Nothing but Net - Using the Web as a Mapping Review and Edit Tool

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Maricopa county helped to pioneer the transformation of the flood Insurance Rate maps (FIRM) from paper to an electronic format starting in 2003 so that the maps published in 2005 became available as Digital Flood Insurance Rate maps (DFIRMS). This year, review began for the 2012 printing of the DFIRM. With a 30-day review window and over 300 panels to review, an application was developed that allowed over a dozen reviewers the ability to view and comment on all of the panels through the web. This not only saved time, but also eliminated the need to print, edit, and mail hard-copy panels and enabled all of the edits to be sent as a single file via email. Since all of the comments were referenced to their actual location, the comment file was then simply overlaid in a GIS system for verification. The process is efficient, cost-effective, and meets one of Maricopa County’s strategic priorities, namely, to reduce the environmental impact of county government and work towards more environmentally sustainable practices.