Local governments are responsible for managing several different asset types, from vehicles to landscape planters, which all require some sort of annual or bi-annual maintenance to ensure they continue to operate correctly and to increase the asset’s longevity. One of the assets that requires constant maintenance or, in some cases replacement, is trees managed by the local community. Since these assets are organic, they are susceptible to diseases, damages, poor health, and other ailments that affect all organic material. As a result, there is often a need to replace or remove trees that are sick or damaged, which can be both an expensive and logistically challenging process. To assist with a recent tree replacement effort, the City of Des Plaines Public Works Department asked the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) department to create a map showing the replacement locations that could be used to help coordinate efforts between city staff and a third party tree management contractor.
The first step in this project involved the Public Works department collecting an inventory of which trees needed to be replaced, along with the address closest to each tree, and providing that list to the GIS staff for mapping. Once the tree locations were mapped based on their closest address, a sequential numbering system was established and a unique number was given to each tree so that number could be displayed on the map in conjunction with a symbol representing the tree location. As a supplement to the map, a list of the tree addresses, and the number associated with each location, was created and provided to both internal department staff and the contractor so they could both have a detailed address list and a visual tool to reference when out in the field.
Having a common set of resources used between both internal staff and the tree contractor allowed for better coordination and understanding of the work that needed to be done. Through the use of GIS, the time needed by the Public Works staff to coordinate with the contractor was significantly reduced, thereby making the process more efficient and freeing up staff time for other projects.
Ensuring that a community is receiving the correct amount of tax revenue from its residents and businesses is one of the primary functions of a local government Finance Department. For the City of Des Plaines, Illinois, as with other communities, this tax revenue includes that received from a small service tax on gas service accounts setup with NiCOR. In an effort to make sure the city is receiving all possible tax money, and that NiCOR is receiving all possible account income, NiCOR has started a quarterly account address verification process that requires the city to review all account information to determine if they are within the city limits. To assist with this review, the Finance Department has requested that the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department map out the provided information for verification and note any inconsistencies could be sent back to NiCOR for review and correction.
The first step in this verification process was to geocode the list of account addresses provided by NiCOR, a process that involves assigning an address to a known location on a map, to get a preliminary list of what accounts matched valid city address and which did not. The unmatched addresses were then reviewed to determine why they were not matching, which ranged from misspellings to non-existent addresses. A single list was created from this process and sent back to NiCOR, with the valid addresses noted as being valid and the unmatched addresses flagged to be considered for review.
With these corrections noted, the city may now be able to expect increased tax revenue for accounts that were previously not included in the NiCOR billing process. By using GIS, the city was able to easily identify possible missing revenue sources that would have, in the past, required a significant amount of man hours to complete.
In local government, preparing a department’s budget for an upcoming fiscal year can be challenging considering all the unknown variables that determine the available funds for both operational and special project work, such as tax revenue and unexpected capital expenditures. This planning process can be complicated further if information on the quantity and quality of the assets being budgeted is incomplete, unknown, or inaccurate. To assist with developing a more accurate supply budget for pavement marking maintenance, the City of Des Plaines, IL Engineering Department asked the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) to assist with developing a database that could be used to track the actual location of the pavement markings that the city is responsible for maintaining in order to more accurately track the amount of materials needed to conduct maintenance on each marking.
The city did not have an existing inventory to work with, either in digital or paper form, so the GIS department was free to develop a solution that could be tailored to the information requested for collection by the Engineering Department. To this end, a file geodatabase was setup which contained information on the type of marking being collected (i.e. stop bar), the color of the marking (i.e. white), and the length of the marking, which was measured automatically within GIS. To collect this information, internal Engineering Department staff already familiar with how to use the desktop GIS software was trained on how to enter information into the database, while using resources such as the city’s aerial imagery and recently updated Google Street View imagery, to determine where each marking was located and what type of marking it is.
By systematically going through the city and drawing in these markings, the Engineering Department staff was able to develop a comprehensive marking inventory that could be easily analyzed and reviewed in a spatial environment. Viewing and managing the information this way gives context to where the marking is located, allowing for better coordination between marking maintenance and other department projects, such as road reconstruction or utility system improvements.
With the recent downturn in the economy over the past few years, two of the biggest challenges for local government are retaining businesses within their communities and promoting available facilities or real estate for new businesses or future development. To assist with making this kind of information more accessible, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development (CED) Department turned to the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department to develop a basic mapping tool on the city’s website where interested parties could view the location of an available space within the city and obtain basic information such as the property leasing agency name, amount of space available, and property cost per square foot.
To reach that goal, the CED department provided a list of known available spaces within the city to the GIS staff, which was then mapped out and formatted as needed to provide a clean collection of data for general consumption. Once the data was made available in a GIS format, it was added as a display layer to an existing mapping application available on the city’s website, called MapOffice™. Once the data was made available as a display layer, a weblink was added to the website’s Available Building and Sites page that not only allows a user to launch the map, but also turns on the available site layer so it is automatically displayed for viewing. Using this approach removes the need to provide instructions to the map user on how display this information for use.
The primary goal of this project was to not only provide information about each available space, but to give the context of where each property is located within the city. Making this information available for consumption in a spatial environment helps to maximize the impact of external factors surrounding the property that might make it more attractive to prospective businesses, thereby increasing the chance it will be purchased or leased.
With the winter holiday season quickly approaching, several local community festivals and other events related to the holidays are starting to move into their planning stages, which involves coordinating with internal community staff and external organizations involved with the event, as well as beginning the process of developing an agenda for how the event will proceed. For the City of Des Plaines, IL, an annual holiday tradition is holding a formal city tree lighting ceremony in the downtown area, complete with food and beverage vendors and family-friendly activities that allow the city residents to celebrate the start of the season as a community. Related to this event, the city’s Police and Emergency Management departments requested the assistance of the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) department in developing a map for the event, showing things such as officer posting locations, street closures, and other specifics related to the event, which can assist the departments with their planning efforts and coordinating personnel during the lighting ceremony.
The initial development of the event map involved a representative from the GIS department meeting with representatives from the Police and Emergency Management departments to discuss the extent of the event area that needed to be displayed on the map, as well as the specific locations of planned officer postings, road barricades, and vehicle parking during the ceremony. Once these locations were determined, a preliminary map was developed by the GIS department and provided back to Police and Emergency Management for further review and updating. As more information regarding the event became available, additional requests were submitted to the GIS department for changes to the map, which was updated accordingly.
