Back in 1992, with plans under way to build a citywide geographic information system (GIS), officials from Visalia, Calif., went looking for municipalities with a successful GIS they could emulate. ìThere wasnít a whole lot out there,î recalled Derrick Lord, the cityís GIS coordinator. ìItís not easy convincing your council to purchase an expensive technology that few other cities have succeeded in using.î

Still, Visalia plunged ahead. Five years later, the city is one of a growing number of local governments that have succeeded in building a GIS at the enterprise level.

Since 90 percent of government information has a geographic component, GIS is a powerful integrator. By linking data with maps, governments can systematically collect and manage information and improve the way they plan, analyze trends and make decisions.

But in the early 1990s, GIS was expensive and had a steep learning curve. Only a small percentage of local governments could afford the necessary hardware, software and communications networks needed to turn GIS into an all-powerful technology. Those cities and counties that did implement GIS used it for one or two specialized applications.

Today, GIS is more widespread and larger in scale, thanks to fast-dropping hardware and software costs and a lower learning curve. In addition, many local governments have invested in high-speed networks that greatly improve GIS performance. In 1992, Visalia estimated its five-year GIS budget at $2.3 million. But the city only spent $1.3 million, thanks, in part, to lower technology costs.

The investment has given the city of 90,000 a GIS with over 50 different data layers that can be viewed and analyzed geographically. Virtually every department in Visalia uses the system. It has been used to locate a new fire station, reduce worries about crime in low-income housing developments, document the cityís historic sites, design new roadways and decrease the work associated with zoning changes. According to Lord, the payoff is clear. ìWe have more and more departments coming to us, wanting to conduct an ad hoc analysis using GIS. They are constantly asking, ëhow much can we save using GIS?íî

Plotting Good Partnerships
With the memory of recession deficits still lingering and most budgets under fiscal restraint today, few cities and counties can afford to build an enterprise GIS on their own. Instead, they are creating partnerships.
Some of the largest municipal GIS projects in North America rely on partnerships. The Regional Urban Information System (RUIS) is a joint project between the city and county of San Diego. The jurisdictions share operating costs and data layers, making RUIS a highly-integrated regional GIS. In 1996, the operating budget for RUIS was $5.5 million.
Raleigh, N.C., shares its GIS with surrounding Wake County. According to Colleen Sharpe, GIS manager for the city, a fiber-optic network connecting the two enabled them to develop numerous GIS applications. For example, Raleigh and Wake County jointly funded and developed MAPS, an integrated GIS application that provides quick access to data from many sources, including two relational databases, two graphic databases and a legacy database containing tax information. While all sources of data run on separate hardware, operating systems and networks, and are located in different buildings, city and county staff can use MAPS to analyze data geographically with the point and click of a mouse.

In Scarborough, Ontario, a GIS was developed on a citywide scale through internal partnerships between departments and external partnerships with other jurisdictions. The GIS team borrowed staff from various city departments to help with development. When their work was completed, they returned to their departments, highly trained in the use of GIS and able to teach other staff members how to take advantage of the technology.

Lynchburg, Va., has also partnered internally to leverage resources for GIS. ìFrom the beginning, enterprise GIS was our goal,î said William N. Eastman, systems