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Sarasota County Government recently acquired
new GIS data and innovative GIS tools to help with
mission-critical business decisions! ArcGIS® Business Analyst
provides advanced analysis tools and a complete data package to
help us better understand our customers and neighborhoods in
relation to locations of services provided by local government.
 It is amazing how the unique mix of demographic, socioeconomic,
and business data we can now analyze, model, and visualize gives
us very valuable and intuitive insights into our customers.
Community™ Tapestry™ of Sarasota County classifies neighborhoods based on their socioeconomic
and demographic composition. Sarasota County’s dominant tapestry
segment is “Silver and Gold”.
Click here to learn more about Community Tapestry, you can
type in your ZIP Code to see what your neighborhood’s dominant
tapestry segment is.
The GIS Services Department has fully
implemented ArcGIS® Business Analyst in recent projects,
including analyses of demographic and socioeconomic composition
in relation to proximity to parks, natural areas, and libraries.
Preliminary results identify certain populations and areas that
are underserved, but overall they highlight how well we already
serve the majority of Sarasota County’s residents. These new GIS
tools and data have great promise to help Sarasota County
Government plan and tailor new and existing services to
effectively meet our growing population’s needs.
Sarasota County GIS Services
and Classroom on Wheels Adult Education
For three mornings, April 11-13, we had a classroom set up at
Colonial Oaks Park to facilitate 30-40 students each day. The
class was designed to introduce GIS to the community and a total
of about 90 students visited us over the 3 day period. The
students were introduced to GIS concepts and interacted with
county GIS professionals with displays on how Sarasota County
uses GIS in the organization and in the decision making process.
Classroom on Wheels started in 1974 and has visited over 1,300
places in the community. They are with the Adult and Community
Education Center through the Sarasota County School Board. They
are a bus based traveling classroom for ˝ day field trips
throughout the community. It provides an opportunity for adult
senior students to see, in depth, areas of business, industry,
social services, government, education, arts and culture in a way
that the students could not accomplish alone.
Neighborhoods Online
The Neighborhoods Online Web site was built in collaboration
with the Neighborhood Services Department in Planning Services.
The site provides up-to-date information on Neighborhood
Associations located within Sarasota County. It also shows the
location of a wealth of other resources, such as parks, schools,
and houses of worship.
The leader of any neighborhood or homeowners group can enter
their information, and be part of the Web site. For more
information, visit the
Neighborhood Services Web site.
New aerial photography
A recently approved contract with MultiVision USA
will provide the county, especially the 9-1-1 Call Center, with
very high resolution oblique imagery (photography taken at an
angle) for the whole county.
Our mission
The mission of the GIS Services unit is to
maintain an accurate base map of county data, to advance the
strategic application of spatial data and GIS processes to
county business processes, to inform policy discussions, and to
provide general GIS support and consulting within the county.
The unit also maintains the software and hardware infrastructure
underlying the GIS to support our key GIS partners in the
Integrated Water Core Service, and Planning Services. |
