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August 5, 2010 | Volume 4, Issue 8 | www.sdchamber.org | contact us
More than 14,000 geographic information systems (GIS) users from around the world gathered in San Diego recently for a conference at the San Diego Convention Center. The theme, "Geography: Opening the World to Everyone," was fitting for the location. The Port of San Diego's GIS Department is considered to be on the forefront of GIS technology in ports and maritime industries. GIS creates "interactive maps", in that they're more than just a picture of one point in history. The maps are filled with sets of data about Port tidelands and its assets. It provides a profile of the site, which includes underground utilities, water and sewer lines and property line boundaries. The recent four-day conference was sponsored by ESRI, a GIS modeling and mapping software and technology corporation that is used by 29 percent of the GIS market. The conference brought together GIS professionals from around the globe who shared the latest innovations in their field. For the Port's engineering staff, it's used for data efficiency. For its land use planning department, it helps them in development planning at a specific site. It's also used by outside agencies, the Port's five member cities, ports and homeland security. This data is then shared, as a service, through GIS based websites and across the enterprise to Real Estate, Harbor Police, Environmental Services, Engineering and any other port employees who depend on the information. "It's like interacting with a map that has the ability to tell you more than the information you would normally see on a paper product," said Malcolm Meikle, GIS Coordinator for the Port's IT Department. "This is a huge step towards fulfilling the Port's GIS needs to quickly disseminate spatial/geographic data to our customers 24/7, as well as providing a more robust environment to develop new data and applications to assist in multiple levels of GIS integration throughout the Port." The Port's GIS team is setting trends in how the information is used within the agency. The Port's use of a GIS tool (ArcGIS for AutoCAD) caught the attention of ESRI. In May, the GIS team went into "full production" – meaning the Port has centralized GIS data and GIS supported tasks in one location with a robust development and production environment. "Now that we have a solid foundation here at the Port, we intend to create a state of the art solution similar to the Port of Los Angeles," said Barry Ghotra, Information Systems Supervisor for the Port's Information Technology Department. "We are in the process of creating seamless application integration between various enterprise systems like SAP, Primavera, and GIS. This will assist our users in obtaining all necessary information from a single user interface." The GIS effort started more than 12 years ago, originally under the real estate department. It was a port-wide initiative to develop an enterprise system to integrate, display and query graphic and tabular data found through out the Port. About four years ago, it fell under the direction of the Information Technology Department. "The ultimate goal is to create accuracy and efficiency. If we can put all the pieces in one map, then we can make the most informed decision in the best interests of the Port," said Ari Isaak, GIS Analyst. According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's Federal Enterprise Architecture framework, 74 percent of government data is location based. At the state and local level the number is even higher – 80 percent – according to several organizations and publications. The Port's GIS blog recently published a video tour through the web maps. To learn more, watch the video. For more information about the Port of San Diego, visit www.portofsandiego.org.
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