IUN profs: GIS software could boost Northwest Indiana economy

Representatives of eight Lake County cities and towns heard that message Friday during a seminar presented by Indiana University Northwest professors at the Gary campus. The audience also included members of area economic development organizations.

"Each municipality has its own approach. You are sitting on rich data. There have been some regional efforts, but much more needs to be done," said Subir Bandyopadhyay, school of business marketing professor, during the unveiling of the new regional economic development tool developed by the faculty and students at IUN.

Three potential groups of small businesses would benefit from the information-sharing tool, said Joseph Ferrandino, associate professor of the school of environmental and public affairs department.

"Those people relocating businesses, those expanding businesses and existing businesses" will all be able to find the information they need in one spot in order to make decisions about where to locate, Ferrandino said.

Using the GIS software, businesses could access such information as where parcels of land or buildings are available in a community; the range of rent; traffic patterns; rates and types of crime in the area and the demographics including average income, he said.

"Much, if not all of this data, exists, but in ‘silos’ and not available in an interactive format for external users to query, explore and utilize," said Ranjan Kini, professor of management in the school of business.

"GIS started in public only in the last 15 years. It’s been in the private sector (but) GIS is changing," Kini said. "Big boxes (companies) spend millions of dollars before putting up a store. Now small cities and towns can do this on a shoestring budget. GIS is available through ‘the cloud’ to businesses, chambers and outsiders."

The return on investment "is not 100 percent, but a couple thousand percent," Kini told the group.

A similar approach developed by IUN has seen great success and transformed the way crime is addressed in the region, said Ferrandino, who spearheaded the Northwest Indiana Public Safety Data Consortium. The resulting Regional Crime Reports are housed on The Times of Northwest Indiana website.

"We started working with Gary in January 2012," he said. "Now 27 agencies at local, county and state levels participate including the state parole board. We go from the Illinois border to South Bend."

A NIPSCO grant provides the NWIPSDC GIS system so that agencies and municipalities incur no costs.

The cost of the GIS used for economic development would be based on participation and can’t yet be calculated, the professors said.

“The more places that participate, the lower the cost,” Bandyopadhyay said.