Abstract
Municipal/Educational Partnership to Develop and Expand Town GIS Projects
Track: Teaching About GIS for Future Professionals
Authors: David Kuzminski, Susan Bransfield, Kevin Armstrong, Thomas Meyer
Portland has a unique program, called the Town Tech Educational Partnership Program, through which high school students digitized 136 assessor's maps for use in a customized, Town-wide geographic information system. The project helped integrate GIS into the high school and promote GIS technology within other town departments (public works, water and sewer, police and fire departments). In cooperation with the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, this project allowed Town Tech students to use GPS receivers to map town infrastructure (fire hydrants, manholes, valves, etc.) and scan historical mylar maps and as-builts of Portland Town and State projects. This three-way partnership between a State agency, public university, and local government served the missions and goals of all partners and created a product now used by the local government. We believe it is a model for the State, an exemplar of what can be achieved with GIS.