Geodata Services, Inc.

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RMEF     Rocky Mountain Front GIS      

 

Rocky Mountain Front GIS Collaboration

 

This project assisted Teton County and its neighbor counties in transforming values important to citizens and the community into information that decision-makers can use to make better planning, land-use, and economic development decisions. These values reflect the natural and cultural heritage of the region, the hopes and dreams of citizens, the natural resource and scenic assets, and the desire to be resilient to economic, demographic, natural, and social changes.

In order to use this information to support local-government decisions, a team of professionals organized by Future West (a regional non-profit consulting group), including Geodata Services, is working with planners, resource managers, elected officials, citizens, and other partners from the region to pull together relevant data and maps.   These will address issues such as transportation and infrastructure; important natural and cultural resource areas; medical, educational, and retail services; and housing, economic, and demographic characteristics. 

The goal of this project is to create a regionally-based collaboration that will work to translate these shared values into information that guides decisions. Additionally it will build local capacity to work with data and maps, and find ways to share technical assistance. 

 The "Wordle" chart below (courtesy of www.wordle.net) shows the words the Rocky Mountain Front community used in a January 2011 survey to describe core community values and objectives.  The more often the word was submitted in respondent comments, the larger it is in the chart. 

This project was funded through a competitive state-wide grant from the Montana Land Information Act.  The project runs from October, 2010 through June, 2011.  Hands on training and assistance in the use the data and maps is a major focus of this project.  In the spring, community training will continue including workshops on the application of this information and these tools on several local projects.
 
 

Final Products

 

News and Links

Web Maps 

  • (works with any web browser.  Several point layers show up by default. Click Edit to add features to the map.  Select the middle icon titled "Show Contents of Map" in order to turn layers on or off.  Request to join the Rocky Mountain Front GIS Collaboration on ArcGIS.com to save and share your maps with the group.)

Data Categories for GIS Data and Models

 

Community

  • Education
  • Health
  • Safety
  • Social situation
  • Arts & culture

Economy

  • Commerce
  • Public Infrastructure

Environment

  • Natural systems
  • Planning & Design

GIS Products

 

There are several GIS products that were developed from this project.  The three major products included:

 

A series of approximately 50 map layers provided in a standard format that can be viewed with commercial GIS software, or via free GIS programs (for non-commercial use) running on a Windows computer (ArcGIS Explorer, Google Earth), or via a web map accessed with an internet browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.

 

A GIS model that compares the data layers by local watersheds or townships.  We refer to this as the "20,000 foot model" since it allows a quick comparison of areas to other areas in the region, but does not provide project level details.  It is useful for broader public policy analysis.  Decision support tool running on ArcGIS and CommunityViz software on a local GIS workstation in Choteau, MT (and available to partners who have the basic software requirements).

 

A CommunityViz scenario planning model for use by local government to evaluate specific projects and compare alternative scenarios with maps, charts and reports. Decision support tool running on ArcGIS and CommunityViz software on a local GIS workstation in Choteau, MT (and available to partners who have the basic software requirements).

 

Community training is being provided on-site and via web based training session.  For schedule of upcoming training sessions, see the links above.