July 29, 2003 By Merrill Douglas The portal clearly offers
benefits to federal and state agencies. To meet their own needs,
local governments develop large-scale maps -- often at 1:2,400
inches, Fairfax County's Conry explained. "The feds tend to
compile their data at best at 1:24,000," he said, noting that if
counties and cities contribute GIS files to the portal, federal
and state agencies will have access to more accurate maps than
they can develop on their own. That particular advantage doesn't
run in both directions. "The feds will have the ability to get
information from all the different local governments," Jarreau
said. Since counties and cities usually develop the most
accurate maps of their areas, access to GIS data created by
state and federal agencies doesn't always help them. But easy
access to data for neighboring jurisdictions could help local
governments with regional applications, such as environmental
management and homeland security. Most watersheds cut across
political boundaries, Garie ex