Purpose Statement
As an outgrowth of the "GIS Technology Migration Plan" Study conducted by ESRI for the City of Lincoln and Lancaster County (Nebraska), a day-long working session has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 18th, 2005.
The main purpose of this working session is to expand COL-LC staff's practical understanding and technical knowledge regarding the benefits and weaknesses, primary structure, and core process for identifying, creating and maintaining "geodatabases" as part of the City-County's Enterprise GIS. The January 18th meeting is view principally as a "training session" for local staff on the topic of "geodatabases" as they are utilized within the ESRI family of software.
Specific questions to be addressed as part of the working session include:
- What is the underlying concept behind a "geodatabase?"
- What are the basis elements comprising a geodatabase and that distinguishes such databases from other digital geographic data files? (i.e., covers, workspaces, shapefiles, etc.)
- What is the difference between a "personal" and a "multi-user" geodatabase? And what do those differences mean for the COL-LC Enterprise GIS?
- What role should geodatabases play in an Enterprise GIS?
- How many geodatabases are "best" (typical) for a system of our size?
- What is the relationship between "geodatabases" and SDE?
- What are the inherent benefits and liabilities of utilizing geodatabases in an Enterprise GIS?
- What is the step-by-step process one goes through to create a geodatabase? And how are those steps best applied in the COL-LC situation?
- What ESRI tools are available to ease the data migration processes?
- What rules of protocol can be applied in a geodatabase? (i.e., defining relationships between various features)
- What is a "data model" and how would the concept be applied only to to COL-LC situation?
- What is the relationship between "data models" within an Enterprise GIS?
- How does one go about deciding which GIS files to aggregate into which "data models?"
- How can access to geodatabases be assured for ALL participants in the GIS Enterprise once SDE is installed and geodatabases are created?
- How do geodatabases "relate" to other ESRI products? (e.g. TIN, GRID, etc.)
- What basic features of geodatabase editing and file maintenance does the COL-LC staff need to know and understand?
Assumed conditions going into the session about our GIS operation:
- COL-LC will operate its "Enterprise GIS" within an SDE environment. The move to SDE will take place during the present calendar year.
- COL-LC will create and maintain some/most/all of its GIS data in geodatabases once the migration to SDE takes place.
- COL-LC understands that there is an "inherent flaw" in the coordinate positioning routine of the present ESRI geodatabase set-up. This situation will NOT be a topic for discussion at the January 18 meeting.
- COL-LC understands that a "final geodatabase design" will NOT result from the January 18 session's exercise using local data. The purpose of this exercise is merely to show how the principles of a geodatabase can be applied in a "real world situation" using Lincoln area data.
General outline of the day's events:
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Event set-up and informal welcomes |
| 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. | Discuss Draft Data Migration Report Recommendations (Note: This portion of the meeting involves only ESRI staff and COL-LC GIS Administrative staff.) |
| 9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | ESRI Staff Conducts "Basic Training" re: Geodatabases (Note: Other COL-LC GIS staff join the session at this time.) |
| 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch at meeting site. |
| 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | As necessary, complete "Basic Training" and begin practical exercise using local data. The exercise's purpose is to further COL-LC staff's knowledge re: geodatabase creation and maintenance. |
| 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. | Break |
| 2:45 p.m. - EOD | Complete local data exercise and conduct an open period of questions and answers. |
