By Amanda Estes
Staff writer
    Aimee Dubois has one of those job titles that elicit blank stares from people outside of her line of work. As the G.I.S. coordinator for the town of Scarborough, Dubois is on the cutting edge of an emerging technology that is slowly becoming established in Maine.
    G.I.S., or geographic information system, is what Dubois calls the “new wave of maps.” G.I.S. is a computer system that provides methods for analyzing geographically referenced data. For example, if you wanted to know the number of swimming pools in your town, a G.I.S. map would provide you with that information. G.I.S. maps consist of layers of information that can be used to determine the various characteristics of an area. The layers can include maps with the following information: environmental, topography, infrastructure, transportation and parcels. With the aid of a G.I.S. map, an individual can view his own property to find abutters or to determine which zone it is located in. Dubois said the town is moving towards a version of the map that would be accessible to residents through the town’s Web site. Once that feature is available, residents will be able to see, among other things, what their parcel of land looks like. 
    Dubois said people in the field gather much of the data for the maps “firsthand” by walking trails. The department uses a handheld and a backpack GPS or Global Positioning System to determine exact locations when working in the field. Dubois said aerial photography also provides another layer of information. She said the town of Scarborough was flown over last year and, with a Web version of the map, residents would have access to the aerial views. 
    Although Dubois has only been the G.I.S. coordinator for a few months, she said her position is nearly four years in the making. Prior to her arrival, Dubois said there were several temporary people in the position who were able to offer different levels of expertise, but they usually only worked in the summer. Dubois’ position is still not a full-time position, however, because Dubois spends part of her week working for Saco’s public works department.
    “Both towns really could benefit from someone working 40 hours a week, but you make do,” she said.
    Part of the problem, she said, is due to a shortage of people in the field.
    “In California, you can’t throw a stone without hitting a G.I.S. coordinator,” she said. “The technology is here, but there aren’t enough of us. I hardly have time in a week to get what I need to get done.”
    This is understandable, when one considers that Dubois’ has been given the task of mapping the whole town of Scarborough. Dubois is quick to acknowledge, however, that her job is made easier by collaboration within the public works department. Many times, she said, people in the field will notice an error on their maps and relay the information back to her. She compiles the information in her database and when “someone wants an extra layer,” she is ready to provide the information.
     “I map the whole town, but I do it from my chair,” she said. Dubois has a “bird’s eye view” of Scarborough and she said, in many cases, she has “seen it before, but never driven it before.” So although Dubois has an expansive layout of the town at her fingertips, she can still get lost like the rest of us.   
    In addition to public works projects, Dubois said she also offers her services for special projects with the police and fire departments. For example, she has worked with the Scarborough Fire Department and the Portland Water District to determine where all of the town’s dry hydrants and cisterns are located.  
    Another project Dubois is currently working on is Project Canopy, which is a program from the Department of Conservation’s Maine Forest Service and the Pine Tree State Arboretum. The program seeks to aid municipalities in developing a long-term forestry plan by, among other things, connecting communities to local arborists and providing the town with street tree inventory software. With the endorsement of the Scarborough Conservation Commission, the town applied for the Project Canopy grant last year as part of an effort to develop a forestry plan and, in turn, make their maintenance operations more proactive. To accomplish this goal, Dubois said the public works department is going out into the field and gathering information about trees located along right of ways. A public works official will determine a tree’s GPS coordinates and tag the tree with a placard that resembles a dog tag. After the trees have been tagged, an arborist will go in and assess each tree’s condition. All of this information is then inputted into a database.
    Dubois said the town has been “reactive” in the past regarding this aspect of road maintenance. In most cases, the public works department would respond to calls about fallen trees and the damage would already be done. The intent of taking a proactive approach is to perform forestry maintenance on problem trees before they end up in the road. 
    “It has proved to be a much larger project than we thought it would be,” said Dubois.
    She said the project started with the Pine Point area and that area is still not finished. She pulled out a map that reduced the area to a group of roads highlighted in green. She said the town would be applying for a grant again this year.
    Dubois said Scarborough has not had a hard winter in terms of the number of fallen trees and she has been using the winter to get the details of the program ironed out. She said she hopes to hire an intern this summer and integrate aspects of community outreach into the program, but as of right now, she is “not quite sure how to involve the community.”
    “People really want the trees to be preserved,” she said. “We’ve had a number of people approach us and ask ‘you’re not taking that tree down are you?’
    Dubois said she tells concerned residents that she and the public works department are trying to preserve the trees and in turn trying to “maintain the beauty of Scarborough.”