Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN)

The Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN) and VGIN Advisory Board were established in Code of Virginia (§44-146.18:6 and §2.2-2423) in 1997. VGIN’s mission is to encourage and support the innovative implementation of geospatial technologies, applications, and data across commonwealth stakeholder communities. This spans all levels of the public sector (federal, state, regional and local governments), numerous private sector users, academic users at all levels, and citizens of the commonwealth.

VGIN is one of three divisions in VDEM’s 9-1-1 and Geospatial Services (NGS) Bureau, along with the Public Safety Communications Division and Regional Outreach Division. VGIN currently has eight (8) staff positions. VGIN staff support the following priorities:

Virginia Base Mapping Program Orthoimagery: VGIN is directed by Code of Virginia to maintain a statewide orthoimagery base refreshed on a four year cycle. VGIN is currently managing the sixth statewide collection of imagery since 2002. All geospatial data generated by the program is openly available without charge through the Virginia GIS Clearinghouse.
Virginia GIS Clearinghouse: The Virginia GIS Clearinghouse provides a central location for the discovery and distribution of spatial data from a variety of contributors across the commonwealth. In 2021, the Virginia GIS Clearinghouse served over 500 million requests and directly provisioned over twenty-eight (28) terabytes of data.
Next Generation 9-1-1 GIS Support: VGIN supports the 9-1-1 Board’s initiative to deploy Next Generation 9-1-1 across the commonwealth by July 2023. This support includes GIS data readiness for every Virginia locality, developing a report card process and associated toolkit to help localities improve GIS data quality and conformance, managing the creation of statewide boundary datasets for key required datasets, and developing an award-winning, GIS-based deployment dashboard used by NGS staff, localities, and service providers.
Virginia Base Mapping Program Base Layers: VGIN staff engages all localities in the commonwealth twice per year to acquire five (5) key locally maintained datasets: road center lines, address points, parcels, building footprints, and administrative boundaries. This represents 1,340 datasets annually. Each dataset is reviewed, standardized and aggregated into statewide layers that are updated quarterly for distribution in the Virginia GIS Clearinghouse. This provides access to up-to-date data layers while avoiding the duplication of resources for numerous stakeholder groups.

Geospatial Support Branch

The Geospatial Support Branch (GSB) of VGIN supports steady state and disaster operations with geographic information system products for situational awareness, response operations, and recovery efforts for disaster assistance.

GSB develops web-based geospatial situation awareness tools to collect, manage, analyze, and display information geospatially to provide a visual understanding of data. This GIS data provides VDEM, the Virginia Emergency Support Team (VEST), and state agency and local partners with real-time information using dynamically updated applications that assist with operational readiness, and making data-driven decisions for the more effective management of disasters and events. Specific products provided by the GSB include:

Know Your Zone Evacuation state routes and hurricane evacuation zones.
Operational dashboards for response and recovery data.
Visualizations of the geographic distribution of disaster assistance.
Visualizations of the location and density of vulnerable populations.
Daily tracking of VDEM-engaged incidents to include hazardous materials, medical flights, and search and rescue missions.

GSB utilizes ArcGIS Online to manage its applications which aim to enhance agency and mission partner knowledge of threats and hazards within the Commonwealth and to provide situational awareness.

For more information about VGIN, please visit our web presence through this link: https://vgin.vdem.virginia.gov/