GARY — Leaders representing municipalities across Lake County convened at Indiana University Northwest to learn how they can leverage geographic information systems (GIS) software as a regional economic development tool in Northwest Indiana.

A similar approach, by which law enforcement agencies began joining the Northwest Indiana Public Safety Data Consortium (NWIPSDC) over the past two years, has seen unprecedented success and has transformed the way crime is addressed in the region. IU Northwest experts say this same tool can be used to enhance economic development in the region.

To accomplish this, School of Business Professors Subir Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D. and Ranjan Kini, Ph.D., are collaborating with Associate Professor Joseph Ferrandino, Ph.D., who spearheaded the NWIPSDC and the resulting Regional Crime Reports, housed on the website of the Northwest Indiana Times.

Bandyopadhyay said the seminar will showcase how this tool can be applied based on the data available on Munster, Ind. The application contains query-based information on existing businesses, parcels, address points, police calls, road traffic counts, zoning and other criteria ranging from retail sales by census block group, Facebook users, healthcare markets and other data that is critical to the business community and economic development. The application includes the ability to analyze, filter, sort and layer information that is not currently available in one format or one place.

Ultimately, the experts hope to build a data-sharing consortium among the business community that can be used by leaders to make smart business decisions that will benefit the economic health of the entire region.