About Us

The Douglas County GIS Department was formed December 29th, 2008. We provide GIS and mapping services to Douglas County, the City of Omaha, the City of Ralston, and the public.

What is a Geographic Information System (GIS)?

A GIS can represent features on the earth, such as buildings, cities, roads, rivers, and states, on a computer. People use GIS to visualize, question, analyze, and understand this data about the world and human activity. Often, this data is viewed on a map, which provides an advantage over using spreadsheets or databases. Why? Because maps and spatial analysis can reveal patterns, point out problems, and show connections that may not be apparent in tables or text.

GIS can be used to map dynamic events such as the path of a tornado or the spread of a disease outbreak (Show image of 2008 Omaha tornado path).Local governments use GIS to learn more about how and where their resources are used.  For example, Public Works might look at a degraded segment of road. They could see how many repairs were made on that segment and determine if it should be replaced.

By using GIS to reveal these hidden patterns, organizations obtain insight that can improve their performance and save them money through greater efficiency, better decision making, improved communication, and more accurate geographic record keeping. GIS isn’t new, although many people haven’t heard about it. On any given day, millions of people around the world use GIS in many different ways.