North Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council
Report on Achievements 1995-2001
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Mission: To Improve the quality, access, cost-effectiveness and
utility of NC's geographic information and promote geographic
information as a strategic resource for the State.
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Authority
Executive Order 16, Governor James B. Hunt (amendments include
Executive Order 124, Executive Order 142, and Executive Order 166 that
expires December 31, 2001)
Membership
The 25 members of the Geographic Information Coordinating Council
include several Council of State members, nine cabinet officials, and
the President of the University of North Carolina. Local governments
and lead regional organizations are represented, as is the federal
government and the non-government sector. Two user committees elect a
representative to the Council from their groups.
Standing committees include separate user committees for state, local,
and federal government GIS technology users. On-going business as it
relates to technical standards is conducted by the GIS Technical
Advisory Committee. The Statewide Mapping Advisory Committee makes
recommendations for data acquisition and funding partnerships, and is
the liaison with US Geological Survey, National Mapping Division.
Strategic Plan for Geographic Information Coordination in North Carolina
Adopted in 1994, the comprehensive Strategic Plan focuses on nine
strategies and three outcomes to help North Carolina realize the full
potential of a coordinated approach for the use of geographic
information technology within the state. The three measurable strategic
outcomes have been achieved: the North Carolina Geographic Data
Clearinghouse, the Community Data Sharing Program with local
governments and other agencies, and the Corporate Geographic Database,
although a funding mechanism to guarantee long-term storage, archiving
and maintenance remains an unresolved issue.
Partnerships
The Council fosters collaboration between all governments,
universities and the public to achieve the best use of these data and
the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.
- Data Sharing. The GICC initially focused on data sharing
partnerships among state agencies relative to creating the Corporate
Geographic Database. Increased local government representation on the
GICC has resulted in new data sharing partnerships with county and
municipal governments throughout North Carolina.
- Federal/State. The GICC established one of the first
cooperating partnerships with the Federal Geographic Data Committee
(April 1995). The importance of this partnership plays out on numerous
fronts involving the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and the
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure.
- Federal Grants. The GICC has partnered on numerous successful
federal grant applications with the Center for Geographic Information
and Analysis, the Secretary of State's Office, the Department of
Community Colleges, Appalachian State University and various county
governments, such as Johnston, Wake, Moore, Guilford. Since 1995 the
annual grant awards have helped create the North Carolina Geographic
Data Clearinghouse and assisted extensive data documentation by state
agencies and more than 30 counties. Grants have also provided a means
to conduct statewide surveys, a feasibility study for a GIS Technician
certification program, and a delineation of public land boundaries in
the state.
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GIS in K-12 Education. The Office of Environmental Education requested
GICC support to promote use of GIS in classrooms with K-12 teachers
through con-ferences and Science Teachers Association meetings. Summer
GIS workshops have been conducted for teachers since 1995.
- Consolidated Survey of Local Government. The Council
coordinated a 1997 comprehensive survey of local government GIS that
combined requests from many state agencies and the NC Property Mappers
Association into a single form.
Significant Issues
The Geographic Information Coordinating Council was always at the
forefront of issues confronting local and state agencies, and was
routinely involved in national and international discussions about
policy, standards and future direction of this technology. Issues
included Public Records legislation relative to the collection and
dissemination of geographic information; privacy of an individual's
records; North Carolina's seaward boundary; personnel classifications
for GIS workers; requirements for using the Qualifications Based
Selection process in local government procurement of aerial
photography; and changes in state law relative to certification of
photogrammetrists and its impact on local government GIS operations.
Outreach and Actions
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Video teleconferencing. Used extensively to reach large statewide
audiences for issue-oriented meetings, such as the Digital Content
Standards for Spatial Meta-data and Public Records Law as it pertains
to GIS in local government. (1995 forward)
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North Carolina State Fair, Cyberspace Exhibit. Showcase for citizens to
see and access state and local government GIS data. Internet mapping
capabilities and hands-on demonstrations change each year. (1995
forward)
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Exhibitor at League of Municipalities annual conventions. (1996 forward)
- North Carolina Geographic Information Systems Conferences. One
of the nation's largest and most respected state conferences, the North
Carolina conference attracts almost 1,000 participants to the biennial
two-day event in Winston-Salem. The poster session, open to all
governments, non-profits and universities, remains one of the most
popular features. Local governments com-pete to win the prestigious G.
