Examples of GIS Uses in Iowa

Examples of GIS uses in City Governments in Iowa

• Asset Management
• Street pavement management
• Sign management 
• Park infrastructure and asset management
• Sidewalk management
• GASB 34 accountability
• Building Inspection
• Permit inspection
• Fire inspection
• Crime Analysis
•  Drug exclusion zones around school locations
• Sex offender exclusion zones
• Incident tracking/analysis 
• Car thefts/recoveries
• Violent crimes analysis and mapping
• Accident mapping
• Posting crime data to web as public service
• Compiling data and maps for inclusion in grant writing
• Emergency response at public safety answering points (dispatch centers
• Historic buildings mapping and data management
• Neighborhood association mapping, mailings and planning
• Redistricting
• Voting
• School attendance boundaries
• Emergency services (police, fire, ambulance districts)
• Routing applications
• Bus routing
• City services routing
• Site analysis and suitability
• Economic development
• Fire station siting
• Land use analysis
• Utility network analysis
• Water distribution and flow network
• Storm water flow network
• Sanitary sewer collection and treatment network
• Zoning delineation
• Creation of digital zoning maps
• Rezoning request analysis, request tracking and notification mailings to surrounding property owners
• Management of zoning district boundary changes and timely updates via digital mapping
  

Examples of GIS uses in County Governments in Iowa

• Asset management
• Roads pavement management
• Sign management
• Park infrastructure and asset management
• Bridge management
• Traffic count mapping
• Analyzing equity in distribution of road improvements and project dollars
• flooding history - wash outs, bridge closings and water over the road
• GASB 34 accountability
• County 5-year construction program planning
• Inventory of fixed, surveyed ground control monuments used for georeferencing aerial photography and for survey work.
• Snow removal route planning
• Road maintenance district management
• Conservation practices
• Burn zone management
• Crop rotation and land use schedules
• Park/Public use map
• Emergency management and response planning
• Critical asset identification and mapping
• Chemical release plume analysis
• Training exercises
• Alternate route planning
• Mapping locations of persons/people who will need special assistance during an emergency
• Environmental and public health applications
•  Lead Poisoned Children  (plotting cases, trends)
• Lead Hazard Potential tracking (ID at-risk housing based on risk factors....age, construction, neighborhood)
• Staff planning for Home Health Care (plotting clients and formulating zones to reduce mileage and accommodate scheduling)
• Water test (routing in areas that haven't been tested in a while, assuring even coverage of testing, tracking nitrates and bacteria in the test results by well).
• Food Establishment inspections (plotting establishments, inspector work loads for staff territories)
• Underground contamination plume modeling (for high risk Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, digitizing the chemical plume maps, separation distance policies).
• Private water well tracking (well evaluation results, water tests linked to these known wells).
• Levee System - monitoring of rodent activities that could compromise the levee system, tracking efforts to eradicate rodents)
• Mosquito surveillance and Larvaciding (log of all treatment, environmental conditions, mosquito activity, database of all chemical applied, GPS locations).
• Tracking of STD's (plotting cases to show proximity to college and trends.
• Alcohol/Car Crashes Study
• Proposed wells (use GIS to make sure the proposed well location meets separation distances and other criteria before approving).
• Environmental Site Assessments - as requested by engineering firms and contracting companies to identify hazards/violations on a proposed build/construction site
• Inner office plat mapping and general queries (i.e. - quick maps for health officers' field work needs and reference)
• Property tax administration
• Base maps and data foundation for additional GIS applications and projects
• Maintenance of digital plat books
• Cadastral data maintenance and updates
• Comparable properties sales analysis
• Availability of county and city real estate mapping and data online
• Generation of customized maps for public and government agencies
• Data sharing with other levels of government (federal, regional, local)
• Mapping Exempt properties -
•  to graphically show how much exempt property exists because the visual impact has a greater affect than just numbers.  The geographic location and concentration of exempt properties has an impact on officials when considering issues related to the exempt status of a property or properties.
• Sales ratios analysis and mapping -
• a graphic representation of sales ratios allows assessors to visually compare and analyze value adjustments before assessment roles are sent out
• a graphic representation of sales ratio data allows Board of Review members to visually analyze changes in value for different areas of incorporated or unincorporated areas of a county
• helpful to show sales ratios for each parcel sold during assessor's Board of Review
• GIS provides a more complete picture of assessments than is possible to achieve by any other means
• Public safety
• Emergency vehicle 911-dispatch
• Mapping of incoming call location
• Tracking emergency response vehicle locations via computer map display
• Routing emergency response vehicles to incident location
• Sex offender exclusion zones analysis and mapping
• Redistricting
• Voting
• Rural fire districts
• Zoning delineation
• Creation of digital zoning maps
• Rezoning request analysis, request tracking and notification mailings to surrounding property owners
• Management of zoning district boundary changes and updates via digital mapping
• Land use planning and mapping

GIS uses in Education

• Local school districts (K-12)
• School Bus routing
• Adjusting school attendance boundaries and posting the boundaries on the web
• Analysis for determining location for new schools buildings
• School taxing district boundary analysis 
• Teaching/learning math, geography, science, social studies, spatial thinking skills
• Higher Education (post secondary)
• Use of GIS to teach research skills and results reporting
• Geographic information technology training and education for career preparation
• Campus facility management - tracking renovation and room usage
• The Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa utilizes geospatial technologies for site inventory and records as well as in research projects

GIS uses in Regional Planning

• Regional transportation analysis and planning
• Zoning ordinance development
• GIS acts as a management and integrating tool between regional organizations and smaller incorporated town who may not have the resources for implementation of an organizational GIS.
• Hazard mitigation planning
• Alternate transportation (bike trail) planning and mapping
• Incorporation of maps into grant proposals

GIS uses in State Government

• Agriculture
• Crop health and productivity research
• Crop planting trends
• Crop insect and disease monitoring and reporting
• Weather and soil moisture conditions monitoring
• Freeze, radar, rainfall and NWS warning systems via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet
• Emergency management and homeland security
• Critical asset identification and mapping
• GIS data sharing with local, state and federal government for homeland security purposes
• Threat mapping
• Capital Complex emergency planning
• Nuclear Power Plant Planning/Response
• Presentation of common operating picture to multi-levels of government during emergency planning, training and response
• Natural resources
• Digital soils maps, with attribute data related to soil composition and qualities Archeological studies
• Historical - as tracking changes through time
• Wildlife habitat monitoring
• GAP program
• Transportation
• Transportation maps
• Short range and long range planning
• Linear referencing system
• Structure and rail crossing inventory
• Construction site analysis
• Aviation systems have spatial locations for airports and heliports that are tied to extensive aviation business data.
• Corridor studies
• Environmental impact studies
• Asset management (pavement, bridges etc)
• Accident reporting, tracking and analysis
• Education
• School district boundaries and redistricting
• School locations
• Public Safety
• Road conditions
  

GIS in Private Business

• Agriculture
• Yield maps for major crops
• Soil test result maps
• Tile location maps
• Crop suitability rating maps
• Land use (corn, soybean, CRP, pasture)
• Business location siting analysis
• Electrical utilities
• Asset management
• Hookup to building or structure management
• IOWA ONECALL
• Address location
• Pipeline location mapping
• Working with local and county governments to acquire GIS data for parcels in proximity to pipelines
• Transport vehicle tracking