An interesting GIS feature hit the latest edition of American Surveyor Magazine. The article explores how smaller towns and cities have been reluctant to make the move to a GIS, often citing it as both too daunting and far too cost-prohibitive. From the article… As the benefits of a comprehensive GIS effort have become more and more apparent, larger cities and municipal utilities have been steadily getting on board with the technology, citing it as something of a “no-brainer” in terms of better asset availability, increased accuracy, ease of access to information, and so on.
Read on for details of how The City of Troutdale, Oregon (pop 16,000) proved an exception to that rule, embracing the GIS concept early on. The city proved that a City-wide GIS is indeed attainable, manageable and affordable!
A 1.793Mb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE