Greenscapes: Expert GIS Map Creation in the Hands of GIS Novices

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

In 2016, the Montgomery County Department of General Services (DGS) enlisted the help of the County’s Department of Technology Services (DTS) Geographic Information Systems team (DTS-GIS) to map facilities and inventory their area measurements. DGS maintains County facilities, including mowing lawns and trimming brush – maintaining the “greenscapes” – surrounding more than 150 recreation centers, libraries, County offices, and other locations. Planning such maintenance requires delineating for staff and contractors which green areas near each facility need to be maintained as well as calculating the square footage of area of responsibility at each location. Such tasks can be accomplished easily using desktop GIS software to create aerial photo maps and calculate areas, but DGS’ work needed to be completed by DGS staff who were familiar with the facilities but not with GIS software. GIS software is very useful but can be confusing and intimidating to novices. DTS-GIS designed a template map document that used software extensions to greatly simplify the processes for both map creation and area calculation by DGS staff. Furthermore, DTS-GIS made use of the database versioning feature of the ArcGIS software to allow multiple DGS staff to edit the greenscapes data simultaneously, with the master copy of the database synced for all edits by DTS-GIS staff at the end of each day. The final product was 148 PDF maps, some displaying more than one adjacent facility. Each map highlighted the greenscape areas drawn by DGS staff atop aerial photos and property lines, with various information about each location automatically added in the margins, including square footage of each green area. Upon completing the project, in addition to the PDF maps, DGS also now possesses GIS data its staff can edit for future greenscape inventory needs.