Local Government GIS Demonstration Grant - NCGIA Buffalo

Manager's Overview 7
another agency, why enter into anagreement to pay for it? The answer is, of course, that the
creating agency will not beable to sustain the GIS database under these circumstances. However,
at this time , the set of state laws and regulations applicable to GIS data are not
adequate to resolvecost issues and to facilitate regional data sharing
cooperatives. New legislation willbe required. The New York State Temporary GIS Council
did submitrecommendations on these issues to the Legislature in March 1996. Additionally,
theNew York State Archives and Records Administration is currently in the process ofpreparing
record management and retention schedules suitable for GIS data, both inindividual agencies and
for shared databases. The New York State Office of Real Property Services has been designated
as the GIS representative on the Governor's Task Force for Information Resource Management.
One of the charges that has been given to the Task Force is to design a cohesive policy for the
coordination of geographic information systems within New York building on the work of the
Temporary GIS Council. Further information should be availablein late-1996 that should clarify
the issues associated with arranging for data sharingamong governments.
5 MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN GIS DEVELOPMENT
Expected Benefits From The GIS
Local government need for, and use of, a GIS falls into several categories: maintaining
publicrecords, responding to public inquiries for information, conducting
studies and makingrecommendations to elected officials (decision-makers), and
managing public facilities and services(utilities, garbage removal,
transportation, etc.). The GIS tasks that meet these uses are:
• Providing regular maps
• Conducting spatial queries and displaying the results
• Conductingcomplex spatial analyses
Many of these tasks are already done by local government, althoughby manual means. The GIS
is able to perform these tasks much more efficiently. Some of theanalytical tasks cannot be
performed without a computer due to their size and complexity. In thesecases, the GIS improves
local government effectiveness by providing better information to plannersand decision-makers.
Benefits from using a GIS fall into the two categories of: efficiency and effectiveness.
Existingmanual tasks done more efficiently by the GIS result in a substantial savings of staff
time. In thelocal government context, the largest savings come from answering citizen inquiries
of many types. Depending on the size of the government, savings using the query function of
a GIS can rangefrom 2 person-years for a smaller town, to 5-8 person years for a large town, to
10 or more person-years for a large county. Estimates of potential time savings can be derived by
measuring the timeto respond to a query manually and by GIS and multiplying the difference by
the number ofexpected queries. This information is usually gathered during the Needs
Assessment. Effectivenessbenefits are more difficult to estimate. The GIS may be used to
accomplish several tasks that werenot previously done due to their size and complexity (e.g.,
flow analysis in water and sewer systems,traffic analysis, etc.). As these are essentially new
tasks, a comparison between manual and GISmethods is not possible. While not measurable, the
benefits from these applications can besubstantial. Generally categorized as better planning,
better or more effective decision-making,these applications support more effective