Since the GIS department for the city was involved from the very beginning with the lighting ceremony planning efforts, and then continuously throughout the planning process, the map was able to continuously develop over time and be used as an effective medium for transferring information to all departments involved. Having a visual resource for the event provided a consistent, well understood format for departments to share information, making the planning efforts more efficient and, ultimately, the execution of the plan more successful.
Every ten years the US Census Bureau conducts a census of the country’s population to see growth trends in different metropolitan areas, migration patterns from one area to another, and changes in demographics on the local, regional, and federal level. While this census is conducted at the federal government level, local governments use the population and demographic information to help with applying for project grants, directing how and where to use certain funds for capital improvements within the community and, for certain communities, determining where to redraw voting boundaries to account for changes in population number from one area to the next. For the City of Des Plaines IL, redrawing the aldermanic ward boundaries was a top priority once the 2010 census population numbers were released by the Census Bureau due to upcoming alderman elections, with these boundaries determining which areas of the city would vote in each ward. Since these ward boundaries relate to city blocks and neighborhoods, the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department was asked to assist with calculating population statistics and developing scenario maps for areas where the ward boundaries would potentially change based on population shifts between the 2000 and 2010 census.
To make sure the new ward boundaries divided the city up into relatively even population bases, several boundary scenarios were mapped to provide city administrators with a visual tool for comparing the new boundaries against one another. In addition to visually displaying the ward boundaries, population numbers for each new ward area were calculated and provided along with the maps, which provided both a visual and statistical tool for analyzing each ward scenario. The population information for each ward map was calculated at the neighborhood block level using GIS census boundary data provided by the Census Bureau in conjunction with a table containing related population information for each block. By using the block level data, each ward boundary could be drawn as accurately as possible to ensure that each ward contained a relatively even number of city residents. Since this information was provided by the census in a digital, spatial format, the process of drawing a new ward boundary and running the population numbers was relatively easy, allowing for numerous boundary scenarios to be calculated quickly and provide city administrators with a wide range of boundary options to consider.
Using GIS resources to assist with the city’s alderman ward redistricting effort, the City of Des Plaines was able to save a significant amount of time and money as compared to if the process was completed without it. Without GIS, according to information provided by city administration, the process would have taken several weeks of dedicated city staff time to complete or, if the city would have instead used an outside vendor, and additional monetary investment of $25,000. By using an available, existing resource, the city was able to save money and staff time and dedicate internal resources to other tasks rather than focusing on manually calculating the new ward population numbers and drawing the new boundary locations.
Managing vehicle response times is a critical component of any local or regional public safety agency. Having the drivers of each vehicle trained with an in-depth knowledge of the community’s road network and address layout is vital, as knowing the shortest or best route to a location could make the difference between a successful and a failed emergency response. To assist with helping the department’s engine and ambulance drivers to learn the city street network, the City of Des Plaines, IL Fire Department asked the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to create a series of grid maps covering the entire community, which could be used as a guide to locate a specific street or address when en route to an emergency response call.
To start the grid development process, the GIS staff provided the Fire Department with a basic street map of the city, which could be used as a template to divide the community into grids based on the department’s different response criteria (i.e. engine response area, automatic aid, etc). Once the city was divided, the map was returned to the GIS department and a series of preliminary maps of each grid were developed for the department to review, with each map containing the street names and addresses present in each grid. Through a series of reviews, the maps were steadily built into the final product, with hydrants, park names, and high risk building locations being added as supplemental features to the street names and addresses already present on the maps. Once the final gird maps were developed and approved, they were provided to the Fire Department and combined into map books that are currently available in each vehicle for reference.
By developing the grid maps, the Fire Department was able to leverage the street network and address information, along with other critical fire response features, that are available in the city’s GIS system and use that information to enhance the department’s day-to-day operations. By making this information readily available to the department’s vehicle operators, the department has improved the ability of each driver to navigate the most efficient path to an emergency location, thereby increasing the chances that they will respond to each call successfully.
Preventing crime and working to ensure a higher quality of life for the general public is a primary goal of any police agency, particularly at the local government level. For the City of Des Plaines, IL, these efforts led the city’s Police Department to start using a crime prevention technique, referred to as Comparative Statistics (COMPSTAT), that use crime statistics gathered over time to highlight incident patterns and high crime areas. By analyzing these patterns, the department can better focus their mitigation efforts in areas that are experiencing a higher number of crime incidents. To help show these patterns in a way that could be easily understood and disseminated by all department staff, the department asked the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) personnel to generate both a weekly and monthly map product that plotted each crime location.
Every week, the Police Records Division, which tracks all crime data for the department, provides the GIS staff with a summary of the crime incidents from the previous week. Included in each summary report is the location of each incident, the date and time the incident occurred, and the crime code (i.e. theft) associated with each location. Using this information, the GIS staff is able to map out each crime location and, since the data is provided every week, provide a map product to the department showing the cumulative crime totals from the beginning of each month to the end of the current week being reported. Over time, various patterns in the data begin to emerge and higher crime areas become visually apparent on each resulting map product.
Without GIS, these efforts would prove to be more difficult as it would be challenging to understand where problems were emerging without having a tool to visualize where they are located within the city. By tracking crime locations using a spatial platform over the course of a few weeks, or even a few months, the department can visualize where high crime areas are and begin to implement practices that can help to reduce the number of incidents that are occurring.
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.
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.
Identifying and responding to concerns regarding the safety of residents is always a top priority of local government. The ability of a community to respond to a concern varies based, among other things, on the nature of the concern, the availability of funds, and the availability of staff. In some cases, the best solution to an issue is simply to notify a community that there is a problem so they can determine an appropriate course of action. For the City of Des Plaines, IL identifying fire hydrant locations that may be inaccessible to the Fire department serves as an example of identifying a potential problem before it becomes a bigger issue that negatively impacts community residents.
Two of the biggest problem areas for fire hydrant access are along the two interstates that border the eastern and southern edges of the city. To assist with identifying hydrants in these areas with limited accessibility, the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) department generated a map showing the extent of each interstate with the city’s fire hydrant information included. While this helped to show proximity of the hydrants to the interstates, it failed to show any impedances that may restrict how and when a hydrant can be used. To resolve that issue, the GIS department staff used plans provided by the Engineering department to map out all sound walls and other features along the interstates that could prevent a hydrant from being accessed in the event of an emergency.
With a resource for visualizing the current hydrant locations, along with their potential impedances, the Fire Department was able to easily identify hotspots along each road where a hydrant’s accessibility was either partially or completely restricted. Knowing about these hotspot areas before an emergency occurs allows the department to plan for alternate solutions and be better equipped to respond appropriately to each event.
