GIS is a key ingredient in local government strategies according to a benchmark study by ESRI, which surveyed councils from around Australia on how they use the technology.
Three quarters of respondents have enterprise GIS capability, while 92 per cent currently integrate their GIS with other corporate systems.
“GIS is the vital link to all our information,” said one council. “It provides the primary access point for the community to give information and for the government to receive it.”
More than half of respondents indicated they were experiencing pressure from their community to make their council information easily available online or through social media outlets such as Twitter or Facebook.
Mobile applications is the area where most councils want to see improved capability and 73 per cent of councils would like to use crowd-sourced GIS data.
This could involve the public updating local maps, or informing the council where street repairs need to be done via digital maps.
Megan Hughes, business development manager at ESRI Australia, said that for many councils, the best way to achieve enterprise GIS is through an Enterprise Licence Agreement (ELA).
An ELA gives a council access to ESRI’s enterprise technology and location intelligence resources for a designated period of time.
