On a recent episode of the hit TV show 24, the lead character and
shows hero, Jack Bauer, used geographical information systems (GIS)
to thwart a trap designed to kill FBI agents. He took a graphic
image of a building and overlaid it with real-time data points of
the locations of all the agents in the area and discovered that the
agent who was supposed to be in the building as the lookout was
actually well outside the building. The access to real-time
information is a key component of GIS, particularly in the area of
emergency management and the need to accurately deploy both human
and material resources.
Our communities have unfortunately been full of incidents in which
all involved parties are not included in issues that arise. This
becomes ever more apparent in times of crises, such as the
terrorist attacks of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. The
Sustainability Leadership Institute defines sustainability
leadership as conscious engagement in individual and collective
actions that nurture and sustain the economic, environmental, and
social well-being of organizations and communities. Basically, it
means getting into the game, taking responsibility by tackling and
understanding complex local and global issues that impact the lives
of people today and in the future, and working side-by-side with
others who are seeking to make a difference, according to the
institute.
GIS is a tool designed to facilitate that process. By using GIS,
governments can partner with organizations and agencies to access,
share, and analyze information from myriad sources to work together
in developing strategies for sustainable development. The
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), a leader in the
GIS software market, says this technology will support decision
making and promote better organizational integration and knowledge
management to improve the quality of life for future generations.
GIS technology is changing the way organizations do business, and
is providing greater
opportunities for organizations to collaborate in their missions.
While this technology initially found its niche in disaster
situations, it is now more greatly appreciated as a multifaceted
tool useful in emergency management, community planning, policy
study, and much more.
Emergency Management
The field of emergency management involves four phasesmitigation,
preparedness, response, and recovery. GIS has become a critical
tool in all four phases, not only as a way for collecting,
organizing, and interpreting data for better decision making, but
also as an integrative tool that enables all responsible parties to
have better communication and share resources to avoid unnecessary
duplication of efforts in allocating resources
and deploying personnel.
An ESRI study on disaster responses (2001) provides the following
examples of how GIS was used for public safety:
- illustrated the conditions that led to a lethal flood and
subsequent mudslide on a California mountain
- showed where to put firefighters and their equipment in the
Tualatin Valley
- analyzed vegetation, fuel, weather, assets, and risks in Marin
County
- handled real-time disaster management through access to
real-time data.
During a recent chemical spill in Virginia, GIS provided real-time
information of the incident, informing all involved parties about
current wind impacts on the spill, population disbursement in the
area, and potential weather conditions. Hurricane preparedness has
been enhanced by the development of surge maps, and real-time video
cameras help transit authorities determine the need to change
traffic patterns, utilize HOV lanes, or deploy emergency vehicles
for accidents or disabled vehicles. In addition, during
the period of response and recovery, emergency personnel with
handheld computer devices can update data systems as they proceed
through their communities.
Community Planning
GIS data provides a holistic view of our communities. Proactive
community planning on the front side of disasters has better
outcomes on the back side of disasters. Our communities have been
operationally segmented for a long time. We have various community
departmentssuch as parks and recreation, transportation, education,
engineering, health and welfare, and economic developmentand it is
rare that all those departments are intimately aware of what the
others are doing.
At a recent graduate MPA program, mid-level managers from these
various departments were organized to discover what their fellow
departments were doing and how there were natural opportunities for
them to partner to provide better services for the city. Until that
point, they had been quite content to operate within the confines
of their own department and leave the big picture to the city
manager.
This is unfortunately the rule, and not the exception, because such
segmentation is the norm in the vast majority of American
communities. GIS offers a technology to connect those pieces. In
todays information technology-rich society, we often have more data
than
we know what to do with, and unfortunately it does not get used
strategically to its full potential. GIS gives us the tool to
integrate data we have collected on roads, climate, population, and
buildings, and exploit it to develop strategies that take into
consideration many aspects relevant to the situation being studied.
Universities and communities have also partnered together to use
GIS. At Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty worked with city
planners and community members to develop city and county
recreational trail plans. Universities have also been employing GIS
to develop mapping programs of their campuses for rapid deployment
of resources in future security and criminal incidents. Since the
campus shooting in 2007, Virginia Tech has used visualization tools
and techniques to give officials the ability to query, compare,
display and analyze complex spatial information about incidents and
physical environments on campus can help enhance university safety
and crime prevention strategies and provide for immediate
deployment of resources.
