The GISS or Geographic Information Systems and Services Team are a section of the Information, Communication, and Technology Delivery Division of HRM.

We provide GIS services to internal business units, consultants working for the Municipality, special interest groups and the general public.  We regularly provide tactical maps, administrative boundary and service area maps, custom map and data layer development.  We provide proximity and drive distance analysis to assist in defining optimal service areas, service routes, placement of new municipal locations, and for tax purposes. Our mandate is to support daily operations of the Municipality, and to promote the advanced use of GIS in provision of a quality and cost effective service to the public.

Our staff compliment includes 3 GIS Technicians, 1 GIS Analyst, 1 GIS Programmer/Analyst, and 1 Manager.

Some interesting things we've done in 2011-2012:

• Created the new municipal districts for the District Boundary Review project.
• Applied tax area rates based on geographic proximity to municipal services.
• Provided optimized litter bin routing.
• Mapping of “hot” (high risk of flooding) catch basins.
• Provided mapping, data, and slope/distance analysis for cross-town connector bike routes.
• Provided trail mapping for various publications.
• Identified harbour properties and buildings that could be within sea rise risk zone.
• Created new civic address look-up tool for snow removal priority for streets.