The New York Department of State’s Geographic Information Gateway (GIS) web site, which was launched last September as tool to educate and bring information on the State’s diverse land and offshore resources to an array of New Yorkers, was honored as a Special Achievement in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 2016 Award by Esri, a global GIS software vendor. The award acknowledges vision, leadership, hard work, and innovative use of GIS technology and was chosen from over 100,000 other nominations received.
The website features state-of-the-art map viewing and contains cutting-edge interactive stories that highlight case studies, showcases community success stories, and illustrates how geographic information is collected, analyzed and used to improve planning and decision-making. Since its launch, the Gateway has been seen by over 10,000 visitors.
Developed and designed by OPD and its contractor, Stone Environmental, the Gateway informs the public on OPD’s priorities regarding ocean use, such as offshore planning for renewable energy, adaptation to climate change with community and regional resilience planning, and helping waterfront communities create and foster a clear vision and plan for their future through creative partnerships and community involvement.
A variety of audiences and constituencies have benefitted from the easily accessible information that is readily available on the Gateway:
Residents
- Determine if they live in an area susceptible to floodingby viewing Coastal Risk Areas in the map viewer.
- Find real-time informationacross the State describing beach conditions, tide levels, and coastal wind speeds and direction.
- Determine whether their community participated in the NY Rising Community Reconstructionprogram and access community reconstruction plans to better understand the implications of the plan to their daily lives.
Business Owners/Investors/Entrepreneurs
- Use the map viewerto quickly identify the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) area of interest and access relevant REDC plans to understand how their activities relate to regional goals and strategies.
- View and download datathat show the distribution of existing ocean uses and natural resources to help offshore wind developers anticipate and avoid conflicts and select the most appropriate areas for project development.
- Get-up to speed on New York State’s offshore wind planning efforts by reading the interactive story and reports available on the Atlantic Ocean page.
Local Governments
- Determine the level of flood riska municipality or locale may face by viewing the Coastal Risk Areas overlaid on a satellite base map.
- Learn about the State’s resilience planning and explore nature-based approaches to managing shoreline erosion by reading interactive stories on the Climate Change and Resilience page.
- Learn about the resources and programs offered by the New York Department of State’s Office of Planning and Development to support community and regional resilience activities.
Educators
- Use the content and functionality provided by the Gateway to develop interactive lesson plans, such as demonstrating the potential effects of sea level rise on their students’ school, community and region.
- Explore different adaptive measures to address the future challenges of sea level rise and introduce their students to unique deep-sea life by exploring the submarine canyons found offshore New York.
- Other benefits offered by the Gateway include:
- A user-friendly interface that increases government transparency by providing public access to geographic information.
- Enables the public to view and download over 400 datasets related to the Atlantic Ocean and community resilience planning activities, including all the data presented in the New York Department of State Offshore Atlantic Ocean Study.
- Custom-built stories that help visitors interactively explore and understand a diversity of topics, from offshore wind planning activities to the development and application of coastal risk areas to support community resilience planning.
- Real-time updates to facilitate data sharing between local, state, regional and federal partners and serves as a central platform hosting DOS’s state, regional and federal partner’s geographic data.
- For more information about the awarding winning Gateway, please visit athttp://opdgig.dos.ny.gov/#/home or the Office of Planning & Developmentat http://www.dos.ny.gov/opd/
