With the winter coming to a close shortly, the excessive season of main breaks is almost over. Water main breaks take away from resources and time that could be put into improvement projects. The easiest way to calculate the number of main breaks on a village street or water main line is to simply count each break and add it up; however, this data collection method only will give you the number of main breaks, it doesn’t account for the significance of those breaks to the integrity of the line as a whole.
This new method used in the analysis uses Geographic Information Systems to normalize the number of water main breaks on each segment by taking the number of breaks on a line and comparing that with how short that line is. As you can see in the map, the higher number of main breaks on a segment has a darker shade of blue. If two different water main lines have the same number of breaks in a given year, the water main line that is shorter will have a higher normalization of breaks. Based on this information, the shorter water mains are prone to higher normalization scores. Finding the water mains that have multiple breaks over short distances, will help Public Works and Engineering identify the water mains that need improvement the most. This analysis will save funds, by highlighting to Public Works the main problem areas of the Village’s Water Main Network.
In an effort to continuously investigate real world representations in map products, the Geographic Information System (GIS) staff in Elk Grove Village, IL has identified a few data processing operations that provide more context than your typical map.
When light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data was collected to produce an elevation dataset, point data with elevation classifications remained. Staff quickly realized that this unintended, yet useful, information could be processed further to give a representation of the tree canopy throughout the community. Building level information was utilized to simulate the stories in each building by duplicating the foundation at an offset location. Combining these two representations generated a resource similar to a landscape plan with much more cartographic appeal than your typical GIS map, at no additional software cost, and that could be consumed with existing applications. The amount of detail obtained provides for creation of ever improving map products that appeal and better communicate information to all who use them.
As the Elk Grove Village Geographic Information System (GIS) was developing their address data it was necessary to gather information from various resources from inside and outside The Village. Many departments had resources with resident and business contact information which result from various existing billing, permit, and inspection procedures such as utility billing, fire inspections, and business licenses. It became apparent that combined together these resources could be extremely useful for village staff and they could be consolidated knowing all records were organized by address information.
After meeting with data administrators in each department, GIS staff charted what information is collected and when. The GIS and IT staff then collaborated to make information from all of the in-house datasets available to staff via their interactive mapping program. This tool now consists of almost a dozen sources that are often updated independently ensuring currency of the information and is used extensively by staff because it has given them the ability to lookup and verify contacts in ways that are extremely rapid compared to those available to them before.
Removal of Ash trees has begun in Elk Grove Village, IL to combat Emerald Ash Borer infestation. An inventory of Ash trees in The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) has been instrumental in planning removal efforts and is now being used to assist planting of new trees. Mapping the new tree plantings has made it possible to communicate watering and observation duties to be sure staff is doing what they can to ensure the survival of the new trees. Tracking removal locations where a replacement tree is desired in coming years will be much easier to manage using the GIS as well since the history of tree removal locations will always be available and the expectation that tree removals will exceed plantings for some time due to the Ash Borer threat and budgeting requirements.
Removal of Ash trees has begun in Elk Grove Village, IL to combat Emerald Ash Borer infestation. An inventory of Ash trees in The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) has been instrumental in planning removal efforts and is now being used to assist planting of new trees. Mapping the new tree plantings has made it possible to communicate watering and observation duties to be sure staff is doing what they can to ensure the survival of the new trees. Tracking removal locations where a replacement tree is desired in coming years will be much easier to manage using the GIS as well since the history of tree removal locations will always be available and the expectation that tree removals will exceed plantings for some time due to the Ash Borer threat and budgeting requirements.
For years Elk Grove Village has been maintaining a database to track roadway pavement history and ratings. With their Geographic Information System (GIS) they have been able to integrate the database information into a geographic representation on their roadways which allows for maps to be generated showing the results of a query for specific surface material, base material, maintenance frequency, etc. Using the flexibility of their interactive mapping program the GIS staff has made the pavement history available to all staff. Simply clicking on any road segment will list the years in which maintenance was performed and specifics about each maintenance activity saving staff time to gather the desired information.
