FORT WRIGHT — An eye in the sky blinks and your farm is in a database — or a GIS for short.

        Sanitation District No.1 gave Northern Kentucky residents the opportunity to see firsthand what GIS is, what it can do and why this aerial photograph-based mapping system is so important to the continuing growth.

        GIS stands for geographic information system, a computer tool for recording and analyzing all sorts of information. The GIS used by the Sanitation District is called PlaNet and is shared by four other Northern Kentucky agencies.

        Some 50 people turned up at the Sanitation District offices on Eaton Drive last week as technicians demonstrated the workings of GIS, called up the visitors' neighborhood to pinpoint their properties, and made them a free maps of the locations.

        Fort Thomas businessman and developer Bud Pogue and his son, Hank, came to the Sanitation District for a demonstration and left with maps of four areas where they own property.

        “We use this same system at the (Northern Kentucky) Area Planning Commission,” Mr. Pogue said. “It's an important tool, and will be more important as development continues.”

        Data for a GIS is captured from aerial photographs. All visible features are digitized and the information is referenced via Global Positioning System (GPS) technol ogy, to known points on the surface of the earth.

        The nonvisible features such as property boundaries and utilities are entered into the database. GIS can display all utility lines to houses and businesses, as well as locations of fire hydrants and other information such as hazardous materials located inside a structure.

        “GIS is important for utilities, such as the Sanitation District, and also for developers and builders,” Sanitation District executive director Jeff Eger said.

        He mentioned that Boone County, which has the most sophisticated GIS in Northern Kentucky, may soon merge its system with PlaNet in Kenton County. That joint system eventually will include Campbell County in an areawide GIS.

        The information in a GIS is stored in a collection of thematic layers that can be linked together by geography.

        GIS can display an area in a variety of modes, including a topographic display that shows hills and valleys.

        Some of the data that can be held in a GIS include property boundaries, roads, fences, sanitary sewers and water lines, railroads, recreation facilities, flood plains and watershed boundaries, city boundaries, zoning information, voting precincts, school districts and school locations, fire and police stations, legislative boundaries and ZIP code boundaries.

        The Sanitation District's GIS open house was in conjunction with National GIS Day, and the GIS maps were free to those who attended.

        Anyone can purchase maps or data at the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission offices at 2332 Royal Drive in Fort Mitchell.

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