Road AheadThe Road Ahead

In order to build a foundation for the development of a stable, manageable, and secure enterprise GIS Center, we are working on a data-integration model that will allow Tribal departments to share the latest and most accurate versions of GIS data stored in a central repository. This important goal is being realized through key contributions by the Natural Resources and Community Development departments.

Activities

The following issues have been deemed the most important for the future development of the GIS Center:

1.  Dissemination – In order to create awareness of GIS technology, we have launched the GIS Center website. The goal is to educate users about enterprise GIS: its purpose and benefits, and the services it can offer to various Tribal departments.

2.  Tulalip GIS Committee – In order to utilize all the GIS resources at Tulalip and foster cooperation among departments, a GIS Committee will be formed. This team approach will expedite the development of the centralized GIS system.

3.  Roles and Responsibilities – At the GIS Committee meetings, roles and responsibilities will be assigned for each participant, and primary contacts will be identified for each department. As a result, all participating departments and the GIS Committee team members will play an optimal role in the development of centralized GIS and the adoption of the GIS standards for the Tulalip Tribes.

4.  Standards – In order to facilitate efficient data-sharing, all participating departments will follow the agreed-upon standards when creating maps, data, and metadata. Following this common standard will allow GIS users to search for the most accurate and up-to-date information using metadata files.

5.  GIS Database Administration – Having the appropriate GIS database schema in place, TDS GIS will migrate data from the current file-based system to the SDE-based system. This approach will allow fast and secure data uploading and retrieval, improved maintenance and flexibility, and data versioning. Consequently, data redundancy will be significantly reduced and data-sharing drastically enhanced among Tribal departments. Properly documented data will be available through an ESRITM GIS interface, or secure interactive map viewing through ArcIMS.

6.  Supporting Tribal Departments – In order to support Tribal departments, the GIS team is creating a set of base maps that will be available for viewing, downloading, and analysis. Additionally, the GIS team is working with individual Tribal departments on projects whose completion requires spatial data and maps.