GIS in California State Government

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GIS in California State Government

• The Uses and Benefits of GIS in California State
  Government

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This presentation will cover

• What is GIS
• Where is GIS found in State organizations
• A brief history of GIS in California State
  Government
• Who uses GIS in California Government
• How is GIS used
• What are the benefits of GIS
• Current efforts to coordinate GIS
• Possible future directions

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Why are we talking about GIS?
After all GIS is just another set of tools
but GIS is relatively new and many are uncertain
as to its benefits, costs and how best to
implement.
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What is GIS?
A geographic information system is an organized
collection of computer hardware, software,
geographic data, and personnel designed to
efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate,
analyze, and display all forms of geographically
referenced information.
Standards Coordination Organization Processes
Procedures
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Think of GIS as an intelligent map or a map
enabled database
Each of the features displayed on the map are a
graphical representation of data contained within
the database.

• The capabilities of the traditional tabular
  database are extended to handle spatial
  attributes like
• Direction
• Proximity
• Adjacency
• Overlap
• Inside
• Outside

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GIS is a term that covers a number of
technologies including automated mapping
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GIS also includes remote sensing image
processing
Images captured by satellite or aircraft
are used in the GIS workstation.
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GIS can also include
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Traditional CAD systems have become database
enabled to cover the full spectrum of engineering
needs from building design to infrastructure
management.
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GIS and the Global Positioning System
GPS is an important ancillary technology to GIS
providing an affordable, cost effective means of
accurately establishing location.
.01 m to 5 m accuracy
10 m to 15 m accuracy
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True enterprise GIS is now possible
Before
Now
Geodatabase
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GIS needs across the enterprise

• The typical state government agency will have 3
  categories of GIS users.
• Most staff will fall within the General
  category and many of their needs can be met with
  a web based application.
• The next category of user is Advanced and they
  have more sophisticated needs that require the
  use of a desktop GIS solution.
• Finally there is a relatively small core of GIS
  experts or professionals that require very
  specialized tools for sophisticated analysis and
  to build and maintain complex models, data sets
  and GIS applications.

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Where is GIS found in State Organizations?
At some point, upper management becomes aware of
and concerned about the proliferation of GIS and
may implement a centralized service unit to
support and coordinate efforts.
Typically, GIS starts in program areas as need
and as resources permit often independent of any
strategic vision or plan.
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Does GIS belong in IT?
GIS often gets caught in a tug-of-war between the
central IT shop and the programs in which it
originated. GIS analysts should be considered
program, not IT, staff. For reasons of security
and efficiency of operations, GIS technology
needs to be integrated into and made compatible
with an organizations overall IT infrastructure.
The two must coexist.
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GIS needs to be both centralized and distributed
Conduct program specific GIS analysis, modeling
and cartography
Build, operate maintain enterprise GIS data
library, coordinate with programs to set
technology and data standards
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Some Key Events in California State Government
GIS Efforts
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Hundreds of programs in dozens of State
organizations use GIS

• Air Resources Board
• Board of Forestry
• Bureau of State Audits
• California Coastal Commission
• Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy
• Delta Protection Commission
• Department of Conservation
• Department of Corrections
• Employment Development Department
• Energy Resources, Conservation and Development
• Fish and Game
• Bay Delta Commission
• Food and Agriculture
• Forestry and Fire Protection
• Health Services
• Highway Patrol
• Industrial Relations
• Integrated Waste Management Board

• Justice
• Legislature
• Motor Vehicles
• Office of Criminal Justice Planning
• Office of Emergency Services
• Parks and Recreation
• Pesticide Regulation
• Prison Industry
• San Joaquin River Conservancy
• Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
• State Lands Commission
• State Library
• Statewide Health Planning and Development
• Tahoe Conservancy
• Toxic Substances Control
• Transportation
• Water Resources
• Water Resources Control Board

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How do State agencies use GIS?

