GIS Tools

Most of the data processed by the various City departments have some connection with a geographic location. By using this common relationship, diverse (and otherwise unrelated) data can be combined together resulting in highly informative output. In Ontario, GIS has been used to centralize what previously had been numerous and redundant address data. With GIS in place and a master address file, departments update their data and attach it to a record from the master addresses. Thus, there is only one parcel database, one landuse database, one address database, etc for the City of Ontario. The City uses a variety of tools to complete this task. The following are some of the main methods or tools used by Ontario:

ARCINFO

This is the main application which the GIS department uses to create and maintain the coverage layers. ARCINFO integrates graphic or "spatial" data in the form of maps with descriptive or attribute information from an organization's internal databases. ARCINFO incorporates all the functions found in desktop mapping systems that enable users to integrate vector and raster data, photographs, scanned documents, CAD drawings, and multimedia data types for display and query.

ArcMap / ArcView

It is estimated that 80 percent of all data contain a geographic component such as country, state, ZIP Code, or street address. Using ArcView, a variety of departments are able to access the coverage layers created in ARC/INFO. Various departments can work on different projects within the same area using current data. ArcView GIS software provides a variety of intuitive map composition tools that lets you create presentation-quality maps.

MapObjects

MapObjects is built on the Microsoft's ActiveX architecture, the key software integration architecture in the desktop computing industry today. The MapObjects ActiveX control can be plugged into a wide variety of popular development frameworks. MapObjects works in standard Windows development environments such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi, PowerBuilder, and others. This gives a mapping capability to the various programming languages used for the development of applications. To make a map viewable on the internet requires an different program such as ArcIMS.

Visual Basic

Visual Basic is the main programming language that is used for the creation of applications for the City. This language allows the intagration of other programs such as MapObjects to create simple front ends like the examples in the GIS Applications page. Some other examples of how we use VB script is in data conversion and data management, Police Department Applications, Fire Department Applications, Engineering and Public Works Applications. These applications are continually refined to meet the users needs or as information changes.