Gregory A. Newkirk
GIS on a Shoestring
As GIS technology proliferates, opportunities to establish a GIS in smaller
municipal agencies will increase. To take advantage of these
opportunities, these agencies need to identify existing data sources within
the larger organization. This data can then be bartered using data sharing
agreements that allow access to GIS data without the exchange of money.
Further, rather than hiring additional staff, work loads can be shifted
among existing staff, thereby using in-house personnel to staff a GIS.
Training for this staff can also be bartered without the exchange of money.
Finally, financing GIS hardware and software can be done through upgrade of
existing systems or by including it as part of a larger project that
requires GIS services. This paper will illustrate these techniques by
describing the experiences of the City of Vancouver, Washington in 1992
when it established a workstation GIS with a total cash outlay of $54,000.
Included with this paper is the data sharing agreement between the Clark
County Assessor (Washington) and the City of Vancouver, Washington.
History
Since 1986, the City of Vancouver, Washington began exploring opportunities to
establish a GIS. Among the uses identified for the GIS were land use
planning, ground water management and utility management. Efforts focussed
upon combining the resources of the planning department, the public works
department and a regional agency to establish a unified GIS. But, these
efforts were unsuccessful, resulting in divergent and non-compatible
applications. The regional agency established a GIS using a SUN
workstation and ArcInfo software with which it began developing a
groundwater protection program. The public works department established a
limited AM/FM system using PC technology, Autocad software and the
capture of 70 square miles of topographic data into Autocad drawing files
from orthophotography. Since the planning department's budget was inadequate to
establish a GIS by itself, its GIS budget was absorbed into the public works budget
in return for producing topographic maps for land use planning.
Four years later, the Clark County Office of Assessment and Mapping established a GIS
by converting its Mapping Division into a GIS Division using networked UNIX
workstations and by capturing data from its approximately 2,500 mylar
cadastral maps into ArcInfo coverages. Over time, Clark County's new GIS
developed into a wide ranging program for urban analysis as the
Washington State Growth Management Act created substantial demand for
analysis of land use planning, transportation and other urban development
activities. Concurrently, the regional agency was disbanded and its data
sets and GIS analysis responsibilities were absorbed into the new GIS.
Additional data sets were acquired from state and federal agencies to
create an initial library of approximately 80 data layers.
Memorandum of Agreement
During this time, the City of Vancouver's planning department was absorbed
into a newly created department of Community Preservation and Development
(CPAD). In early 1992, CPAD approached the Clark County Office of
Assessment and GIS for advice in creating its own GIS. Initial discussions
indicated that CPAD was interested in developing a GIS that would be fully
compatible with Clark County. Further discussions focussed upon the costly
investment both Clark County and the City of Vancouver had put into their
respective data sets. Clark County had invested millions of dollars
converting its mylar maps into digital format and the City of Vancouver had
invested over a million dollars for its digital orthophotography. As Clark County's
database was maintained as ArcInfo coverages and Vancouver's database was
maintained in Autocad drawing files, it became apparent that a formal data sharing
agreement was needed to address these and other issues. A copy of this
agreement is included in the Appendix.
Concurrent to its discussions with Clark County, the City of Vancouver
passed a special appropriation to address the requirements of the
Washington State Growth Management Act and other needs. Within this
appropriation was $58,000 for CPAD to help it establish a GIS. CPAD
expended $54,000 of this budget with its purchase of the following
equipment and training:
HP 9000 model 710 workstation
1.7GB of mass storage
DAT DDS Tape Backup
Calcomp 9500 digitizer
HP PaintjetXL300 11" x 17" plotter
HP Draftpro EXL pen plotter
ArcInfo software license
Two weeks training in UNIX systems from Hewlett-Packard
Two weeks training in ArcInfo from Esri.
Staffing and Training
While no additional funding was available to hire staff for the GIS, work
loads could be reassigned among existing staff, allowing one person to
administer the new GIS. A senior land use planner was identified who had
a degree in geography and extensive experience with computers. That person
was provided training in UNIX systems and in ArcInfo software. To acquire
additional training using Clark County's GIS library, CPAD's newly assigned
GIS staff was loaned to Clark County for five months where he documented
and developed metadata for Clark County's GIS.