Like any community, Elk Grove Village, IL has its share of apartment, condominium, townhouse, and assisted living complexes. At times village inspectors may identify property maintenance issues at such locations which need to be addressed. The Village has mapped these association areas and their related contact information in its Geographic Information System (GIS) providing a quick resource for staff when dealing with issues that pertain to common areas. In many cases the association contact information is available in a community’s water billing database or something similar, but most staff do not have access to those records so the GIS map has been quite useful for all staff to easily obtain the association contact and phone number allowing them to resolve the issues at hand quickly.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was utilized while reviewing the On Street Solicitation section of The Village Code of the Village of Elk Grove Village to determine which lighted intersections throughout the community permitted on street solicitation. Based on the current specifications of The Code it was determined that there is only one intersection where this is permitted. Having a map highlighting not only the permissible solicitation location, but also other factors that affect the permissible locations such as zoning and lighted intersections gives Administrative staff a clear picture of the situation at hand and a resource for Police staff to enforce the regulation. GIS is a tool for them to consider all of the factors pertaining to on street solicitation and decide if revisions need to be made to their policy.
Now that Elk Grove Village, IL has a Geographic Information System (GIS) they can quickly perform a verification of potential sex offender residences. Every so often the Police Department will receive a request for residency by a registered sex offender and the staff is required to determine if the property meets the sex offender residence restrictions of the State of Illinois. Sex offenders are restricted from living five hundred feet from schools, parks, and day cares for example. The location between the inquired property and distances from these facilities can be analyzed quite easily because of the analysis capabilities within the geographic nature of the GIS and the fact that property information is the base of the system. Maps can be produced as well when residency is approved or denied as supporting documentation of the evaluation that was performed.
It was recently realized by the Elk Grove Village, IL GIS staff that most, if not all, of the land division information related to properties was being provided them by their data sharing agreement with Cook County. The data represents all of the components a piece of land is described by in a legal description and includes the Township, Range, Section, Quarter Section, Subdivision, Block, Parcel, and Lot. All of this information was combined in The Village’s interactive GIS map so that staff can have quick access to this information when faced with future land divisions and/or inquiries without an address to identify the location.
Elk Grove Village Public Works has inventoried their crosswalk locations using their Geographic Information System (GIS) to assist maintenance and tracking of the walks. Knowing all locations has benefited the department because the data provides support information for map products, road reconstruction projects, pedestrian safety studies, and maybe most importantly maintenance. There are now quite a few different types of crosswalks in The Village including striped, brick, and painted concrete. Through the GIS, staff can assess when these walkways were last maintained and schedule upkeep based on a combination of the type of walk, proximity to schools, and the maintenance frequency specific to that type of surface. Also by referencing the GIS they can be certain none of the locations are missed if an assessment needs to be made of the status of the walks.
In 2011 the Elk Grove Village GIS (Geographic Information System) and Clerk’s Office staff began a project to inventory variances for each property that have been approved throughout the village. A variance is an approved deviation from the municipal land use or building codes.
Existing variances were pooled from spreadsheets maintained by the Clerk’s Office and a document management system. The information was made available to village staff in an interactive map and the variances were split for display purposes between those that applied to land use and those that applied to the building code. Consequently some easement information had to be modified where easement variances existed as well.
Having this information organized in a way that staff can quickly determine if any exceptions have been allowed for a property has been well received and quite useful for staff.
In 2009 Elk Grove Village Police Department began an evaluation of police beats and staffing by mapping and calculating statistics of calls for service using it’s Geographic Information System (GIS). To continue the assessment in 2010 the GIS was used to map all roadways in town and produce an estimated time for a unit to patrol each police beat. The single lane mileage together with speed limit along each roadway was enough information to calculate the patrol times. Combining the 2009 and 2010 evaluations the Police Department has a much clearer picture of the demands for each beat and the amount of staffing that is needed to meet various levels of service for the residents.
A growing desire for access to information and computer programs while performing tasks out in the field has Elk Grove Village planning to implement a wireless network. Inspectors, police, and fire staff would immediately benefit from such a resource to access systems that are constantly changing while they are out of the office or could be updated more quickly from what they are experiencing and working on in the field. The Geographic Information System (GIS) has been providing maps to highlight existing village facilities where network equipment can reside and the extent of the community that would be covered if access points were installed at various locations. The most efficient locations will be realized from these maps for the desired wireless coverage that is determined.
