Geographic information sharing: A regional approach in northern New Jersey, USA

Issue title: Government Information Sharing and Integration: Combining the Social and the Technical. Papers from the 9th International Conference on Digital Government Research (d.g.o.2008)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Artigas, Francisco^{a; *} | Elefante, Dom^a | Marti, Alex^{a; b}

Affiliations: [a] Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute 1 De Korte Park Plaza Lyndhurst, NJ 07071, USA | [b] Rutgers, The State University of NJ 101 Warren Street, Smith Hall, Room 107 Newark, NJ 07102, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 201 460 1700; Fax: +1 201 460 2804; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) is a regional planning agency in northern New Jersey with jurisdiction over 14 municipalities. This case study describes a five year effort by this agency to serve geographic knowledge to 14 towns in the region by sharing resources and infrastructure through a centralized Geographical Information System (GIS). Serving this information required funding, convincing towns to participate, specialized staff, software licenses and equipment and follow-up with training and updates. The information being served consists of interactive maps available through a Web browser conveying the spatial arrangement of municipal infrastructure, administrative boundaries and fundamental demographics of each town in maps and tables that show proximity, elevations and distances that would otherwise be impractical to describe using words alone. Systems such as these support local governments by delivering information and services to the community in the form of variance notifications, zoning and land use inventories and updates and emergency management information including Right to Know (RTK) records that inform first responders about hazardous materials stored in industrial facilities. The study details how towns were brought in to share resources and participate in a multi-user GIS, how data was organized around the needs of users, the different implementation phases, roll out of the applications, training, maintenance and finally, how the system was adopted and is currently used.

Keywords: Geographical Information Systems (GIS), municipal government, emergency management

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2009-0165

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 14, no. 1-2, pp. 127-139, 2009