Over the years local government entities gather a lot of information relating to properties and the characteristics they entail. This information may include property identification numbers (PIN), property owners, whether that property has an easement or not and much more. The hard part about all of this information is classifying and organizing it in a way that easily accessible and will stand the test of time. Current trends show that paper documents are being scanned into digitized files so that they are readily available and searchable in many different ways. One application that handles this type of inventory quite well is a Geographical Information System (GIS).
For the City of Park Ridge, IL, already owning and operating the GIS software has increased their potential for upgrading and maintaining their paper documents in an electronic data format. With the help of the GIS Department, the City is currently working on a beta program to scan all property variance documents into PDF files and then linking these files to a geographic space on a map. Future plans will come in the form of an interactive web mapping application where the user wishing to locate a property and its variance if it has one, could do so from their office chair rather than inefficiently spending time searching paper documents down the hall. Additionally, as the paper gets older and wears away, the City can feel comfortable in knowing that this important information will not only be preserved, it will also be in one centralized location. Just another way to improve an existing operation.
While it may not occur as part of the day to day operations, an unfortunate reality for all local governments is the need to coordinate response and cleanup efforts as the result of an emergency event, such a severe storm or other natural disaster. To assist with tracking reported incidents as the result of a recent severe weather event, the Village of Winnetka, IL used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to store and display the incident locations during the event, as well map their locations to assist with the extensive cleanup efforts after the event took place.
Prior to using GIS to store and display the emergency event data, village staff would store the incident information in a variety of different mediums, including paper post-it notes, scarps of notebook paper, and non-standardized excel sheets, just to name a few. As a result, trying to coordinate response efforts was difficult, as post-its would get lost, pieces of paper would get thrown away, etc. In addition, without having a visual way to organize each incident location, departments would often duplicate efforts and send multiple response crews to deal with one incident, instead of distributing the available resources to maximize efficiency.
To help reduce these inefficiencies, the village GIS department provided a Structured Query Language (SQL) database with a Microsoft Access form front end that allowed staff to enter the information for each incident location as it was received in a standard format that could be easily accessed and reviewed by everyone involved in the response efforts. From the SQL database, each incident could be extracted and mapped in the village’s internet browser-based GIS application for all staff to see. Using this visual platform, the nature of the incident and its current status could be shared quickly across all departments, reducing redundancy and maximizing the effectiveness of each response crew.
To promote public safety and awareness in the community the Village of Riverside, IL Police Department is making available a sex offender map on the web. Because it is a densely populated area the information is gathered not only for Riverside, but surrounding communities as well. The State’s Sex Offender Registry provides the offender locations and those addresses are plotted using The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). By law sex offenders are not allowed to reside within five hundred feet of a public school or park. The GIS is capable of producing these exclusion areas with ease making the final map product a combination of the sex offender residences and the exclusion areas.
The Chicagoland area was battered with storms during the morning of June 21, 2011. The strong winds and lightning wrecked havoc regionally. During the aftermath, Public Safety in the Village of Skokie was busy taking reports of downed power lines, trees, damaged traffic signals and street lights. During disasters like this storm, it is highly effective to be able to map these locations in real time so at any one moment, Public Safety can pinpoint priorities and allocate the proper manpower.
Mapping falls in the realm of the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). By using the GIS, Village staff can enter address or street locations and easily associate the data with an actual spatial location. For example, the Village mapped out all locations of known trees or branches down following the storm. After placing these locations on a map, staff was able to allocate manpower to the high density areas. However, by analyzing the data spatially, the GIS can paint a picture of where the hardest hit areas are located without having to analyze The future of GIS in Emergency Management is evolving, and it is more important now than ever to be able to see real time data. It allows manpower to be distributed to the proper areas as well as provides the most accurate look into the current conditions.
Every year the Cook County Assessor’s office sends out data to communities showing what the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) is of every parcel within their boundaries. The Village of Lincolnwood uses this data for two purposes – owner name and economic development. Both of these uses are extremely valuable to the Village. Since the data has a geographical reference, a Property Index Number or PIN, the Village can use its Geographic Information System (GIS) to harvest, analyze and create products. Lincolnwood depends on County data as a base for much of its GIS features. It is very important to work together with the County since we share infrastructure and geography.