Herbert Stout Award for Exemplary Use of GIS.
1996 Award winners: Johnston County, the Town of Garner
1999 Award winner: City of Winston-Salem
2001 Award winner: Mecklenburg County
- National GIS Day. Educational events are developed by local and
state government agencies and promoted through the Internet to
introduce children and the public to GIS. Events include a wide range
of activities from the City of Raleigh's demonstration in Exploris
Museum that maps the Governor's route to buy a Krispy Kreme donut to a
GIS teach-in for 200 middle- and high-school students using the North
Carolina Information Highway. (1999, 2000)
Official Policies
- Corporate Geographic Database Access Policy
Adopted November 1995 -- Main
provisions include on-line access, cooperative agreements, metadata
[data about the data] for each data layer, linkage to North Carolina
Geographic Data Clearinghouse, user fees when applicable, access
compliant with NC Public Records Law G.S. 132
- Statement of Direction for North Carolina Corporate Geographic Database: Horizontal Reference, Datum and Unit of Measure
Adopted March 1998 -- Main
provisions include the adoption of the North American Datum, 1983,
North Carolina State Plane Coordinate System, metric units as the
official horizontal positioning reference for state geographic data.
- Statement of Direction for Digital Orthoimagery
Adopted October 1994, revised 1996 -- Main
provisions emphasize that statewide digital orthoimagery [aerial
photography] can provide a uniform base map for the state if it
reflects a single time period and meets certain mapping requirements.
This statement supports the completion of the processing of the 1993
black and white photography and the acquisition of 1998 color infrared
photography.
Standards Adopted
"A Standard Classification System for the Mapping of Land Use and Land Cover," Published 1994
"Statewide Global Position System (GPS) Data Collection and Documentation Standards," Adopted October 1994, revised 2000
"Federal Geographic Data Committee Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata," Adopted February 1996
"Geographic Data Content Standard for Water Distribution and Sanitary Sewer Systems," Adopted
December 1997 (This standard was applied to a $1.3 million statewide
project to inventory and map 2,624 public water and sewer systems in
rural NC.)
A Strategic Resource: The Corporate Geographic Database
The Corporate Geographic Database has been evolving for many years and
is one of the richest data resources in the nation. The following
adaptations and data acquisitions were influenced by the work of the
Geographic Information Coordinating Council.
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1993-Black and white digital orthoimagery (aerial photography) was
purchased through a cost-share initiative between the State of North
Carolina, USGS, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and various
state and federal partnerships. Legislative Appropriation covered a
portion of the cost and provided the hardware acquisition for the
Center for Geographic Information and Analysis to serve the large data
files on-line.
- 1997-Conversion of the entire Corporate Geographic Database
from horizontal controls datum NAD27 to NAD83, and to the North
American vertical controls datum, NAVD88, per Council policy. The
conversion also included a change of measurement system from English
(feet) to metric (meters).
- 1997 forward-Focus on the completion of seven statewide data
themes in the database: transportation, surface waters, geodetic
controls, cadastral (property ownership), digital orthoimagery (aerial
photography), elevation, and governmental units (boundaries). These
base data layers (Framework) will be pieced together across the state
using the best data available, which can be derived from local, state,
or federal sources.
- 1998-Rural water systems and sanitary sewer inventory data from
75 counties is added to the GIS database. Based on the inventory, the
NC Rural Center readjusted the upgrade costs to these systems at $11.3
billion. Long-term maintenance and custodial responsibility of this
database is an outstanding issue.
- 1998-Color Infrared digital orthoimagery (aerial photography)
was purchased through a cost-share initiative between the State of
North Carolina and US Geological Survey. Several state agencies, as
well as the City of Greensboro, are contributing funds to digitally
process the photography.
NC Geographic Data Clearinghouse
One of the first states to build an Internet-based clearinghouse
(1995), North Carolina received grant extensions to support work on a
robust search mechanism to help people find geographic data about
specific locations within the state. Several additional grants added
new capabilities, and new local government data providers as they
constructed metadata required for their inclusion in the Clearinghouse.
Internet-based tutorials on how to construct metadata are on the Clearinghouse web site.
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