BEST PRACTICES FOR THE NORTHWEST LOUISIANA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS TO SHARE DATA, MAPS, AND IDEAS WITH THE PUBLIC UTILIZING ARCGIS HUB

Abstract

The Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments (NLCOG) strives to provide its member government agencies with the most accurate and current GIS data within our regional GIS (ReGIS). One concern is that the data has never been available to the public without a data request. NLCOG has envisioned better public access to GIS data for some time now. For this project, I created the ArcGIS Hub site, Northwest Louisiana GeoHub as the public outreach GIS arm of NLCOG. From this site, the public can view and download GIS data, including feature classes, web maps, and maps in PDF format. The Northwest Louisiana GeoHub also provides information about the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments, as well as general GIS knowledge. Links to the member government agencies are on the site as well. The hope is that this site creates a connection between local government and the citizens of Northwest Louisiana. It is also my hope that this site brings awareness to our area of the capabilities of GIS and its potential. I envision this site growing to include more citizen participation to better our communities as well as more GIS data becoming available from the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments’ metropolitan planning area.