Montgomery County Water Services is one of the 150 organizations selected from approximately 300,000 to receive the Special Achievement in GIS Award presented at the 30th Annual Esri International User Conference. The winning organizations received this honor for their vision, leadership, hard work, and innovative use of Esri's geographic information system (GIS) technology. The IT/GIS Service Group of employees was recognized at the August 17th Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting.
“Montgomery County Water Services Department’s geographical information system has evolved from more than just water and sanitary sewer utility mapping,” observed Commission president, Dan Foley.
The Water Services’ enterprise GIS database contains data for all the department’s facilities and all work related to these assets. The technology is used also by the customer service and permits staff along with internal applications that serve the over 150 employees within the department. “We are honored to receive this international award. Our IT/GIS Services Group has done excellent work. The Water Services Department will continue to focus on their data quality and data integration,“ said Greg Merrill, Environmental Services Director.
GIS combines computer hardware, software, data, and, most importantly, people to collect, manage, and analyze geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, helping people see that information as part of a complete picture. With GIS, users can view relationships, processes, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Whether they are responding to a natural disaster, growing a business, or sharing information with the public, GIS helps them solve problems and make smart decisions. More than one million people worldwide rely on GIS to learn and plan geographically.