The King County GIS Center faced performance issues with the Districts and Development Conditions report, particularly for parcels with multiple Shoreline Management Designations, resulting in slow loading times and timeouts. By upgrading server resources and optimizing queries, they reduced load times from over 20 seconds to approximately 2 seconds, enhancing public service efficiency.
The King County GIS Center received the 2024 URISA Exemplary Systems in Government award for its new interactive Aerial Imagery Program web application, improving the management and ordering of high-resolution aerial imagery. This streamlined process has saved over one hundred hours of staff time, enhancing efficiency for local jurisdictions.
In October, I attended the URISA annual GIS-Pro Conference in Portland, where URISA rebranded as the Geospatial Professional Network. A personal highlight was receiving the ESIG Award for King County’s SOGIS. The new Esri ArcGIS Hub platform improves access and engagement, streamlining the preparation of GIS documentation significantly.
King County aims to address equity issues through its Equity and Social Justice Plan. To measure its success, it has identified 15 conditions and uses StoryMaps, Dashboards, and Instant Apps to present the data. The Determinants of Equity data tool has been successful, leading to the development of training sessions for users.
Climate change is a growing concern due to extreme weather events and infrastructure damage. Trees play a crucial role in mitigating this by absorbing CO2 and producing oxygen. High-resolution LiDAR data is used to create tree canopy models to track changes in tree cover, vital for environmental and economic well-being. An estimate of over 101 million trees in King County underscores the importance of accurate inventory and conservation efforts.
Today, we are excited to announce the availability of our new Districts and Development Conditions Report. We’re proud to deliver a good experience on phones and tablets in addition to the modern look-and-feel that you’ve come to expect from the new kingcounty.gov.
The King County GIS Center embarked on a modernization project for its public reporting application, facing challenges in identifying its user base and their needs. Leveraging Microsoft’s Clarity, the team discovered key insights about user behavior, leading to significant UX improvements. The new Districts and Developments report aims to address user needs more effectively.
Public Health and the GIS Center launched a new map-based application in August 2023, consolidating septic and Group B water system records. The app simplifies access to records and provides valuable information for homeowners, potential buyers, companies, and real estate professionals. The application’s successful implementation has been well-received and praised for its ease of use and efficiency.
A new web map allows us to explore and acknowledge the memory of the land of indigenous peoples around the world. Property ownership data management is one of the primary applications for a geographic information system (GIS). My first GIS job with the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland was to manage digitizing 350,000…
King County has acquired and maintained elevation data derived from lidar since 2002 in cooperation with the Puget Sound Lidar Consortium. Elevation products such as contours, watershed boundaries, and steep slope areas have been greatly improved in accuracy.
GIS & You 