With three potential alignments under study along 40 miles of corridor, the Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project involves a staggering amount of geographic information system (GIS) data. In the past, if a client or colleague wanted to identify a map feature, such as wetlands or property lines, or see associated aerial photography, KCI would plot and mail the data. Any change to the feature, of course, would require the process to be repeated. But, no longer.
By converting a Dell workstation into a dedicated GIS server, KCI now allows clients to access data using a standard web browser via a small viewer plugin, installed into the user’s browser. “Internet GIS allows us to put all of our GIS data on-line for direct viewing by clients and team members,” GIS Analyst/Developer Ian R. Botts explains. “Clients may access not only the geographic data, such as parks, but also the intelligence behind the data, such as the park’s name, acreage, and ownership, and perform basic GIS functions. End users are able to interact with graphical and tabular data, generating their own data queries and creating their own, high-quality custom maps that may be plotted to any size.
“Engineers can tweak an alignment, and the entire project team can evaluate the impacts within minutes rather than days using the same GIS data that would normally be used to produce hard-copy maps. We also can allow certain users to add information to the GIS database,” Botts said.
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