Collaborative Effort

The North Dakota GIS Hub (NDGH) is the result of many people working together.

In 2001, the North Dakota State Legislature appropriated funds to develop the NDGH due a widespread historic demand by state agencies and due to the efforts of key individuals from the ND Department of Transportation, the ND State Water Commission, and the ND Information Technology Department.

The North Dakota Division of Emergency Management (DEM), using FEMA funds from the Devils Lake, North Dakota risk assessment project, provided the bulk of the NDGH hardware and software on a cost sharing basis. The ND DEM and FEMA created a Web-based application that will be hosted on the state GIS Hub.

The North Dakota GIS Technical Committee (GISTC) has provided and continues to provide countless hours of planning and discussion on what the NDGH should be for state agencies and the public. The GISTC consists of seven agencies as specified by executive orders. The GISTC has been an example of state agencies working together. This group has defined ownership and stewardship of data stored within their agencies, and provides a conduit for communication and data to other agencies and organizations.

The Convergent Group from Denver, Colorado, d.b.a. SchlumbergerSema, was retained to develop a plan and architecture of the NDGH. Three agencies from the ND GISTC were selected to serve as Pilot Agencies. They are the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health, and the State Water Commission. SchlumbergerSema worked closely with the Pilot Agencies to develop a project plan and vision of the project. SchlumbergerSema also worked with the Information Technology Department (ITD) to define the architecture to be utilized by the NDGH.

ITD provides the hosting infrastructure for the NDGH. Database administrators, web application developers, web presentation developers, UNIX and Windows system administrators all work together to provide a reliable, scalable, and secure environment for the NDGH.

From the GISTC a Data Oversight Committee was created. This committee collects data from stage agencies and from organizations outside of state government. The committee is responsible for ensuring that all data that resides on the NDGH geodatabase is the best possible and minimum standards are met.

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