Volume 12, Number 1 Spring 2008

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY908 Michaelian Office Building148 Martine AvenueWhite Plains, NY 10601

Articles and graphics in this newsletter prepared by: Xiaobo Cui, Ana Hiraldo-Gomez, Cindy Louie, Deborah Parker, Colette Phipps and Sam Wear.

http://www.westchestergov.comWestchester County GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

is published by the Westchester County Department of Information Technology

Andrew J. Spano, County Executive

Andrew J. SpanoCounty Executive

Marguerite BeirneActing Chief Information Officer

Sam WearAssistant Chief Information Officer (GIS)

Department of Information TechnologyGeographic Information Systems

GIS

EEEE OOOO GGGG RRRR AAAA PPPP HHHH IIII CCCC

NNNN FFFF OOOO RRRR MMMM AAAA TTTT IIII OOOO NNNN

YYYY SSSS TTTT EEEE MMMM SSSS

Marguerite Beirne, Acting Chief Information Officer

Mapping the Livable Community ConnectionMapping the Livable Community ConnectionDepartment of Senior Programs and Services inventories social and community assets

Westchester County GIS has initiated workwith the Department of Senior Servicesand Programs to develop a series of com-munity asset maps throughout the countyas part of the Livable CommunityConnection (LCC) plan. The LivableCommunity Connection is part of the larg-er “Livable Communities Initiative: AVision for All Ages - Bringing People andPlaces Together” (http://www.westch-estergov.com/seniors_livablecommuni-ties.htm) launched by Westchester CountyExecutive Andy Spano in June 2006.The purpose of the initiative is to identifyand develop ways for more seniors to con-tinue living in their homes as they growolder with independence, with supportiveservices such as affordable housingoptions, housing for people with limitedmobility, adequate and accessible trans-portation, information on community cen-ters with good programs and opportunities

to socialize. The community asset mapsconsist of 14 categories including learninginstitutions, hospitals, community centers,houses of worship, transportation, busi-nesses, restaurants, financial institutions,environmentally friendly sites, shoppingcenters, and libraries among other facilitiesthat provide services to community mem-bers and promote independence and socialconnectedness while encouraging civicengagement. The project continues to bebeneficial in context of cross-referencingexisting social service and facility databas-es being maintained by the county GIS pro-gram.“Maps are tremendously useful in visuallydiscovering gaps in services and will serveas a foundation for strategic service devel-opment and planning in the municipali-ties,” notes Colette Phipps, project leaderat Westchester County Department ofSocial Services. “Asset maps will be the

base for strategic community developmentplanning by Livable Community RegionalCouncils and Municipality Task Forces andcan be the basis for forming grassrootsorganizations like Neighborhood Watchclubs or other associations.”Maps produced will be used by neighbor-hood block clubs, houses of worships,businesses, corporations, academic institu-tions, civic and volunteer service clubs,and youth groups. County GIS staff aregenerating the maps to be available in bothhardcopy and digital format as PDFs for re-distribution. To date, inventories havebeen completed for the municipalities ofPeekskill, Mt. Vernon, White Plains, andBronxville. For more information on theLivable Community Connection contactColette Phipps in the Department of SeniorPrograms and Services at cap2@westch-estergov.com or Ana Hiraldo-Gomez ataeh2@westchestergov.com

Local Government NewsLocal Government News

Utilizing data collected by a Town of Cortlandt consultant as part of townwide tree inventory, GISstaff is able to generate a 3D model of the Verplanck streetscape in Google Earth.

