ECOTECH NETWORK
By Larry Stipek
Enterprise GIS in Hanover County Provides
Tools to Catch Criminals, Manage Utilities, Dispatch Emergency
Vehicles, and Provide Many Other Services
The former Hanover GIS Manager Kevin
Nelson said that while the GIS is located organizationally in
the planning department, it serves not just that department but
all of the county. According to Kevin, “GIS attribute and
map data are routinely downloaded to support building permits,
utility billing, work order management, code enforcement, plan
development review, and public safety [E-911 dispatch and
Sheriff incident reporting].” Eighty county staff have
access to the county’s GIS directly through a program
that links ownership and assessment records to GIS data in a
user friendly environment. The public likewise has access to
GIS and assessment data through the county’s website that
today logs over 600,000 transactions a month.
These GIS data and maps are used
extensively in the public utilities department to support water
line flushing, Miss Utility response, flow analysis, and
utility facility maintenance. The GIS has been integrated into
the county’s economic development, environmental
management, recreational, and historic preservation programs,
including identification of economic development zones, adopt a
highway routes, regional stormwater management facilities,
watersheds, floodplains, bike routes and scenic roadways,
historical and archeological sites, cemeteries, and battlefield
locations.
One of the keys to making this system work
is a core group of GIS staff who provide central services to
the rest of the organization. The Hanover GIS Section supported
political redistricting and revision to school districts, and
continues to track numerous demographic (population and
housing) trends. Most importantly, the section assigns
addresses and maintains the parcel and address mapped
databases.
This central data maintenance process is
the foundation of the Sheriff’s crime analysis initiative
and the crime mapping. The Sheriff is matching addresses
reported through the computer aided dispatch [E-911] system to
the addresses created by and
The author is the Loudoun County GIS
Coordinator and a statewide authority and speaker on the
subject of geographic information systems and their
applications.
ccording to
Kevin Neimond, GIS Specialist with the National Association of
Counties (NACo), “While traditional applications of GIS
technology . . . have been in practice in county government for
nearly two decades, today, the power of spatial information
(data tied to location) is pushing beyond its original uses,
providing a valuable tool to numerous governmental
functions.”
Hanover County in Virginia is applying the
tools of its GIS to a wide variety of service delivery
programs. They are able to do so because the county has
incorporated its geographic information system into its
corporate information system. What we mean by corporate
information system is the computer systems used to manage the
business operations of the county.
The Hanover County Sheriff’s office
is among several departments using GIS to help manage and improve
services. Every officer has access to digital maps of all the
crime incidents from the previous day. Sergeants and crime
analysts have access to weekly mapped summaries of the crime
data including the responding officer’s notes. They can observe
patterns and sift rapidly through the data to find information
that is not readily apparent. It helps them to decide where to
patrol most effectively to reduce crime and improve
communities.
HANOVER’S GIS
Hanover County, located 12 miles north of
Richmond, started building its GIS in 1995. The county
collected fourteen mapped layers of data using a new digital
orthophoto that included roads, buildings, topography, street
centerlines, and parcels.