Using the data provided by Cook County, Lincolnwood was able to incorporate it into MapOffice Advanced™, a specialized interactive mapping application for all GIS Consortium members. By linking the Cook County tabular data with Lincolnwood’s parcel data, they were able to publish the owner’s name, EAV, and taxes owed into MapOffice Advanced™. This simplifies the task of finding the owners name through a maze of County websites and provides internal staff answers about property value in regards to development.
A growing desire for access to information and computer programs while performing tasks out in the field has Elk Grove Village planning to implement a wireless network. Inspectors, police, and fire staff would immediately benefit from such a resource to access systems that are constantly changing while they are out of the office or could be updated more quickly from what they are experiencing and working on in the field. The Geographic Information System (GIS) has been providing maps to highlight existing village facilities where network equipment can reside and the extent of the community that would be covered if access points were installed at various locations. The most efficient locations will be realized from these maps for the desired wireless coverage that is determined.
There are many different ways that a local municipality can engage their residents to take part in the community and contribute to the daily operations and occurrences. For example, there are citizen emergency response teams, volunteer crossing guards, volunteers for special events and many more.
One similar program that the Village of Morton Grove, IL is looking to institute is an Honorary Tree Planting Program. This program would allow a Village resident to purchase a tree, with supervision from the Village arborist, and have it planted in honor of someone specific. The idea of this program is to give Village residents the opportunity to honor someone special at the same time they can help out the community financially. In planning for this program, Village employees have been looking for a way to promote it as well as make it accessible to the public in an easy manner. Accessibility would mean that the end product would have to be visible on the internet so that family and friends who do not live in the Village could still see the honorary tree that was planted as well as where it is located within the Village.
For this portion of the program the Village decided to enlist the services of the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Department in order to publish these honorary trees out on the internet. This process would be handled by a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file and would sit atop the Google maps framework. Once completed, an internet address will be placed on the Village’s website that will redirect the users to a Google map of all of the trees that have been planted in honor of others.
At this moment the mapping portion of this project is only in its beta stages but if carried out properly it could easily help the program grow as well as demonstrate a way that Village residents can help their community, family and friends.
While it may not occur as part of the day to day operations, an unfortunate reality for all local governments is the need to coordinate response and cleanup efforts as the result of an emergency event, such a severe storm or other natural disaster. To assist with tracking reported incidents as the result of a recent severe weather event, the Village of Winnetka, IL used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to store and display the incident locations during the event, as well map their locations to assist with the extensive cleanup efforts after the event took place.
Prior to using GIS to store and display the emergency event data, village staff would store the incident information in a variety of different mediums, including paper post-it notes, scarps of notebook paper, and non-standardized excel sheets, just to name a few. As a result, trying to coordinate response efforts was difficult, as post-its would get lost, pieces of paper would get thrown away, etc. In addition, without having a visual way to organize each incident location, departments would often duplicate efforts and send multiple response crews to deal with one incident, instead of distributing the available resources to maximize efficiency.
To help reduce these inefficiencies, the village GIS department provided a Structured Query Language (SQL) database with a Microsoft Access form front end that allowed staff to enter the information for each incident location as it was received in a standard format that could be easily accessed and reviewed by everyone involved in the response efforts. From the SQL database, each incident could be extracted and mapped in the village’s internet browser-based GIS application for all staff to see. Using this visual platform, the nature of the incident and its current status could be shared quickly across all departments, reducing redundancy and maximizing the effectiveness of each response crew.
When the Village of Norridge needs to send out a mass mailing to its residents, the Village typically uses the addresses found in the water billing database. After each mailing, the Village typically receives a small amount of letters deemed undeliverable. In an effort to eliminate the undeliverable letters, the Village decided to go through the database and make sure all the addresses in the village were accounted for. They decided to map out the water addresses using a GIS process called geocoding.
Geocoding is a process of taking a list of addresses and then mapping them in GIS using an existing addresses database as the reference data. The list of addresses from the water billing database were first mapped out against the existing GIS address database. This process generated a list of all the addresses from the water billing database that did not match any address in the GIS database. With this list created, the village went out and field verified the addresses in question, as well as any returned mail, to determine the actual addresses. With all the errors corrected, a final master address database was created that could be used for a number of different mailings, such as billings, vehicle sticker notifications, and voting information. By having a master address list, the village is able to send out mass mailings with a minimal amount of returned mail, in turn cutting down on wasted time, envelopes, and postage.
