New York's 6 million acre Adirondack Park encompasses 12 counties and 105 towns in upstate New York. Its mission is to maintain the delicate balance between environmental quality and economic vitality in the region. The APA maintains tens of thousands of records about real property, physical and civil infrastructure, and natural resources. Organizing, finding, and using effectively so many different kinds of information had become a critical problem for both the agency and its customers.
During 1994-95, CTG worked with APA and several corporate and university partners to develop and evaluate a prototype system to combine document records and geographic data into a unified system. The resulting “electronic reference desk" allows agency staff to point at a land parcel displayed on an electronic map and summon legal documents, other maps, project plans and related information about the property.
This report provides an overview of the partnership project, presents the results of the prototype, and discusses how the work can benefit others considering similar initiatives.