City introduces residents to GIS; Internet users can access city’s maps

Editor’s note: As part of National Community Planning Month, the City of Yuma is providing a series of articles on topics related to community planning, highlighting several ways community planning impacts our lives, and related issues particularly facing Yuma.

One of the most important modern tools now available to community planners is GIS – Geographic Information Systems. GIS uses computers to make maps and to study map data – and that data can be added, layered or combined.

Much of what the City of Yuma does for its people has something to do with location, such as parks, schools, utility lines, streets, and the city boundary line itself. Planners have to know where every home is in case of fire or other emergency, and they have to know the quickest way to get there.

Planners have to know where every street light, traffic light, and traffic sign is, too. The City of Yuma also provides water and sewer services to its citizens and has to be able to carefully maintain the pipes and connections throughout our service area. GIS helps staff members know right where these things are, what condition they are in, and where they sit in relation to everything else.

In order to collect this data, field crews use sophisticated GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. For example, when the City’s Utilities department installs a new valve, they will use a GPS device that will measure that valve’s location, usually within a few centimeters’ accuracy. That information is then transferred to a GIS database that stores the location as a point on a map, as well as information about that specific valve. The City of Yuma also maintains aerial photography that has been processed to be accurate within a few inches, allowing us to more easily view and map features on the ground.

While the City has been using GIS for the past 20 years to help us keep track of these and many other things, planners also use it to look ahead and plan for the future. How many more people will live here five, 10, or 20 years from now? Will we be able to provide water, sewer, and other services? Do we have sufficient police for our communities? Are there quality parks within a reasonable distance from our neighborhoods? Where would we like to have more stores, or more homes? These questions and others are what our planners in the Department of Community Development work with every day, and they use GIS to help answer them in the best way possible.

Yuma’s ongoing commitment to the latest GIS technology ensures that the citizens will continue to have access to quality services for years to come. GIS allows us to explore the possibilities, to understand the conditions our city has now, and what it could become in the future. The planners, the road crews, utility workers, parks and recreation teams, the police, firefighters, and administrative staff have access to the maps and data they need to help them best serve the people of the City of Yuma.

For more information on GIS in the City of Yuma, please visit our website at www.yumaaz.gov, or call our offices at (928) 373-5000. If you have internet access, you can see an example of the type of maps we maintain by visiting https://maps.ci.yuma.az.us/cityofyuma/