Accela, Inc., the leading provider of government enterprise management solutions, announced today that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has selected Accela software to automate and track the land acquisition activities involved with managing and maintaining the water supply for 16 central and southern Florida counties. Accela Automation(TM), a Web browser-based solution, will directly aid SFWMD in meeting the land acquisition requirements set forth in the 30-year, $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and allow the District to effectively provide the land required to protect and preserve the area's water supply and corresponding ecosystem in a timely manner.  "The protection of water is vital to the future livelihood of the state of Florida," states Dolores Cwalino, Technology Business Analyst for the SFWMD.  "Accela's solution helps the District to better protect and conserve the water supply in the Everglades by providing a method to track land information that affects the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of the water supply."  

The Accela solution will play a critical role in allowing the SFWMD to accomplish the tasks outlined in the CERP in a timely manner. The cornerstone of the restoration and preservation project is land acquisition, with a specific focus on managing the seven bodies of water contained within an 18,000-square mile radius.  The system will provide an effective and efficient way to manage the required land acquisition, as well as track the statuses and restoration progress of each landmass. Additionally, it will also integrate with geographic data and allow those outside the District (e.g. title examiners, real estate appraisers and environmental assessment agencies) to utilize the system for managing and updating the progress of land acquisition tasks. The system will also provide public access to view the land acquisition data.  Another factor in the selection process was the availability of Accela Uptime(TM), an offsite redundancy and emergency backup system for Accela products.  The system will allow the SFWMD to mirror their solution in multiple locations and protect their system and data from any potential downtime.  "System availability is critical to our implementation.  Accela Uptime provides the SFWMD with not only off-site redundancy for our systems and services, but also the domain expertise to restore systems in the most efficient manner possible," explains Cwalino.  

"A project of this magnitude-connecting the land acquisition process with the numerous other steps required to restore and protect the area's water -- is an example of how public agencies can operate more effectively and simultaneously protect their infrastructure," explains Accela CEO and president, Robert P. Lee.  "Accela's solution will enable the agency to track and manage data, providing the District a facility to meet its benchmarks and comply with future mandates."  The SFWMD joins more than 20 other agencies within the state of Florida utilizing Accela products, they are:  Altamonte Springs, Bay County, Clearwater, Dade County, Gainesville, Hillsborough County, Jackson County, Key Biscayne, Lee County, Leon County, Martin County, Miami Beach, Miami-Dade, MiramarOrange County, Orlando, Osceola County, Pinellas County, Plantation, Sarasota County, Tallahassee, and Winter Springs.  More information about the SFWMD or the CERP can be located at http://www.sfwmd.gov.

About Accela

Accela develops enterprise systems for permitting, planning, licensing, public health, emergency response, and many other processes for government agencies of all sizes. Accela's software solutions manage critical public sector applications for thousands of departments in major metro areas, cities, and counties such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Miami-Dade County, Atlanta, Kansas City, San Diego County, and many others. Accela is headquartered in Dublin, Calif. For more information, please visit http://www.accela.com.

Copyright  © 2003  PR Newswire  All rights reserved.