Organizing local government elections is an important component of how a community operates and can often be a significant investment, both in time and resources, for that community’s staff. While information on registered voters is often maintained by a county or township, local government staff may also need to use this data to assist with planning and executing various aspects of the elections process. To help prepare for an upcoming city council election, the City of Des Plaines, IL was asked to provide a list of all registered voter addresses to potential candidates so they could petition for signatures to get on the local ballot.
The Des Plaines city council is made up of eight aldermen, each representing a different ward, or electoral area, within the city and each potential candidate that wants to run for alderman can only petition registered voters within their respective ward. Since the list of registered voters provided by the county is for the entire city, the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) department was asked to assist city staff with determining which addresses from the master list fall within each ward boundary.
Using previously developed ward boundary data and the master list of registered voters provided by the county, the GIS department staff was able to geocode, or match to a known location, each registered address within a specific city ward. Once an address was linked to a ward, a list of registered voter locations for each ward could be created and provided to city staff for distribution to the alderman candidates. Before using GIS to assist with the project, this process could take city staff several weeks to accomplish, taking away time and resources from other important city functions.
For local government, a Geographic Information System (GIS) can provide many helpful services, from basic map product development to complicated utility systems mapping. It can also provide communities with a powerful tool to analyze interactions between various spatial features and generate information that would not otherwise be available. For the City of Des Plaines, IL, GIS was recently used to analyze the response areas of the Fire Department’s ladder trucks and how they are influenced by the numerous railroad crossings that dot the City landscape.
Currently, there are 33 commuter and freight line at-grade railroad crossings in the City limits, which can cause serious delays to daily traffic flows and emergency response efforts. To help show how the coverage areas of the City’s two ladder trucks are impacted by these delays, the Fire Department asked the City’s GIS department to run an analysis that took into account three main factors: speed limit, railroad crossing locations, and average delay times for each commuter and freight line. Including speed limit in the analysis is critical for modeling how fast a truck can travel along a road, which impacts how far it can go within a given amount of time. By including the railroad crossing locations and average delay times, in combination with the speed limit information, the GIS department was able to show that speed of travel along a road, while important, is not the only relevant factor in how the City’s coverage areas are determined.
While the Fire Department knew that railroad crossings severally impacted the City’s coverage areas prior to the running analysis, having a visual representation of this information was critical for understanding how drastic these areas are reduced when a delay occurs. Using GIS to model the interactions between all the factors involved in the analysis has provided the department with a powerful tool for developing alternate response routes and coverage plans that, ultimately, provide better and more effective fire protection to the City residents.
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.
Local governments often get requests from residents for localized public improvements that fall outside the scope of yearly budgeted projects the community has planned for. To help fund these localized improvement requests, the property owners can become part of a Special Service Area (SSA), which is a legal mechanism used to fund projects for contiguous residential properties through a local property tax levy. Through a Special Service Area, the property owner pays back the community for the project work over a predetermined amount of time through an additional fee on their yearly property tax bill. To help track these areas, the City of Des Plaines IL asked the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) Department to locate each SSA so maps could be quickly generated showing the improvement areas.
Using a list of active and proposed SSAs provided by the city’s Engineering Department, the GIS Department was able to locate and map each area using the city’s existing parcel and address data. With this information added to the GIS system, maps of specific SSAs can be generated and included in things such as city council packets and departmental reports for reference. Also, since payment for these improvements is based on property taxes, having the parcel data linked to the SSA integrates the county PIN (Property Identification Number) with the SSA designation, allowing the city Finance Department to accurately track all SSA related fees.
Using GIS to assist with tracking Special Service Areas provides a quick, easy-to-understand reference tool for multiple departments that can be applied to numerous applications.
To promote healthy living and the use of alternative travel, many local governments have started to design and implement projects related to cycling, such as bike route signage and dedicated bike lanes along local streets. To assist with promoting the projects they’ve worked on to the general public, the City of Des Plaines, IL asked the their Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to create a series of mapping products that display a wide-range of features from the city’s bike network, including the existing route locations and planned improvements.
As the result of several years of planning and design, the city’s bike network is slowly beginning to take shape. Using maps to convey the work that’s already been done, along with future project locations, helps to promote these efforts to both city residents, and those interested in biking through the city, by providing a visual tool to see how each route connects to each other. By seeing the routes within the context of the city, riders can plan out their trips more effectively and decide the safest path to take. These map products make the bike project information more accessible and transparent, which helps to promote rider safety, and, overall, makes the city a more bike-friendly destination.
During an emergency event, the extent of the area affected and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response effort is controlling where information is coming from and determining which pieces of information are more critical than others. To help better organize information gathered during a recent storm event, the City of Des Plaines IL used the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to assist with mapping and prioritizing the storm cleanup efforts.
While the initial response to the storm event relied heavily on more traditional forms of data organization and presentation, an effort to streamline the cleanup efforts resulted in GIS being used to develop several mapping products that assisted city staff with visualizing the storm damage. These included a traffic signal outage map, a road closure and downed trees map, and a damaged property map that was developed using information gathered by city building inspectors during the initial damage assessment review. Using these products, city staff was able to better visualize the extent of the damage and, as a result, develop a more effective plan for cleaning up the city.
The City of Des Plaines hosts numerous special events throughout the year. These events often require the involvement and coordination of numerous city departments, including Public Works, Engineering, and the Public Relations office. To help improve these coordination efforts, the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) department developed a map product to allow all those involved to communicate event information more efficiently.
The map developed for this bike tour highlights the tour route and other aspects of the ride, as well as points of interest the riders can stop and look at along way. Information about the event itself, for example ride distance and start time, was also included on the map to supply both the city departments organizing the ride and those participating in the ride with a single resource for reference. Using a spatial product to convey the bike tour information provides everyone with the same, geographically-based reference template, making it easier and more efficient to transfer information before and during the event.
Local fire emergency response units are often called to non-residential locations that can contain potential hazards to both the responders and the building occupants. A critical asset to ensuring a successful response is having a drawing of the property, commonly known as a pre-plan, showing vital locations within the building, including the gas shutoff valve, exit points, and the layout of the various rooms. To assist in the development and distribution of these drawing, the City of Des Plaines, IL Fire Department asked the city’s GIS department to provide data for the initial drawing of the plans and a means for viewing the completed plans within a simple mapping environment.
To develop the pre-plan drawings, the Fire Department decided to work with a local community college that had a pre-plan design class in developing a curriculum that integrated the department’s drawings into each assignment. This provided a real world application of the skills being taught in the class and a final product for the department to use in emergency response. To assist the class in the initial design of each plan, the GIS department provided various data layers, including roads and buildings, to the college. These data layers are used as the base data for each drawing, making it easier for the students to add in the critical infrastructure information, such as hydrants and shutoff valve locations.
