SNOHOMISH COUNTY— Snohomish County’s Department of Information Technology earlier in July received the Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award from Esri, a multinational software company.
The award ceremony took place on July 17 at the 2024 Esri International User Conference (UC) in San Diego, California. This year’s conference was attended by approximately 19,000 people in person and 40,000 online participants. The SAG Awards recognize exceptional users of Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology who demonstrate vision, leadership, hard work, and innovation. A total of 256 organizations from across the globe received a SAG award.
“Snohomish County employees work hard to serve our residents, and the SAG award represents a significant achievement for the county and our IT team,” said Snohomish County’s Chief Information Officer Viggo Forde. “The work that the GIS users in the Department of IT and across many other county departments do is some of the most impactful for our residents, allowing access to rich data and information to simplify their lives through technology. In IT, we are constantly working to solve problems and make our work beneficial for our residents through the use of cutting edge tools.”
Thousands of SAG Award nominations are submitted by Esri staff annually, and each one is personally reviewed and selected by Esri president Jack Dangermond.
Representing Snohomish County at the awards ceremony were Ed Whitford (IT), Gi-Choul Ahn (Surface Water Management), Olivia Duane (SWM), and Courtney Strehlow (Paine Field Airport), who proudly accepted the award on Snohomish County’s behalf. The county was recognized for its large and complex Geospatial Modernization project that began in 2023 and included months of planning and collaboration that resulted in a new GIS Enterprise on a dedicated virtual environment, which has significantly expanded the county’s GIS capabilities to support a wide variety of geospatial projects.
Below is a summary of the business problem solved by the project:
- Reduce administrative burden, update and expand products and services
- Modernize GIS architecture and infrastructure to allow flexibility and scalability
- Improved platform stability
- Eliminate extensive manual processes for infrastructure maintenance
- Deploy a modern solution for sharing GIS data
- Modernize and streamline ETL processes
- Deploy authoritative GIS hosted data library for Snohomish County GIS users
- Upgrade and redesign GIS SQL databases
- Implement Single Sign On across the entire GIS environment
Esri also acknowledged the collaborative work with Snohomish County on the latest Esri tool, Flood Simulation. Snohomish County’s contributions were highlighted during the conference Plenary session using GIS flood scenario data provided by Gi-Choul and the Surface Water Management GIS team.
In addition, Courtney Strehlow presented at the conference on the development of Paine Field’s GIS Program. Courtney’s presentation delved into GIS tools and applications that have been developed using the county’s new Enterprise GIS environment.
GIS is a technology that captures, manages, analyzes, and displays geographically referenced information. By linking data to specific locations, GIS allows users to visualize patterns and trends, aiding in informed decision-making. It also enhances public support and engagement by making data accessible through interactive maps, enabling residents to understand local issues and participate in decision-making. GIS promotes transparency, collaboration, and a better-informed community.
SOURCE: Snohomish County Government
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
