Around the same time Madison Gas and
Electric (MG&E) began investigating
development of a facilities mapping system.
MG&E approached the City of Madison
Engineering Department and proposed a
cooperative parcel mapping project.
The participants in the Dane County Land
Records Project were impressed with the
power of GIS and helped form the Wisconsin
Land Records Committee. That committee
involved many people state wide and resulted
in legislation that established the
Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP)
and its funding. The program assists local
governments like Dane County in modernizing
land records and developing geographic
information systems. The legislative charges
are carried out by the Wisconsin Land
Information Board (WLIB) with assistance
from the Wisconsin Land Information
Association (WLIA). County governments are
the coordinating entity for the WLIB’s Land
Information Program (WLIP).
A
key requirement for access to the funding of
the WLIP is that Counties must establish a
Land Information Office and develop a Land
Information Modernization Plan. In that
plan, Counties must address cooperation with
other agencies, both public and private. To
that end, County Executive Rick Phelps and
U.W. chancellor Donna Shalala established
the Community-Wide Land Information System
Committee (CLISC) to study the cooperative
development of land information systems in
Dane County. Members from each segment of
the Dane County community with a stake in
GIS activities were invited to attend a
series of meetings in 1990 and 1991 to help
define roles and responsibilities. The
committee was well attended with
representatives from the City of Madison,
Dane County, the University of Wisconsin,
Madison Gas and Electric, the State of
Wisconsin, and numerous other public and
private organizations and individuals. Among
the committee’s recommendations was
establishing "a centrally coordinated entity
with distributed responsibilities". A Dane
County intergovernmental land information
consortium to oversee the Land Information
Office in implementing, facilitating, and
supporting the modernization and sharing of
Dane County land information.
The Dane County Land Records Modernization
Plan
reports goals and objectives of the LIO, as
well as the status and future plans for
projects coordinated by the Land Information
Office.
History of the Dane County LIO program
agencies began exploring practical
applications of Geographic Information
Systems. Helping plan strategies and target
resources to reduce soil erosion and improve
water quality were among the GIS
applications identified as having a good
return on investment for Dane County. The
Dane County Land Records Project
demonstrated both efficiencies and improved
decision making ability as a result of the
application of GIS.