Most municipal governments don’t have a local water source they can access directly to supply their residents and businesses, so, as a result, they are forced to purchase water from surrounding municipalities that do have access or regional utility management agencies who pump it in from outside locations. As the economy continues to struggle, the fees and costs associated with managing a government, including those used to purchase and distribute water, continue to rise. For the City of Des Plaines, IL, which receives its water from the City of Chicago, this rising cost of purchasing water has lead the city’s Public Works and Engineering Department to start examining alternative supply sources to ensure it can adequately supply water with the same amount of funds moving forward.
To assist with reviewing the available alternate water sources, the Public Works and Engineering Department asked the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to create a map showing both the source location of the water, as well as proposed distributions systems for supplying the water to the city and its neighbors. While the initial analysis of where the water would come from was done before the map was created, being able to visualize all the proposed sources and their associated system enhancements provided the department with a tool for presenting each supply option to the city council in an engaging and easy-to-understand format that allowed to council to better understand the options available to the city. Without using GIS to design the water source scenario map, discussing the water supply information, while still possible, would have been more time consuming for the department staff to prepare for and, potentially, more difficult for the council members to understand.
Every year, the Village of Norridge has a set amount of money, based on different sources, which they can use for repaving streets. For 2012, the Village has determined a list of what streets they would like to pave with the option to modify the list based on actual costs. The list was based off of a variety of factors such as age, pavement condition, and location. The Village of Norridge used maps created by the GIS department to help with their decision.
In the past, the GIS department has created a series of maps showing which streets in the Village have been paved, and in which year. The map has each year, from 1993 onward, as a different color highlight. This allows any user to quickly determine when a street was last paved. By using this map, in conjunction with field checks, the Village was able to determine a list of the ideal streets to repave. A new map was created showing the previously paved streets, as well as the proposed streets for 2012. This map allows the village board to see what is planned and if any changes need to be made. By using GIS, the Village of Norridge was able to visualize pavement projects from the past and use it to help determine future pavement projects.
The Village of Wheeling Public Works Department is currently in the process of doing a full inventory of all the street lights in the village. This entails locating all the street light poles, assigning each light and pole a unique ID number, and then detailing all the specific information about each light such as the bulb type, bulb wattage, pole material, etc… Eventually, this information will be added into the MapOffice™ Advanced (the village’s in-house interactive map program), so that the Public Works Department can view all the street lights on a computer and then link to work orders reports in the village database.
A series of maps were created and printed out so that the field crews could travel through the village and record IDs and any other relevant information for each street light. The IDs would be then referenced in a table so that the attribute information for each light could be linked to the appropriate street light location. The data will then be brought back to the Public Works building and added to the village’s databases so that it can be viewed in MapOffice™ Advanced. Eventually, all work orders for street lights will be linked to the lights on the map (via the unique ID) so that the public works crew can view the entire history for each light just by clicking on it. By collecting all the data and then implementing it into MapOffice™ Advanced, the Public Works Department will easily be able to view all the street light information in one centralized location.
To continue efforts to understand and help manage flooding in The Village of Riverside the history of permits for flood mitigation devices for residential properties were extracted from The Village’s permitting system. Using the Geographic Information System (GIS) the locations of the private property mitigation permits were mapped. Combining this information with other flood related data such as backyard ponding reports, improved surfaces, contours, and sewer infrastructure that The Village has been accumulating and mapping gives a more detailed picture of all factors involved in the ongoing flood mitigation efforts and provides for more effective solutions.
Being able to get access to useful information at a moment’s notice is something of a common trend these days. The only problem that really arises is when the information you are searching for is not yet created. As technology advances, so do the amount of portals that are created to store mass amounts of information. One type of portal that has been around for a long time is a Geographical Information System (GIS). This type of information portal does not only store tabular data but it also represents this tabular data in a spatial environment so that correlations can be made between the different types of data on the ground.
The City of Park Ridge, IL has been using a GIS for many years now but they always seem to find new information that is worth adding to the system in order to answer everyday questions or conduct detailed analysis. One of the newer additions of data to the GIS is the collection of relief sewer locations. This data is important to the Engineering Department in order to understand where these relief sewers are located in relation to other sewer lines as well as how they are helping the overall flow of storm water in a certain area. Older methods would have usually required the City Engineering Department to dig up and review old as-builts and document where these lines are located. Now the information is stored in the GIS and is as easy as looking at a map for their review and analysis. A once labor intensive process has now been made more efficient with the help of GIS.
