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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: [gislist] ARC GIS |
| Date: |
06/30/2005 09:40:02 AM |
| From: |
Bill Thoen |
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On Wed, 29 Jun 2005, Rod Norland wrote:
> Help. I am lost. Our small co. has just installed Arc GIS Arc Map
> and Arc Catalog. I have been given the task of making it work. I could
> certainly use some friendly advice. Like were to start. Or anything
> else, How do other counties use this. I do know that I need a base map.
> But I don't know where to get it. The County is reluctant to spend the
> money on Allot of training so I am on my own here. Any information would
> help. THANKS RRN
Good grief! Who made the decision to spend all that money on software
with no thought to training at least *one* person in-house to use it? You
really ought to get some training, because if you don't, I'll bet the
county will spend more for your time to teach yourself than they would if
just coughed up the thousand bucks or so to send you to a course.
At least you're in luck if you're in Washington state. There are a lot of
public GIS data resources to draw on at the state level. Take a look at
the state GIS web sites (Google on "gis washington state".) Then, and
maybe first of all, get on the phone and introduce yourself to your
opposite numbers in the neighboring counties. Ask them for
recommendations on what layers to build an maintain and where to acquire
them. Also ask them if there are any relevant mailing list for Washington
GIS interests. Work with them on developing your data structures.
There's no excuse for neighboring counties to build incompatible coverages
for data of the same themes, or not maintaining a common, conflated set of
core data.
Also check through your county's phone book and see if there are other
offices (like the Assessor's office, or police, fire or utilities
departments) who might have GIS data or GIS needs that you should be aware
of.
As to what data you need, I expect, at a minimum, you'll want all the
TIGER and Census data available for your county. This includes political
boundaries, streets with address ranges, rivers & water bodies, landmarks,
etc. You can get these from the Census bureau (www.census.gov) or maybe
you can get them in a ready-to-use format from a state or regional
resource.
And of course, if you don't have it already, you should make a list of
needs your county has in terms of what your new GIS system should do for
you. That will help you decide what data you are going to need to acquire
and develop. But of course you have that... surely the person who bought
all that software knew why they needed it!
- Bill Thoen
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