Due to the many stormwater, asset management, and wastewater (SAW) grants awarded to communities throughout Michigan, cities are now taking a look at their assets and creating improvement plans that carefully balance costs against risk in order to prevent problems.

A geographic information system, or GIS, is a tool that can aid in the creation of these plans. Any community asset, from trees to benches to garbage cans to bus stops, can be logged in GIS. An asset’s exact location can be noted, as well as its condition, asset photographs, and any other information.