Abstract

Creating a Cloud based Data Model for School Boundary Collections
Track: Database Design and Management
Authors: Andrea Conver, Tai Phan, Amy Ramsdell

In May, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) published approximately 300 2009-2010 school boundaries from the Public School Boundary Geodatabase (PSBG) on the School District Demographic Data System (SDDS) Map Viewer (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds). Using the previous process as a spring board, ED created a new data model for the boundaries covering the 2010-2011 through 2012-2013 school years using ESRI ArcGIS 10.1 for Server and Desktop in addition to custom built Python tools. Improvements included data storage and sharing on the GeoCloud as well as replication and versioning for QA/QC purposes. Having implemented the new data model, we will reflect on work flow issues that arose and helpful tool automation. We will also discuss the future plans for the project.