• Emergency response
• Marine oil spills
• Earthquakes
• Wild land fires
• Floods
• Other large scale man made and natural disasters

• Hazards mapping
• Seismic mapping
• Flood zones
• Land slides
• Erosion hazards
• Abandoned mines wells
• Wild land fire

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How do State agencies use GIS?

• Natural cultural resource inventory
• Listed sensitive species
• Farm lands crops
• Timber
• Historic buildings sites
• Archeological sites
• Vegetation mapping

• Environmental Assessments
• Land use planning analysis
• Impact analysis of proposed developments
• Facilities planning
• Pollution studies monitoring
• Timber harvest

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How do State agencies use GIS?

• Planning facilities and services
• Health services
• Fire stations
• Emergency vehicle routing
• Prisons
• Roads transportation
• Coastal access
• Water diversions

• Facilities management
• Parks
• Prisons
• Highway maintenance
• Hatcheries
• State forests
• Wildlife rescue facilities

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How do State agencies use GIS?

• Conservation Planning
• Land acquisition
• Easements
• Restoration projects
• Fish passage
• Native species introductions
• Exotic species eradications

• Other
• Pesticide application
• Streambed alteration
• Coastal development
• Pipeline Permitting
• Leases
• Disease outbreaks
• Weed abatement
• Waste discharge
• Leaking tanks

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What are the benefits of GIS?

• Better, more informed decisions from better, more
  effective tools for
• Analyzing, visualizing, and understanding data,
• Testing assumptions,
• Anticipating outcomes,
• Identifying alternatives and
• Communicating results.

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GIS is a powerful tool for data integration
Vegetation/Land Cover
Ownership
Township, Section, Range
Terrain
Data collected by different parties using a
variety of methods can be combined.
Relationships dont have to be predetermined and
accommodated in the design of the related
databases.
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GIS is uniquely and particularly effective for
visualizing and analyzing data where location is
an important element.
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GIS also supports three dimensional displays for
enhanced visualization.
In this example, a high resolution satellite
image is combined with elevation data to show how
many islands in the delta are at risk from
flooding.
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GIS is a proven technology with ample
documentation of benefits

• Increased productivity
• Cost avoidance
• Better information security
• Better decisions
• Better customer service
• Personnel savings
• Improved modeling and planning
• Easier inter-office coordination
• Increased citizen participation.

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GIS Benefits Geologic Data
Societal Value of Geological Maps USGS Circular
1111

• Case Study Net Benefit ranged between 1.28 M
  to 3.50 M over a 6 year period for just 2 of
  many examples in Loudoun County, Virginia.
• Conclusion Nation is 17,000 times larger than
  study area (California is about 300 times
  larger). Use of spatial data on geology has
  extremely high potential benefits on a national
  scale for areas experiencing economic growth for
• Decision making on revitalization of
  infrastructure
• Avoiding irreversible environmental impacts
• Mitigating effects of natural hazards

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California Parks Recreation

• Identify and assess impaired water bodies on
  Park lands and leases to identify management
  needs.
• Requires taking official list (303d) of impaired
  waters and comparing them with Park lands and
  leases.
• The use of GIS saves 50 of time over the old
  manual process (e.g., mylar overlays on top of
  paper maps).

• Also saves days, sometimes weeks responding to
  daily requests for maps and spatial statistics.

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California Department of Conservation

• FEMA estimates that up to 75 of future expected
  losses from earthquakes in nation will be in
  California unless steps are taken to mitigate
  this risk.
• GIS used to identify and map the location of
  seismic hazards by integrating data on
• Surface and subsurface geology
• Groundwater levels
• Historic and current landslides
• Geotechnical bore logs
• Soils data
• Radar and other remote-sensing data

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GIS Used to Automate Earthquake Emergency Response
Responders obtain information within 30 minutes
of event!
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HAZUS Damage Assessment

