Planning Perspective

One thing I found interesting on the ESRI website is the land use planning section. I'm very in to planning out land for development and looking over legal constraints. I like to see what a developer can and can't do based on endangered species, wetlands and zoning. The website offers maps of various land uses across the U.S. along with case studies. GIS is a big tool in land use management. It is useful in that you can locate and view a site without having to drive to it day in and day out. GIS also offers zoning as a layer and other environmental issues such as flood plains, as another. I've always liked mapping sites and applying layers to them. The ESRI case studies let me see what other people are doing hundreds of miles away, so I can compare my approach and work to theirs. It's another useful tool that I can now go to if need be.