APA Digital Coast Needs Assessment Survey

Personal and Organizational Capacity

The second main section of the survey asked respondents about their personal proficiency in working with geospatial data and their organization's frequency of use and capacity for handling such data. The answers to these questions are summarized blow, and links are provided to pages summarizing regional results for these questions.

The regional results cross-tabulate respondents' regional identifications with their answers to Questions 5 and 6 (Tables 2a and 2b respectively).

The total data are summarized below. Click on a region for specific regional data:

• Atlantic Northeast
• Mid-Atlantic
• Atlantic Southeast
• Gulf of Mexico
• Caribbean Sea
• Great Lakes
• West Coast
• Arctic
• Pacific Islands

TABLE 2a.

Table 2a shows how 687 respondents rated their personal proficiency in the use of geospatial technology. More than 97% of respondents have at least an introductory level of proficiency; more than two-thirds (67%) have at least an intermediate level of proficiency. However, less than 5% of respondents consider themselves to be geospatial technology experts. Figure 2a below displays the percentage distribution in graphic form.

Figure 2a.

Respondent Proficiency in the Use of Geospatial Technology

TABLE 2b.

Table 2b shows how 687 respondents rated the frequency with which their organization uses geospatial technology. More than 88% responded that their organizations use geospatial technology at least occasionally; more than 72% responded at least frequent use by their organizations. Fewer than 2% of respondents report their organizations never use geospatial technology. Figure 2b below displays the percentage distribution in graphic form.

Figure 2b.

Frequency of Geospatial Technology Use in Respondent's Organization

TABLE 2c.

Table 2c contains a significant amount of information about how respondents perceive their organization's capacity for geospatial technology. The majority of respondents agrees or strongly agrees that their organizations are very aware of the capabilities of geospatial technology for planning (69%) and that there is strong support for geospatial technology within the organization (64%). Nearly half the respondents agree or strongly agree that their organization has access to sufficient geospatial technical support (49%) or that their organization is aware of geospatial data standards (45%). However, when it comes to the financial investment aspect of geospatial technology, only 28% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their organization provides or pays for all the needed training (42% disagree or strongly disagree), and only 25% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their organization funds sufficient investment in geospatial technology (46% disagree or strongly disagree). Figure 2c below shows this information in more graphic form.

Figure 2c.

Organizational Capacity for Geospatial Technology

TABLE 2d.

Table 2d shows that a majority of respondents work for organizations that either generate or disseminate geospatial data. Nearly 64% of respondents indicated that their organizations generate geospatial data, while 36% indicated that their organizations did not generate such data. Although only the "yes" respondents (438) were invited to respond as to whether their organization also disseminated the data it created to other users, this question generated 549 responses. There were 111 respondents (16%) who apparently worked for organizations that did not generate geospatial data but did disseminate geospatial data to other users. Of the 687 survey respondents, a total of 379 reported their organizations disseminated geospatial data (55%), regardless of whether their organizations actually generated geospatial data.