As a final product, the finished drawings are distributed to the Fire Department through an online interactive mapping site used by city staff. This application is available both in the office to administrative staff and in the field through laptops setup in all the department vehicles. By using the existing GIS system as the basis for the development and distribution of the pre-plans, the city has been able to save time and money on making a critical resource available to the necessary emergency response personnel.
Utility asset management is a critical component of any local government’s annual operations. As part of its annual utility maintenance schedule, the City of Des Plaines performs field tests of fire hydrants in select areas of the city to ensure that they have the correct water pressure and are still operating at the expected level. These tests are conducted by the Fire Department and require significant man-hours to complete. To reduce the amount of time needed to locate a hydrant scheduled for testing, the department requested a series of maps that could be used in the field for locating.
To fill this request, the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department created a map book, or a series of coincident maps that show a larger area divided into a collection of smaller areas, that could be used in the field. While a city-wide map showing all the hydrants was also developed for general reference, having the smaller, more mobile maps allows the department to use them in the field as they are conducting each test, giving them a more detailed view of the testing area and the location of each hydrant. Using these products will help to reduce the amount of staff time needed to locate the hydrants and provide more time for developing an efficient testing schedule that will ultimately lower the amount of time needed to complete the testing process.
One of the biggest challenges for local government is to develop a budget that will sufficiently cover anticipated project costs in a fiscal year. While most costs can be covered by various department budgets, additional sources of money are often needed to cover new projects or programs that come up. Federal or state grants can typically serve as a medium for this additional funding and, as result, grant applications have become a fundamental part of most local government departments. For the City of Des Plaines IL, applying for a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) provided a potential source of money for making necessary improvements across the city.
The primary focus of DCEO grants is to provide communities with the financial means to implement infrastructure improvements or rehabilitation projects, primarily in low to moderate income areas, where the project will help to improve the quality of the resident’s living environment. For the City of Des Plaines, the grant being applied for would provide money for funding utility infrastructure improvements in low to moderate income neighborhoods.
To assist with this project, the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) department worked with the Public Works and Engineering department to provide maps of the existing utilities, along with census income statistics, in the proposed project areas to help highlight economic conditions and how funds from the grant would help to improve the utility services being provided to the residents. Floodplain boundary maps were also provided to show how most of the proposed projects fell within areas designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as being at a higher risk of flooding.
By providing spatial statistics and map products with the grant application, the city helped to visualize the impact any grant funding would have on improving the utility infrastructure in the project neighborhoods. Clarifying the impact the grant would have helps to strengthen the city’s case for receiving the funds that could help provide higher quality services to its residents.
One of the biggest challenges for local government is determining funding that will significantly cover anticipated project costs for a particular budget year. While most of this funding can be covered by a department’s budget, additional sources of money are often needed to cover new projects or programs that come up throughout the year. Federal or state grants can typically serve as a medium for this additional funding and have become a fundamental part of most local government departments. For the City of Des Plaines IL, the Model Communities grant was a recent opportunity to receive funding for implementing city programs aimed at improving the overall health of city residents.
Supported by the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) and the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago, the Model Communities Grant Program provided the city with a unique opportunity to acquire federal funding for the design and implementation of public health initiatives. Funded by a $4 million federal grant called Communities Putting Prevention to Work, the city needed to provide information, through the grant application, on why it would be an eligible candidate for part of the allotted funds.
To assist with this effort, the city’s GIS (Geographic Information Systems) department was asked to supply numerous mapping products and statistics for a wide-range of community information, including all agencies in and around the city that would benefit from the funds, the number of schools in lower income 2000 census block groups, and the percentage of minority residents within 2000 census block groups. Displaying this information through mapping products tied the statistics and numbers in the grant application to a real-world location and helped to visualize the positive impact any received funds would make.
As a result of the hard work put in by city staff members, in combination with the information and products provided from the city’s GIS, the city was recently awarded a $96,000 grant from the Model Communities program. With this money, the city hopes to supplement existing community programs and implement new ones that can help to make the city a healthier place to live.
Managing parking across a community can be one of the most challenging functions of local government. Whether that parking area is owned by the municipality or managed by a private entity, ensuring accessibility and proper maintenance of these areas can be a challenge that often involves representatives from several government departments. To help understand the level of involvement needed, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development (CED) department completed an inventory of all parking lots in the city to help with the enforcement of city ordinances related to parking lot maintenance.
To help identify which properties should be included in the inventory, the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) department used the city address and parking lot data to generate a list of all properties with parking lots that required inspection. The city was then divided spatially into five inspection areas, with each area being assigned to a CED inspector, and a list for each area was derived from the original parking lot property list. Using these address lists, and maps created for each inspection area, the inspectors were able to quickly identify the properties they needed to visit, helping to streamline the data collection process and make it more efficient.
Managing community assets is an important function of any local municipality. Often included in those assets are detention and retention basins, which are critical for storm water regulation and erosion control for local waterways. In order to effectively manage these local assets, an inventory of each basin’s location, ownership, and status is needed for maintenance and development planning. As part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), the City of Des Plaines conducted a full survey of all city basins using Geographic Information System (GIS) as the primary tool for storing and analyzing the inventory data.
Developing a basin inventory was a multi-step process and involved the city’s Engineering, Public Works, and GIS departments. Field checks by the city Engineers were required to gather the required attributes, but the preliminary process of locating each basin was done using contour data and aerial imagery to identify depressions, which were then traced and added to the GIS system for mapping. As part of the field checks, pictures of the basins, along with the location of the utility structures that flow in or out of each, were captured and integrated into the GIS data. Recently, this inventory was completed and is now available to assist the city with the NPDES required 5 year basin maintenance cycle.
Public safety response is often not limited to the boundaries of a municipality and can include providing assistance to neighboring communities or direct response to unincorporated properties. This response can also extend to interstate systems that border a municipality, as is the case with the City of Des Plaines Fire Department.
Since mile markers are the only way for the department to identify the location of an emergency call along the interstates, it was critical for all first responders to be aware of the location and mileage associated with new mile markers determined by the Illinois Tollway Authority. Using assistance from the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) staff, the Fire Department developed a series of maps displaying the new mile marker locations, both independently along the interstate and in relation to other critical fire response components, such as hydrants. Using the maps as a guide, the department now has a series of spatial tools for locating and responding effectively to an emergency call along the city’s bordering interstates.
