Microsoft in Government Worldwide Edition - Land, Water, and Natural Resources Management

Microsoft in Government - Worldwide Edition Issue 4 : March 30, 2006

Welcome to the Microsoft in Government e-newsletter, a great way for you to stay up-to-date on case studies, solutions, news, and more. This month's edition focuses on Land, Water, and Natural Resources Management. If you are receiving this from a colleague, we invite you to subscribe and have a copy delivered directly to your inbox. Don't miss out on your copy, filled with product and technology news and information. Sign up for your FREE subscription! <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734026>

Land, Water, and Natural Resources Management:Integrating data for effective analysis, modelling & collaborationGovernments in both resource-scarce and resource-rich countries seek more comprehensive and accurate information for national and local planning, sustainable development, and environmental management. Planners, policy-makers, and researchers know that without adequate data, public policies on land and water usage will remain unreliable. Increasingly, organisations are turning to new advances in information technology to collect and analyse the required data. Read more... <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734027>

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News & Highlights

Microsoft, government partnerships solve challenges for citizens <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734017> Microsoft Corporation has announced plans to formalise its global commitment to the partnerships for technology access (PTA) initiative, part of the company's ongoing efforts to help governments and local industry build knowledge-based economies in underserved countries and regions. Gerri Elliott, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft, addressed 200 political, business and academic leaders at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum (GLF) - in Washington, D.C. She highlighted the critical role that public-private partnerships can play in solving challenges facing governments and their citizens around the world.

Prime Minister's questions moves online with MSN Messenger <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734018> British Prime Minister (PM) Tony Blair and MSN Messenger have teamed up to take 'Prime Minister's Question Time' online. In a unique competition, ten members of the public will get the chance to put questions live to the PM.

Learn how the U.S. government is using technology! Sign up for the U.S. version of Microsoft in Government <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734019> This free monthly e-newsletter delivers information on issues, training, products and events exclusive to the U.S. federal and state & local government community. Check out some recent editions here <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734028> and sign up <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734029> today!

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Case Studies Learn how Microsoft technology is helping government customers increase productivity and improve collaboration and communication.

Land registry office cultivates web publishing tool for faster processing <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734020> The Virtual Land Registry Office of Spain needed to centralise all information relating to urban and rural property for better data transparency. Its existing data structure was fragmented across databases in each of the agency's 52 regional land registry offices. The scale of the data was vast, representing around 28 million urban units and 44 million rural parcels. Solution provider Informatica el Corte Ingles (IECISA) implemented a solution with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and pooled the registry office's dispersed data into a tool that offers the possibility of processing land registry certificates, and acts as an information exchange point with its collaborating agents. The solution simplified the exchange of files with various administrations and cut administration costs by avoiding the need for physical media.

River flow monitoring system improves forecasting and response to floods and droughts <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734021> Portugal has established an integrated network to monitor river flows, rainfall, reservoir levels and water quality in all of its river basins. The 'RIOS' system, developed using the Microsoft .NET Framework means the water institute can forecast and monitor flood and drought situations better, and keep civil protection authorities aware of changing conditions. Information is centralised in a Microsoft SQL Server database accessed over the Internet through multiple channels, including personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wireless application protocol (WAP) telephones. The system is also used to exchange river flow data from Spain, the upstream country for all Portugal's main watersheds.

Groundwater management agency turns to smart client solution for daily operations <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734022> The Orange County Water District (OCWD) oversees the levels and quality of groundwater in California's second most populous county. To provide access to data and documents across the enterprise, OCWD deployed a Microsoft .NET-connected geographic information system application from DCSE. Mapplet.NET is a smart client application that provides OCWD with a rich interface and powerful tools to help perform daily tasks more efficiently, such as creating maps to monitor water flows, levels, and quality, and analysing historical data.

U.S. government agency stores aerial imagery in new 25-terabyte warehouse <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734023> The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses geographical or geospatial information systems (GIS) software to acquire and maintain detailed data about land use and topography. In its search for a centralised and more reliable source for its many terabytes of data, the USDA turned to Microsoft Consulting Services and ESRI. The USDA opted to use Microsoft SQL Server as the basis for all of its data storage, resulting in enhanced data performance, Web access to the warehouse, and a system that will scale up to a projected 37 terabytes of total data.

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Microsoft Partner Spotlight ESRI <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734030> provides geographical or geospatial information systems (GIS) solutions to enable governments to create, manage, publish and disseminate geographic knowledge for all of society. On any given day, more than 1,000,000 people around the world use ESRI's GIS to improve the way their organisations conduct business, and ESRI continues to set the industry standards by developing software solutions using the latest programming and Internet technologies. ESRI is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, and ESRI and Microsoft have worked closely for a number of years to deliver complete GIS solutions to customers. All ESRI products run on the Windows platform and its core product family, ArcGIS, was developed using the Microsoft Visual Studio development tools.

Oxford Scientific Software <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4734031>, based in the UK, developed the Aquator water resource planning and prediction software for developing and running conjunctive water resource system models. Aquator, which is used for modelling the largest river basins in the UK, can be part of a GIS solution. The inclusion of Microsoft visual basic for applications (VBA), the same macro language used in Excel, allows any degree of customisation that may be needed.

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