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Meadowlands Digital Mapping

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Digital mapping a new boon for Meadowlands


Thursday, January 15, 2004

SECAUCUS - The call comes in: A building in the warehouse district is engulfed in flames.

Racing to the scene, fire officials log on to a laptop and instantly find out what hazardous materials are stored on the premises, where the nearest fire hydrants are, and which adjacent buildings might require extra protection because they contain flammable materials.

Although this scenario is not quite reality yet, Secaucus moved a step closer to its realization Wednesday as the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission unveiled a high-tech digital mapping system that promises to enhance the planning capabilities of the 14 municipalities within the Meadowlands district.

Starting with Secaucus, and with Carlstadt, Kearny, and Moonachie close behind, municipal officials will have high-speed access to a mapping database - known as a Geographical Information System - that gives them instant access to an array of information.

A year of "hard work" by the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute, a collaboration between the NJMC and Rutgers University, has led to the creation of a core set of databases linking such information as streets, property addresses and ownership, parcel and building footprints, zoning, land elevations, flood plains, wetlands, census data, and satellite imagery.

The Meadowlands Commission, which is footing all the costs, has invested $1.6 million in the GIS program. The public will have access to much of the information through the agency's Web site. However, certain information, such as the location of utilities' infrastructure, will be restricted for security reasons.

The NJMC is providing the equipment and training to use the GIS system, as well as to access global positioning satellite systems so that the municipal officials can eventually expand and tailor their databases to their own specific needs.

"The objective ... is to provide district municipalities with the tools and training to access accurate and current spatial information for their planning and daily operations," Francisco Artigas, a senior GIS scientist and professor at Rutgers, said during a demonstration Wednesday at the Secaucus Library.

"Why we're here today is really to hand over the incredible set of data that we've gathered over a year" to Secaucus, Artigas said.

In the future, he said, the town could map its water mains, fire hydrants, trees, garbage collection routes, and sewer lines.

Other applications include mapping auto accidents to gather evidence for a traffic light, or tracking crimes such as burglaries or car thefts to uncover patterns and better allocate resources, said Robert Ceberio, the NJMC's executive director.

"We're trying to give each municipality the best tools out there for the purposes of them making good policy decisions," Ceberio said.

The Meadowlands Commission is providing each municipality in the district with about $25,000 worth of services and hardware to get the GIS network up and running, Ceberio added.

Municipal officials, at first slow to embrace the technology, are now fervent boosters.

"It's going to make life much better for the entire district," said Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell.

"The technology is taking off," said an impressed East Rutherford Fire Chief Charles Flenner. "You got to either sink or stay with it. We want to be ahead of the curve."


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