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Mapping the City: An Update on the City's GIS Project By Alan Leidner Director of City-wide Geographic Systems NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Office For government, for business, for health and human service providers and, really, for practically everyone in New York City, location - and by this I mean geographic location - is important. Whether directing an ambulance to the apartment of someone in need, or finding a destination on a roadmap while driving on the highway, knowing where things and people are, has always been an essential element of business, pleasure, and living. For New York City government, the delivery of services requires a keen understanding of where people who need those services are located, whether it be their home or their place of work, their school or their place of care. Over the years, many of the City's 40 agencies have developed maps and databases with address information as a way of managing their operations. However, in too many cases the geographic information developed by one agency was incompatible with the information captured by other agencies. For example, if there was a watermain break at a major City intersection, field workers from the Departments of Environmental Protection, Transportation, Police, and Fire might be called to the scene. Additionally, the Transit Authority, Con Edison, Empire City Subway, and KeySpan might also be called in. Each would need to find their own maps of the intersection and none of those maps would contain information about anyone else's underground infrastructure. Until five years ago, the only successful effort to bring everyone "on the same map" was the work being done by the Department of City Planning to develop a comprehensive database of street names and addresses (Geo-Support), a block and lot map (COGIS file), and a street centerline file (LION map). City Planning's mapping tools have been used extensively to map service districts, land use, and to support dozens of computer applications needing address verification, but LION and COGIS are not geographically accurate, cannot be used together, and do not depict the physical structures of the City. The Creation of NYCMAP Six years ago, led by the Department of Environmental Protection and with the support of the Mayor's Office and the Office of Emergency Management, the City embarked on a project to create a highly accurate basemap. Aerial photography of the City was done and a firm hired to delineate various bodies, bridges, train tracks, and other infrastructures. The Departments of City Planning, Transportation, Police, Fire, Finance, and Design and Construction all played major roles in designing this map. The map, called "NYCMAP" is now complete. DCP's LION and COGIS maps are now being registered to it and efforts are being made to insure that all maps and data with a geographic component (address, block and lot, service district, intersection, street segment, coordinates) are similarly oriented to it. This will create a geographic data utility of enormous power and versatility. What GIS Means for Service Agencies For health and human services agencies, this means that the location of all individuals being served or needing services can be located on one map. Communities and neighborhoods that have special needs can be identified and services directed to them. Such services as meal delivery or school bus pickup can be more efficiently designed through the use of "routing algorithms" that can draw the most efficient routes vehicles and service providers can take. The map will also directly enable individuals. Someone calling a central service hot line can, by giving their address, receive information about all the social services agencies providing assistance for residents at that location. Additionally, people with service needs can find information about public transportation from where they live to anyplace in the City they may need to go for services or job interviews and employment. Eventually, this data will be available on the Internet, and all individuals can access this central location for their geographic information needs.
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