Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and it encourages the development of native grassland growth. Without controlled burns native grasslands run the risk of being overtaken by non-native grasses (one reason why controlled burns are very important.) The Village of Glenview has three areas in the Village that require controlled burns (or hazard reduction burning) and until recently, all information was reported in hand written documents and maps. Now, with assistance from GIS the Forestry department can document and map the burn areas and information more accurately and effectively.
By using GIS this gives Public Works knowledge (previous burn(s) wind speed, direction, and etc.) for better awareness and preparedness for future controlled burns and the ability to track this information visually.
The Village of Deerfield Public Works\Water Department is in the process of replacing their old water meters with new touch\radio reads. This involves each meter being physically replaced with a new one and as you can imagine is very time consuming. Another restriction is, tracking which and where each one has been replaced. So to assist with this process, Public Works asked the Village of Deerfield GIS Department to plot each one that has been replaced, has not, and ones with only the head being replaced.
By teaming up with GIS the Public Works\Water Department can now more effectively (time) and efficiently (routing) tackle areas\addresses where meters have not been replaced. Also for the first time, the map allows for them to visually view their work.
Land annexed into the Village of Glenview has been on display in the Village’s Development department for some time. This information and map serves as a reference for staff when receiving questions about unincorporated and\or incorporated properties. Staff realized that the information and map was out date and that GIS (Geographic Information System) could provide an opportunity to keep the information current and more up to date.
The new process is that the existing annexation information provided by the Village’s record management software is given to the GIS staff for updating the current map. When completed a new updated hard copy is provided to the Development department for display and a PDF is created for distrabution to the staff and public.
The National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary incentive that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements. As a result, flood insurance premium rates are discounted to reflect the reduced flood risk resulting from the community actions meeting the three goals of the CRS; reduce flood losses, facilitate accurate insurance rating, and promote the awareness of flood insurance.
The Village of Glenview is currently in the process of providing FEMA with the proper material and information that they will need in order to be awarded part of the Community Rating System incentives. They are using GIS to provide them with certain information requested by FEMA and this information is, a list of all publicly-owned, open, dedicated properties in the SFHA (Special Flood Hazard Area), provide calculations of the total acreage of SFHA and acreage of open space within the SFHA (subtract out all impervious surface), and provide a map clearly identifying all open space properties verifying they are in the SFHA. If it were not for GIS then this information would have probably been obtained through a consultant and cost the Village more time and money then necessarily needed.
On a monthly basis, the Village of Glenview’s Fire Department uses GIS and New World Systems to record and then execute queries for incident reporting (or NFIRS data) which is then submitted to the State. NFIRS or National Fire Incident Reporting System is a voluntary information system initiated and supported by the United States Fire Administration used for evaluating the nature and scope of the fire problem in the U.S. The importance or advantages for having these abilities are; identifying trends in the number of calls, the type of calls made, the origin of calls and then using this information to potentially plan a station relocation or to possibly justify the fire departments budget for purchasing new equipment and vehicles.
If it were not for GIS and New World Systems supplementing and essentially standardizing this for Glenview then record keeping and mapping would be less effective and lack any cost savings.
Just like the rest of United States, the Village of Glenview is seeing and feeling the effects of the economic recession in all sectors of business, consumption, and employment. As a result from this, Glenview looks for various ways to save and increase revenue and one of those ways is, tracking foreclosures. Early this year Glenview purchased an annual subscription for $600 from the Law Bulletin for weekly data on foreclosures in the community and its service area. This information instantly saves the staff time by combining all information that would otherwise be very time consuming to locate.
With assistance from GIS, Glenview has been able to map and perform analysis to help with tracking potential revenue impact(s) in the TIF district, vacant properties, check compliance with ordinances, stop theft and destruction, and to see if squatters could possibly be using water. As an outcome from this, GIS has saved the Village countless hours on researching foreclosure information and those potential adverse affects that come from properties being foreclosed.