Elk Grove Village Public Works recently initiated an inventory project for village owned trees, generally being all trees located within medians and parkways. Using their GPS equipment and seasonal labor the trees are located and their condition, size, and other useful information related to management of the trees are documented. The village GIS (Geographic Information System) is being used to process the GPS data, track the data collection progress, and evaluate the amount and location of trees in poor condition. The initial goal is to replace ash trees in poor condition with other, healthy trees of another species. Having an inventory of the ash trees will allow for rapid and effective management of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), an invasive species, if discovered in the village. Other objectives that will derive from this information are removing stumps, replacing trees in poor condition, placement of new plantings, and realizing areas that may require more frequent trimming due to the proximity of power lines.
A recent addition to the Elk Grove Village, IL interactive mapping application, MapOffice™, is the Business Intelligence mapping service. Business Intelligence is a tool that is configured with community databases such as permits, work orders, and police incidents giving the map user the ability to dynamically map records in those databases usually by a category and/or date range.
Currently the MapOffice™ - Business Intelligence in Elk Grove is configured with their street light work orders, animal license, and business license data. Using this tool Public Works employees can quickly display the street lights that have had an issue in the past week, month, or custom timeframe. Similarly Police staff can plot all of the day care businesses when dealing with sex offender relocations.
Additional resources are being planned to configure with Business Intelligence including traffic incidents and water main breaks. The power of this tool is the ease of information access it provides to village staff whose decision making processes benefit greatly from supporting information from sources throughout the village, often housed in other departments.
An annual water system maintenance procedure for Elk Grove Village Public Works staff is to service any fire hydrants that do not self-drain. A fire hydrant that has been used at any time during the year, if working properly, will drain the water automatically as designed so the water will not freeze inside the hydrant making it unusable. During the cold winter months when temperatures are below freezing village staff will drain or pump fire hydrants that did not drain properly.
Because the maintenance records identified which hydrants had to be serviced Public Works staff was able to plot the locations of the troublesome hydrants using available GIS (Geographic Information System) resources. Displaying that information on a map gives an overview of the maintenance performed and allows for additional statistics, tracking, and replacement planning over time to be sure these hydrants do not disrupt fire response services.
A recent objective in Elk Grove Village has been to map easement information. Easements are a land management resource for many departments as they depict areas where utilities may exist, areas that have been dedicated for future infrastructure and where municipal vehicles have access on private property.
Easements can also be granted for infrastructure improvements for example or property owners may petition for a variance to an existing easement on their property. An example of this would be a variance to build a shed that would encroach, or overlap, a few feet into an easement. Variances have become another mapping objective because of these circumstances and will be covered in a later article.
The Village GIS (Geographic Information System) makes available an interactive mapping program called MapOffice™. This provides the perfect interface for village staff to visualize where these easements exist, how large they are, and how they already are or could be used. The tracking of easements and the Village owned infrastructure (assets) is an important component to Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).
With the recent historical snowfall event, 22” over a 16 hour timeframe, it became a safety issue for Elk Grove Village Firefighters to know the location of their fire hydrants and have access to them. Many fire hydrants had been completely covered by snow because of the amount of snow and plowing efforts from the village, counties, and state.
To assist their fire response the GIS (Geographic Information System) Department provided each fire station a hard and soft copy map showing the location of the hydrants in their district. As time allowed, fire personnel then focused on uncovering and clearing snow away from fire hydrants located at the corners of each block where they were most likely to have been completely covered by snow pushed off of the roadways.
Roadway improvements have been recorded for decades in one of Elk Grove Village’s community databases. It contains much useful information such as the base and surface materials of a roadway, years in which a road was repaved, and years in which a road received some form of maintenance. This data has been integrated into the village’s GIS (Geographic Information System) to provide an interface to visualize the roadway pavement history.
The GIS allows users easy access to pavement information that can facilitate planning and scheduling of improvement projects as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of certain materials when looking at the road condition assessments. Highly accurate construction quantities can be calculated for roadway surface areas, sidewalk squares, curb lengths, and more because the village invested in base data for the GIS.
Land annexed into Elk Grove Village had been on display as a map in the Village Clerk’s Office for some time. This map served as a reference for village staff when receiving inquiries about unincorporated properties. Clerical staff realized the new GIS (Geographic Information System) program provided an opportunity to update the product.
