MGP offers a Data Web Service Solution to serve data from CSV, Access, ODBC connection and SQL Server. This package is provided "AS IS," without express or implied warranty of any kind, and may be used and modified.
There are two flavors of the solution in the package:
- WebService_XMLDataService is in ASP.NET XML Web Service format. It is simple to setup and manage, but it has limited configuration options compare to WCF version.
- WebService_WCFDataService is in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) format. It has various deployment options, but requires number of administrative steps to setup and manage.
Contact MGP development team for more information about the solution.
Impervious surfaces are typically artificial structures, such as roads, sidewalks, driveways, etc… that are covered by in impenetrable materials like asphalt, concrete, and rooftops. These surfaces can become environmental concerns because they eliminate rainwater infiltration and groundwater recharge, resulting in a significant impact on flooding. The Village of Wheeling calculates the impervious surface area for each parcel whenever there is a plan for new construction. If any amount of new impervious surface area is planned, an equivalent amount of water retention area has to be created. Typically, the Village engineers would make these calculations by measuring the impervious surface area using engineering drawings. This process can take a significant amount of time and effort to get an accurate measurement. The Engineering department requested that something be created that would allow them to quickly get amount of impervious surface for each lot in the Village.
To create an impervious surface area, existing base data such as roads, driveways, sidewalks, and buildings were combined to form one impervious surface area feature. This feature was then clipped by the Village lot lines to separate the impervious surface area by each lot. The amount of impervious and pervious surface area was then calculated for each lot by comparing it to the overall square footage. By combining all the data and then doing one mass calculation, the engineering department does not have to spend time calculating each lot by hand. By using GIS, the engineering department can reference the calculations faster and with more accuracy.
On July 23rd, 2011, the Chicago, IL metropolitan area was hit by a storm system that resulted in extensive damage across numerous communities. As a community that received heavy flooding damage and experienced utility management issues due to the intensity of the storm, the Village of Winnetka needed to track where flooding was being reported and the nature of each report to help get a village-wide view of the total damage. To assist with this effort, the village Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department was asked to store and manage the flooding location data and develop a series of maps showing different aspects of the damage accounts as needed for reporting and analysis.
The primary sources used to develop the damage assessment database were field checks by village staff and damage claims submitted to Cook County by the residents. Using these sources, an extensive list of flooding locations, and the nature of each flooding event, was compiled and made available for mapping. Some of the products generated from the data were a basic map showing flooded properties, a map showing properties with debris piles stacked on the curb, and a map showing the extent of the flooding in one of the hardest hit areas of the village.
By storing and managing this information in GIS, the village now has the ability to develop powerful visual tools for examining the impacts of the storm, assisting with the development of future mitigation strategies, and providing the village council with evidence of how extensive the damage was in an easy-to-understand format.
The Village of Glenview is responsible for the maintenance of nearly 167 miles of roadways within its municipal limits. Each year, Capital Improvements reviews its inventory to determine which streets are in the greatest need of repair. This is a challenging task because it’s rarely as simple as picking the roads with the most visible damage. The road’s overall age, surface and sub-surface condition, and proximity to aging utility infrastructure all play a role in determining the best use of limited funding.
GIS provides the ideal platform for this project because it allows the user to compare this disparate data quickly and accurately. Further, it allows the user to play around with different criteria to see what results come from different cutoff values. By using GIS, Glenview was able to weigh in many more factors, and in turn make better fiscal decisions based on this empirical data. In the coming years, GIS will incorporate even more variables into this process. Data such as locations of repetitive watermain breaks and storm water flooding will be added in so that road repairs done in one year are not torn up the next year to deal with below-ground issues. In the future, GIS will also be used to provide the public with an explanation of how specific roads were selected for resurfacing in a given year. This increased transparency will help residents understand why roads that appear to be in terrible shape seem be ignored.
For most local governments, granting a liquor license for a bar or other retailer can often be a double-edged sword. On one side, there is the increased sales tax of having another business in the community, as well as the licensing fees needed for an establishment to sell alcohol. On the other side, these types of businesses can sometimes lead to increases in crime or public disturbances, which can in turn lead to complaints from community residents. To help the City of Des Plaines, IL track how many licenses they have granted, and where the licensed establishments operate, the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department was asked to create a map showing each licensed location.
Creating a spatial record of this information provides not only a tool for visualizing where in the community liquor licenses were granted, but it also allows city staff to see the proximity of each licensed location to one another, as well as to other businesses and residential areas. Knowing this information can help with the granting of new liquor licenses by providing decision-makers with a tool to determine if allowing a new establishment to serve alcohol in an area is in the best interest of the surrounding neighborhood. By using GIS to create a map product displaying this information, the spatial relationships that exist between each location and the surrounding community become easier identify and understand, leading to more informed decisions.
The Riverside Farmers Market is a weekly service The Village of Riverside, IL organizes for its residents. Held every Wednesday from 2:30 – 7:00 PM during the summer and fall in 2011, The Market has had many vendors and community groups participate throughout the season. The Village has tasked its Geographic Information System (GIS) to create event maps to communicate to the vendors and groups their setup locations. With growing interest and turnout the setup locations have often changed from week to week making the event map that much more useful in staging the event.