Every year, the City of Des Plaines hosts a city-wide bike ride called the Tour De Des Plaines. This event requires the involvement and coordination of numerous city departments, including Public Works, the Police Department, and the city’s Emergency Management Agency. To help improve the coordination efforts, the GIS (Geographic Information System) department develops several mapping products to allow the departments to transfer event information more efficiently.
There are three maps that are traditionally developed for this bike ride: one for the general public to highlight the bike route and water stations along the ride, one for the Police commanders and Emergency Management Agency personnel displaying the route, water stations, and barricaded roadways, and one for the patrol officers displaying the road barricade locations. Using these mapping products provides all those participating in or organizing the Tour De Des Plaines with the same, geographically-based template for the event, allowing for a more efficient transfer of information and improved communication before and during the ride.
Water meter billing can be a significant source of revenue for any local government, so ensuring that the billing address information is valid and complete is critical to the success of collecting all the necessary fees. A key component to maintaining these utility accounts is assuring they are up to date and cross-checked with other sources, which can often be difficult and time-consuming. To assist with validating the account locations for each billing record, the City of Des Plaines Public Works department asked the city’s GIS department to map out all the utility billing addresses in order to get a better understanding of where potential address problems exist.
All utility billing records for the city are stored in software called Penemation, so the first step in mapping each record was to export the desired information into a GIS compatible format, such as Excel. Once in this format, the billing addresses were mapped in the city’s GIS software using the city’s comprehensive address database. By comparing the billing addresses against the validated GIS addresses, common issues that can cause fee collection problems were discovered. These include incorrect street name spellings, invalid addresses, or missing information. Having all the water meter locations visible on a city-wide scale allowed the Public Works department to review all records collectively and create a list of those addresses that require further investigation.
Developing a comprehensive and visual method for reviewing water meter billing locations provided a quick and efficient method for the city to highlight problem account location, as well as locate addresses that did not have a billing account on record. Using this information, the city can develop a plan to help resolve these accounts and, potentially, increase revenue through improved billing management.
A significant part of any local government’s economic vitality relates to property development and improvements that require a building permit. Permitting fees provide vital income and can help to increase department budgets and the potential for capital improvement spending. As part of an effort to better track permit applications and highlight trends over time, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development (CED) department asked the city’s GIS department to develop a map product to display permit locations.
All permit information for the city is stored in software called Penemation, so the first step in developing a map product was to export the desired information into a GIS compatible format, such as Excel. Once in this format, the permit locations were mapped in the city’s GIS software using the city’s comprehensive address database as a base. In addition to the location of the permit, the final GIS data layer also contained information on the type of permit that was issued for each address, allowing the final map product to display both the physical location and the type of permit being applied for.
Using this process, a monthly mapping cycle has been developed, allowing city staff to visualize where permits are occurring in the city. With the type of permit included in the GIS data, a secondary product of this project is being able to generate monthly statistics on the specific number of each permit being issued. Using both these outputs from the GIS system provides the CED department with an efficient and cost effective method of sharing this information across departmental boundaries and creating various budgetary reports.
Keeping a record of the past is important to help give those in the present and future a better idea of how their current surroundings developed. Whether these surroundings are cultural, political, or genealogical, tracking the history of each can be a way to maintain a connection to where an individual or group of individuals came from. The same holds true for municipal entities, which can track the historical development of their political boundaries using annexation records that are maintained over time.
For Des Plaines, annexations are approved based on a series of legal sheets describing the boundaries of each area. While these are useful for court cases and in regulating land disputes, it can be difficult to get a sense of how the community developed by reviewing each document individually. To help get a comprehensive view of the city’s boundary development, the GIS department began tracking these areas in a GIS system to provide both an analytical tool and a means to develop a mapping product that can be provided to city departments. As an analytical tool, other city GIS data layers can be used in conjunction with the annexation information to help answer a variety of capital asset-related questions such as the age of utility mains and potential roadway resurfacing schedules. As a mapping tool, having the annexation information in GIS allows for spatial products to be created that allow for city departments, alderman, and, potentially, residents to see how the city developed over time.
Integrating annexations into the city’s GIS system has taken detailed legal descriptions of annexation plats and converted them into a more digestible, visual format for review. This makes understanding the boundaries of these annexation areas easier, which can lead to faster and more efficient decision making.
Federal funding is a fundamental part of local government by helping to provide the necessary monetary assets for programs ranging from infrastructure improvements to low income housing support. While numbers and statistics related to a specific program are the nuts and bolts that eventually lead to funding being denied or awarded, including a spatial analysis of the data as a component of the funding application can help to clarify the provided information and increase a local government’s chance of receiving the requested funds.
Recently, the City of Des Plaines Community Development Department requested the assistance of the city’s GIS Department to develop a map showing the population density of low income census block group areas to be included in a federal city housing report. Since specific information regarding current income and population levels for each block group was not readily available, it was decided to use housing unit information as a substitute for population values. The assumption was that the more addresses in an area considered to be low income, the higher the potential low income population. Using this assumption and the available GIS address information, a map showing low to high density housing areas was developed to be used as a tool by the Community Development department to determine proper funding allocation. Also, by including this map in the housing report, the city was able to provide a visual method for highlighting the areas of greatest need as well as the extent to which low income housing is distributed across the city.
While statistics alone can provide the necessary information a community is trying to convey, by including a visual component, the data becomes more accessible and potentially easier to understand for those that are reviewing a report. Including a mapping component puts the information into a real world context and can give local government a more concrete method of sharing critical information that can lead to increased federal support.
During an emergency event, the type of event, the extent of the area affected, and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response is controlling where information is coming from and which pieces of information are more critical than others. Using GIS (Geographic Information System) as a tool in all stages of the emergency management process brings a spatial component to the planning and implementation of an action plan, helping to visualize all relevant information for a more efficient and successful community response.
As with other tools used to assist during an emergency response, a GIS system will only produce a product as good as the information it’s provided. Therefore, while visualizing things such as flooded intersections or downed power line locations is an advantage of using GIS, keeping the information in the system current is critical to ensuring that advantage is maintained. Integrating a geographic component into the overall emergency operations plan for a community can help to ensure that any status updates to an incident are inputted into the GIS system and, thereby, reflected in any mapping products that are produced.
Adding spatial context to an emergency event, and having the ability to track how the event is changing and affecting the community residents, is a powerful tool for local government in determining how to respond. It also provides a means for information provided from the field to be visually filtered to allow critical information to be easily processed and prioritized. Having a robust GIS system in place to assist with the information management of an emergency event improves the effectiveness of the local government staff and provides a vital tool for sharing critical information across all departments.
