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Branson IT presents citywide GIS tools to aid planning, emergency response and public access
Summary
IT staff demonstrated the city’s geographic information systems (GIS): unified address datasets, fire-response modeling, utility and asset mapping, trail planning and a public-facing map gallery. Staff said many layers are already available online and some sensitive layers remain restricted.
City information-technology staff showcased a broad set of geographic information system (GIS) tools the city uses to support planning, public safety, utilities and public transparency.
IT Director Chad Forrester introduced GIS Manager Curtis Copeland, who walked the board through the system’s capabilities: a consolidated address database; engineering-grade mapping and contours; water meter and utility asset locations used by field crews; fire-response and station siting analysis; collaboration layers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood modeling; trails planning and a mobile app for park visitors; and a public interactive map gallery intended to provide transparent access to many data layers.
Copeland noted the city retains hundreds of layered datasets and continues to bring additional layers online; he also said some layers (for example, critical utility infrastructure) remain controlled to avoid misuse. Board members and the public praised the system’s usefulness — from correcting address inconsistencies that affect billing to locating optimal sites for new fire stations — and asked staff how to view special-tax district or TIF boundaries in the public portal. Staff said many of those tax-district layers already exist and are available on request, though some require controlled access for security or accuracy reasons.
The IT department offered to accept mapping requests and provide follow-up briefings on use cases for aldermen and the public. Mayor and aldermen expressed appreciation and acknowledged GIS as a decision-support tool across city departments.
