|
GIS is an extremely effective tool to evaluate and illustrate
relationships between features and occurrences that can be mapped, including
roads and highways, land use, parcels, municipal boundaries, geography, and the
environment. GIS provides benefits to organizations that incorporate the
technology into their daily business functions. The most notable of these
benefits include the following:
- Improved efficiency,
- Improved data management,
- Improved decision support, and
- Improved customer/constituent satisfaction.
More importantly, organizations that elect to collaborate with others
on common geospatial needs and opportunities can benefit substantially more
than those using GIS technology on their own. David Claypool, Surveyor and
Coordinator of GIS Operations for Ramsey County, Minnesota, and a geodata
collaboration visionary who has been an active participant in two of the
collaboratives featured in this guide (MetroGIS and Ramsey County GIS Users
Group), states it this way, "If someone is doing GIS on their own, they are not
realizing the full potential of the technology." Additional benefits that can
accrue to those who collaborate on common geospatial needs and opportunities
include the following:
- Reduced data costs
- Improved data quality
- Minimized data conflicts
- Improved participant operations
- Leveraged technology investments
- More widely understood benefits of data sharing
- Reduced project costs through collective bidding
- Strengthened rationale for commitment to standards
- Improved support for cross-jurisdictional decision making
- Strengthened working relationships fostering broader cooperation
|
