Pozzolan is a material, when combined with calcium hydroxide, exhibits the properties of cement and is commonly used as an addition to concrete mixtures for road base. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, The Village of Wheeling used pozzolan in many of its roads that were built or reconstructed at that time. Eventually, the roads that were built with pozzolanic material started to crack and break apart due to the amount of moisture that pozzolanic material retains. Even when the roads were resurfaced, the material would cause it to crack and shift after a few years. This resulted in the roads having to be resurfaced more frequently. The Village decided that it would eventually have to rebuild the base of all roads built with pozzolanic material that haven’t been rebuilt already.
The engineering department requested that a map be created showing the locations of all roads known to still contain pozzolanic material. The department also requested that the area of each road surface be calculated so a replacement cost could be estimated for all the pozzolanic roads. Using existing base data, the roads were mapped out and then using the area of the road surface, replacement estimations were made. By using GIS, the Village of Wheeling was able to quickly map out the locations of roads built with pozzolanic material and then create an accurate cost estimate for replacing the material.
During the 2012 fiscal year, the City of Lake Forest has been receiving and delivering new recycling carts to all of its households. To aid in ordering the needed number of bins, a list of all non-commercial addresses in the City was generated. The Sanitation and Public Works departments were responsible for keeping track of who was in need of a bin throughout the year, with the goal of having each household’s bin delivered within the year.
In late February, GIS was asked to take the project one step further by comparing who has had a bin delivery to who is still in need of one. This was accomplished through geocoding the list of deliveries to the master address list, and then selecting those residences that have not had a delivery and creating a new list. In addition to the new list, a map was created to give a spatial reference on locations that did not have a bin. Interestingly, there was no trend found on areas that needed delivery, which made having a spatial reference even more valuable.
While this project was relatively simple to accomplish, the time saved by using GIS to generate the new table proved to be a big help to the Public Works department.
Using technology to assist with police department operations is become more and more important in today’s world. From providing new safety devices to help protect officers to supplying comprehensive vehicle registration information during a traffic stop, the use of technology has made departments more prepared and, as a result, more efficient in completing their day to day tasks. For the Village of Winnetka, IL police department, integrating technology includes utilizing the village’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program to perform basic mapping and advanced spatial analysis of department data. For example, to help better establish an incident’s timeline during a recent investigation, the department asked the village GIS staff to develop a map showing the different locations of an officer’s pursuit of a suspect from the beginning to the end of the event.
Provided with Global Positioning System (GPS) location information collected from the officer’s vehicle during the incident, the GIS staff was able to plot out the available X and Y coordinates to visualize the path the officer’s vehicle took during the pursuit. In addition to the spatial location of each recorded point, the time each point was collected was also provided, allowing for the development of a spatial timeline describing where and when the officer was while pursuing the suspect. To help see how the events of the pursuit developed, each point that was recorded was placed on a map and labeled with its corresponding time, giving the department a powerful learning tool for reviewing pursuit procedures and evaluating the course of action that was taken to better prepare for a similar incident in the future.
The Village of Oak Brook is located at the junction of two major highways, with a third highway located just to the Village’s northeast boundary. As a result of the Village’s close proximity to these highways, Oak Brook’s fire department is assigned to respond to emergencies on portions of all three highways. The fire department previously used an outdated map book to determine routing and location. But due to recent construction on the highways and the Village’s switch to a new dispatch center, the fire department found it necessary to create designated highway districts for their response areas.
The first step to creating new districts was to receive updated mile marker locations from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Once the mile marker points were plotted on an aerial map, the fire department was able to field check their locations and determine how to layout the districts based off of entrance and exit ramps, and the coverage areas assigned by the state. After multiple drafts were created and reviewed, the fire department was able to determine exact boundaries and assign district numbers based off of the highway name and direction of travel. It was essential to use GIS while creating these new districts not only for the visual aid that it provided, but also its unique ability to provide spatially accurate locations for all mile markers, entrance and exit ramps, emergency turnarounds, and toll booths.
The City of Highland Park maintains national and local historic districts layers, which are easy to analyze or map. They did not have an equally easy way to view the location of specific buildings with these historic districts. Community Development Planning Division maintained an Excel worksheet; however these records within spreadsheet did not reference real world locations. The Planning Division recently realized the usefulness of showing the location of the historic building sites within the historic district boundaries.
The Planning division requested that the GIS office use the Excel work sheet create a historical building site layer. The GIS Office used the Excel spreadsheet to create a point layer. This point layer was then used to select specific buildings related to each point. The final product is layer of buildings with historical significance information attached to each structure. It is currently being used as a map layer but there are plans to add to MapOffice™ Advanced as a custom Overlay layer.
Using GIS tools, the City efficiently create a historical building site layer that can assist with studies of existing historic districts. The product will be used as graphic to support discussion of specific properties within or near existing historic districts. It will also be used to identify properties near historic districts that could be included in historic districts. By adding these locations to MapOffice™ Advanced, the Planning Division will make it easier for Inspectors and other employees to reference these locations.
The newest GIS Consortium product MapOffice™ Web Access was rolled out on Febuary 22nd. This application builds on the advanced version of MapOffice™ currently being hosted on community member's local network. By centrally hosting this application on the Internet, the GIS Consortium can now provide greater opportunity for cost sharing and support for mobile users within a controlled and secured environment.