The existing annexation information provided by the map was converted by the GIS staff into digital format and thorough investigation took place to resolve some overlaps, gaps, and missing annexations. When completed a new hard copy map was provided to the Clerk’s Office for display and an electronic PDF image was created as a reference for village staff and the public.
A monthly process for Elk Grove Village is to identify the location and trends of foreclosures within its municipality. A subscription to RealtyTrac provides the desired information which is downloaded over the internet. The foreclosure information is provided to the GIS (Geographic Information System) staff where it is plotted on a map. The quantity of foreclosures is tallied in a line graph to realize trending as well.
These foreclosure products are useful for many departments as they direct staff attention to the locations or areas that may have maintenance issues, or be subject to crime or property damage. Police, health and community development staff have an opportunity to mitigate these occurrences because they are informed.
A contour line is a representation of equal points of elevation. Contour lines are displayed successively in a contour map to display the change in elevation over an area. The interval between lines defines the resolution of the elevation data.
Elk Grove Village recently developed a one foot contour dataset from LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data collection to improve upon a two foot contour provided by Cook County. Other datasets can be derived from this elevation information such as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) or Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and is simply another way to simulate the real world lay of the land. These elevation representations become very powerful decision support tools when overlaid with other infrastructure such as storm sewers in a GIS (Geographic Information System).
Elk Grove Village has recently purchased a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit to support data collection for its GIS (Geographic Information System). GPS data collection utilizes the GPS satellites in orbit around the Earth to calculate the x,y location of the GPS receiver as well as the time and elevation to a certain degree.
GPS is traditionally used to collect the location of infrastructure such as manholes, signs, fire hydrants, etc. After the data is collected it is downloaded, corrected, and then integrated into the GIS. The correction process involves an automated mathematical adjustment of the data according to records captured by nearby stationary monitoring stations.
Village staff will use this equipment annually to capture infrastructure from new construction projects and to initiate new projects which require intense data collection such as a parkway tree inventory or sign inventory. An added benefit of this device is that it can be used to locate facilities that may have been buried over time or that are covered by snow in the winter.
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technique where laser pulses are directed toward the earth and the time it takes for the impulse to return provides elevation information as well as some characteristics of the surface below. The village has just received LiDAR data from a private contract and a less dense and unclassified dataset from Cook County as part of the annual GIS Consortium data request.
A one foot contour dataset for the entire village was created from this point information which was the main objective to acquire LiDAR. However additional uses are being discovered of this information as well such as developing a tree canopy and other elevated infrastructure, supporting 3D mapping, and initiating a tree inventory, all of which were not available products of the former data capture procedure. Best of all, LiDAR is less expensive than the former elevation data collection techniques.
The Tour of Elk Grove is an annual international bike race that takes place the first weekend in August. There are many components to the event including the races, block parties, a kids’ fest and more. Village staff are therefore highly involved in planning, setup, and management of the event.
GIS (Geographic Information System) services are utilized to coordinate these organization efforts with multiple maps. Map images are created to depict not only the race routes but also the layout of the block party area, emergency support stations, restroom locations, traffic control areas, and planning for detours, signage, and road closures. Address lists have also been generated to notify residents of limited vehicle access during the upcoming event. The support of GIS for this event has facilitated coordination for all involved and the information captured and managed through those services continues to grow every year.
Coordination between the Elk Grove Village Public Works and GIS Departments recently has enabled integration of televised sewer records into the GIS system. The initial objective of this effort was to be able to show where televising has taken place and link, or access, the corresponding videos by clicking on the sewer mains in a dynamic map. An added benefit was realized during the integration process in that all comments noted during the televising process such as the location of service lines or where cracks exist in the pipes could be mapped and/or queried.
Roughly a decade of sewer televising efforts was provided for this process which represents a significant portion of the community. Having so much information now connected to a mapping platform will allow the Public Works staff to evaluate their sewer infrastructure and more effectively plan improvements and maintenance. The GIS staff will also be able to use much of this information in efforts to build more detail into the sewer system such as mapping service lines.
A recent initiative for the Elk Grove Village Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of police beat and sub beat information including coordination with the Northwest Central Dispatch Center who manages the Village’s emergency calls.
