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 to ensure yearly CIP funds are meeting the needs of the residents and City infrastructure.
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.
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.
This fall, the Committee for Representing Our Young Adults, also known as CROYA, has introduced a visual aid to help with their annual poinsettia orders and deliveries. CROYA is a branch of the Rec Center in Lake Forest, and offers programs for young people to become involved in their communities.
The GIS department worked with CROYA staff to discuss the needs and options available to create a better workflow for the upcoming poinsettia deliveries. Due to the number of orders, as well as the number of people available to deliver, having a map to plan out who will deliver in certain areas was a big help to the logistics of the whole process.
The outcome of the project resulted in large scale maps for CROYA staff to reference when planning deliveries, which included addresses and the order information spreadsheet. In addition to this, the plotted out orders were put into MapOffice Advanced for staff to be able to reference on the fly. Having an interactive version of their data will prove useful when zooming into an area or turning on the aerial photography to gain more information.
CROYA hopes to continue utilizing GIS in future events, which are provided not only for the City of Lake Forest, but also neighboring Lake Bluff and Knollwood.
In August, Lake Forest College worked with the City to determine the names and addresses of residents that shared property boundaries with the College and were along the Bloodroot and Withchazel Ravines. Lake Forest College is planning on working to preserve the ravines, and contacting the owners provided two solutions- notification of work being done near their property, and asking if the property owner would be interested in joining the College in their efforts.
Management requested that GIS create a map showing the properties and listing the owner information to aid in this project. In addition to producing a map that showed both ravines with their adjacent properties and owner contacts, more specific maps were map for each ravine. These maps included topographic lines that will help aid in determining if the ravine floor is on College or private property. If there is indication that the bottom of the ravine is mostly on a private parcel, more notification or permissions may be needed to continue with the project in these areas.
Many communities often use GIS in one way or another to help plan out events, whether it is as simple as a basic street map or as detailed as a full site plan for a community’s annual taste event. In June, the City of Lake Forest came upon a unique opportunity and GIS was able to help.
Home to a number of golf courses, the City has begun examining the feasibility of hosting the PGA Tour, specifically at the Conway Farms Golf Course. The GIS Staff created numerous maps for Public Works and City Hall that showed zoning, surrounding communities and buffer zones, all of which were overlaying aerial images. The primary purpose for these was to locate areas of interest around the golf course that could provide parking and transportation for attendees. Further analysis is expected once city staff review their options, but initial review shows that the golf course has good surrounding features to accommodate the event.
Having a visual aid is always helpful when planning an event, especially when you can call out specific features that help with decision making. Though it can look simple at first glance, aerial imagery with GIS overlays always proves to be very beneficial to communities that are working to find the best opportunities solutions and for their events.
Each year, communities flush their fire hydrants and take note of flow rate, time flushed, and condition of hydrants. For 2011, the City of Lake Forest used GIS to aid in visualizing the locations of hydrants that were found to be in need to attention.
Notes from field work were grouped into subcategories to keep repair types to a manageable amount. From here, special symbology was given to each category to make it stand out from the other hydrants that were displayed on the map. The map was then divided into sections so it could be printed out at a readable scale on 8.5 x 11 paper, and when combined, formed a book that could be used in the field.
Having a visual aid to go with normal maintenance should prove to save time in locating the hydrants and planning of what kind of repairs will be needed. In addition to this, both the water and fire departments can see areas of concern where numerous hydrants may not be functioning properly, which can cause delays in the event that a fire needs to be put out in that area.
The City of Lake Forest is planning on planting around 180 trees this year that were purchased with funding that was donated from city residents. Known for its tree lined streets, these donated trees will help fill in areas of the City from newly renovated parks to medians along major roads. The Parks and Forestry department worked with both Engineering and GIS to create a map project that served two purposes; to help plan the locations of the Oak and Elm trees, and create an online interactive map that would allow residents to click on each tree and see its sponsor.
The use of GIS and interactive mapping technology for this project will save the foresters time in planning, allowing them to see project areas and make decisions without going into the field. Likewise, residents will be able to stay involved with the project by using the interactive map that shows the location and information for each tree.
The City of Lake Forest has been preparing for its upcoming 150th Anniversary event, which is scheduled for the fall of this year. While there are small events going on throughout the year, the big focus is on the festival that will take place on Market Square in the downtown area.
The City’s building department contacted GIS with the request of a large scale map that shows the downtown area, along with parking stalls and proposed vendor booths. In addition to these, proposed road closures and barriers were laid out on the map to be discussed among the planning staff.
Though there will be much more to come, the initial map gives the planners an opportunity to lay out the map for group discussions and make proposed changes where necessary. Once finalized, the map can then be used by staff during the event set-up as a blueprint.
The City of Lake Forest has recently been reviewing the types of drainage available on its streets to consider new projects for the upcoming fiscal year. As an old community, many areas of the city do not have curbs or gutters, and solely rely on ditches or small 6’ pipes to help move retention waters away from the road.
Cooperation between the engineering department and GIS resulted in a map that showed streets that did not have any curbs or gutters that could be compared with upcoming capital improvement plans. Roads were classified as collectors, main feeders, and state arterials. Special notes were made of streets that had combinations of ditch drainage and non-storm sewer drainage types, and field checks on the west side of the City insured that current GIS data was as accurate as possible
Combining road work with the installation of better drainage gives the City an opportunity to combine projects and keep costs down. The maps will be used as a visual aid in the upcoming board meetings to discuss 2011 projects.
