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• Author: Michelsen, Michael W., Jr.
• Position: Includes related article on the use of GPS in other cities - Ontario, CA's global positioning satellites

Ontario, California, is one of the state's fastest growing cities and it is undergoing tremendous advances as a leading industrial and commercial center. Located 40 miles east of Los Angeles, Ontario is a community of small-town charm and high-technology progressiveness. Ontario has one of the most advanced geographic information systems (GIS) departments in the United States and is bringing additional attention to their successes with their use of global positioning satellites (GPS).

What is GPS and How Does It Work?

Although global positioning satellites (GPS) have been in existence since the 1970s, they first came to widespread public attention during the Persian Gulf War when the U.S forces were able to plot precise movements using receivers that captured signals from a satellite system. Composed of a constellation of 27 satellites, GPS blankets the globe with location-finding radio signals that can help determine one's location, frequently to within centimeters anywhere in the world.

Some GPS visionaries anticipate the day when virtually everything in the world that moves - every shipping container, aircraft, car, truck, train, bus, farm tractor, and bulldozer - will contain a microchip that tracks and reports its location. These massive computer systems will tie together the movement of assets in the economy, providing a sophisticated information system for the status and location of goods. In the meantime, however, from surveying and asset management to measuring the shifting of buildings, governments - federal, state, and local - have been in the forefront of GPS application development.

The Next Level

In 1997, Ontario city officials requested the assistance of GPS manufacturers in developing their data-collection and data-updating capabilities. Ontario picked their GPS manufacturer based both on specific data-collection needs as well as with an enterprisewide focus. Ontario sought out a GPS that would be flexible enough to be tailored to their GIS no matter what direction they might take it in.

Now Ontario is not only updating their GIS with its new positioning capabilities, but also incorporating the advantages of GPS throughout the city. The GPS helps Ontario in many projects for the engineering and planning departments, as well as mapping fire hydrants for the fire department. Diverse needs of a growing municipality demand a flexible GPS.

Flexibility and Ingenuity

The original intent of the GPS was to collect data about the...