THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506210164
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Giant white X's painted and pinned on some Chesapeake streets and landmarks are not clues to buried treasures, but they could lead to a future boon for the city.
The markings will help a private firm draft new city maps, which have not been updated since 1983. Eventually, the mapping process will lead to the computerization of all the city's maps and property records, which now are contained mostly in bulky paper form and are dispersed among different offices.
The computer network, called a Geographic Information System, will be ``really state of the art,'' said John A. O'Connor, the city's director of public works. ``It's one mapping system for everyone. Real estate (department) can use it, and planning can use it; police and fire can use it.
``It's a whole lot more user friendly than the paper maps we have been using.''
The first phase of developing the computer system is drafting the new maps, a yearlong project that began in March and will produce topographical diagrams of all the landscapes, roadways and structures in the city.
Air Survey Corporation of Virginia, a Sterling, Va.-based firm, began the process by placing X's at strategic locations. A high-powered camera, attached to the bottom of an airplane, then snapped aerial photographs of the entire city, including the X's.
Surveyors now are determining the longitude, latitude and elevation of each white X. That information, along with the photographs, will be used to draft the maps.
The photos will be digitized and used later for the city's new computer system.
The Geographic Information System will take as much as $2.5 million and four years to finish. That figure includes the cost for drawing the maps, $750,000-$1 million.
The new system will be more efficient, said city Engineer D. Ray Stout, and will allow easy access to more detailed information about the city.
``You could sit in one work station and access all this data that's currently in numerous places throughout the city,'' Stout said. ``It's a very, very useful tool for both the city as well as the citizens, the private sector.'' by CNB