Florida GIS Coordination Effort Featured on govtech.com

Government Technology has a feature article this week on the GIS Strategic Plan effort in Florida.

The article, Come Together, Right Now, notes that the eight-storm strong hurricane seasons of 2005 and 2005 brought the need for GIS coordination to the fore among the state's emergency management community.

In Florida, post-storm data analysis illustrated how better statewide coordination of geospatial information during the hurricanes likely would have saved more lives and enhanced emergency managers' efforts to evacuate part of the state's 19,500 square miles of coastal zone. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) initially took the lead in formulating a statewide GIS strategic plan.

'Our director, Craig Fugate, has a pretty simple charge: In the absence of leadership, become one,' said Richard Butgereit, GIS administrator of the FDEM."

The story is also noted in All Points Blog today. Adena highlights the role that the NSGIC Fifty States Coordination Criteria play in the discussion.

The fact that a sidebar highlights the rubrick shows what NSGIC is doing to push forward on its Fifty States Initiative, that is, to develop coordination and ideally a state coordinator in all 50 states. I'm not sure if NSGIC publishes rankings, but if you want to help push your state forward you might want to see how well it does meeting the listed requirements.

In fact, though NSGIC doesn't always highlight state-against-state competition, the results of the Fifty-States Survey are published in an annual State Summaries collection.