| In
order to bring
everything together, the
GIS Department was
started April 1, 2001
with the hiring of a GIS
Director. The department
is housed within the
Evansville Water and
Sewer Utility (EWSU) and
is located in the Civic
Center at 1 NW Martin
Luther King Jr.,
Blvd, Room 205,
Evansville, Indiana
47708.
The main goal
of the department was
to implement and
support an enterprise
wide GIS system for
local government
departments.
This required making
hard copy maps
available on the
computer, through a
process called
digitzing. These
maps are used to
support the everyday
decisions that affect
the residents of the
city and county. Some
of these maps are from
the early 1900’s with
no means to recreate
if a disaster occurs.
By digitizing
these maps the
city/county has begun
the process of having
critical maps
digitally created and
archived. This
archiving of mapping
information will give
the city/county the
ability to restore and
return to daily
operations in case of
a disaster. The GIS
system also assists
departments in the
decision making
process by having data
that is more accurate
and readily available.
This information is
currently disbursed
throughout the
city/county with no
central repository.
Before the
implementation of the
GIS Network, it could
take days, weeks, or
longer for a
department, citizen,
or elected official to
obtain information
maintained by another
department in order to
make a decision. The
new enterprise wide
GIS system will
improve the time it
takes for a
individuals to obtain
information, thus
enabling a decision to
be made in a timely
and efficient manner.
Additional
benefits of the GIS
system include the
ability to get
departments to work
together to share
information, storing
information in a
central repository,
creating awareness
between departments on
the type of
information maintained
by other departments,
the reduction in the
duplication of data
management, and the
ability to implement
cost effective
technology solutions
with in-house staff at
dramatically reduced
costs.
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