AG 1998 07 13 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

GIS Public Access Using Extranet Technology Cabarrus County North Carolina 1. Abstract of the Program Cabarms County's GIS public access makes graphical tax maps and data easily accessible to all governmental agencies and citizens of Cabarrus County using Extranet technology. Intemet users can access graphical tax maps and data from their homes and offices. Cabarrus County staff can perform the same task from their desktops using the county's Intranet. This Extranet application provides easy access to public records and is a useful tool for county government employees. To access Cabarrus County's Extranet application, simply go to Cabarrus County's web site at http://www.co.cabarms.nc.us and follow the GIS public access hyper-link. What about citizens who don't have Internet access? The Cabarrus County Govemmental Center has two public access temdnals located in the Land Records depadment. Many public libraries also offer free access to the Internet. 2. The Problem / Need for the Program Cabarrus County has developed and compiled a vast resource of geographical info£mation: county parcel tax information, voting districts, school districts, road networks, hydrology, topology, etc. Before GIS Public Access, four employee workstations located in the Land Records and GIS departments were the only avenue for access to the County's large GIS repository. County departments and the general public routinely requested GIS maps from these GIS enabled employees. Fulfilling the numerous map requests began to interfere with other depa,hnental responsibilities. The county needed a way for its departments and citizens to easily access and print graphical county GIS maps. In 1995 Cabarrus County Tax Assessor budgeted to implement two public Xstations with a customized Arclnfo application in the Cabarrus County Governmental Center. Although this was a limited functional solution, it required expensive, hardware ($12,324.00), software licenses ($20,000) and programming fees ($17,345.00). GIS did not feel spending almost $50,000.00 was a cost-effective solution for a GIS public access limited to two local workstations. We began to explore other alternatives. When ESRI announced the development of their Map Ol:jects and Internet Map Server we realized this was a solution that met several of the County's goals. Using EXTRANET technology we could develop and deploy one application. An application to provide GIS capabilities to other depa[hnents and public stations located in the Governmental Center. The same application also provides external GIS access to any home or office with an Internet connection. . . WWW.CO.CABARRUS.NC. US