DEC Urban and Community Forestry Grantto develop a tree inventory. The townworked with Davey Group(www.davey.com) to conduct the inventoryin the hamlet of Verplanck. A total of 555trees were inventoried on town-ownedproperties and right-of-way using GPStechnology. “Both the Planning Dept. andthe town's DES Tree Crew, all ISA certifiedarborists, staff will maintain the inventory’sdatabase and prioritize tree removal, prun-ing and preservation of trees throughout thehamlet,” said Richard Di Sanza, Town ofCortlandt open space coordinator.The towns of Eastchester and Somers com-pleted their GIS user needs assessmentstudy and are working with BowneManagement Systems on initial implemen-tation phases. The towns of Pelham,Eastchester, and Mamaroneck are in thefinal stages of converting their tax maps todigital format and will be completed by latespring. County staff is working with theTown of Lewisboro and City of Mt. Vernonon a GIS user needs assessment updatethrough the County's new Shared Serviceprogram. The Town of Greenburgh GISUNA is completed and will begin imple-mentation this spring. For more informa-tion contact Ana Hiraldo-Gomez ataeh2@westchestergov.com.

The City of Yonkers DPW continues to workwith the city's fire department on a firehydrant replacement inventory and with thepolice department on developing a “CrimeAnalysis Mapping” application to quicklyaccess crime data from internal databases and

generate maps. The City of New Rochelle isworking on a street infrastructure inventoryusing GPS technology and street featuredatasets provided by the county from the2004 basemap project. The Town ofCortlandt received a grant from the NYS

Over 14 types of GIS data layers are being inventoried and mapped for each municipality as partof the Livable Communities Initiative. All datasets will be integrated with the county's web map-ping programs. This image highlights services and programs in White Plains.

WWestchester County GISestchester County GISreceivesreceives

"2008 Best of NY" "2008 Best of NY" AAwardwardThe Westchester County GIS web-basedinteractive Green Map application hasbeen awarded the 2008 Green IT Awardby Center for Digital Government(www.centerdigitalgov.com). The GreenMap was developed as part ofWestchester County Executive AndySpano's Global Warming Task Force andbuilt utilizing ESRI's ArcIMS web map-ping technology.Cindy Louie, Green Map project lead,and GIS staff member Ana Hiraldo rep-resented Westchester County at theawards ceremony in Albany on March19th in Albany. The Green Map can beaccessed at http://greenmap.westch-estergov.com.

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Hilltop Hanover THilltop Hanover Trails Maprails MapA new map has been produced by the plan-ning department of the Hilltop HanoverFarm and Environmental Center in theTown of Yorktown. Westchester Countyacquired Hilltop Hanover Farm in 2003 aspart of County Executive Andy Spano's ini-tiatives to preserve open space, protect drink-ing water and promote environmental educa-tion. The 187-acre farm property is located onHanover Street in Yorktown, and consists ofnatural woodlands, pastures and historicbuildings. A trail system was laid out on thewoodland portion of the property and nearly 3miles of existing and proposed trail align-ments were mapped using GPS last spring.During this summer, student interns per-formed trail construction work and installedtrail blazes as markers. The trails provideaccess to scenic viewpoints, vernal ponds,unique rock formations and a pondside picnicarea. To learn more about Hilltop HanoverFarm and to view the map, go to www.westch-estergov.com/planning/environmental/hhfarmMain.htm

NRI Map Series ReleasedNRI Map Series ReleasedWestchester County GIS developed a NaturalResource Inventory (NRI) map series for localgovernment officials, planning departmentand environmental organizations, as well ascommunity groups to provide a framework forwide range of environmental planning andland use analysis functions. Maps were pro-duced at a uniform grid (800' scale, 11x17 sizepaper) with at least 16 environmental and nat-ural resources data layers and made availablein GeoPDF format (TerraGo Technologieswww.terragotech.com). The PDF formatgives users the ability to add comments andgenerate markups which can be exported toshapefile format. For more information con-tact Ana Hiraldo-Gomez at aeh2@westch-estergov.com.

Archives Uses Scanning GrantArchives Uses Scanning GrantUtilizing funding through a New York StateArchives grant, the county's Archives andRecords Center is funding a project to auto-mate Department of Environmental Facilities(DEF) sewer system hardcopy maps, aerialphotos and as-built drawings for integrationinto GIS applications. Approximately 6,500historical documents are being scanned by theArchives, and stored as GeoTIFF files.Images will be referenced to ground coordi-nates and made available in multiple countyapplications. Grant funding for the conver-sion work was to support the DEF AutomatedSewer Manhole Inspection (ASMI) applica-tion as well as archive and preserve manyoriginal documents. Work on the project willstart in April and is expected to continuethrough early 2009. For more informationcontact Deborah Parker at dape@westch-estergov.com.

