By Betsy Crick
Pictured from left to right: Seth Church, Elzbieta Covington, Wes Askew, Jeannie Eidson, Craig Linn, and Phil Weinbach. (Not pictured – Josh Boulware, who works out of DHEC’s Ocean and Coastal Resource Management office)
DHEC’s Division of Enterprise Applications, led by GIS Section Manager Philip Weinbach, was recently recognized at The Public Technology Institute (PTI) Smart Cities and Counties Summit with a 2015 PTI GIS Vision Award. A geographic information system (GIS) helps individuals visualize, question, analyze, and interpret data to understand relationships, patterns, and trends. This prestigious, annual award is presented to outstanding individuals from within local and state government who have demonstrated a leadership role in GIS tools and sharing of GIS data across boundaries.
According to PTI Executive Director Alan Shark, “DHEC, along with the other award recipients, understand how to better serve and protect the public, and to enhance real-time decision-making through the use of GIS tools and data. Individuals who are recognized as GIS Vision Award recipients have contributed to advancing enterprise-wide GIS, articulated a clear vision and recognized innovation, demonstrated leadership, and served as a champion for the use of GIS across and within the city, county and state. I congratulate you for your leadership and for your vision!”
DHEC has also been selected to receive a Special Achievement in GIS award at the 2015 Esri User Conference. Esri inspires and enables people to positively impact the future through a deeper, geographic understanding of the changing world around them. The Special Achievement in GIS award is given to user sites around the world to recognize outstanding work with GIS technology. DHEC stood out from more than 100,000 others in receiving this award.
The GIS Section at DHEC has made great strides in developing many publicly available applications using the JavaScript programming language. These applications are mobile ready and work across platforms, iOS and Android. The team has worked closely with program areas to add interactive mapping to our website, which includes topics such as air monitoring, permits and planning, public health, water resources, and much more.
Congratulations to our entire GIS team for these outstanding accomplishments!
Live Healthy S.C. 