The Village of Glenview currently has an ordinance that states the max allowable impervious coverage for each lot in the Village, which is based off a lot(s) square footage. For example, lots that are less than 10,000 sq. ft. are allowed 4,500 sq. ft. or .40 of impervious coverage and the larger the lot, the smaller the percentage of impervious surface(s.) Recently, the Village’s Development Department was tasked with determining what percentage of lots fell outside of their allowable amount and if this amount turned out to be relatively high, then there are thoughts of tighten up (changing the ordinance) the allowable space.
By using GIS (Geographic Information System) the Development Department was able to determine percentages for each lot category and for the Village as a whole, which now gives them the capability for future impervious lot coverage decision making.
In this day and age having accurate, reliable, and live information is important. It’s critical for dispatch to have correct and current addresses, it’s key for inspectors to know where and what permits were issued for that day, week, month, and it’s essential for developing communities to have up to date available property listings. By using GIS and other Village applications GIS will be able to provide these capabilities for the Village of Glenview. Dispatch will be able to plot live incidents, Inspectors will be able to map out and view current and past permits along with viewing what type of permit(s) have been issued, and possibly, Development will be able to plot up to date available properties.
By being able to mashup or merge several applications\databases into one is priceless and endless. GIS can provide this platform and the hope is that, the sky is the limit.
The Village of Glenview has currently been tasked to come up with ways to more effectively and efficiently answer and fix drainage issues, and has requested assistance from the GIS department. One solution would be to set up a storm water fund, supplying that fund by applying a utility tax, and using it to perform maintenance on drainage ditches (which is currently not maintained by the Village.) GIS created data and maps that display major and minor public ditches and major and minor private ditches, and these maps will potentially be used to present to the Board of Trustees to assist with the approval of setting this storm water fund up.
Another solution is using GIS to assist with centralizing all complaint data (permits, subdivision plats, and etc.) for the inspectors to use in the field. The historical and current data is stored in Laserfiche (document management system) and MUNIS (records and work order system.) By using GIS to combine these two applications and viewing it through Map Office Advanced it will save the inspectors a lot of research time beforehand (before the inspectors go out on a complaint they have research and determine solutions and\or who is at fault.)
By using GIS it provides the Inspectors and the Village with a faster and a more cost effectively way for dealing with drainage complaints.
Currently the Village of Glenview does not maintain existing drainage ditches or culverts. This long-standing policy may merit review by the Board of Trustees as many neighborhoods depend heavily on ditch flow as their primary means of storm water drainage. Development of a Village-wide inventory of the existing right-of-way, and easemented drainage ditches is proposed for completion within 2010. Currently the Village is using Geographic Information System (GIS) to create this inventory.
By using GIS it provides the Village with a better understanding of where and how many linear feet of public and private ditches are in the Village. It also allows for Capital projects to present a more complete report and presentation, which could ultimately be the deciding factor on whether or not the Board of Trustees approves a storm water maintenance fund.
Each year Public Works selects sections on roadways throughout the Village for its Minor Area Resurfacing Strategy or M.A.R.S project, and they use GIS to plot these areas based off an address, multiple addresses, and\or intersections. Once these areas have been determined then small resurfacing patches are applied, which can extend the life of the full roadway for up to 5 years.
By using GIS for this project it gives Public Works a better understanding for where these troubled areas are located. Which in return, assist them with prioritizing their list for the five-year Capital Improvements Plan. GIS and M.A.R.S allows for better cost effective decision making.
A recent development in the Glenview Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of the firework fallout locations for the Fire Department. The information created includes the site locations and the fallout buffers for each location. Fallouts are determined by the size of the shell, and a one inch shell has a radius or fallout of 70 feet.
The Fallout map is available for the Fire Department and or all Village staff at any time through GIS or the PDF map folder which is located in the all employee accessible directory. This data provides an excellent resource for quickly referencing site locations and assisting with or containing any potential fallout related fires or problems.