The Village of Oak Brook has recently sparked interest in developing more sidewalks throughout the Village, specifically within subdivisions controlled by home owners associations. The idea is to develop a shared cost program in which the Village and the home owners association split the costs of adding new sidewalks in subdivisions where they did not previously exist. Before the proposal can even be brought to the home owners association, the Village needed to create a rough design and calculate approximate costs so that further discussions can be had. In an effort to maximize cost and time efficiencies, Village engineers requested that the GIS department create a map displaying the locations of the proposed sidewalks, along with the approximate square yardage and costs for the entire project.
Using already existing driveway, parkway, parcel, and road data, the Village’s GIS specialist was able to design the layout of the proposed sidewalks to scale. And by using various GIS tools, a calculation of the total square yardage of concrete needed, as well as the total area of driveway and turf repair or replacement was developed. Then by using the current going rate of concrete, asphalt, sod and labor, the total cost of the sidewalks were calculated for the entire subdivision. By staying in-house and using the Village’s GIS, they were able to get this project done quick and efficiently in comparison to hiring an outside engineering consultant or drafting the design by hand. This was especially important when considering the project and design are not final and face the possibility of not being approved by the home owners association.
The amount of information that is accessible to the common computer or smart phone user is unbelievable. Type a word into your web browser, hit search and start reading, it is just that easy. No problems here really, unless you have to do the same internet searches over and over again from multiple websites in order to collect the information you need regularly. All these searches may leave you to wonder how you might be able to centralize all of this data for quick and easy access on a daily basis.
For the Village of Morton Grove, IL, finding a solution to this bigger dilemma was not entirely possible but they were able to enlist the services of their Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to help take away some of the burden. By using an interactive web mapping application that was built on the local network, the Village now has the capability of retrieving information from the web, converting it into geographical information and then display that data on top of a map. What does this do for the end user? Well, a user only has to access the web application, turn on a GIS layer and then click on the point of interest in order to obtain vital information about that location. So far the Village has created more than a half dozen of these accessible layers with some of them helping more than just one department; two of the most recently added layers were railroad crossings and traffic signal locations. What use to take a fire chief or engineer valuable time searching multiple websites for usable information, now only takes a few seconds to access the internal map and click on a location to obtain the same data. Overall, this new format not only centralizes the data that is being accessed, it also saves employees time.
Most cell phone users have experienced the frustration of being in a “dead spot,” or a location where their phones are unable to connect to a network and provide communication with the rest of the world. Because this disconnect is closely tied to geography, the negative feelings generated from a lack of connectivity are transferred to the person’s physical location. Whether a fair association or not, the presence of dead spots can cause people to perceive a community as a less desirable place to visit or live in.
In response to the demand for greater connectivity, the Village of Lincolnshire is documenting its existing infrastructure as well as identifying options for expanding its coverage. GIS tracks this information and assists in the decision-making process for any additions. In the map above, existing towers are shown with a red dot, and a 50-foot “do not built” buffer is added on to show the least logical locations for new towers. The blue and purple areas are locations on private and public land (respectively) that have been identified by the Village planners as possible spots for new towers. The fading buffer zones ranging from 100 to 500 feet are used to give the Village more flexibility in selecting the exact location of any additions.
As an added benefit to using GIS for this project, the Village can repurpose this data easily to analyze its existing and potential revenue generation. Private providers have to pay rental fees and local taxes to install and maintain each tower, so it is important that the Village confirms that it is receiving the appropriate amount of income from existing and new enhancements.
To continue efforts to understand and help manage flooding in The Village of Riverside the history of permits for flood mitigation devices for residential properties were extracted from The Village’s permitting system. Using the Geographic Information System (GIS) the locations of the private property mitigation permits were mapped. Combining this information with other flood related data such as backyard ponding reports, improved surfaces, contours, and sewer infrastructure that The Village has been accumulating and mapping gives a more detailed picture of all factors involved in the ongoing flood mitigation efforts and provides for more effective solutions.
