Date: Fri 07-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: LIBRAR

Quick Words:

edink-vision-maps-GIS

Full Text:

EDINK: Time To Invest In A Little Vision

As Newtown, or any town, tries to confront its future, people invariably start

talking about "vision." The word is often watered down to suggest a general,

even nebulous, idea of how things should be at some indeterminate time. Every

politician recognizes the need for "the vision thing," as President Bush used

to say.

Vision is essential to realizing a better future, but not in some fuzzy sense.

Newtown needs some way to take all the disparate information that has been

collected about the town - its land, people, and customs - in the past 200

years and put it together in a clear, well-defined picture that will literally

give us the vision to see where we are now and where we want to go in the

future.

Of the ten towns in the Housatonic Valley Region, Newtown is one of just two

that has declined to spend the money required to digitize a base map of the

town. The digitized map is the key that will open the door to a rich trove of

statistical resources compiled by the planners working for the Housatonic

Valley Council of Elected Officials.

HVCEO's Geographic Information System (GIS) digital mapping system allows the

region and individual towns to generate "layers" of information in graphical

form on property ownership, topography, hydrology, traffic patterns,

demographics, landscape elements, historical landmarks, public transportation,

and any other set of statistics that town, region, state, or federal agencies

choose to compile. With the GIS system, local political leaders and planners

are literally able to see their town in all its complexity, bringing a new

understanding and awareness to the many important issues they must face in the

coming years. (See story on page C1.)

It will not cost a lot for the town to get started with the GIS system. With

the requisite hardware, software, and the initial digital conversion of the

town's existing base map, the cost of the most basic GIS system could be less

than $10,000. Future enhancements to software and hardware (to incorporate

aerial photomapping, for example) could be financed down the road as the

voters see fit. It would be prudent, however, for the town to invest now

little more than what it spends to educate one student for one year in our

school system on this important planning tool. The GIS system, after all, will

help educate our local leaders and planners about the status of our town and

the prospects for its future far into the next century. It is a small price to

pay for some real vision.