In a recent web newsletter (“May 2025 Unincorporated Area Community News“), the King Co. Dept. of Local Services highlighted a series of community conversations for which the KCGIS Center provided support. GIS Analysts Chris Landback, Josh Popelka, Toni Carpenter and Paul McCombs implemented invaluable materials for these meetings. Community members were invited to share their…
GIS, or Geographic Information System, is often misunderstood by non-GIS professionals. To address this, resources like short videos and articles from Esri provide fun and accessible introductions to GIS. These materials cover topics such as location intelligence, data sharing, GIS in education, and support for various business functions. Additionally, publications are available for further exploration.
In June, Public Health — Seattle & King County requested that the King County GIS Center create a countywide web map to display open-access COVID-19 testing sites. At the time, only a text-based list of testing sites was available to the public online. The project entailed address geocoding from a tabular list of sites provided…
Some of the more-interesting and rewarding projects we get to work on at the King County GIS Center are requests from other governments to help them get started on their own enterprise-wide GIS infrastructure. Not too long ago, King County GIS Center staff planned and implemented components of an enterprise Geographic Information System for Siskiyou County, California.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (PAO) is a recurring client of King County GIS Center Client Services. Often the PAO needs our help creating exhibits for court or with analyzing GPS data to develop a case.
Perhaps, like me, you remember the term “gerrymander” from history class. A gerrymandered electoral district is one whose boundaries are defined—often with unusually shaped geographic extents—to intentionally favor one political party over another. While the term sounds silly, gerrymanders are serious business that can and do affect every aspect of our society.
In a former life I taught the Esri Authorized course “Introduction to ArcView GIS 3.0.” One of the hardest concepts to teach my students was map projections.
The King County Department of Information Technology recently participated in “Vendor Day” at Seattle City Hall with the City of Seattle′s Department of Information Technology. A businesswoman passed our table and exclaimed, “Oh, GIS! Is that related to GPS? I couldn’t live without my GPS.” This led into an interesting discussion…one I’ve had many times with family and friends.
GIS & You 