Policy Studies
GIS is an effective tool for myriad policy studies, from
environmental impact to public health. Suppose there is a community
in your state that has unusually high cancer rates. GIS can overlay
various streams of data to find possible answers. GIS can help in
redistricting for schools or elections.
A recent studypublished by Catherine G. Geanuracos, MSW, Shayna D.
Cunningham, PhD, George Weiss, BA, Draco Forte, MEd, Lisa M. Henry
Reid, MD, and Jonathan M. Ellen, MDdiscussed how GIS can help with
HIV prevention. The published report, Use of Geographic Information
Systems for Planning HIV Prevention Interventions for High-Risk
Youths, discusses how researchers used data gathered from disparate
sourcessuch as epidemiological data, disease rates (HIV and STDs),
morbidity data, suicides and homicides, socioeconomic data, and
demographicsto produce maps that met the project protocols. This
mapping provided geographic summaries of which neighborhoods were
the highest risk environment for acquisition of HIV by youths.
Similar studies are currently being conducted on the swine flu
epidemic. Datasets are being used to identify where the cases are
occurring. By overlaying other datasets such as demographics,
researchers are attempting to determine patterns that may help to
identify potential future breakout locations. Spatial measurements
and geographical distributions are identifying the clusters, and
within the clusters, the center of the grouping.
Statewide Cooperation
The State of New York has led the way in this level of
collaboration through an innovative program known as the NYS GIS
Coordination Program. This program brought together the various GIS
players throughout the state and developed a formal mechanism that
would better support cooperation. According to Ophelia Eglene of
Middlebury College and Sharon S. Dawes of the University at Albany,
State University of New York, there were many hurdles:
- lack of awareness of existing data sets
- lack of or inadequate meta data
- lack of uniform policies on access, cost recovery, revenue
generation, and pricing
- lack of uniform policies on data ownership, maintenance and
liability
- lack of incentives, tools, and guidelines for sharing
- absence of state-level leadership.
They were able to overcome these obstacles by helping all involved
parties understand the value of investing in the common good, and
that led to the creation of a GIS Clearinghouse
(www.nysgis.state.ny.us), which has helped organizations throughout
the state to both contribute to, and benefit from, the collection
of datasets submitted to the Clearinghouse. Similar clearinghouses
have been set up by the State of California (www.atlas.ca.gov) and
many other states.
In addition to purposes of cooperation among agencies and
organizations, states such as Maryland have utilized GIS to create
programs they feel enhance government transparency and
accountability. Under the direction of Maryland Governor Martin
OMalley, the State of Maryland has developed a new online GIS-based
performance measurement program, MD iMAP, with the slogan, One
Maryland, One Map. This program gives the public access to
performance information on areas such as land conservation and
state employees fuel consumption.
Fulfilling Its Potential
As with most technologies, we have only begun to scratch the
surface of GIS capabilities. GIS currently gives researchers,
public officials, and community service providers access to
publicly available data. The issues presented in the case study of
New York State identified one key question to be considered in the
near future: how to most effectively control and maximize use of
GIS data.
The question of whether the United States government should seek to
have one single GIS language for enhanced cooperation and
collaboration between agencies and governments has surfaced. As was
discovered during the recent terrorist attacks on September 11 and
Hurricane Katrina, it is vital for optimal cooperation and
collaboration that we speak the same language and our tools
communicate with one another.
John Cassidy of Enterprise Markets (2008) states that a single GIS
language would provide multiple benefits: more efficient delivery
of services; better preparedness
by defense and national-security organizations; more rapid response
to natural disasters; more efficient use of natural resources; and
better mass transportation, highway and traffic planning but this
is a vast undertaking that requires a spirit of collaboration and
cooperation spanning many federal agencies and departments, and it
includes all levels of government Work gets done when lawmakers
reach across the aisle.
When I first learned about GIS, it was perceived to be a tool for
geographers. It has morphed into much more, and it is my hope that
this article will whet your appetite to learn just how much GIS can
do for you and your organization.