 INTEGRATING GIS
FOR INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
As the fastest growing town in the United States for the last five years, Gilbert, Arizona, has quickly become a municipal behemoth. The phrase "booming metropolis" does not quite capture the phenomenon taking place in the town. In 1980, Gilbert had a population of 5,717. By 2003, this had increased to a population of more than 138,000. With a population that has almost doubled every five years since then, the southwestern town 25 miles east of Phoenix adds about 1,000 new residents every month. Expansion such as this creates many obstacles for a municipality. One of those obstacles is maximizing the benefits of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as departments develop. Ten years ago, Gilbert did not have a formal mapping system in place. However, with the enormous growth of the town, spatial data would play an integral part in how Gilbert functioned. As the town developed, the Public Works Department needed a GIS-integrated solution for its infrastructure management. Gilbert software analyst John Fedor says officials wanted to improve the tracking and analysis of public works costs. "The infrastructure demands were huge, and work orders were becoming more and more important with the rapid growth," Fedor says. |
© copyright 2011 Scott R. Wilson