By David Stone S even million dollars will get anyone's attention. And, when this amount was identified as a cost reduction, it certainly got the attention of Al Bungard, P.E., county engineer for Chatham County. Chatham County, home of Savannah, Georgia, nestles against the Atlantic coast where Georgia and South Carolina share a border. Like so many counties in this famous 'low country,' it is a low-lying arrangement of slow moving rivers, salt marshes, and tidal flats.
Hills are nowhere to be found and water drains at a snail's pace, if at all.
Although USGS maps are good planning tools, it is difficult to build solid engineering solutions from them. Each new subdivision plan was reduced on a photocopier and traced onto the county base map. Looking ahead, officials in both public and private sectors saw the beginnings of a strong growth curve that demanded better geographic information. They also realized a cooperative effort would benefit everyone. Using technology that was just beginning to emerge in the mid-1980s, they determined to jointly fund a digital mapping effort to establish a common GIS database.