 Many changes and announcements are expected in the coming months as
the project takes its next turn. Developers believe that the Logan
County GIS should be ready for public use before spring gets here.
Logan County engineer Bret Aukamp has been a part of the project
since its beginning. Aukamp has been overseeing the mapping process
and guiding computer networking design phases for last few years.
"It's pretty exciting to get to this point to make a lot of this
information public," Aukamp says. "This has been the goal all
along."
As its foundation,
GIS unites computer technology, aerial digital
photography, parcel mapping and land use. Any number of other data
layers can then be added to this base. As the system is built and
more data is collected and loaded, layers can be turned on and off
as needed.
You can find a list of links to GIS sites
below to see how one works.
The system is expected to benefit Logan County in the areas of
marketing, business, emergency management, law enforcement and
health, as just a few examples. Users who understand the system say
that only funding restricts its range of usefulness.
The local project has been developed under the Logan County
Regional Planning Commission. As the first phases of aerial
photography and parcel mapping were nearing completion a couple of
years ago, a GIS committee was formed to determine what areas of the
system should be developed first and how to share that information.
To expedite the process, it was decided to follow in the
footsteps of those who have gone before, and the Tri-County Regional
Planning Commission was consulted in the next phase.
"The biggest thing we're looking forward to right now is the
Internet mapping application," Aukamp said. "What this will do is to
allow anyone to view the data that has been developed in Logan
County over the last few years. Anyone in an office or at home would
be able to see nearly all the information that we have developed
layers for."
Layers in place:
-
Aerial photography
for the entire county was done in 2004.
-
The USDA developed
the soils layer several years ago.
-
A map using photos,
which includes road and property lines, was completed by Bruce
Harris & Associates.
-
Software and
computers were purchased and installed that would allow
information from county departments to be shared.
-
Parcel data was delivered in November
2008.
"It's very handy stuff, and getting it out to the public is going
to be just fantastic, whether it is just the curious bystander or
people that use this for their business," Aukamp said.
An example
A business that might be interested in locating here could
get their first look at a site. This looks and acts a lot like
looking at Google Earth. You can see how a property looks and what's
on it and around it. You would also see roads and streets to the
property.
If a business would need to do a site change -- such as any time
an EPA permit is needed -- and it required notifying neighboring
property owners in a radius of a certain number of miles, this is a
tool that could save several days that would be spent at the
assessor's office tracking down the needed information.
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The combined resources would not only allow on-the-spot ability to
identify the properties within a specific range, but would also show
mailing addresses of each of the property owners.
Any business that would be doing a lot of research of properties
would benefit from tools that would be available for purchase
through the county, which would add even more speed and ease to the
process.
What led to the start of GIS
-
Every county's
assessor's office was required by the state of Illinois, in
Bulletin 810, to make farm ground assessments based on soil
types. This required aerial photos, soil types and parcel data.
-
The Illinois
Department of Transportation provided $80,000 in an 80-20 grant
to every county for GIS purposes. Most of that was used on the
aerial photography.
-
The continuation and greater cost of
the project has been supplied through recorder's fees collected
by County Clerk and Recorder Sally Litterly's office. That is a
real accomplishment in that no taxes were created to pay for it,
Aukamp said.
GIS coordinator position
The GIS committee is in the process of defining a coordinator
position that would manage the system. There would be expansion of
the system and a lot of data that would require constant updating.
The Logan County Regional Planning Commission will be offering
the GIS services to municipalities, departments, organizations and
agencies. It is anticipated that the commission would go to
municipalities and partners for the needed additional funding.
"There are a lot of things in the works and a lot of questions to
be answered in the months to come," Aukamp said.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
The following
GIS sites provide examples of what can be done in Logan County:
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