Fire Protection Assessment GIS Business Solution and Maintenance Plan

Overview

Built for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) engaged with GCS to provide custom application development services in the form of a Fire Protection Assessment (FPA) business solution and maintenance plan. Adhering to the DNRC’s specifications, GCS brought to life a user-friendly geospatial web application that tracks all non-federally owned properties within DNRC Wildland Fire Protection Districts, affidavit units, or any other land parcel that the DNRC might assess now or in the future.

Objectives for the new FPA software solution included:

• Provide for authorized users to utilize standard and ad-hoc query/reporting capabilities
• Leverage robust SQL / RDBMS technologies for data management
• Ensure data integrity for all information in FPA
• Optimize the flow of information from the Department of Revenue’s database to the Fire Protection Assessment Program and to the Department of Revenue’s individual assessing Counties
• Maintain appropriate audit trails for parcel updates and will ensure the solution does not prohibit the ability to archive data in accordance with State mandates
• Spatially integrated

To create this custom FPA business solution and maintenance plan, GCS developed several modules that, in conjunction with one another, would fulfill the requirements set forth by the DNRC: The Main Browser-Based Informational Application Module, Data Importing Module, Data Comparison Module, Geographical Information Module, and the Implementation, Enhancements and Maintenance Module.

GCS built a home landing page for a user who had not yet authenticated that describes the FPA tool and its purpose. Users have access to the tool and other resources via embedded links. Authenticated users can access menus system with:

Find/search/filter existing records – with ability to drill down to parcel details page. The parcel’s detail will include access to historical data of the parcel for prior years using a simple drop-down menu at the top page. Specifically, GCS built functionality for users to:

• Reconcile data differences between current FPA data and new incoming Department of Revenue data
• Certify counties as being complete for the current year
• Forecast base rates and per acreage charges
• Assess tax amounts and generate county extracts.
• Create system reporting structure that runs customizable and out of the box reports