A recent development in the Glenview Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of the landscape site locations. Information created includes the site description and which group the site is associated with. One other statistic that can quickly be calculated using GIS, is the total area for each site.
The Landscape map is available to all staff at any time through GIS and or the PDF map folder which is located in the all employee accessible directory on the Server. This data can and will provide an excellent resource for quickly referencing site location and potentially assisting Public Works and the contractors with improved routing.
The Village of Glenview Inspectional Services executes numerous inspections on a daily basis including all businesses and multi-story non-residential buildings for Fire inspections. Before the advent of Geography Information Systems and MUNIS, Fire inspectors used CityView software (address database) for their daily inspections.
Now, they are able to use MUNIS (for issuing and inventorying permits) and GIS analysis and map design (for evenly distributing all addresses into 4 inspection zones) on their laptops. This not only increases productivity (a higher number of inspected properties in a given day due to evenly distributing addresses into each zone) it also demonstrates the power of integration\central repository for two products (MUNIS and GIS), which saves even more time.
The majority of Municipal Departments use hard copy maps for various daily tasks. Maps are still used considerably to show analysis results, however new advances in technology have provided other ways to dispense and even interact with data.
It is very common for maps to be delivered digitally by email in such formats has JPEG, PDF, and Bitmaps. By doing this it saves both time and money, and data\information can be received in a matter of seconds by many individuals at once. Even better, with the advances in technology, dynamic mapping applications are now accessible for everyone to use. These applications place dynamic GIS tools in the hands of all employees. Which allows them to interact with their data and use it for presentations, daily work routines, and creating hardcopy’s for disposal, and again, increases productivity and saves money. Through the GIS program\department the Village of Glenview has access to such a product and that product is, Map Office Advanced.
Map Office Advanced is a web-based dynamic\interactive map that only Glenview employees can use. Map Office Advanced allows employees to search for addresses, retrieve parcel\property summaries, identify police beats, Board of Trustees districts, FEMA floodway locations, measure areas, link to Google Earth, and overlay custom datasets such as Zoning and Snow plow routes, all of which is used for effective and efficient decision making.
Employees for the Village of Glenview often request very simple, but effective ways for determining attributes for property owners and one of these attributes is\are, zip codes. With assistance from Geographic Information System (GIS), Employees are now able to quickly look at the zip code map and find out a residence(s) zip code in a matter of seconds.
With the readiness of the GIS data\maps for zip codes, Employees are now capable of verifying residences zip codes on the fly. You may not think this is very important, but before GIS, Employees had to look this information up on the County’s website which in most cases took\takes 5-10 minutes. Not only does GIS provide maps like this, it also increases Employee productivity.
Police, Fire, and EMS dispatch plays a very important and crucial role for any State, County, City, or Village; and any Dispatcher, Police officer, Firemen, or EMT will tell you that timing and accurate information is everything. The Village of Glenview utilizes Geography Information Systems (GIS) by integrating GIS data into their New World Systems (software mapping applications) for accurate computer aided dispatch. GIS and NWS give dispatchers the ability to supply all Police, Fire, and EMS with the most up to date address locations.
Before GIS; Police, Fire, EMS, and Dispatch had to rely heavily on paper maps (or no maps at all) which were not 100% accurate and in some cases hand drawn. Now, by using the power of Geography Information Systems and New World Systems Police Officers, Firemen, EMT, and Dispatchers are able to respond to calls much faster and more effectively, which in return saves time (it would take to loop up the address) and money (gas and loss productivity.)
In conclusion, as States, Counties, Cities\Villages grow so does the demand for Police, Fire, and EMS along with the demand for accurate data and mapping. Not only does GIS allow for this to happen, it can also assist with decision making on critical cost saving issues.