An important point worth noting is that even though the City of Vancouver and
Clark County adopted a formal memorandum of agreement, the success of this
collaboration relied upon a high level of trust. The development of this trust
allowed for the full system integration of CPAD's workstation into Clark County's local
area network and allowed for administrator level access to Clark County's GIS library.
As a result, both agencies achieved their objectives ahead of schedule. By the end
of five months, CPAD's GIS staff had documented and created metadata for eighty (80)
data layers and obtained a thorough working knowledge of Clark County's GIS library.
Another crucial activity that was undertaken during this time was the
conversion of Vancouver's digital topography for inclusion in Clark
County's GIS library. Access to a PC with Autocad software allowed CPAD's staff
to convert all of the Autocad drawing files to DXF format. Beginning with the 2-foot
contour data, these data were then converted to ArcInfo line coverages and
included in the GIS library.
Implementation Timeline
In February, 1992, CPAD developed a cost estimate for a GIS and arranged for the
City Manager to tour Clark County's GIS. He was impressed by its analytical
capabilities and allotted CPAD $58,000 of a special appropriation he was preparing
to submit to the City Council for approval. The appropriation was adopted in May,
1992; however, equipment purchase was delayed until the memorandum of agreement
was signed. Due to issues that needed clarification, the agreement was delayed
for signing until October 28, 1992. CPAD then ordered its GIS workstation which it
received and configured in January, 1993.
On May 1, 1993, both the workstation and staff were relocated to the Clark
County Office of Assessment and GIS where the workstation was configured
as part of Clark County's GIS local area network. On October 1, 1993,
after the metadata were developed and the digital topography was converted,
both CPAD's workstation and staff were relocated within its own department.
Because of concerns about system loads for the City/County wide area network, 150
square miles of Clark County's GIS library were copied over to CPAD's GIS. One
direct connection to Clark County's main GIS server was maintained to
allow for off-hours data transfer and access to Clark County's HP 7600
model 355 color laser plotter.
Over the past three years, CPAD and Clark County have collaborated to accomplish
a number of projects and to improve and add to the GIS library.
Summary
In 1986, the lack of digital data and expensive hardware costs prevented the
City of Vancouver from establishing a GIS. By 1992, hardware costs had
decreased dramatically and digital data was becoming abundant. Additionally,
GIS became a critical tool for meeting the requirements of land use
planning mandated by the State of Washington. The City's willingness to
convert and to share its topographic digital data, as well as contributing in
other ways to Clark County's GIS, allowed it to barter for all of its
GIS needs outside of the purchase of a GIS workstation and ArcInfo
license. Additional costs have been limited to maintenance and plotting
expenses and modest system improvements during the last three years. Future expansion
of the City's GIS is planned in the form of Desktop GIS for existing
land use planning staff. Because of recent and planned PC upgrades, the cost
of expanding into Desktop GIS will be limited mostly to software expense.
Appendix
MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT
BETWEEN THE
CITY OF VANCOUVER
AND
CLARK COUNTY ASSESSOR, WASHINGTON
THIS AGREEMENT entered into this_____day of_________________________, 19__, by
and between the CITY OF VANCOUVER, a municipal corporation of the State of Washington,
hereinafter referred to as "CITY" and the CLARK COUNTY ASSESSOR, a duly elected official
of the State of Washington, hereinafter called "ASSESSOR".
WHEREAS, the CITY and ASSESSOR desire to establish and maintain a legal relationship
which will ensure adequate coordination with respect to development and on-going operation
of a common GIS (Geographic Information System) database; and,
WHEREAS, the CITY and ASSESSOR desire to define staff roles and responsibilities when
coordinating programs that have shared benefits; and,
WHEREAS, the CITY and ASSESSOR seek agreement on how data sets are made available
to both parties.
THE CITY AND ASSESSOR MUTUALLY AGREE AS FOLLOWS:
1. The CITY and ASSESSOR will coordinate development of a common set of definitions
that allows for the mutual sharing of data sets. It is clearly understood by the CITY that
the ASSESSOR's GIS database, in particular the parcel coverage was designed for
assessment purposes based on the legal aspects of property ownership and not for highly
precise engineering level mapping.
2. The CITY's hardware and software equipment will be reviewed by the ASSESSOR to
ensure compatibility with the ASSESSOR's GIS program.
