PROBLEM

Sarpy County and the cities of Bellevue, Papillion, and LaVista in Nebraska were all in the process of developing GIS data and applications for their own use. Unfortunately, this development was taking place with very little coordination between the municipalities and even between individual departments. Recognizing this, the County wanted to consolidate and coordinate the development efforts and provide a common set of data and applications.

SOLUTION

ADC was contracted to conduct a GIS Needs Assessment for Sarpy County. The scope of the assessment included recommendations for the development of an enterprise GIS system that would integrate the data and applications from the Planning and Permitting Department, the Register of Deeds, the Surveyor’s Office, the Assessor’s Office, Emergency Management, E-911, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Election Office. In-depth interviews were conducted with members from each department as well as with city representatives to assess their current GIS capabilities, and to determine their application and data needs. Existing databases were evaluated too for the best method to link information between departments, and to allow the existing data to be linked to spatial features.

The Omaha Public Power District and the Metropolitan Utilities District were interested in cost and data sharing with the county and were also interviewed to determine their role in the implementation. While this type of intergovernmental cooperation can be difficult to initiate, once in place, it saves time and money for both the city and the county.

RESULTS

The results of the needs assessment were used by the Sarpy County GIS Coalition to help implement a comprehensive County GIS program. The Coalition consists of representatives from Sarpy County, the Cities of Bellevue, Gretna, LaVista, Papillion, and Springfield, and the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resource District, and all members have access to the data and applications, with base portions of the data maintained by Sarpy County. Because of the efficiency gains, the coalition and shared GIS are now a model of GIS-based interlocal cooperation for the State of Nebraska.