A desire of the Elk Grove Village Police Department is to better understand the dynamics of workload throughout the village and if certain areas could benefit from increased or an adjustment of patrol units. To realize the demand of the beats and sub beats the GIS was used to calculate statistics for 2008 and 2009 calls for service. Summarizing statistics by beat which as of now are generally defined by certain zoning types allows for an understanding of overall police activity. Further analysis by time of day showed which shifts are the busiest as well.
This information will provide a decision support tool as a restructure of beats is considered and can begin without interruption to dispatch services by testing dispatch changes along existing beat boundaries. Additional investigation of the data may suggest that patterns exist at even smaller time ranges which would suggest a shift of patrol at certain times of day or that certain types of incidents occur more often in some areas and result in a longer period of time at those types of calls.
After making use of these types of analysis it will be determined which are the most influential factors to determine patrol needs and can continue to be performed over time to validate trends and truly understand the policing demands.
The Elk Grove Village GIS (Geographic Information System) recently assisted an evaluation of outstanding tickets which to date has recovered tens of thousands of dollars for the village.
The address matching or “geocoding” process provided through the GIS and its address inventory allowed all unpaid tickets to be summarized by address eliminating data entry errors typically seen in the street name of the address. This summary provided a tally of fees to be sent out in one mailing to offenders who in some cases had hundreds or even thousands of dollars in outstanding fines. This action was not cost effective for the village until the GIS options noted above were available.
The results of this assessment will be evaluated against payments received allowing for further action for those avoiding the notice and/or repeat offenders. The village also has an option to pursue nonresident tickets that are outstanding to provide additional gains.
The recent collection of planimetric data or improved features such as buildings, roadways, parking lots, driveways, etc. in Elk Grove Village has provided for some new analysis possibilities through its GIS (Geographic Information System). One of the evaluations conducted was the distance between primary building structures and also a count of the number of addresses that exist within each building structure.
The results of this assessment will be shared with the village’s Fire Department and used to update such information in their database that inventories the businesses throughout the community. There is additional potential for use in dispatch to residential buildings for example that are not currently tracked to understand the number of families affected in a multiunit event or to realize the close proximity of adjacent homes on all sides of a building in the event of a house fire.
At the heart of Geographic Information System (GIS) is the organization and storing of data. Typically the data is a geographic representation of a real world feature as well as a database containing fields of information describing that feature. GIS however does allow for an additional level of visualization besides analyzing the existing data within the system and that is the ability to link to existing resources that reside outside the GIS.
This technology called hyperlinking allows images, videos, and virtually any other electronic resource to be opened by simply inquiring further on a specific feature in the GIS. All that is required to achieve this functionality is the data entry of the location of the desired resource. If the existing documents have been named and organized effectively, the data entry process can be eliminated by associating the document names to information in the geographic feature’s attributes. An example of this would be matching flooding photos at a specific address to a property in the GIS for which address information already exists e.g. 1000 Cypress Ln linked to \\2008FloodPhotos\1000CypressLn.jpeg.
Linking has successfully been initiated with the Elk Grove Village Public Works department water service images. Other potential uses for hyperlinking in the GIS include opening scanned subdivision plats, a website on the internet, or televised sewer videos.
The benefit of initiating these links is that the user becomes empowered with as much information as is available in a quick and easy interaction from a central resource. Time is saved because you can gather information from a location perspective and no longer have to remember which drive and in which folder that resource was placed. In some cases users are provided extremely useful information through the links that they otherwise would not even known existed because it was created by another coworker or existed in another department.
Roadway improvements have been recorded for decades in one of Elk Grove Village’s community databases. It contains much useful information such as the base and surface materials of a roadway, years in which a road was repaved, and years in which a road received some form of maintenance. This data has been integrated into the village’s GIS (Geographic Information System) to provide an interface to visualize the roadway pavement history. The GIS allows users easy access to pavement information that can facilitate planning and scheduling of improvement projects as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of certain materials when looking at the road condition assessments. Highly accurate construction quantities can be calculated for roadway surface areas, sidewalk squares, curb lengths, and more because the village invested in base data for the GIS.
The Elk Grove Village Finance Department recently took advantage of GIS (Geographic Information System) in an effort to assess were village stickers had not been purchased nor renewed. Village stickers are required for all registered or housed vehicles in the village and a new sticker is required every year. Sticker fees range from $20 to $145 depending on the type of vehicle and reduced rates are provided for certain demographics.