• Hazards US (HAZUS) is a FEMA program used by
  OES.
• Provides individuals, businesses, and
  communities with information and tools to work
  proactively to mitigate hazards and prevent
  losses resulting from natural disasters.
• HAZUS can help anticipate the scope of needed
  emergency response after a large magnitude
  earthquake (5.0 or higher).
• The program can assist in developing plans for
  recovery and reconstruction following a disaster
  and can mitigate the possible consequences of an
  earthquake.
• Rapid property damage estimates after
  earthquakes
• Napa 50-100M
• Northridge 20B initial estimates
• Newport-Inglewood Scenario 158B

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1869 Map of San Francisco Salt Marsh Tide Lands
California State Lands Commission

• Can be used to
• ascertain type and extent of wetland loss
• determine depth of fill
• refine historical bathymetric studies

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California Resources Agency GIS Services
CERES provides systems and services for GIS data
discovery (cataloging and browsing) and sharing
(storage and retrieval) primarily in support of
GIS professionals
CERES is the information technology foundation
that supports GIS programs in Departments and
users of GIS in other organizations
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How can California State Government provide for
more effective use of GIS?
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Major Challenges faced by State Agencies

• Lack of executive sponsorship largely due to
• Lack of appreciation for appropriate role and
  value
• Lack of knowledge and experience with technical
  and organizational aspects
• Skilled staff hard to recruit and retain
• Up to date, consistent accurate GIS data for
  large regions either is not available or is too
  expensive to obtain and maintain by individual
  departments
• State lacks infrastructure to develop, maintain
  and share GIS data, solutions and support

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Many organizations share a need for the same
framework data

• Orthoimagery imagery that has been rectified to
  real-world coordinates on the ground
• Elevation or topography, generally referred to
  as Digital Elevation Models (DEM) of ground
  surface
• Transportation typically includes roads,
  highways, rail lines, airports, etc.
• Hydrography rivers, lakes, canals, and other
  water bodies
• Governmental (or Administrative) units for
  example, county boundaries and political
  districts
• Cadastral (or Parcel) information land record
  or parcel boundary ownership information
• Geodetic control high precision ground location
  information often used by surveyors and
  scientists.

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GIS Framework - Orthoimagery
Imagery that has been rectified to real-world
coordinates on the ground
Imagery can be used to derive features like water
bodies, roads, buildings, etc.
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GIS Framework - Elevation
Or topography, generally referred to as Digital
Elevation Models (DEM) of ground surface.
Elevation can be expressed as any combination of
contour lines and shaded relief.
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GIS Framework - Transportation
Typically includes roads, highways, rail lines,
airports, etc.
Hydrography
Rivers, lakes, canals, and other water bodies.
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GIS Framework - Cadastral
Land record or parcel boundary ownership
information
Geodetic Control
High precision ground location information often
used by surveyors and scientists.
Each monument has extensive documentation as to
authority, date, precise location and method of
determination.
Benchmarks or Survey Monuments
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The California GIS Council
A key element of the CGC is the formation and
participation of local collaboratives (e.g.,
Regional GIS Councils) composed of
representatives of county, city and tribal
governments, resource conservation and other
special districts, private and public utilities,
local colleges and universities and private
sector organizations the local government
agencies deem appropriate.  Input from local
government and those private sector entities that
provide support services is seen as essential to
council success.
Comprised of representatives from local, tribal,
state and federal agencies and the private sector.
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How the Calif GIS Council Functions
The state council meets at least twice a year.
Regional councils meet as often as they deem
necessary. iTeams make monthly reports on
project status.
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Determining Council Project Priorities
Survey Results

• Selected Projects
• Data catalog (metadata)
• Project clearinghouse (starting with
  transportation)
• Imagery (high resolution, satellite imagery)

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Where do we go from here?

• Inventory existing geospatial data holdings
  including imagery
• Coordinate imagery acquisition to eliminate
  redundancy
• Adopt a standard data cataloging method and
  system (CERES?)
• Develop, maintain and share statewide framework
  data
• Make policy to share data between agencies

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Why GIS?
Because LOCATION matters
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Questions?
Contact John Ellison California Resources
Agency john.ellison_at_resources.ca.gov (916)
653-2238