Indiana city increases citizen engagement with user-friendly GIS program

Image: Geographical Technologies Group

In 2019, the City of Hobart Sanitary and Stormwater District (HSD) in Hobart, Indiana, recognized the benefits of geospatial technology and location intelligence to transform the city. HSD reached out to Geographic Technologies Group (GTG) to write and implement a geographic information system (GIS) strategic plan.

GTG is one of the world’s leading local government GIS companies, working to advance the science of location intelligence and geospatial technology. GTG built a GIS strategic plan for HSD using high-resolution aerial imagery from Nearmap to help build on the city’s need to deliver geospatial data to customers.

“Our content integrates easily with GTG’s applications and acts as a valuable component to their strategic planning services,” said Karl Terrey, director, Global Alliances at Nearmap. “Our imagery is refreshed multiple times per year and when combined with GTG’s technology allows governments to make decisions based on conditions in their communities in near-real-time.”

Image: Geographical Technologies Group

Before GTG, HSD was maintaining a GIS viewer web app that was not user friendly, and thus underutilized.

HSD leaders recognized the need for an interface that would serve the district as well as other city departments while being easy to navigate. Nearmap’s technology corrected this, by equipping users with controls that were customized to address all the needs of its users.

Image: Geographical Technologies Group

“Our goal has always been to solve problems, and introduce a new kind of decision support for our clients,” said James Kelt, VP of Corporate Software at GTG. “Our clients love the imagery and the more we worked with Nearmap, the more we’ve been able to provide this added value to our customers.”

With the help of the user-friendly ArcGIS Hub, where citizens could access GIS tools, and GTG’s new program, the city of Hobart gained greater citizen engagement that allowed them to find information for themselves.