2

County Real EstCounty Real Estate One Sate One Stop (CROS) Project Launchedtop (CROS) Project LaunchedArcGIS Server chosen to support new multi-department application

New Land Use DatNew Land Use Data Layera LayerPlanning Department GIS staff is undertakingan effort to generate a countywide land usemap. Westchester County contains nearly255,417 tax parcels, of which approximately160,000 are classified as single-family resi-dential use - by far the predominant “desig-nated” land use throughout the County.Using land use records provided by local taxassessors Planning Department GIS staffjoined tax parcel geography with land userecords to develop parcel-based land use lay-ers of each municipality. A generalized uni-form land use coding system is being devel-oped to be used by department staff that willprovide a uniform and consistent color codethroughout the county for better comparisonsand to determine land use change over time.For more information contact Paul Gisondo atpxg3@westchestergov.com.

Address DatAddress Data Developmenta DevelopmentThe County has contracted with the James W.Sewall company for the next phase of ananticipated multi-year countywide databasedevelopment project focusing on the attribu-tion of building footprints with individualaddress. The project is being implemented tosupport improved address scrubbing andgeocoding services associated with the coun-ty's GIS program as well as to improve theaccuracy of emergency dispatching func-tions. This phase of work will focus on themunicipalities of New Rochelle andEastchester and involve validating a smallpilot project prior to full project implementa-tion. Several data sources will be used in“tagging” each building footprint with anaddress including the county's Navteq roadfile, local tax maps, and the highly detailedNYS Accident Locator Information System(ALIS) database. For more information con-tact Deborah Parker at dape@westchester-gov.com.

Upcoming GIS EventUpcoming GIS Eventss2008 GeoSpatial Summit2008 GeoSpatial SummitThe GeoSpatial Summit will be held on May21, 2008 at the Welch-Allyn Lodge inSkaneateles Falls, NY. Speakers for thisyear's event include Jack Dangermond, pres-ident of ESRI, Allen Carroll, chief cartogra-pher for the National Geographic Society,and Ed Parsons, Google's new geospatialtechnologist among others. For more infor-mation visit www.nysgis.org/summit/2008.NEARC Spring MeetingNEARC Spring MeetingThe Northeast Arc Users Group Springmeeting will be held on May 13, 2008 atSmith College Campus Center inNorthampton, Massachusetts. User papersand posters will be presented and anoverview of the upcoming annual fallNEARC in Hyannis, Massachusetts will bemade available. For more information andregistration visit www.northeastarc.org.

As part of the CROS project, original property field surveys - many dating back several decades - arescheduled to be scanned and geo-referenced as TIF images. This scanned survey in the Bronx RiverParkway was originally drafted in 1912 and is rendered in context of 2004 aerial photography.

With over 200 county properties consistingof over 425 tax parcels in 42 municipalities,management and administration ofWestchester County's real estate data is achallenging task. The properties range insize from 125 square feet to over 386 acres.at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in PoundRidge and Lewisboro. Adding to the chal-lenge in managing the county's real estate indigital format is the fact that WestchesterCounty is the only county in New York Statewhich does not maintain tax parcel data.Currently, management and maintenance ofthe county's nearly 255,417 tax parcel is theresponsibility of 26 separate municipal taxmapping programs. Under the leadership of Director of RealEstate Salvator Carrera, the county hasrecently taken active steps towards manag-ing the many different sources of real estatedata (both hardcopy and electronic) bychoosing ESRI's ArcGIS Server 9.2 tech-nology. County GIS staff is currently work-ing with ESRI-Boston staff on the initialdesign of the County Real Estate One Stop(CROS) application which is to includeESRI tools such as spatial query and analy-sis, layer management, zoom/pan functions,map making, and integrating new imagemanagement tools with ArcImage Server.The CROS application will enable GIS staffto publish a common service to many coun-ty government users focusing initially onbasic search and discovery functions.

