To replace its Computerized Land Information System (CLIS), the Government of Hong Kong Lands Department (LandsD) recently awarded ESRI a US$4.9 million contract. CLIS contains up-to-date digital map data and land boundary records accessed by 450 users in LandsD. Allowing users throughout the department to work with one central geodatabase instead of disparate silos of data, ESRI will replace the existing CLIS with an enterprise geographic information system (GIS). Through the sharing of data, the new system will be more efficient and accurate and will better support the business processes and workflows of LandsD as it administers land within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

CLIS was originally designed in 1989 by ESRI and is used to assist in valuation of land and property, land boundary survey, maintenance of the geodetic control network, land control and lease enforcement, aerial survey, and map production among other important tasks. Upgrading to current technology and standards was necessary to continue supporting the department's many important tasks, altough the existing system has served the organization well over the last two decades.

For creating and analyzing geospatial data, the new system incorporates ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop software. The advanced spatial data server functionality of ArcGIS Server, in addition, acts as the database access engine to LandsD's four terabytes of spatial data, its associated attributes, and metadata stored in an Oracle database. Citrix will be used for the GIS delivery infrastructure in 10 districts in the HKSAR.

To assist with workflow management and job tracking in order to efficiently update and edit the territory-wide datasets, LandsD will also employ ESRI's Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) software. Production Line Tool Set (PLTS) for ArcGIS, a collection of turnkey software applications, will help LandsD with its high-volume database production, quality control, maintenance, and cartographic product generation.

An exhaustive disaster recovery system is being developed along with centralizing and updating the current CLIS. This has become necessary because of the sheer number of system users. Even a single day of downtime means the department loses the equivalent of 450 person-days.

To integrate CLIS with other cadastre, land records, and mapping systems used by LandsD, the 28-month project also includes a detailed system analysis and design, data conversion and migration, system integration and consolidation.