Upper Swan Valley Community Council Geographic Information System
This map co-op web site is set up and sponsored by Geodata Services, Inc. to assist the Swan Valley Community Council in their community mapping and GIS efforts.
An initial goal of the site is to facilitate GIS and mapping for a Planning for People & Wildlife (P4PW) mini-grant provided by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The grant was submitted by Missoula County on behalf of the Swan Valley Community Council, and is being administered by the Missoula County Rural Initiatives Program.
This web site is not sponsored by Missoula County, it is solely the responsibility of Geodata Services, Inc. The initial goal is to support a relatively small grant with a very limited scope of final products (10-15 map images to update the Swan Valley Commmunity Profile report). Geodata staff anticipate the scope will grow with ongoing community support, and we encourage participants not to be limited to the mini-grant constraints in their comments and ideas. That said, we are committed to helping all participants working together to get the initial project done, keeping the initial goal in scope and on-time, and making the process constructive. Links are provided via the link site below (or in the navigation bars to the right) for further project information and background.
The process to complete the mini-grant will include the following:
- Initial review of GIS data galleries and existing project map and GIS resources, and open comment period from all participants
- Open survey on map titles and content for 10-15 map layers to complete for the mini-grant
- Review and analysis of comments and survey results by SVCC and Missoula County RI
- Final decision by Missoula County RI on mini-grant maps
- Acquisition and development of final data
- Publish final data on Esri ArcGIS Online for public review
- Hold an open house with paper and digital maps available for review, and discussion with GIS analysts from SVCC, RI and Geodata
- Prepare final maps and complete mini-grant
- Update the SVCC Map Gallery
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Plan next steps for SVCC community mapping and collaborative
Ground Rules for the Project
Based on both meetings and discussions with interested parties to this project, this is a summary of the major desires and ground rules that are desired in the process:
- All parties are interested in improving the GIS data and maps for the Swan Valley. All parties want to improve their ability to work together to achieve common goals.
- All parties view the mini-grant as the first step in an ongoing effort to enhance the GIS and maps in the Swan. There is a desire to maintain a list of additional data and maps that may not be able to be processed for the mini-grant, but would be further developed in the future. It is expected that the GIS data to be used will come initially from authoritative layers already developed and available from the SVCC and agency partners, the PLACE data maintained by RI, and data maintained by state and federal agency sources.
- All parties desire to have the GIS data and maps for the Swan Valley include the entire watershed, including those portions in Lake County. Everyone realizes that practical budget limitations for the mini-grant may result in some layers initially covering only the Missoula County portion, but that should be avoided if possible.
- Everyone has agreed to provide assistance to acquiring and processing the best and most authoritative GIS data to contribute to the mini-grant, given the limited budget available.
- All parties agree that the process should be open, public and transparent, and have agreed to do their best to make the general public in the Swan Valley aware of the mapping effort and encourage them to participate.
- All parties would like the maps to be dynamic and web based to supplement the static PDF map product deliverables.