Subsequent phases of the application willinclude data input and maintenance modulesfor selected departments and simple view-ing/searching tools with Google Earth.“My office sees this as a major step in moreeffectively managing real estate the countyowns,” notes Carerra. “GIS enables non-technical users to easily access and visualizelarge amounts of data which in the past hasbeen located in many different locationsthroughout the county.” Staff resourcesfrom the county's Tax Commission, anddepartments of Public Works, Parks,Planning, Environmental Facilities, andTransportation continue to contributetowards building key databases upon whichthe application will be built. Additional ben-efits of building the real estate applicationinclude providing Public Safety andEmergency Response personnel with accessto scanned floor plans of major county-owned buildings and the scanning andarchiving of many “original” field surveys -many dating back to the early 1900s - whichwill be incorporated into the application.The comprehensive tax parcel inventorywill also provide a valuable starting pointfor real estate-related litigation the Countybecomes involved with including theencroachment of activities onto county-owned properties. For more information onCROS, contact Cindy Louie atllc4@westchestergov.com.

Expanding GIS Support in Department of HealthExpanding GIS Support in Department of HealthMultiple Program Areas Benefit from New Data, Tools

This screenshot shows the water district boundary update work in progress, with original district datain blue, and draft updates - based on parcel boundaries -in green. These edits will be reviewed by localauthorities before publication.

GIS staff are working to build geospatialcapacity within the Department of Health(DOH), focusing on GIS data and tools suitedto the needs of staff in several program areas.These efforts include providing ArcGIS 9.2software and access to data in Oracle SDE,deploying new GIS and GPS tools, and con-tinued support of DOH-specific ArcIMS dataviewers.GIS and DOH are cooperating on an update ofold water supply district boundaries createdwith small scale (typically 1:24,000 USGS)map sources. New boundaries will follow taxparcel boundaries where available. Water dis-tricts in Westchester County range in size frommunicipal systems serving tens of thousandsof households to single-entity systems such asa school or restaurant. GIS staff will add andimprove boundaries from research, and withDOH will outreach to municipalities to helpreview and validate new boundaries. Moreaccurate water district boundaries will supportthe county’s Reverse 911 system, which noti-fies households and businesses in events suchas drinking water contamination alerts. GIS is providing new GeoPDF-format mapsfor field work and data collection performedby DOH staff. Petroleum Bulk Storageinspectors will use the maps on Toughbookfield computers with the free GeoPDF toolbar.For the Bureau of Environmental Quality(BEQ)'s water quality monitoring program,GIS staff produced a database from textreports, for sampling sites along the Bronx and

Hutchinson Rivers. Associating the observa-tion data with these sites allows visualizationand analysis of the measured contaminants.GPS equipment was also ordered for BEQ tomap new sites. GIS is supporting a DOH initiative trackinglead-based paint exposure in children. DOHrequested GIS to geocode 23,000 streetaddresses within a designated high-risk area,so that mailings could be sent in advance ofonsite building inspections. GIS staff createdneighborhood maps (of approximately 1,000addresses each), which could be covered door-to-door in approximately two weeks. Oncedraft maps were approved, GIS generatedmailing lists for each neighborhood. Work is also in progress for GIS to support thenew Septic Management Program which willassist DOH in the mapping of septic systeminspections. NY State requires DOH to trackrepairs to septic structures through reports sub-mitted by septic system maintenance contrac-tors. Based on information provided by pro-gram contractors, GIS staff intends to provideDOH staff with geocoding/address matchingtools to locate septic systems based on tax par-cel or street address data. Most septic systemsare located in the northern half of the county,and parcel-based addresses from NY State'sALIS program are available for all but fourmunicipalities in this area. GIS staff is work-ing to develop this data for these four towns.For more information contact Deborah Parkerdape@westchestergov.com.