One of the biggest challenges for local government is determining funding that will help cover anticipated project costs for a particular budget year. While most of this funding can be covered by a department’s budget, additional sources of money are often needed to cover new projects or programs that come up throughout the year. Federal or state grants can typically serve as a medium for this additional funding and have become a fundamental part of most local government departments. For the City of Des Plaines IL, the Model Communities grant was a recent opportunity to receive funding for implementing city programs aimed at improving the overall health of city residents.
Supported by the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) and the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago, the Model Communities Grant Program provided the city with a unique opportunity to acquire federal funding for the design and implementation of public health initiatives. Funded by a $4 million federal grant called Communities Putting Prevention to Work, the city needed to provide information, through the grant application, on why it would be an eligible candidate for part of the allotted funds.
To assist with this effort, the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) department was asked to supply numerous mapping products and statistics for a wide-range of community information, including all agencies in and around the city that would benefit from the funds, the number of schools in lower income 2000 census block groups, and the percentage of minority residents within 2000 census block groups. Displaying this information through mapping products tied the statistics and numbers in the grant application to a real-world location and helped to visualize the positive impact any received funds would make.
As a result of the hard work put in by city staff members, in combination with the information and products provided from the city’s GIS, the city was recently awarded a $96,000 grant from the Model Communities program. With this money, the city hopes to supplement existing community programs and implement new ones that can help to make the city a healthier place to live.
For many municipalities, paying the electric usage costs for all community owned and maintained facilities can result in a significant annual expense. This cost can be compounded when the various accounts registered to the municipality are incorrectly managed. Recently, the City of Des Plaines began the process of reviewing all the city electric accounts that have been paid over the years and discovered several problems, both in how the accounts were related spatially to actual city facility locations and how many accounts the city was responsible for. To determine the correct spatial relationship of each facility account, the city’s GIS department was asked to assist in developing both a database for storing and managing the account information and a map to assist city staff in tracking each account issue as it was reviewed.
While GIS was not necessary to perform a basic cost analysis of the city’s accounts, adding a spatial element to the account information provided a means to visually track the accounts as they were reviewed. It also allowed those reviewing the information to see the distribution of the types of facilities across the city receiving power as recorded by the power company and allowed staff to cross-check the information for inconsistencies. After mapping out the facility locations and types as indicated in the electric usage accounts, the accounts were field verified for accuracy and all erroneous information, such as unmatched account numbers and incorrect addresses or locations, was removed.
Moving forward, the mapped facility features and their associated attribute tables will be stored in a GIS database to allow for future analysis or map product development as needed. Before the introduction of GIS, this information was disjointed across multiple files and file formats, making it difficult to perform a comprehensive review. By centralizing this information in a spatial platform, the city now has a means to both visualize and review their account information in a way that’s accessible across multiple departments.
Geographic Information System (GIS) have the capacity to perform complex analysis of data to reveal patterns or relationships across a given space. However, the software used to perform these analyses is often thought of only as a tool for generating maps. While creating a visual representation of the data in the form of a map is a major component of GIS, it is not the only way it can be used to assist local governments in completing their everyday tasks. Generating data statistics and other analysis results is also a critical function of a GIS system that can help to consolidate the search for information and reduce the amount of time spent on a project. For the City of Des Plaines these statistics have proven to be a vital asset for everything from gathering basic knowledge of the city systems to compiling reports for various departments.
An example of a primary use for statistics generated by the city’s GIS Department is for the city’s annual report. This report documents various components of the city government, including capital assets, property values, and general operational information. Related to the city’s capital, GIS is able to provide values for assets such as miles of water main, number of fire hydrants, and total street mileage. While this information is not readily apparent on a printed or digital map, by working with the underlying data used to generate those maps, the GIS Department is able to extract vital city information quickly and efficiently. To gather the same capital asset statistics without GIS could potentially take hours of searching through various documents or calling around to several departments to gather the necessary numbers. With GIS, this information is stored in one central location, making it more accessible to city departments and reducing potential redundancy by have information scattered across multiple departments or personnel. By minimizing redundant data sources, project information and reports can be generated faster, thereby improving overall employee efficiency.
GIS software is more than just a tool for generating paper and digital maps for display. Going beyond the visual products it can produce, GIS is dynamic, layered approach to storing spatial information, which is often vital to the day to day operations of local municipalities. By using a robust GIS system, the City of Des Plaines has been able to help maximize employee and project efficiency by providing a centralized location to generate various statistics related to city operations. While a GIS system is not the answer for storing all relevant city information, it does provide a consistent source location for making city projects more efficient.
Seasonal operations planning is a process all municipalities, large and small, must go through as the seasons change throughout the year. Whether it’s ordering salt for the winter months or flowers for the spring plantings, all municipalities are involved with planning out the process by which seasonal services will be executed. For the City of Des Plaines Public Works department, snow removal and street salting have always been two of the primary services included in the winter operation plans. In past years, the various plow and salting routes have, primarily, been determined by the individual truck operators and had little coordination across the department from route to route. To help better coordinate this effort, and to avoid routes overlapping, the department asked the city’s GIS department to assist in creating a series of city-wide maps showing the various routes to help make the overall snow plowing process more efficient.
The Public Works department had two primary goals for developing the city’s snow plow and salting routes in GIS for mapping: 1. To help clearly define each route for the truck operators to avoid route conflicts and to ensure maximum coverage across the city and 2. To get a spatial record of the route areas to allow for an easier transfer of information for substitute or new operators. Before the GIS department was involved in this process, the areas covered by each route were developed by the primary truck operators and were not coordinated by the department administration. Developing a spatial record of the routes provides an administrative tool for better route planning and promotes a more efficient use of the department’s resources.
In addition to providing an administrative advantage for overall planning, the maps create an operational advantage by providing a consistent tool for any truck operator who is not familiar with his assigned route. In addition to city-wide maps used in the office, individual route map books have been provided in each truck to allow an operator to see the individual streets they are responsible for. While a route map did exist for each truck before GIS was involved, the maps were hand-drawn and would take hours to duplicate, provided someone could remember exactly where the route went. Developing the maps in GIS allows for duplication and redundancy with the mapping, resulting in a much easier process for printing off new maps as needed.
By using GIS to assist in the development and mapping of the city’s route information, the Public Works department has improved its winter operations planning efficiency and developed a more stable operational resource for the truck operators. For these reasons, the department has decided to use GIS as its primary medium for maintain this information moving forward.