Initially a review of purchases in the previous year was performed in the GIS to identify businesses that did not renew their stickers. Next all residential addresses were compared against those that did purchase a 2009 sticker. This allowed for creation of a map of addresses where stickers were not purchased as well as a spreadsheet of those locations from which a mailing could be sent to remind those individuals and potentially to focus ticketing efforts at those locations. Citation enforcement begins June 1st and would result in not only the tickets, but an increase in cost for the sticker for late purchase. The village web page concerning village stickers is available here or under the Finance Department tab accessed through the ‘Village Government Information’ link on the www.elkgrove.org home page.
Considering both citation and late purchase fees a modest estimate of generated revenue to the village resulting from these efforts would be thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. This use of GIS is a prime example of the decision support capabilities of the technology as it directs the efforts and attention of this village program.
The Elk Grove Village Fire Department has had Fire Map Books as a resource for many years to assist with dispatch to emergency response events. These map books display roadways and list the location of each street allowing for quick lookup of the general vicinity and routing for a service call. Over the years these maps has degraded in quality so the Geographic Information System (GIS) was leveraged to recreate these map products.
One of the fundamental functions of the GIS software is the ability to make maps and the fact that much of the needed information had already been mapped in the system made GIS a natural fit for reproducing this product. The main task would be creating the grid information to provide the same type of quick lookup of a location and the production of a new map look.
A benefit of using the GIS was that it provided for the addition of other related information into the maps such as address ranges and fire hydrant locations which were not a part of the former map books. Other advantages of making these products with the GIS were that the layers of information and the map look can be updated at any point. Therefore an update would only require the updates to be made in the GIS office, a new print of the page, and replacement of the former map page. Because the system produces electronic products all of the pages are available as images and can be distributed via e-mail to outside agencies or communities if necessary.
The grid layers formulated for this project were also able to be incorporated into the dispatch information that is provided by Northwest Central Dispatch. So now included with the dispatch information will be a reference to the page and grid number of the incident location in their map books.
Planimetric data are geographic features captured during a photogrammetric (airplane fight) mapping process that are flat and without elevation information to depict the terrain. Such features include bridges, roadways, building footprints, bodies of water, and railroad lines. Photogrammetry is the most cost-effective method for producing this type of mapping information for large areas and these features typically represent the base data in a map.
As a member of the GIS Consortium Elk Grove Village participates in an annual data collection process which allows them to obtain such planimetric data. An advantage for the community is that they receive cost savings being a part of such a large group contracting these services. The current service provider for photogrammetric mapping is Ayres and Associates of Madison, WI. There is a processing and review procedure for the data to be sure it meets the accuracy standards that have been established by the GIS Consortium. Generally, all planimetric features will be within 1.67’ of their actual field location if collected under the traditional Consortium standards. On occasion the data collection has had to deviate from those standards due to circumstances outside of the village’s control. Elk Grove Village unfortunately falls into this category due to its proximity to O’Hare International Airport and the flight restrictions they have over and around the village.
In the spring of 2009 data was collected for Elk Grove Village and planimetric features for the entire community were delivered, reviewed, and integrated into the GIS (Geographic Information System) in the fall. You may have noticed this new data in the MapOffice™ interactive mapping application http://www.mgpinc.com/MapOffice™/. The alternate flight height that was available provided for these features to be within 3.33’ of their actual location which was acceptable and there was an additional cost savings because this was a less accurate product compared to the traditional data collection standards.
As mentioned above, this data is usually used to compose a map presentation, but also provides for impervious surface estimations, GASB34 statistics, routing, cost estimates for replacement or removal of infrastructure, and preliminary design or planning.
All Elk Grove Village police incidents are reported and captured in a database where they can be managed over time. The introduction of GIS in the village has provided the police department an opportunity to enhance their perception and understanding of the distribution of incidents by visually placing them on a map.
Since November of 2008, the police department has provided a monthly report of various incidents that have occurred. An address or street intersection is used to locate each reported event. Incidents being mapped include motor vehicle burglaries, residential burglaries, juvenile nuisance, criminal damage to property, thefts, stolen vehicles, traffic crashes, and hit and runs.