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Hilltop Hanover THilltop Hanover Trails Maprails MapA new map has been produced by the plan-ning department of the Hilltop HanoverFarm and Environmental Center in theTown of Yorktown. Westchester Countyacquired Hilltop Hanover Farm in 2003 aspart of County Executive Andy Spano's ini-tiatives to preserve open space, protect drink-ing water and promote environmental educa-tion. The 187-acre farm property is located onHanover Street in Yorktown, and consists ofnatural woodlands, pastures and historicbuildings. A trail system was laid out on thewoodland portion of the property and nearly 3miles of existing and proposed trail align-ments were mapped using GPS last spring.During this summer, student interns per-formed trail construction work and installedtrail blazes as markers. The trails provideaccess to scenic viewpoints, vernal ponds,unique rock formations and a pondside picnicarea. To learn more about Hilltop HanoverFarm and to view the map, go to www.westch-estergov.com/planning/environmental/hhfarmMain.htm

NRI Map Series ReleasedNRI Map Series ReleasedWestchester County GIS developed a NaturalResource Inventory (NRI) map series for localgovernment officials, planning departmentand environmental organizations, as well ascommunity groups to provide a framework forwide range of environmental planning andland use analysis functions. Maps were pro-duced at a uniform grid (800' scale, 11x17 sizepaper) with at least 16 environmental and nat-ural resources data layers and made availablein GeoPDF format (TerraGo Technologieswww.terragotech.com). The PDF formatgives users the ability to add comments andgenerate markups which can be exported toshapefile format. For more information con-tact Ana Hiraldo-Gomez at aeh2@westch-estergov.com.

Archives Uses Scanning GrantArchives Uses Scanning GrantUtilizing funding through a New York StateArchives grant, the county's Archives andRecords Center is funding a project to auto-mate Department of Environmental Facilities(DEF) sewer system hardcopy maps, aerialphotos and as-built drawings for integrationinto GIS applications. Approximately 6,500historical documents are being scanned by theArchives, and stored as GeoTIFF files.Images will be referenced to ground coordi-nates and made available in multiple countyapplications. Grant funding for the conver-sion work was to support the DEF AutomatedSewer Manhole Inspection (ASMI) applica-tion as well as archive and preserve manyoriginal documents. Work on the project willstart in April and is expected to continuethrough early 2009. For more informationcontact Deborah Parker at dape@westch-estergov.com.

2

County Real EstCounty Real Estate One Sate One Stop (CROS) Project Launchedtop (CROS) Project LaunchedArcGIS Server chosen to support new multi-department application

New Land Use DatNew Land Use Data Layera LayerPlanning Department GIS staff is undertakingan effort to generate a countywide land usemap. Westchester County contains nearly255,417 tax parcels, of which approximately160,000 are classified as single-family resi-dential use - by far the predominant “desig-nated” land use throughout the County.Using land use records provided by local taxassessors Planning Department GIS staffjoined tax parcel geography with land userecords to develop parcel-based land use lay-ers of each municipality. A generalized uni-form land use coding system is being devel-oped to be used by department staff that willprovide a uniform and consistent color codethroughout the county for better comparisonsand to determine land use change over time.For more information contact Paul Gisondo atpxg3@westchestergov.com.

Address DatAddress Data Developmenta DevelopmentThe County has contracted with the James W.Sewall company for the next phase of ananticipated multi-year countywide databasedevelopment project focusing on the attribu-tion of building footprints with individualaddress. The project is being implemented tosupport improved address scrubbing andgeocoding services associated with the coun-ty's GIS program as well as to improve theaccuracy of emergency dispatching func-tions. This phase of work will focus on themunicipalities of New Rochelle andEastchester and involve validating a smallpilot project prior to full project implementa-tion. Several data sources will be used in“tagging” each building footprint with anaddress including the county's Navteq roadfile, local tax maps, and the highly detailedNYS Accident Locator Information System(ALIS) database. For more information con-tact Deborah Parker at dape@westchester-gov.com.

