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Welcome to
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1986-2006
20 Years of Collaborative GIS in Indianapolis
The IMAGIS Program
IMAGIS is the multi-participant, public-private geographic information system (GIS) consortium for Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana. Our partners include:
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The City of Indianapolis |
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Marion
County Offices (Surveyor, ISA/IndyGIS, Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor, Recorder, Voter's Registration) |
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Township Assessors (9) |
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Citizen's Gas & Coke Utility |
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Indianapolis Power & Light (an AES IPALCO Company) |
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Indianapolis Water Company |
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Marion County Health & Hospital Corporation |
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IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) |
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Other public and private organizations |
The consortium developed a multipurpose, digital basemap of Marion County, containing many layers of information:
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Planimetrics buildings, roads, lakes, rivers and streams, railroads, parking areas. |
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Ground Control and Topography section corner coordinates, 2-foot contours, spot elevations. |
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Cadastre parcels, lots, platted subdivisions, jurisdiction boundaries. |
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Utility facilities sewer, stormwater, water, gas, electric, cable. |
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Photography digital orthophotography, oblique aerial photography. |
The data is updated regularly (click to see the data list), and new features are continuously added.
Get Adobe Acrobat
Reader here (its free!).
Click here for a printable brochure (.pdf format) highlighting some of the benefits that IMAGIS provides. A few examples of these benefits include:
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A better map |
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The same map for everyone |
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Coordination of projects / communication across agencies |
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Shared expertise |
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Shared expense |
People use IMAGIS data in many ways (click to see a list of our applications)
The IMAGIS Vision
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The IMAGIS Consortium will create, maintain and share an accurate, up-to-date geographic information system to serve the public good and provide benefits to member organizations. |
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IMAGIS will provide a single source of property, planimetric and topographic maps, and aerial photography for the GIS needs in Marion County. |
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IMAGIS will facilitate and coordinate infrastructure management and GIS applications development throughout the County. |
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IMAGIS will develop GIS data standards, policies, and procedures for its members, and will provide leadership in setting data standards in the community. |
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IMAGIS will deliver high quality, timely geographic information and analysis addressing a broad range of public and private issues. |
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IMAGIS will facilitate the widest practical information exchange, and to help offset the costs of maintaining the maps, will market GIS products and services to the public. |
Awards
The IMAGIS Project has won several prestigious awards, including:
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1988 URISA Exemplary Systems in Government (Honorable Mention): inaugurated in 1980 to recognize extraordinary achievement by government agencies in the use of automated information systems. This achievement is defined as the effective application of computer technology that can be measured in terms of improved government services and increased benefits to citizens. |
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1991 Privatization Council (now the National Council for Public Private Partnerships), Distinguished Project Award: The Council felt IMAGIS "demonstrates an innovative combination of public and private resources to fulfill a public purpose." |
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1991 Consulting Engineers of Indiana Award of Merit: IMAGIS : A new approach to infrastructure management. |
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1995 GITA (AM/FM International) The Pioneer Award was created by GITA in 1989 to recognize the long-standing commitment and contributions of user organizations which "led the way" by their aggressive and successful implementation of AM/FM technology. Its purpose is to foster excellence, recognize achievement and reward innovations in the field of AM/FM/GIS. |
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2005 American Council of Engineering Companies, Indiana - Honor Award: Presented to: GRW Engineers, Inc. Project: Then & Now - Innovative LiDAR Survey for IMAGIS Countywide 2' Contours |
IMAGIS Partners have won GIS awards including:
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How We Did It
In the mid 1980's, Indianapolis needed new maps to help with drainage, trash pick up and a host of other critical government functions. City-County Councilor Beulah Coughenour visited the GIS at the City of Burnaby, BC, and was immediately convinced of the benefits of computerized mapping. She persuaded the Director of Public Works and then Mayor Bill Hudnut of the soundness of this approach. A meeting of more than 100 interested parties was convened, from which 28 organizations expressed an interest in sharing the cost of building the GIS. The City hired Utility Graphics Consultants to study the GIS benefits in each of these organizations. UGC's report showed that the 28 agencies were spending nearly $9 million per year in map-related activities, and 10 departments and agencies had the budget and benefit to continue.
Within a short time, these groups decided to form the IMAGIS consortium. The first IMAGIS participants' contract was signed in 1986. In 1987, The City-County Council established the IMAGIS Board (of the highest executive of each organization) as the directorate of the consortium. A Technical Committee makes recommendations to the Board. Both meet monthly to this day. Map conversion started in 1987 by Mid States Engineering and was completed in 1989.
The cost for hardware, software, conversion and staff was about $7.2 million for the first 4 years. Ongoing costs have averaged about $400,000 for day-to-day operations, data integrity, HW/SW maintenance, data updates and coordination between participants.
A study in 1993 showed a 2-year benefit of about $24 million in cash return or cost avoidance, and an additional $1 million in business benefits.
Of course there is much more to the story ..... and we would be happy to share it with you. We have learned a lot and made more than a few mistakes. The GIS world has changed completely since we started, but after 20 years, we all still communicate and cooperate. We are proud to be involved with one of the best multi-participant GIS programs in the world.
What We Are Doing Now (see the News page, too.)
IMAGIS provides new digital orthophotography every year and updates planimetrics (buildings, pavement, hydrography, parking). In 2002, we had $298,000 worth of vendor contracts. In 2003, IMAGIS contracted for a LIDAR mission to build a new DEM and new 2-foot contours. We flew new orthos for 2004. We provided technical project management for the State of Indiana's 2005 state-wide orthophoto project. In 2004 and 2006 we flew Pictometry (oblique) photos. In 2007 IndyGIS flew Marion Co. and IMAGIS partnered with the IndyMPO and USGS to fly orthos in Boone, Hancock, Shelby, Morgan and Johnson counties. In 2008, Pictometry was captured in Marion, Hendricks and Johnson counties.
We built mosaics from the 2006 Pictometry orthogonal (straight down) photos, and township mosaics for 8 counties from the 2007 orthos. We updated planimetrics from the 2006 mosaics, and completed (August 2008) a planimetric update from the 2007 photos.
We work to build data-sharing relationships, and as of May 2008, we exchange GIS data with ALL of the counties neighboring Indianapolis. This took over 5 years of work.
IMAGIS agreed in August 2008 to partner with the Indiana Geographic Information Office and Indiana Geographic Information Council to provide selected GIS data to be included in the IndianaMap, a seamless, statewide GIS which will benefit citizens, businesses and government throughout the State.
Additional projects continue: for new map layers, scanning, and improving data quality. Participants have over 600 desktop GIS users, and Internet statistics show that the IndyGIS on-line map gets over 5800 hits per day. This link will show you a listing of the types of applications using IMAGIS data.
Catch up on our recent activities on the News webpage.
IMAGIS Contract and Legal Stuff
The IMAGIS consortium exists as a contract (Participants' Service Agreement). Staff are employees of IUPUI; vendor contracts are usually with the Department of Public Works, the Marion County Information Services Agency or IUPUI.
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Indianapolis Mapping and Geographic Infrastructure System
