Countywide GIS Public-Private Partnership

Many agencies and community based organizations maintain GIS data for internal purposes and needs. As a result, there are multiple specialized systems for particular needs and redundant technical capacity. This redundancy likely contributes to the resilience of the larger social system by avoiding the risk of a single system failing, but there are costs to a siloed approach including a lack of awareness of and access to important data for analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring the effect of programs and projects. The most accurate and up to date data on environmental, public safety, public health, social services and other arenas are often unavailable across these boundaries. Meanwhile we are increasingly seeing compounding stressors on our social and economic systems such as inadequate and overcrowded housing, significant wildfires in homeless encampments, and extreme heat and drought driven by climate change disproportionately impacting under-resourced community members. Well coordinated responses across jurisdictions, agencies, departments and the public and private sectors calls for better coordination and integration of data and technology systems.

Effort has been made to break down these boundaries in certain topical areas, and shared systems like the Santa Barbara County Conservation Blueprint Atlas and the RPP Wildfire Portal serve as repositories for some categories of spatial data. The RPP Wildfire Portal is now Santa Barbara County’s largest centralized Fire Database of GIS layers. More than 154 GIS datasets are accessible and searchable by title, theme or provider. In addition, the Santa Barbara Community Data Dashboard (www.sbcdashboard.org) has been highly successful as a partnership between the County CEO, County Public Health Department and many other agencies and community based organizations. It presents in-depth and timely information on the pandemic alongside expanding information on mental health, homelessness, health care, the economy, food security and other critical areas. These examples demonstrate the potential of data sharing and shared data platforms to advance community understanding and data-driven decision making in critical arenas. To meet the need for better integrated and coordinated data sharing, we recommend investing in the maintenance and expansion of the RPP Wildfire Portal and the creation of a Wildfire Dashboard on the Community Data Dashboard to provide timely information via a trusted platform during wildfire events. Maintenance and expansion of these existing community assets is low cost but high impact. Their success creates potential for larger scale GIS data sharing and communication partnerships. We recommend assessing the potential for broader countywide public-private GIS partnerships to expand on existing efforts in this arena and to facilitate data sharing and communication across a wider range of intersecting sectors, fields and community needs. Funds and in-kind support for this work may be available via other efforts with similar goals, such as the Channel Islands Regional GIS Collaborative (CIRGIS), SB County Conservation Blueprint and the new Regional Wildfire Mitigation Program. For related projects please see "Fine Scale Mapping of Critical County Resources" and Countywide Fine Resolution LIDAR Data for examples.

Status: Unfunded (Unfunded, should be considered in the County's budget process to support myriad County departmental needs (Fire, Planning, Building, etc.).)

Cost: Medium

Funding Sources: 

Permitting: None