Upcoming GIS EventUpcoming GIS Eventss2008 GeoSpatial Summit2008 GeoSpatial SummitThe GeoSpatial Summit will be held on May21, 2008 at the Welch-Allyn Lodge inSkaneateles Falls, NY. Speakers for thisyear's event include Jack Dangermond, pres-ident of ESRI, Allen Carroll, chief cartogra-pher for the National Geographic Society,and Ed Parsons, Google's new geospatialtechnologist among others. For more infor-mation visit www.nysgis.org/summit/2008.NEARC Spring MeetingNEARC Spring MeetingThe Northeast Arc Users Group Springmeeting will be held on May 13, 2008 atSmith College Campus Center inNorthampton, Massachusetts. User papersand posters will be presented and anoverview of the upcoming annual fallNEARC in Hyannis, Massachusetts will bemade available. For more information andregistration visit www.northeastarc.org.

As part of the CROS project, original property field surveys - many dating back several decades - arescheduled to be scanned and geo-referenced as TIF images. This scanned survey in the Bronx RiverParkway was originally drafted in 1912 and is rendered in context of 2004 aerial photography.

With over 200 county properties consistingof over 425 tax parcels in 42 municipalities,management and administration ofWestchester County's real estate data is achallenging task. The properties range insize from 125 square feet to over 386 acres.at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in PoundRidge and Lewisboro. Adding to the chal-lenge in managing the county's real estate indigital format is the fact that WestchesterCounty is the only county in New York Statewhich does not maintain tax parcel data.Currently, management and maintenance ofthe county's nearly 255,417 tax parcel is theresponsibility of 26 separate municipal taxmapping programs. Under the leadership of Director of RealEstate Salvator Carrera, the county hasrecently taken active steps towards manag-ing the many different sources of real estatedata (both hardcopy and electronic) bychoosing ESRI's ArcGIS Server 9.2 tech-nology. County GIS staff is currently work-ing with ESRI-Boston staff on the initialdesign of the County Real Estate One Stop(CROS) application which is to includeESRI tools such as spatial query and analy-sis, layer management, zoom/pan functions,map making, and integrating new imagemanagement tools with ArcImage Server.The CROS application will enable GIS staffto publish a common service to many coun-ty government users focusing initially onbasic search and discovery functions.

Subsequent phases of the application willinclude data input and maintenance modulesfor selected departments and simple view-ing/searching tools with Google Earth.“My office sees this as a major step in moreeffectively managing real estate the countyowns,” notes Carerra. “GIS enables non-technical users to easily access and visualizelarge amounts of data which in the past hasbeen located in many different locationsthroughout the county.” Staff resourcesfrom the county's Tax Commission, anddepartments of Public Works, Parks,Planning, Environmental Facilities, andTransportation continue to contributetowards building key databases upon whichthe application will be built. Additional ben-efits of building the real estate applicationinclude providing Public Safety andEmergency Response personnel with accessto scanned floor plans of major county-owned buildings and the scanning andarchiving of many “original” field surveys -many dating back to the early 1900s - whichwill be incorporated into the application.The comprehensive tax parcel inventorywill also provide a valuable starting pointfor real estate-related litigation the Countybecomes involved with including theencroachment of activities onto county-owned properties. For more information onCROS, contact Cindy Louie atllc4@westchestergov.com.

Expanding GIS Support in Department of HealthExpanding GIS Support in Department of HealthMultiple Program Areas Benefit from New Data, Tools

This screenshot shows the water district boundary update work in progress, with original district datain blue, and draft updates - based on parcel boundaries -in green. These edits will be reviewed by localauthorities before publication.