3. The CITY will provide the following:
-
- a. A data license to use the various digital data sets from the 1986-1989 Vancouver
City Topographic Mapping Program for the sole purpose of permitting other
County Departments and the ASSESSOR to use the data sets in its GIS program
and for no other purpose whatsoever. The ASSESSOR or other County
Departments shall not transmit the data sets to any other person or organization
unless authorized in writing by the CITY except as may be permitted by state and
federal law.
- b. A data license to use the various digital data sets from the CITY's GIS program,
unless such information is not owned by the CITY, for the sole purpose of
permitting other County Departments and the ASSESSOR to use the data sets in
its GIS program and for no other purpose whatsoever. The ASSESSOR or other
County Departments shall not transmit the data sets to any other person or
organization unless authorized in writing by the CITY except as may be permitted
by state and federal law. The ASSESSOR shall act as the CITY's agent in using
data sets not owned by the CITY for the sole purpose of developing GIS products.
- c. Copies of the digital information as described in Section 3 a. and Section 3. b.
above along with and manual maps that may be deemed appropriate in the on-going
development and operation of the ASSESSOR's GIS program.
- d. On-going maintenance of zoning, comprehensive plan, sewer, water, and other
digital data coverages within the City of Vancouver's city limits or service district
boundaries according to the schedule developed per Section 6 below.
4. The ASSESSOR will provide the following:
-
- a. Training opportunities with the CITY on the technical aspects of the ASSESSOR's
GIS database.
- b. GIS technical consulting services related to the use of various data sets, analyses,
or sophisticated modeling.
- c. Access to plotter equipment for the CITY's sole use and not on behalf of any
other person or organization unless authorized in writing by the ASSESSOR.
- d. A data license to use various data sets from the ASSESSOR's GIS database,
unless such information is not owned by the ASSESSOR, for the sole purpose of
permitting the CITY to use the data sets in its GIS program and for no other
purpose whatsoever.
- e. Copies of the digital information as described in Section 4. d. above and any
manual maps that may be deemed appropriate in the on-going development and
operation of the CITY's GIS program.
5. DISTRIBUTION. Digital data will be provided to both parties through magnetic
media until appropriate procedures and guidelines are developed for wide-area or local-area
network communications.
6. SCHEDULE. Both parties agree to develop a semi-annual schedule of products of
deliverables and share updated versions of the data products described in Sections 3 and
4 above for the duration of this agreement. This schedule will be revised semi-annually.
7. COMPENSATION. The CITY and the ASSESSOR agree to provide the information
described in Sections 3 and 4 above to each other at no charge. The ASSESSOR shall
not require payment for training necessary to understand and use the ASSESSOR's data
sets according to their current particular configuration utilizing ArcInfo software. The
CITY shall pay for plotter equipment usage and any technical consulting services and
training requested from the ASSESSOR that are beyond basic knowledge of the
ASSESSOR's current data configuration and useability with ArcInfo GIS software.
8. INDEMNIFICATION. Both parties agree to indemnify and hold each other, its agents
and employees harmless from any and all claims, demands, damages, actions, losses,
and expenses, including attorney's fees and patent infringement arising out of or in any
way connected with the ASSESSOR's or CITY's use of the information exchanged.
9. GOVERNING LAW. This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of
Washington. Venue for any litigation shall be Clark County, Washington.
10. CONFIDENTIALITY. With each transmission of data components, the CITY and
ASSESSOR shall each clearly designate which information is confidential and/or
proprietary, and both parties agree to respect all designated confidentialities and
proprietary issues except as may be mandated by state or federal law.
11. MODIFICATION. No modification of the provisions of this agreement shall be effective
unless reduced to writing and signed by the parties.
12. INTEGRATION. This Agreement contains the entire agreement between the parties and
supersedes all prior written and/or oral discussions or agreements between the ASSESSOR
and the CITY.
13. TERM. This agreement shall be deemed effective upon its execution.
14. TERMINATION. This agreement will be in effect for a period of three (3) years and
may be mutually extended by agreement of the parties.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the ASSESSOR and CITY have executed this agreement on the
date first above written.
CITY OF VANCOUVER
CLARK COUNTY ASSESSOR
Gregory A. Newkirk, AICP
Senior Planner, Geographic Information Systems
City of Vancouver
P.O. Box 1995
Vancouver, WA 98668-1995
Telephone: (360) 696-8012
Fax: (360) 696-8283
Email: vanplan@ci.vancouver.wa.us