Current Status of GIS
in Mono County:
Since October of 2004 the County has employed a permanent GIS Coordinator who has been working hard on upgrading the data infrastructure while growing system functionality through the development and implementation of new applications to access this data.
Most of the data related work has been associated with upgrading the Parcel Geodatabase by splitting out the parcel data into separate data sets and improving the data quality and attribution of each of these data sets. Part of the driving force behind these updates is the development of a Countywide E911 system that we hope to have in place by the first part of 2006. In order to support this system, we are building GIS features for every inhabited structure in the County and tying addresses to those features. The re-development of the Parcel data has also inspired working out a better system for the maintenance of this data. For the most part, this means increased coordination and communication between various departments within Mono County in addition to the Town of Mammoth Lakes.
On the application side, improvements have been made to our IMS based ParcelViewer application, which is deployed to all County staff members in house. We are working hard to get this same web-based service on the Internet so members of the public can access parcel information from their home computers.
Mono County and the Town of Mammoth Lakes are also in the process of drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement pursuant to GIS. This agreement involves all hardware, software and data infrastructure, in addition to the GIS Coordinator position. The ultimate goal of the MOU is to centralize the GIS resource for the two agencies in an effort to reduce overall costs, increase efficiency and facilitate data accuracy and exchange. In the future, we hope to pull in other local agencies interested in participating in the County’s GIS into this agreement.
If you have any questions about the status of GIS in Mono County, or the Town of Mammoth Lakes, please contact Nate Greenberg, GIS Coordinator, via email or at (760) 924-1819.
History
of GIS in Mono County:
GIS efforts in Mono County began about seven years ago when the Assessor's
office and the Community Development department got together to begin
the process of creating a Countywide parcel basemap. The initial base
mapping effort was completed in April of 2003, and offers a key data component
to which many other data sets can be related.
In the last four years, the Community Development Department and Assessor's
Office have stepped up their GIS efforts even more by using staff and
interns to complete small and medium scale GIS projects. Though a complete
basemap was not available, pieces of the puzzle were falling into place
and enough information was available to allow staff to generate maps and
perform basic analysis on certain focus areas in the county.
In October of 2001, Mono County signed a contract with Talon Associates,
LLC to begin formalizing the GIS efforts within the County. In addition
to extensive data development, Talon Associates setup an Intranet based
Interactive Map System (IMS) which allowed all staff connected to the
county-wide network to access GIS data through easy to use interfaces.
This project opened the door for switching gears into a new way of performing
old tasks for a variety of staff people, and enabled users to quickly
obtain information for the public without having to fish through a sea
of hard-copy documents.
While more work is taking place on the development of the IMS, a functional
system is in place and is being used by staff on a day-to-day basis. One
of the more important aspects that came out of this development process,
however, was the establishment of a formal system for accessing information
from a variety of different sources. As GIS efforts continue within the
county, the IMS will serve as the backbone, and new information and additional
development and customization will be used to make the system more robust
and more functional as needs arise.