Until recently the City of Highland Park maintained a records based tree inventory within an Oracle database. This application was great for querying information records but it was not good for locating trees within a mapping interface. The Forestry division recognized the need to migrate the database to application that would allow them to use a mapping component. Therefore, they contracted with Davey to purchase TreeKeeper.
There were two important components that required GIS. First the existing tree inventoried needed to be geocoded located. The tree inventory data was geocoded and cleaned up with ESRI ArcGIS software. Ninety-three percent of the over 30,000 tree records were matched automatically. The remaining seven percent were matched to their locations manually. Manually matching the locations as helpful to Forestry as Davey had offered to geocode the records but they would have placed the seven percent in a random location outside of the City boundaries. This meant that Forestry would have had to move 2100 points by themselves. The second step was to export selected layers out of the GIS database to create a base map within the TreeKeeper application.
Without GIS Forestry would not have good locations for seven percent of their tree inventory. They also would not have a good base map for referencing the location of trees. At this point the trees are located on address points, but there are plans to manually move the trees to their real world coordinates.
The City of Lake Forest recently began a project to help determine the costs and effects of water main construction projects in relation to water main breaks. Water main breaks are an issue for all communities, and ensuring residents that the most needed areas are being repaired is an important part of government-public relations.
The GIS department used existing data for water main breaks over the past ten years, and coupled that with previous Capital Improvement projects for water main replacements. Being able to visualize areas with a high occurrence of main breaks allows engineering staff to determine if their water main replacements were effective, as well as to target new water mains to be repaired in the coming years.
To take the project one step further, main breaks and CIP projects were grouped together by fiscal year and associated to their respective wards. Costs per ward could then be determined to ensure there is a fair distribution of funds and necessary repairs among the City’s four wards.
The City hopes to continue this type of project in the years to come, ensuring yearly CIP funds are meeting the needs of the residents and City infrastructure.
The primary responsibility of all local government public safety agencies is to understand the location and extent of their designated response coverage areas, especially when it comes to providing mutual aid support across municipal boundaries. In many cases, knowing this information before responding to an emergency call can make the difference between a response ending in success and a response ending in tragedy. For the Village of Winnetka, IL Fire department a recent change to their response coverage grid numbering system lead them to collaborate with the village’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to redesign the department fire grid map that is used both internally by department staff and provided to surrounding communities to assist with mutual aid support.
The primary component of the map redesign was to determine the new grid numbers and to update the grid boundaries to accurately reflect the established response areas. As part of this review, it was discovered that the existing map was inaccurately showing that the village was responsible for an area that had previously been annexed into a neighboring community, which could have lead to a miscommunication in who should respond in an emergency situation. Making sure issues like that were resolved and accurately reflected on the map is critical to the success of the new grid implementation and, ultimately, the map’s usefulness to the department. By correcting inaccuracies in the Fire department’s grid system, and using GIS to create an accurate and easy to understand map reflecting the corrections, the village has improved the overall safety of its residents by removing potential confusion between mutual aid departments regarding who should respond to certain locations within the village limits.
One of Glencoe’s many attractions is its location along the shores of Lake Michigan. Most people visit the Village’s coast at Lakefront Park, a public recreation area with concession stands, boat rentals, and plenty of room for sunbathing, swimming, and more. Unfortunately, the lure of the beach can create problems. Several streets in Glencoe dead-end at the beach, creating public rights-of-way that are legally available for pedestrian traffic. Recently, a group of underage drinkers started using these access points on a regular basis, putting them at risk for injury because the land is unimproved. Plus, adjacent property owners complained about the noise and litter created by the teens. In response, the Village announced plans to fence off these locations, but several members of the public did not approve.
Based on resident concerns about limiting beach access, the Village Manager’s office created a Street-Ends Task Force to review the options for managing this land. GIS was called upon initially to create site maps of every street end for reference. However, the real benefit to this project came through Glencoe’s membership in the GIS Consortium. Since several of its neighboring communities are GISC members, Glencoe had immediate access to their parcel data. The on-site specialist used it to identify comparable street-end locations in neighboring communities and then created a custom driving tour of the north shore’s public-owned access points to Lake Michigan. The committee visited and photographed each location, efficiently creating an inventory of comparison data for use in its work.
By leveraging the data-sharing model available through the GIS Consortium, the task force obtained a large sample of comparison information quickly and efficiently.