The Williamson County Geographic Information Systems Council (WCGISC) partnered with the City of Georgetown and Georgetown ISD to host GIS Day for 125 fifth graders from Wolf Ranch Elementary School. The City of Georgetown hosted this year’s event at the Georgetown Recreation Center in San Gabriel Park on Wednesday, Nov. 15. WCGISC led five GIS and technology activities that included GPS orientation, drone use cases, field data collection and how GIS technologies are used by the National Weather Service and in hazardous materials response.
GIS is a software tool that allows users to take different types of data formats, analyze it spatially and then visualize it through maps and web applications for decision-making. It is a tool used in a variety of industries including health care, transportation, real estate, utilities and public safety.
WCGISC is made up of members from the major cities within Williamson County that have GIS departments, the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD) and Williamson County Appraisal District (WCAD).
Recent GIS projects in Williamson County have had an impact at the state and federal levels. These include preparing data for the Census 2020 and subsequent state redistricting, the redrawing of county commissioner, justice of the peace and constable precincts, and the election voting precincts. Other projects include the transition of our 911 streets, addresses and response boundaries to Next Generation 911, as well as the new open data portal GeoHub (www.wilcotx.gov) which allows people to interact with county level data and applications.
More information on the county’s GIS Division, including county maps, is available at www.wilcotx.gov/GIS.