Open Access
THIS BOOK IS NO LONGER BEING PRINTED.
GIS in e-Government
From small sleepy townships to huge federal agencies,
governments are discovering that doing business over the Internet can save
them and their constituents a lot of time and money--commodities they are
often accused of wasting. As a result, e-government Web sites are
sprouting up all over the Internet, and providing new efficiencies that
are transforming the traditional relationship between government and
citizens.
At the forefront of the e-government revolution are
agencies that have discovered how geographic information systems (GIS) can
magnify these efficiencies many times over. Using GIS to serve interactive
maps over their Web sites, these agencies let their citizens see their
neighborhoods and communities with new eyes--letting them pan and zoom
across city maps, choose from myriad layers of data, and combine those
layers for customized analysis.
Interactive mapping is empowering
citizens.
Open Access: GIS in e-Government presents case
studies of a cross section of these forward-thinking agencies. Their
constituents are using interactive GIS on the Web to create their own
crime maps, to compare property values, to find the nearest polling place,
to assess environmental hazards, and to investigate in detail where the
choicest economic development opportunities lie.
Using GIS,
government agencies are bringing new meaning and new depth to their entire
e-government enterprise.
About the author:
R. W. Greene, staff writer and editor at ESRI Press, is a graduate of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Reporting at The Ohio State University, and author of GIS in Public Policy and Open Access: GIS in e-Government