The Village of Glenview is currently applying for a roadway improvement Grant Application for Chestnut Ave (from Lehigh Ave to Waukegan Rd.) In this process, a key component for consideration is the economic impact to the neighboring community of a roadway project, both short term (construction jobs) and long term (improved ability of customers to access stores, productivity increases due to shorter travel times, and possibility for future area redevelopment. ) It is the Village’s responsibility to demonstrate how a project meets this criteria.
Utilizing the power of Geography Information Systems (GIS) the Chestnut Ave Corridor was analyzed and along with a Site map; Business, Demographic, Income, and Executive summaries were generated. The GIS Department used a free application called Business Analyst to generate these reports and map. In addition to the reports and map, the Village has hired a Financial consultant to help them prepare the “Economic Competitiveness” section of the grant application. Business Analyst is a tool in which they use on a regular basis and charge an hourly rate of $250.00.
In a time when the economy is like it is and municipalities are looking for ways to trim budgets without laying employees off, if it were not for the GIS more money than necessary would have been spent. In addition, Business Analyst is a free and cost effective\revenue generator application the Village can use for future projects.
The Glenview Police Department relies on incident mapping for home and auto theft to assist with identifying hotspots, in hopes of deterring future criminal activity. Geographic Information System (GIS) can help provide a dynamic and a static view for incidents\hotspots throughout the community. One of the main components of making this system work is providing and maintaining all GIS data for the Dispatch\mapping software and hardcopy maps that display incident location, date, time, and high areas of criminal activity.
With the readiness of the GIS data\maps for the incident mapping and Dispatch\mapping software the officers are now able to patrol beats more effectively and efficiently. This considerably streamlines the workflow procedure. Supervisors and officers will now have more up to date and improved information in the field.
Designing and maintaining the GIS data for the Dispatch software and static maps allows the Police Department the ability to more successfully fight criminal activities.
The Village of Glenview contains several sidewalks that require annually maintenance and also too, plowing during the Winter months. Public Works Supervisor Joe Rizzo requested a map that would display 5 zones of evenly distributed sidewalks (square foot) for each zones. Utilizing the power of Geographic Information System (GIS) the sidewalks were analyzed and evenly distributed into 5 zones. The GIS Department designed a map displaying the location for each sidewalk, 5 zones, which zone each sidewalk was in, and a table showing each zone’s square footage of sidewalk. A digital copy of this map is located on the village’s shared network drive.
Supervisors and maintenance workers can use this map to identify where all sidewalks are located, where each zone is (for assigning work), the ability to quickly print (in case of emergencies) and how much square footage of sidewalk is in each zone. The map allows for them to more effectively and efficiently maintain sidewalks, which equals saving time and money. The map can easily be adjusted if new sidewalks are constructed and or removed.
Supplying the map in digital form and placing it on the villages shared network drive allows them the ability to quickly access and print it at anytime.
Village staffs in the water utility department, including managers, operators and executive directors, need an updated understanding of how utility systems are performing, where employees should be focusing their efforts and how village residents are affected. Geographic Information System (GIS) can help to provide a dynamic view of operations and activities throughout your community. One of the main components of making this system work is consistently updating your data so that it is current. While GIS staff knows how to enter and manage GIS systems they often don’t have the expertise or the opportunity to make data changes out in the field.
With the availability of mobile computers and skilled public works staff it is now possible that the ones out in the field doing the manual work can also make the updates to the GIS. This significantly streamlines the workflow process. Crews will have more up to date information in the field, better information in the field beyond the labels on their paper maps, and won't have to fill out paper forms. The important part in implementing mobile GIS updating is that you keep it straightforward. Once users are comfortable with mobile mapping you can expand its functionality. This summer the village did just that by having its valve turning GIS data updated in the field.
Using a rugged laptop, public works staff, with great success, has been updating all the system valve data for the village water utility as they turn valves. When completed this data will be checked and imported back into the utility system for display in key village programs like MapOffice™ Advanced. It is a great start to what mobile GIS and is just the beginning for the village’s plans for mobile GIS editing.