Conservation District GIS Program Development

Pierce Conservation District sought guidance from FLO on advancing and further developing their GIS program, taking into consideration that many groups are using GIS throughout the organization. As a first step, FLO conducted a GIS needs assessment to objectively evaluate the District’s current use of GIS and to provide recommendations for optimizing their use of GIS in the future. We led a series of on-site interviews with District staff to understand how they were utilizing GIS and what they wanted to achieve, along with evaluating their data management practices and day-to-day workflow in and across departments. This included looking at staff GIS resources and responsibilities. District staff and management were intimately involved in this process.

Along with the needs assessment, FLO developed a series of requirements and recommendations designed to meet their ultimate GIS goals around data access, data management, and field data while leveraging the District’s strengths and mitigating weaknesses. FLO worked with the District to implement GIS software, data structures, governance policies, and data management procedures to enable them to seamlessly access, edit, and manage data from the office and the field. Key to this was leveraging their access to easy-to-maintain and well-supported Esri software and tools, including web-based tools and mobile solutions for a well-supported, easy-to-manage, industry-standard GIS.

The District now uses ArcGIS Server and SQL Server to support seamless multi-user editing in GIS. The District views and edits all of its GIS data within ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Online maps and web mapping applications. This includes offline-capable data and web maps to allow the District to reliably collect data in the field even if they are in an area without connection. To assist the District in learning the new workflows and technologies, FLO has conducted several in-person and virtual GIS training sessions tailored to each staff member’s specific needs. Training and ongoing support are critical components of an effective GIS program and ensuring that staff are correctly managing the data, as well as feeling comfortable about using and interacting with the systems.