The City of Lake Forest has begun using GIS to make a map and store data that shows current plans for their 10 year Capital Improvement program. In the past, employees would rely on spreadsheets and individual maps produced for that year to visualize projects and their locations. With the 2011 Capital Improvements plan being mapped this October, the city has also requested to begin keeping long term project data in a database feature class, which in turn will allow for editing and quick visualization.
Currently, the first draft of the 10 year plan has been created, and is currently being used to plan for upcoming conferences. Future plans include analysis on the planning data, as well as linking information regarding street condition and water main break density to help assist in project planning.
The City of Lake Forest has begun to take an inventory and place orders for signs throughout the city. GIS was able to provide accurate tables of sign counts for Public Works. Using these counts employees were able to categorize work zones by ward and know how many signs they would be dealing with from certain categories, such as regulatory and warning signs.
In addition to counting the signs, the tables helped employees by allowing them to know what kind of signs they would need to upgrade to meet the upcoming MUTCD standards for 2012. MUTCD stands for Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and sets the standard on sign dimensions and visibility. The City met with a client to discuss upgrades and place orders, and having the tables and access to GIS for visual reference proved to be increase the work management of the project.
The city of Lake Forest updates a list of residents who have signed up for Rec Center services on a yearly basis. To aid in seeing the layout of where these residents are located, the City has used GIS to map out point locations for each address recorded. In addition to the point locations, a density analysis is also run to help give a more visual, picture of the results. This year’s map included 2500 addresses, which accounts for nearly 40% of all households in the city.
To further this analysis, city employees can compare the results found on the map with demographic data that is offered through Business Analyst Online, which is prepared by MGP, Inc. Included in this demographic data is up to date information on age groups, income, and household income. By comparing this data to the geographic makeup of residents using the Rec Center, the City can find ways to offer their services to areas that are not utilizing them as much as others.
This month, Lake Forest staff were presented with a new format for accessing GIS data, as well as PDF maps for printing use. The new setup uses a shared, read-only folder that is hosted on the GIS server, and contains layer files for most of the City’s GIS data.
The benefit that layer files offer to employees is they do not need to spend time color coding data or labeling GIS data, nor do they need to worry about being able to find the data’s location. The layers will also be symbolized, in most cases, the same as the layers that are found in MapOffice™ Advanced. By displaying data similarly, users will be able to find what they are looking for faster since they will be accustomed to the map’s layout and color schemes.
In addition to offering individual layer files, the shared folder will also contain a new version of a commonly used ArcMap document, which will use the layer files to display data. This new document will save time and be more efficient than previous methods because the data contained in the map will be linked to active data, thus it will be as up to date as possible, and will reflect any edits that are made by the GIS staff.
Lake Forest will be celebrating its 150th Anniversary next year, and with that celebration is a potential record-sized fireworks display that is in the planning. The idea is to have every resident of the city be able to view fireworks from their home. GIS has been able to help with planning this out by showing the committee the areas that require cover, as well as using the supplied data of minimum safety distances and viewing coverages for different sized fireworks.
The project included land use analysis, creating buffers, and using aerial photography to determine good launch sites and areas that can be excluded from the coverage. While this is only in its initial stages of planning, GIS will nonetheless be available to help further make this event a success.
Lake Forest will have access to the web version of MapOffice™ beginning June 1st. The month of May was spent preparing the base data needed to get MapOffice™ up and running, which involved loading previous GIS data into the GIS Consortium standardized database.
MapOffice™ will provide staff and residents with information for each parcel and address in the city, which ranges from school districts and voting information to garbage pick up days. A link to the Lake County Assessor’s website for each individual address is also provided to gain further information regarding building and property dimensions, assessed value, and sales history. Tools will be available to the user to provide further analysis if needed, such as measuring and links to both Google Street View and Bing Maps Bird’s Eye View.
Information commonly used by staff to assist residents will now all be available in one place, increasing efficiency, as well as providing basic information to residents who may have otherwise had to call in to ask about in the past. Work continues on data creation for MapOffice™ Advanced, which is scheduled to be available on the City intranet by mid-June.
As a new member of the GIS Consortium, the top priority in Lake Forest has been getting data ready for New World. New World used in some of the other Consortium communities, is a CAD software that uses GIS to map out the location of where calls are coming from.
Lake Forest is responsible for dispatching calls for both Police and Fire for the city, as well as the surrounding communities of Highwood for Police and Lake Bluff and Knollwood for Fire. Since there were many detailed paper maps on hand, having this data available at the dispatchers’ fingertips will greatly improve efficiency and response time. There will also be a version of New World running on Toughbook laptops that will be in the emergency vehicles to assist in giving address locations.
Much of the data being used for this implementation was updated and standardized before it was ready to be loaded onto the test server. Once the data is running live, edits will be carried out by Specialists and can be loaded into the active map to keep updates being entered as soon as they come in.
In preparing the data for the New World project, we now have many of the key layers needed for the GISC data conversion out of the way, and this will aid in our progress of delivering MapOffice™ to Lake Forest employees as soon as possible.