Since 2013, EA has provided ongoing hosting, maintenance, support, weekly and monthly data updates, and application enhancements for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission PGAtlas.com. PGAtlas.com is a web application that supports the goals of the Commission and Prince George’s County, Maryland by facilitating intergovernmental and citizen involvement through education and technical assistance in the planning process. The application was developed as a free public resource to provide citizens access to geographic map layers and aerial imagery of Prince George’s County. Users can navigate and print maps, measure distances, query the data, zoom to selected records, and print mailing labels.
- Display development application information that will be discussed at future Planning Board meetings
- Allow users to explore data through queries, map creation, and exporting data to common formats such as Microsoft Excel or Adobe PDF
- Display property, zoning, and administrative information that is used to shape public policy
- Allow citizens to determine if tree conservation plans exist on a property.
In 2015, EA led an upgrade of the PGAtlas.com application from a Microsoft Silverlight platform to Esri’s JavaScript API. As part of this process, EA assisted the Commission with the review and analysis of the existing PGAtlas.com technical architecture and functionality to identify opportunities to improve the system’s ability to provide planning information to the public users. EA facilitated a series of meetings with Commission staff to analyze the process, methodology, and workflows for generating the geospatial information through to the number of clicks a user was required to perform before accessing the information through the PGAtlas.com interface. The results drove the requirements and design of the upgraded system, resulting in a more intuitive user interface and experience.
