Finally, the information can provide the basis for local decision making. There are often many sources for people to obtain important information about the characteristics of their community. Some sources are included in Appendix 1. The availability of this information may vary by community. A few sources of information and very useful analytical planning tools are described within this chapter.
Basic mapping is important for community planning.
Most data held in local government data bases can be tied to a location, explicitly as a coordinate on a map or implicitly as a street address, parcel identification number, or public land survey section number. As a result, location is a tremendous tool for organizing, analyzing, and displaying these data. A GIS is more than a collection of data and software to manipulate it, though. To generate information useful for decision making, the system must be tuned to the needs of an organization. Personnel are needed to manage the system.