Ask the Mayor

Function of GIS Department explained

Editor's Note: The following weekly column is designed to help answer residents' questions about the Kenai Peninsula Borough and its government.

Question: What is GIS and what is the function of the GIS Department?

Answer: GIS stands for Geographic Information System. The GIS Department provides map services to the borough offices and the public. It works cooperatively with state, federal and local governments to share map information.

Using computers, this powerful, new technology enables electronic maps to be linked to other data, analyzed and produce views of the results, including overlaying one map with several others. Once created, the view can be stored, printed, or sent via the Internet to anywhere in the world. It can be used as a cartographic tool to produce maps on paper, or as an analysis tool to ask questions of computer data and present the answer in a map format.

The GIS Department provides the following services and products:

Emergency Services Map Books

Street Address Assignments

Parcel Tax Maps

Natural Resource Maps

Ad hoc map requests

Internet map access -- currently being revised

With the assistance of the GIS Department, various borough departments are using the technology to streamline permitting processes and provide more useful information to the public.

You may send your questions to:

Mayor Bagley

144 N. Binkley

Soldotna, AK 99669

Fax: (907) 262-8616

E-mail: bdove@borough.kenai.ak