Now that Elk Grove Village, IL has a Geographic Information System (GIS) they can quickly perform a verification of potential sex offender residences. Every so often the Police Department will receive a request for residency by a registered sex offender and the staff is required to determine if the property meets the sex offender residence restrictions of the State of Illinois. Sex offenders are restricted from living five hundred feet from schools, parks, and day cares for example. The location between the inquired property and distances from these facilities can be analyzed quite easily because of the analysis capabilities within the geographic nature of the GIS and the fact that property information is the base of the system. Maps can be produced as well when residency is approved or denied as supporting documentation of the evaluation that was performed.
It’s a buyer’s market right now for entrepreneurs and developers. Communities of every size and demographic are competing against each other to attract new and relocating businesses to their area. GIS provides a cost-effective and efficient way to promote available commercial space on an interactive map that integrates seamlessly with the popular website Google Maps. Many GIS Consortium communities, including the Village of Lincolnshire, are taking advantage of this technology to quickly share information with prospective clients.
On a monthly basis, Lincolnshire’s Department of Community Development submits an updated spreadsheet of available properties to GIS. This spreadsheet includes important details such as building square footage, rental/sale prices, and realtor contact information. GIS geocodes the locations (a process in GIS that assigns an address to a location on a map) and then exports them into a file format that is used by Google Maps. This updated file is uploaded to the Village’s website, and in a matter of minutes, a fresh map is available for public consumption. The end product not only provides relevant details to a potential renter or buyer, but places these details in the greater context of the Village’s geography. Potential clients can then view aerial images and labeled maps of the overall site area to get a richer picture of the sites that interest them.
You can see the end product live on the Village’s website by visiting the available site inventory page, http://www.village.lincolnshire.il.us/business/sites.php.
Planning for seasonal operations is a process all municipalities must go through as the seasons change throughout the year. For the City of Des Plaines, IL Public Works department, mowing grass in areas that are maintained by the city is a primary component of their summer operations plan. In past years, the mowing schedule for each field crew has been determined by the crew members themselves, based where they were and the amount of time it took to mow each area. To help create a more consistent mowing schedule, and start tracking the daily progress of each crew, the department asked the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to develop a set of mowing routes based on the mowing areas the city is responsible for and create a series of route maps that can be given to each crew for reference.
The Public Works department had two primary goals for developing maps of their mowing areas: 1. Help create a consistent record of where the city is responsible for mowing and clearly define each route for the field crews and 2. Provide a resource for tracking what areas were mowed in a route on a given day. By creating this information in GIS and having it available for mapping, the crews can now take maps out into the field and highlight the areas that were mowed, making it easier to manage the day to day workload of each crew.
Tracking this information spatially, using a visual reference tool such as map, makes the transfer of information more accessible and easier to understand for those involved in the mowing operations. It also makes tracking the progress of each crew easier for the department management and provides them with a clearer picture of how efficient their crews are and if certain areas of the city require additional crews based on how long it takes to complete each route.
Two months after joining the GIS Consortium (GISC), Tinley Park has deployed MapOffice™ to its citizens and internal staff. MapOffice™ places important local government information on the internet making it accessible to the public. It also empowers internal staff by making a wide variety of GIS information available on demand at all of the Village's workstations.
MapOffice™ is designed with local government in mind. It organizes GIS data into tools and tasks that support typical business processes. The public version makes accurate information easily accessible, which translates to cost efficiency by reducing phone calls to department staff for routine information. In turn, this frees up staff resources to answer more complex questions. In addition to this, the internal version has advanced functionality that provides an easy way to view sensitive utility and public safety data.
About every ten years a Fire Department conducts a review of their services in order to increase their chances of getting a better Insurance Services Organization (ISO) rating; the better a rating the Fire Department receives, the more money a commercial property will save on their fire insurance. In order to prepare for this evaluation, The City of Park Ridge Fire Department is using all the techniques they can find to boost their chances of a better overall rating. A technology aid that was not around the last time they conducted an ISO evaluation was the Geographic Information System or better known as GIS.
Although GIS is not the only contributor to this in-depth evaluation process, it definitely allows the Fire Department to take advantage of their in-house GIS staff to prepare maps and data at a lower cost. These maps and data outputs will supply the ISO reviewer with the information that they need in order to accurately judge the type of services the Park Ridge Fire Department supplies and should in help in all efforts to better the city’s ISO rating. In addition, should any other questions arise during the review process; the GIS will be a great place to start when trying to gather quick and accurate information; thus proving the usefulness of the Geographic Information System’s ability to help when needed and better yet, save people some money.
As a new member of the GIS Consortium, the top priority of the Tinley Park GIS program is to demonstrate value of the new GIS program to decision makers in the village. This will be accomplished by; focusing on creating a centralized place for geographic data and maps, streamlining current business processes, such as looking up zoning for parcels, and by empowering citizens to find information about their properties. All of these areas of focus will be made much easier with the set-up, implementation of and training for Map Office & Map Office Advanced. Map Office & Map Office Advanced is a powerful and simple to use web based tool developed by the GIS Consortium for use by its member communities. MapOffice Advanced™ allows for a property search by either its address or PIN and provides numerous tools for retrieving information about that property. Default tools include a property summary that lists information such as zoning and voting districts and a measure tool for determining a property’s area or distance to another map feature. By using a web-based approach MapOffice Advanced™ is made accessible across multiple industry and community platforms, creating a powerful application for gathering information.