Integrated Parcel Lifecycle System

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Informed, data-driven planning and decision making is a goal for all organizations. Fairfax County has a vast store of information about land parcels, including assessment, zoning, development plan, permits, inspections, and land use data. The county also creates a wealth of demographic information. This data, however, was stored in disparate databases aligned by business function, posing significant challenges to using data across function areas. In addition, the legacy system creating demographic information could not exploit newer methodologies and technologies. The Integrated Parcel Lifecycle System facilitates and expands the capabilities of all Fairfax County departments to access, integrate, and analyze demographic and land use information for the purpose of making data-driven service delivery and planning decisions. IPLS integrates data from across business and jurisdictional functional areas into an accessible data warehouse. In addition, IPLS provides tools for creating parcel level demographic estimates and forecasts and provides menu-driven tools that allow novice users to generate customized reports and maps. Planners, analysts, and decision makers now have access to geographically detailed information that previously was unavailable or very difficult to access. The development and success of IPLS required close cooperation between five Fairfax County departments.