Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Spotted: Infrastructure Data at Your Fingertips






















An interactive map dedicated to infrastructure data lit up the faces of city officials testing it out yesterday at the League offices. This geographic information system (GIS) project is being developed by the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) with the support of the Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Health, the League of Minnesota Cities and the University of Minnesota.

State Auditor Rebecca Otto and her team have taken this preview on the road to Buffalo, Austin, Fairmont, Worthington, New Ulm, and St. Paul over the past two months to gather feedback.

How does it work? With a touch of the screen (or click of the mouse), the map displays corresponding information about water and wastewater infrastructure, including age and financial information. It could someday be used to display information about roads, too. 

The project consolidates existing data that cities already report to places like the Department of Health, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Public Facilities Authority, and the State Auditor’s Office.

What's next? The OSA team will polish up the maps based on comments they've gathered from their travels before making them publicly available, and could potentially add more information types to the database.

Photo credit goes to LMC staffer Jeff Korte.