The safety and maintenance of train gates is an issue all communities with rail lines crossing through their borders must deal with. For many, the image of train gate lights flashing causes feelings of impatience, but, in most cases, the wait for a train only lasts a few minutes or so. However, train gates can malfunction, which can cause significant traffic congestion and train delays. Recently, the City of Des Plaines engineering department decided to analyze train gate malfunction and delayed train information gathered from January 1st- June 30th of 2009 at the city’s thirty-two at-grade train crossings. In doing so, the department wanted to determine if there is a problem with the city’s rail system that requires further investigation.
The source of the information used in this analysis came from calls made to the city’s police department from drivers who were stuck at a malfunctioning gate or were blocked by a delayed train. Once the engineering department had a chance to review the numbers, the analysis was broken down into four categories per gate: the total number of gate malfunctions, total time of the malfunctions, number of trains delayed due to a gate malfunction, and the total time the trains were delayed. Initially, the analysis only involved an examination of the raw numbers provided and was displayed primarily in a series of graphs and tables. However, the results were lacking a comprehensive way to analyze the problem city-wide. To help highlight problem gates found in the data, the engineering department asked the city’s GIS department to assist with the project.
By adding a spatial component to the analysis, gates with more malfunctions or longer train delays could be visually identified across the city. This helped to determine where problem areas are located or which rail lines running through the city have the most gate-related problems. While the numeric data provided by the police department showed that there are problems with some of the city’s gates, it did not show how the data for each gate is relevant compared to other gates in the city. Providing a spatial snapshot of the gate data gave the engineers a tool to see that not only are there a significant number of gate malfunctions and train delays overall, but that the problem extends to almost every gate in the city.
Being able to compare the data visually at a city-wide scale allowed the engineering department to see the potential impact that train gate malfunctions have on several critical traffic-related issues, such as emergency response vehicle delays and daily traffic pattern congestion. Working with both the numeric data and the maps provided by the GIS department, the city engineers can more efficiently develop possible solutions to mitigate the current problems and attempt to address the question of why certain gates are malfunctioning more than others to help reduce future incidents.
Transportation projects can fall under several different categories, from new road construction and pavement resurfacing to bike lane development and railroad crossing re-grading. One common theme among all these project types is the amount of planning that is required to successfully execute each one and minimize the effect each will have on traffic flow in and around the project areas. To assist with this process, the City of Des Plaines engineering department utilized the city’s GIS program to develop numerous transportation data layers and products that allow for a more coordinated departmental approach.
The ways GIS can be applied to a transportation project can vary depending on the content and scope of the work involved. In some cases, the system can be used before a project begins to help plan the overall approach through the use of project area maps, analysis of how different components interact with each other, and data layer development. In other cases, the data or products produced can be developed once a project has began and data has been collected from the field or provided from completed work.
Over the past several months, the engineering department has used GIS in both aforementioned circumstances to implement numerous transportation initiatives. Examples of these initiatives include planning a city bike network, the re-designation of downtown parking spaces, and the development of a city ordinance-based snow route map. The city’s GIS system allowed the department to view necessary information for each of these projects together, spatially, to help make more informed decisions. For example, by viewing the city’s road and controlled intersections data layers together, the department was able to effectively develop a plan for city-wide bike routes that fits with a more regionally planned bike network. Using a geographic approach helped to provide a more comprehensive view of the potential routes, and the impediments along those routes, to help optimize the project plan.
By taking this geographic approach to project management, the City of Des Plaines engineering department has become better prepared to efficiently handle new project requests. By having a spatial inventory of the existing transportation-related features in the city, the department can quickly generate maps to assist with project planning or add new information to the data to display a current problem or situation. While using GIS is not absolutely necessary for transportation project management to be successful, using a geographic approach to share information about a project plan, or the progress of an existing plan, greatly improves coordination and efficiency by providing a medium that can be easily understood by all parties involved. This helps to save time and money that is often spent on developing revised project plans and holding additional meetings to explain a project’s progress.
To help respond to a potential community-wide emergency, most local governments have an emergency response plan in place to assist with the organization and execution of community policies and protocols. As technology has improved over the years, the City of Des Plaines started integrating Geographic Information System (GIS) into a tool for assisting with the management of an emergency event response.
In recent years, the city dealt with two major flooding events that required city departments to respond quickly to the needs of its residents. This included responding during the events by implementing preventative measures to mitigate property damage, and after the events to assist with cleanup and damage assessment. Since each event affected several areas of the city, it was difficult to manage and respond to each area efficiently and to see the extent of the damage using traditional methods of data management. By inputting the collected information into the city’s GIS system, each department was able to see the event spatially and get a total perspective of how the flooding was impacting different areas.
The way GIS was used during and after these events varied depending on the department. Examples of the map products produced include road closure maps, standing-water location maps, damage-assessment zone maps, and sandbag placement maps. While each map was designed based on a specific department request, they were ultimately used to assist departments with communicating information to each other. Providing the collected data spatially provided a universal language that allowed all city employees to understand the specific event being displayed and where it was impacting the city. However, maps were not the only products that were produced. Another critical function the GIS system served was to provide address lists to building inspectors, public works field crews, and police department officials to convey information regarding damaged and flooded homes and city properties. Collectively, these products provided the city with critical resources to help manage the mitigation and cleanup of each flood event.
In addition, to paper mapping products and address lists, the city also used GIS to perform “on the spot” data review of contours, city structures, roads, and other infrastructure features. This was performed using ESRI’s ArcMap and ArcReader software, which allowed departments to interactively view and analyze GIS data as needed. Being able to view this information electronically, and add information to the system as needed, allowed city users to quickly access vital data that assisted in activities such as flood stage analysis and sandbag placement determination.
Including GIS as part of the city’s emergency management strategy has allowed the city to react quickly to emergency events by improving inter-department communication and the ability to review the impact of the event by spatially analyzing the extent of the damage that occurred. This capability provides the city with a powerful tool for responding to an emergency in a way that maximizes its ability to help its residents.
As the environment becomes a focus within local government, issues such as sewage discharge into fresh water rivers and streams becomes a concern. As part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Study (NPDES), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works with the City of Des Plaines to ensure they are taking the necessary steps to regulate and reduce the amount of sewage discharge they produce.
The city’s Public Works department has recently worked on several projects that relate to two major influences of discharge rates, surface water run-off and potential sewage flowrate capacity. As related to surface run-off, the department was interested in providing street sweeping route infomration to the EPA to show that they are actively removing litter and other elements that could wash into nearby water bodies during a storm. To assist with this process, the village contacted the Geographic Information System (GIS) department to create a map that would help to show the extent to which the city is performing this service. By displaying this information spatially on a city-wide scale, the EPA would get a comprehensive view of the department’s efforts to comply with the NPDES program.