When subdivisions are being designed they tend to plan for areas of public access to such things as water, sewer, electrical utilities, etc. These areas are called “easements.” Although the legal title to the land that lies underneath these easements is retained by the property owner, the existence of an easement still grants the right for others to access this piece of land. So why are these easements important? Answers may vary but for the City of Park Ridge, IL it is about the legality of allowing workers to access this piece of land in order to complete their assigned tasks. These workers may be private contractors or city employees just looking to repair an electrical problem or fix an issue with a water line that was installed years. Nonetheless, the land they are accessing is not considered trespassing.
It is easy to see the importance of easements but it is not always so easy to locate them in the real world. Easements are not usually marked out in the field so it is up to either public knowledge or consulting an existing subdivision plat to find out where they exist. In the City of Park Ridge they have started to use the Geographical Information System (GIS) to map out these locations based on what the final subdivision plats have designated. As these easements are located and mapped out, they will then be posted on the City’s interactive web mapping application so users can find them easily. Although the data collection process is lengthy, the amount of time that will be saved versus having to look these easements up manually is invaluable. For the comparison would have users searching through many uncategorized plats to find what they need. Proof that an easement exists will now be quicker and easier to access when a resident inquires about workers on their property thanks to GIS.
It is pretty amazing to think of all the information that has been collected and stored in the past few years by the U.S. Census Bureau. The last major data delivery that was published by the U.S. Census Bureau was in the year 2000 and although that information was useful, it soon became a question of accuracy as time drove on. This year the U.S. Census Bureau has been delivering a large set of new data, much of it coming in the form of database tables and Excel spreadsheets and other sets arriving as Geographical Information System (GIS) data layers.
Other things that have changed since 2000 are the amount of local government entities that have invested in GIS technology. Tasks that might once be a bit difficult have now become easier thanks to help from the GIS. One example of this was the use by the Village of Morton Grove, IL and its need to use 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data in order to determine populations within one, three and five mile radiuses from the village’s corporate limits. This information, once compiled, would be used on advertisement flyer to help draw businesses to move into town. For a new business looking to succeed, they will most likely be concerned without the amount of people they may be able to bring in on a daily basis.
By viewing the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data layers in GIS, information about specific populations can be derived from the block or block group information. Additionally, simple GIS tools can be used to create buffer distances at one, three and five mile radiuses from the village’s corporate limits. Once you have these two sets of information, some simple analysis can be done to extract the amount of population that resides within each buffer area. A once complex task now simplified thanks to GIS and the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the wake of this summer’s regional power outages, the Village of Lincolnwood made a decision to perform an audit on the Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) outage report with data from the entire year of 2010. The purpose of this audit was to determine the contributing factors of the power outages within the Village; specifically if equipment failure was a major contributor. The process for this project included analysis using the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). Using GIS, the Village could spatially reference outage location and combined with the tabular data supplied by ComEd, could summarize the elements that contributed to the outages. By looking at the data spatially, conclusions could be drawn much easier by the Village’s employees. After summarizing the data, it was found that trees, equipment failure, and weather were the largest contributing factors to the outages within the Village. The Village will now look at the areas where tree outages were prevalent and work with ComEd and the Village arborist to create a focused trimming program aimed at reducing the number of outages in these areas caused by fallen trees or limbs.
Comprehensive planning is a critical component in the long-term health of a community. The process of creating a five-year plan for a municipality can be daunting, but recording and sharing this vision provides “big picture” guidance to all stakeholders.
In the Village of Lincolnshire, GIS assists with clear communication by illustrating goals in an easy-to-understand way. One of the many exhibits under development is an overview map showing the future land use plans. Landowners throughout the Village are always concerned with what developments might occur around their properties, so this map quickly explains what will (and won’t) be allowed in the next five years. While this map is still a work in progress, it can already be used to support conversations throughout the planning process.
GIS makes the development of illustrations like this one quick and easy. The Village does not have to pay an outside vendor to create this custom map, and changes are easily illustrated and linked to existing Village data for easy comparison.
Providing adequate accessible parking spaces for local businesses is an important legal concern for many communities. Failure to meet State and Federal requirements can lead to law suits or having fines accessed against the City. The City of Highland Park Intra-City Parking Committee was concerned that some the parking lots might not contain enough spaces designated as accessible parking spaces.
The GIS Office was contacted to create a series of maps showing the location of accessible parking spaces in the Central Business District and the Ravinia Business District. Using existing data, the GIS Office quickly creates aerial and base map showing all the designations of parking spaces in both business districts. The maps were used to identify parking lots and on-street parking areas that did not have enough accessible parking spots. During the review it was determined that two parking lots required additional accessible parking spaces.
By using GIS the city could quickly review the number of accessible parking spaces with minimal amount of field work. The maps were used by the Committee to make the case that additional accessible parking spaces were needed. Once the additional spaces were created in the field, new maps were created displaying the updated field conditions. Without GIS this parking study would have taken much longer. Each parking lot and on street parking area would need to field surveyed. The information from these field surveys would not be as easy to use or as cleanly displayed as the information in the GIS maps was.