Bay Area GIS Survey

The Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), in cooperation with other organizations, conducted a Bay Area GIS Survey to build the foundation for GIS data sharing/exchange and metadata awareness/usage in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project, which was partially funded by a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) grant from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), was initiated in 2001 and concluded in August, 2002.

The foundation of the project was a comprehensive GIS survey that was made available in both a hard-copy and online version. The survey asked respondents to tell us who the primary GIS contact person is within their organization and document a few, basic metadata descriptors for the GIS data they create, maintain or are responsible for. The survey also asked if they create metadata and under what conditions they are able to share or exchange the data. Finally, the survey asked respondents to briefly identify the major GIS applications and GIS-related technology that they utilize.

The target audience for the survey was all organizations in the Bay Area that create or maintain GIS data. To avoid duplicate information, we asked that only one individual from each organization (i.e. the key GIS contact) complete the survey. Due to an extensive outreach and promotion effort, 110 individuals completed the survey. The majority of the respondents are employed by municipal governments. Other responses were received from counties, regional government agencies, transportation agencies (i.e. transit operators and congestion management agencies), state governments, federal governments, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and consultants.

To make the metadata captured on all of the surveys useful to a wide audience, the brief metadata descriptors and GIS contact information from the surveys were uploaded to the California Environmental Information Catalog (CEIC), also known as the CERES Metadata Catalog. This Catalog is an online directory for reporting and discovery of information resources for California. The Catalog has been developed through a collaborative effort with the California Geographic Information Association, the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee.

Bay Area GIS Survey respondents have been strongly encouraged to maintain and add to their "starter records" in the California Environmental Information Catalog.

The results of the Bay Area GIS Survey are available in the following deliverable products:

• Summary Report (4.28MB PDF) - presents detailed background information about the project, a statistical analysis of the information gathered on all surveys, and a summary of the GIS data documented by all survey respondents. This report also includes a brief history of GIS and an explanation of metadata.
  
• GIS Contacts Report(791KB PDF) - presents only the contact information for all survey respondents. This information is sorted by type of organization to make it easy to locate a GIS contact for a specific organization.
  
• Detailed Results Report (1.26MB PDF) - presents all of the raw, detailed information that was gathered on all of the surveys. This information is presented in individual tables that were created for each survey respondent. The tables contain respondents' answers to all survey questions and describe the GIS data they documented. The tables are sorted by organization and department name.
• Summary Results Presentation (348KB PDF) - powerpoint presentation summarizing the purpose, process and results of the project.
• Interactive, Multimedia CD - an interactive CD with a multimedia presentation of the purpose, process and results of the project. To obtain a copy of the CD, contact Mike Skowronek.