GIS staff are working to build geospatialcapacity within the Department of Health(DOH), focusing on GIS data and tools suitedto the needs of staff in several program areas.These efforts include providing ArcGIS 9.2software and access to data in Oracle SDE,deploying new GIS and GPS tools, and con-tinued support of DOH-specific ArcIMS dataviewers.GIS and DOH are cooperating on an update ofold water supply district boundaries createdwith small scale (typically 1:24,000 USGS)map sources. New boundaries will follow taxparcel boundaries where available. Water dis-tricts in Westchester County range in size frommunicipal systems serving tens of thousandsof households to single-entity systems such asa school or restaurant. GIS staff will add andimprove boundaries from research, and withDOH will outreach to municipalities to helpreview and validate new boundaries. Moreaccurate water district boundaries will supportthe county’s Reverse 911 system, which noti-fies households and businesses in events suchas drinking water contamination alerts. GIS is providing new GeoPDF-format mapsfor field work and data collection performedby DOH staff. Petroleum Bulk Storageinspectors will use the maps on Toughbookfield computers with the free GeoPDF toolbar.For the Bureau of Environmental Quality(BEQ)'s water quality monitoring program,GIS staff produced a database from textreports, for sampling sites along the Bronx and

Hutchinson Rivers. Associating the observa-tion data with these sites allows visualizationand analysis of the measured contaminants.GPS equipment was also ordered for BEQ tomap new sites. GIS is supporting a DOH initiative trackinglead-based paint exposure in children. DOHrequested GIS to geocode 23,000 streetaddresses within a designated high-risk area,so that mailings could be sent in advance ofonsite building inspections. GIS staff createdneighborhood maps (of approximately 1,000addresses each), which could be covered door-to-door in approximately two weeks. Oncedraft maps were approved, GIS generatedmailing lists for each neighborhood. Work is also in progress for GIS to support thenew Septic Management Program which willassist DOH in the mapping of septic systeminspections. NY State requires DOH to trackrepairs to septic structures through reports sub-mitted by septic system maintenance contrac-tors. Based on information provided by pro-gram contractors, GIS staff intends to provideDOH staff with geocoding/address matchingtools to locate septic systems based on tax par-cel or street address data. Most septic systemsare located in the northern half of the county,and parcel-based addresses from NY State'sALIS program are available for all but fourmunicipalities in this area. GIS staff is work-ing to develop this data for these four towns.For more information contact Deborah Parkerdape@westchestergov.com.

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Volume 12, Number 1 Spring 2008

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY908 Michaelian Office Building148 Martine AvenueWhite Plains, NY 10601

Articles and graphics in this newsletter prepared by: Xiaobo Cui, Ana Hiraldo-Gomez, Cindy Louie, Deborah Parker, Colette Phipps and Sam Wear.

http://www.westchestergov.comWestchester County GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

is published by the Westchester County Department of Information Technology

Andrew J. Spano, County Executive

Andrew J. SpanoCounty Executive

Marguerite BeirneActing Chief Information Officer

Sam WearAssistant Chief Information Officer (GIS)

Department of Information TechnologyGeographic Information Systems

GIS

EEEE OOOO GGGG RRRR AAAA PPPP HHHH IIII CCCC

NNNN FFFF OOOO RRRR MMMM AAAA TTTT IIII OOOO NNNN

YYYY SSSS TTTT EEEE MMMM SSSS

Marguerite Beirne, Acting Chief Information Officer

Mapping the Livable Community ConnectionMapping the Livable Community ConnectionDepartment of Senior Programs and Services inventories social and community assets

Westchester County GIS has initiated workwith the Department of Senior Servicesand Programs to develop a series of com-munity asset maps throughout the countyas part of the Livable CommunityConnection (LCC) plan. The LivableCommunity Connection is part of the larg-er “Livable Communities Initiative: AVision for All Ages - Bringing People andPlaces Together” (http://www.westch-estergov.com/seniors_livablecommuni-ties.htm) launched by Westchester CountyExecutive Andy Spano in June 2006.The purpose of the initiative is to identifyand develop ways for more seniors to con-tinue living in their homes as they growolder with independence, with supportiveservices such as affordable housingoptions, housing for people with limitedmobility, adequate and accessible trans-portation, information on community cen-ters with good programs and opportunities

