information. The county has developed its own Intranet to share information, and a pilot program is underway to put the data onto the Internet.

Use of GIS technology for hazard response and monitoring of utilities infrastructure is fairly commonplace, but Dakota County and neighboring communities have found other diverse uses.

For example, last year the National Association of Counties presented the county with an Achievement Award for its pesticide education program, under which the county’s digitized soil survey was combined with federal data to develop soil maps depicting pesticide leaching potential in different areas.

Also on the pest control front, GIS was employed to mesh data regarding encephalitis-carrying mosquito species with population density data. The objective was to enable the Metro Mosquito Control District and county to better collaborate on an abandoned tire pickup program.

Stevenson says Dakota County appears to be on the cutting edge in its use of GIS. “I definitely think we’re one of the more advanced (counties) as far as the detail of our databases,” he says.

Individual communities have also found a variety of uses for GIS. Apple Valley, population 46,079, used GIS to regulate location of adult entertainment businesses.

Prospective sites for the businesses were determined based on adherence to a city ordinance that requires a minimum of 1,000 feet between these establishments and schools, libraries and residential areas. The city also employed GIS to develop more efficient snow plow routes and monitor complaints.

Apple Valley does not have a centralized GIS program; instead, separate departments have their own work stations. The city regularly works with an outside consultant to update and improve its GIS applications.

Although GIS cost/benefit analyses are usually limited to narrowly defined projects, some experts have maintained that a 10-year payback on investment is the norm.

However, one recent study noted that GIS makes possible things that were impossible or impractical before, according to one of the study’s authors, William Craig, assistant director for research at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

“Lots of people have the technology, but not many people are getting as many benefits out of it as Dakota County,” says Craig. He attributes this to a great deal of stakeholder involvement on the part of Dakota County and other municipal officials, as well as a strong outreach effort to train and encourage employees to use GIS.