On June 21st, a powerful storm with wind gusts as high as 81 mph swept through Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. The severe weather prompted tornado warnings, stopped air and train travel, and caused extensive tree damage along with widespread power outages. Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) estimated that almost a quarter of a million customers lost power. Another equally violent storm struck the area again on July 11th. The severe winds and heavy rains left more than 700,000 ComEd customers without power. GIS played a large role in the response to these events. Here are several examples from GISC member communities:
- Village of Elk Grove Village: Tree collection zones were displayed in MapOffice™ Advanced to assist in the coordination of tree, limb and leaf pickup and disposal.
- Village of Morton Grove: Downed trees were photographed and inventoried to get a big picture of how the storms affected the Village.
- City of Des Plaines: A series of maps was created to show blocked streets, downed traffic signals and power lines, and damaged properties. Large, wall-sized versions of these maps were printed and hung in the Emergency Operations Center to be used during status meetings that occurred throughout the day with all the City department heads. Smaller versions of these maps were created and placed on the internal network for reference. These smaller maps will also be included in an after-action report being compiled by the Emergency Management Agency to help illustrate the storm response actions taken by each department.
- Village of Winnetka: The Village maintains its own electric system, so existing electric circuit maps were used by village crews and provided to crews from other municipalities to assist with reporting power outages. According to the Director of the Water and Electric Department, the circuit maps were invaluable to the success of the crews restoring power as quickly as they did. This was especially true for the crews that were unfamiliar with Village streets and electric circuit alignments.
GIS data, mapping and staff are critical to every phase of emergency management, from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery efforts. Contact your local GIS Specialist to assure that your community is fully leveraging its GIS when unexpected events occur.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) provides low interest loans for the construction of community water supply facilities and utilities. This loan is used to upgrade or replace existing facilities or utilities to bring them into compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and State Environmental Protection Act. The Village of Deerfield has decided to use Geographic Information Systems to create a series of maps that shows the locations of the utilities. These six maps that will be created are in locations of construction that is scheduled to be done. Public Works plan is to work on the water utility system while the scheduled construction is being done.
The Village of Winnetka, IL hosts numerous special events throughout the year, including a fireworks display during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. These types of events require the involvement and coordination of several village departments, including Public Works and the Police Department, and, often, outside agencies, such as the Winnetka Park District. To help improve the coordination and planning efforts between each group, the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) department developed several map products to assist with transferring event information more efficiently.
There were two maps that were developed for the firework display: one for the Police Department that highlighted the officer posting locations for the event, along with various traffic control policies that were implemented to assist with crowd control, and one for the Public Works Department that displays temporary “no parking” sign placements used to support traffic control efforts. Using these map products provided all those involved with the same, geographically-based template for planning the event, which allowed for a more efficient distribution of resources and transfer of information between agencies during fireworks display.
Every year, the Village of Glenview holds their Fourth of July Celebration, called the Glenview Independence Day Celebration Twilight Show, at the Glenview Park Golf Course. The police and fire departments always are looking for the best ways to spread their resources at events like these. The map shows key locations throughout the event grounds where police or fire could focus on. Firework fallout data was also included to show where to not allow people to be during the firework show. Each police officer carried a laminated copy of this map with them so they could respond to any emergencies quicker by knowing exactly where to go.
During an emergency event, the extent of the area affected and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response effort is controlling where information is coming from and determining which pieces of information are more critical than others. To help better organize information gathered during a recent storm event, the City of Des Plaines IL used the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to assist with mapping and prioritizing the storm cleanup efforts.
While the initial response to the storm event relied heavily on more traditional forms of data organization and presentation, an effort to streamline the cleanup efforts resulted in GIS being used to develop several mapping products that assisted city staff with visualizing the storm damage. These included a traffic signal outage map, a road closure and downed trees map, and a damaged property map that was developed using information gathered by city building inspectors during the initial damage assessment review. Using these products, city staff was able to better visualize the extent of the damage and, as a result, develop a more effective plan for cleaning up the city.