to socialize. The community asset mapsconsist of 14 categories including learninginstitutions, hospitals, community centers,houses of worship, transportation, busi-nesses, restaurants, financial institutions,environmentally friendly sites, shoppingcenters, and libraries among other facilitiesthat provide services to community mem-bers and promote independence and socialconnectedness while encouraging civicengagement. The project continues to bebeneficial in context of cross-referencingexisting social service and facility databas-es being maintained by the county GIS pro-gram.“Maps are tremendously useful in visuallydiscovering gaps in services and will serveas a foundation for strategic service devel-opment and planning in the municipali-ties,” notes Colette Phipps, project leaderat Westchester County Department ofSocial Services. “Asset maps will be the

base for strategic community developmentplanning by Livable Community RegionalCouncils and Municipality Task Forces andcan be the basis for forming grassrootsorganizations like Neighborhood Watchclubs or other associations.”Maps produced will be used by neighbor-hood block clubs, houses of worships,businesses, corporations, academic institu-tions, civic and volunteer service clubs,and youth groups. County GIS staff aregenerating the maps to be available in bothhardcopy and digital format as PDFs for re-distribution. To date, inventories havebeen completed for the municipalities ofPeekskill, Mt. Vernon, White Plains, andBronxville. For more information on theLivable Community Connection contactColette Phipps in the Department of SeniorPrograms and Services at cap2@westch-estergov.com or Ana Hiraldo-Gomez ataeh2@westchestergov.com

Local Government NewsLocal Government News

Utilizing data collected by a Town of Cortlandt consultant as part of townwide tree inventory, GISstaff is able to generate a 3D model of the Verplanck streetscape in Google Earth.

DEC Urban and Community Forestry Grantto develop a tree inventory. The townworked with Davey Group(www.davey.com) to conduct the inventoryin the hamlet of Verplanck. A total of 555trees were inventoried on town-ownedproperties and right-of-way using GPStechnology. “Both the Planning Dept. andthe town's DES Tree Crew, all ISA certifiedarborists, staff will maintain the inventory’sdatabase and prioritize tree removal, prun-ing and preservation of trees throughout thehamlet,” said Richard Di Sanza, Town ofCortlandt open space coordinator.The towns of Eastchester and Somers com-pleted their GIS user needs assessmentstudy and are working with BowneManagement Systems on initial implemen-tation phases. The towns of Pelham,Eastchester, and Mamaroneck are in thefinal stages of converting their tax maps todigital format and will be completed by latespring. County staff is working with theTown of Lewisboro and City of Mt. Vernonon a GIS user needs assessment updatethrough the County's new Shared Serviceprogram. The Town of Greenburgh GISUNA is completed and will begin imple-mentation this spring. For more informa-tion contact Ana Hiraldo-Gomez ataeh2@westchestergov.com.

The City of Yonkers DPW continues to workwith the city's fire department on a firehydrant replacement inventory and with thepolice department on developing a “CrimeAnalysis Mapping” application to quicklyaccess crime data from internal databases and

generate maps. The City of New Rochelle isworking on a street infrastructure inventoryusing GPS technology and street featuredatasets provided by the county from the2004 basemap project. The Town ofCortlandt received a grant from the NYS

Over 14 types of GIS data layers are being inventoried and mapped for each municipality as partof the Livable Communities Initiative. All datasets will be integrated with the county's web map-ping programs. This image highlights services and programs in White Plains.

WWestchester County GISestchester County GISreceivesreceives

"2008 Best of NY" "2008 Best of NY" AAwardwardThe Westchester County GIS web-basedinteractive Green Map application hasbeen awarded the 2008 Green IT Awardby Center for Digital Government(www.centerdigitalgov.com). The GreenMap was developed as part ofWestchester County Executive AndySpano's Global Warming Task Force andbuilt utilizing ESRI's ArcIMS web map-ping technology.Cindy Louie, Green Map project lead,and GIS staff member Ana Hiraldo rep-resented Westchester County at theawards ceremony in Albany on March19th in Albany. The Green Map can beaccessed at http://greenmap.westch-estergov.com.

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