Cultivating the Garden State's Spatial Data Infrastructure: What Next in New Jersey?

Edith Konopka, PhD, GISP
New Jersey Office of Information Technology
Trenton, NJ

The NJ Office of Information Technology, Office of Geographic Information Systems has received a 2011 Fifty States Initiative CAP award to revise the 2002 New Jersey I-Team Strategic Plan.

The 2002 Plan goal was to reduce duplication of effort by planning acquisition and maintenance of enterprise framework spatial data layers for use by all stakeholders. Identified at that time were seven NSDI layers; and two NJ priority layers, Critical Infrastructure and Land Use / Land Cover.

Fast-forwarding nine years, many things have changed about framework data for New Jersey; and others have changed not as much as we would have hoped. There is a clearer understanding of the importance of cooperative data acquisition and maintenance, but this understanding is still not universally shared. Plans for a number of the nine layers have been carried out effectively, but not for all nine. The widespread need for additional layers of statewide significance is becoming apparent.

The 2011 CAP funding is being used to revise the strategic plan and to develop a congruent business plan, primarily focused on the needs and capacities of state government agencies, but also accommodating the needs of a broad range of stakeholders. We expect project results to include plans for business processes and work flows for data development, maintenance, and portfolio management; recommendations for more effective data discovery and distribution; a process for standards and guidelines promulgation; and recommendations for a more effective GIS governance structure.

This talk will represent an interim report on results to date.