New York upgrades GIS for planning

New York City’s Department of City Planning (DCP) has used GIS for more than 15 years. Last year, the department decided to switch to a new GIS to improve the management of its 800,000 land parcels and complex spatial information.

The department identified three requirements for the new technology: * Object-oriented programming, which allows for seamless system migration without reducing production downtime at DCP; * CASE tools, which allow for design and documentation of the data model; and * Version management capabilities, which allow DCP to keep track of the changes made by multiple users with access to the same databases.

In fewer than nine months, DCP made the complicated transition from its legacy system to Englewood, Colo.-based Smallworld’s spatial resource planning software. The process included all the data conversion, mapping and GIS applications for the department’s street centerline digital map, which contains address ranges, street names and intersection identifiers. DCP also created a parcel file to map approximately 1 million properties throughout the city.

Now that DCP’s migration is complete and in full production, it plans to integrate its centerline and parcel files with the city’s new spatial planimetric base map, as well as to develop other digital maps to designate legal geography within the city. The system will serve as the model for other departmental mandates across the city.