To study the sewage flowrate capacity, the GIS department created a basic inventory of the city owned and maintained sanitary system pump stations. The Public Works department performed field checks and marked the locations of each facility on existing maps of the city and then provided these maps to the GIS department for input. Once the information was added to the GIS system, basic maps of the facility locations were created to assist the department in performing an analysis on the city’s ability to move sewage through the sanitary main system. This capability affects the amount of sewage that can potentially be released into surrounding rivers or streams during a major storm event. Viewing these assests on a city-wide scale provides a broad view for both the department and the EPA to see how equiped the city is handle potential overflow problems that could effect sewage discharge rates.
The various aspects of the NPDES program are continually being reviewed and enforced by the EPA. Projects completed in the past will lead to more projects in the future. Using GIS to assist with these projects has provided the city with the ability to view city assests and to perform important analysis that would otherwise be difficult and time-consuming. GIS has helped to improve the ability of all city departments in providing the EPA with critical information that ensures the city is in compliance with efforts to reduce local water pollution.
Allowing multiple users to edit the same database within a Geographic Information System (GIS) system can often be very important to maintaing an efficient and steady workflow. While it’s possible for one database user to make edits and then have another user make additional edits on the same database, this approach can be risky as data can be lost or corrupted. To help avoid this situation the City of Des Plaines implemented a SDE-based approach to managing its sewer utility system that allows for more than one user to perform edits on a set of data with the capability to review the changes to ensure data integrity is maintained.
The event that directed the city to use this approach was the purchase of a sewer televising software that allows for the city’s GIS sewer data to be viewed and edited in the field through an ESRI® mapping interface. While providing the primary sewer utility database to the city’s public works field crews was an option, it was not practical for the city’s utility update workflow. With edits being performed to the sewer system both in the field and in the office, an alternate approach needed to be adopted that would permit edits to be performed in both locations without the risk of data being over-written.
The resulting workflow involved using an SDE method of database managment called a ”check out”. This approach allows for multiple snapshots of the primary database to be created and distributed for editing. These snapshots capture the current state of the data (i.e. spatial location of features, attributes, etc.) so that a user can work with it as if they were working with the primary data source. Using this method, multiple users can make edits using engineering drawing, field-based edits, etc., without having to worry about data the being lost. For the city’s sewer televising project, a ”check out” was created to be used in the televising truck, allowing both the field crews and the office staff to seemlessly continune their workflows.
Once edits are made, the ”check out” database is ”checked in” to the primary database, which copies the changes made in the field database over to the primary database in the office. Without SDE technolgy, performing this action could be risky in terms of maintaing data integrity, but the main advantage of using the SDE-based approach is that edits made by different users to the same data can be compared against each other. This ability to review the data before it is permenantly added to the primary database greatly improves the stability of using a multi-editor approach.
By taking advantage of SDE technolgy to assist with successfully implementing a multi-user sewer utility editing approach, the City of Des Plaines has helped to maximize the usefulness of the televising software and the efficency of its utility editing workflow.
Recent improvements in the manufacturing practices of energy efficient lighting solutions have made “going green” a more viable option for local government. The City of Des Plaines has begun the process of investigating these alternate lighting solutions for their city-owned streetlights to become more environmentally friendly and to provide a cost savings for the city.
The first step in the process of determining the viability of energy efficient lighting is to compare the operating costs to that of the city’s current lighting solutions. While the location of all the city-owned streetlights was plotted in Geographic Information System (GIS) before this project began, no additional data about each light was available. It was determined that this missing information would need to be populated before the Engineering and Public Works departments could perform a cost savings analysis. To assist with this process, the GIS Department divided the city into a grid and created a map for each grid section showing the locations of city-owned streetlights. These maps allowed the Public Works Department to systematically review the city assets and document the necessary attribute information for each light. The completed maps were then returned to the GIS department where the attribute information gathered by the field crews was added to the existing streetlight feature class.
For this project, the most important attribute gathered in the field was the type of bulb being used in each light. Adding this information to the data allowed the Engineering Department to gather not only a general count of each light type, but also to see how they were spatially distributed across the city. The ability to see this distribution provided the Engineering Department with a resource to locate areas where energy use was inefficient and where lights needed to be updated.
Combining the information gathered in the field for city-owned lights with existing information for ComEd lights within the city, the Engineering Department was able to get a rough estimate on the number of each light and its type. By comparing the current operating costs of the existing lights against the costs of replacing each one with an energy efficient alternative, the estimated cost savings for the city is over $200,000 per year. This provided the department with a strong argument to propose an update to more “green” lighting option.
Using GIS to assist in gathering information for this project allowed the city to effectively calculate a significant potential cost savings from implementing energy efficient streetlight solutions. In addition, the city now has a comprehensive, spatial streetlight data layer that can be used for future mapping needs and allows for a more efficient review of the city’s current lighting assets.
In June 2008, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development Department started a webpage on the city’s website called “Great Eats and More”. The idea of the webpage was to highlight various city restaurants and attractions in an effort to help generate additional business, thus accentuating some of the things that set Des Plaines apart from their surrounding communities.
While the list provided on the webpage allows a visitor to see what is available in the city, it alone does not provide a good frame of reference as to where each attraction is physically located. To help enhance the functionality of the webpage, a Google Map feature was introduced to allow users the option of viewing the list spatially in a familiar, user-friendly mapping interface.
To assist with this project, the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department developed a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file that contains geographic and attribute information for the businesses listed on the “Great Eats and More” webpage. KMLs are web files that can be viewed in many online mapping applications and can be developed for numerous geographic feature types. The KML developed for the city consists of point features representing the location of each business.
To customize the Google Map with local city information, an excel spreadsheet of addresses was provided by the Community and Economic Development Department and inputted into the GIS software application. Once spatial features were created for each location, attribute information was then added. This included the address, website, phone number and all other necessary information that a visitor would need to locate or contact each establishment. The attributes included in a KML are what appear on-screen when a location is selected within Google Maps. Keeping the KML updated both spatially and with correct attribute information is critical. As businesses are added and removed from the Great Eats and More listing, the KML is updated to reflect the changes. Furthermore, having the map application current with the webpage listing ensures that visitors can use both options to find a location, which helps to maximize the website’s functionality and usability.
Introducing a Google Maps application to the city’s “Great Eats and More” webpage has helped to enhance the ability of visitors searching for local attractions. Since KML file structures can be used with free mapping websites, this enhancement was also made at no additional cost to the city. By providing this mapping application, the city has added an additional service that helps to make visits to the "Great Eats and More" webpage more user-friendly.
Link: "Great Eats and More" map