While viewing these map products it becomes apparent where incidents are being repeated. Geographic analysis allows for consideration of adjacent facilities, institutions, and natural features such as parks and schools that may influence these activities. Displaying this information by police beat provides additional evaluation of how active each area is and if personnel need to be distributed differently throughout those beats. The report information includes the time of the incident which could also provide insight into which areas may benefit from patrol at certain times of the day.
A chart is also developed to track the quantity of incidents over time. The chart is updated and provided every month and shows trends in the number of incidents that have occurred. Reviewing this chart provides an additional resource to consider the other factors that contribute to the police incidents. For example, the relationship between car accidents and the winter weather season or the correlation between juvenile nuisance and summer vacation from school can be inferred because those circumstances are limited to a certain part of the year. Over time, this chart could potentially provide a measure of police performance if incidents are being mitigated more effectively.
Recently a half year evaluation was conducted by compiling the data for the first six months of the year. The resulting products highlight the locations that are seeing repeated incidents and may validate a need for increased police presence.
As previously mentioned, these products have just begun to provide for increased understanding of these events and the use of GIS will continue to support the Elk Grove Village Police Department by providing decision support tools and analysis materials.
The Insurance Services Organization (ISO) is an advisory organization that evaluates risk with the objective to help their customers measure, manage, and reduce risk. In a government setting, ISO will gather information that is often used in insurance underwriting. Therefore they will evaluate how well a municipality manages and mitigates risk and those factors directly affect residents and their insurance premiums.
Fire department staff in Elk Grove Village were aware of an ISO inspection that would be taking place in the near future and chose to utilize Geographic Information System (GIS) resources to communicate the municipal services that are provided and managed to ISO. The Public Protection Classification (PPC) program, a fire protection analysis, and their Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) would be used by ISO in this case to assign a rating for the community on a scale of 1 to 10, with Class 1 providing the best fire protection.
GIS was first leveraged to identify the water system including water main location and diameter, and hydrant locations and their unique identification numbers. Hydrant flow test information was then incorporated into the hydrant GIS layer from an existing spreadsheet that is maintained by the fire department. GIS analysis was performed to determine a series of response areas based on varying criteria. One example is a 1.5 mile response area from each fire station which easily shows areas that are within that distance from a fire station. Similar response areas were determined from the fire stations considering a time factor rather than distance.
This information was distributed in multiple formats to meet the needs of the fire department personnel. The map images were placed at a shared location where fire staff could view and/or print them. The data was also made available in an ArcReader (PMF) Project. ArcReader is a free product that allows fire staff the opportunity to view an interactive map of the community along with all of the specific ISO inspection data they requested.
Much more fire information is being incorporated into the GIS and electronic format to provide locational information that allows for quick modification to existing projects and products and the creation of new ones which, as discussed here, can significantly impact and assist a department.
Information captured in a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be distributed in many different ways including, but not limited to, hard copy map prints, electronic image files, Google EarthTM and as an ArcReaderTM (PMF) project. Of these methods of distribution, ArcReaderTM has been found to work quite well in Elk Grove Village.
ArcReader is a free data viewing application provided by ESRI, the leading GIS software development and services provider. This software allows for the development of customized interactive maps by the community’s GIS Department that provide for map viewing, printing and querying of GIS data. ArcReaderTM can be downloaded from the ESRI website at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcreader/download.html.
So far, ArcReader Projects have been created for the 2009 Alexian Brothers Bike Race, the Public Works Department, the Clerks Office and most recently the Fire Department. Each ArcReader project contains basic community information like addresses, street names, parcels, water features and roadways as well as more specific information pertaining to the specific event or department. Some examples of how ArcReader projects have been used within Elk Grove Village are as follows:
- The Bike Race ArcReader project provides a shared resource of information for all geographical locations pertaining to the race event and will continue to evolve as more information is mapped.
- The Public Works ArcReaderTM project provides information for utilities throughout the village as well as department specific information that has been mapped such as snow plow routes and tree trimming areas.
- The Clerks ArcReaderTM project includes the zoning, subdivision and annexation layers.
- The Fire Department ArcReader project incorporates fire districts, automatic aide areas, response analysis layers, geographical information for the trails, groves, and water depths and hydrant flow information.
Deploying geographic information in this way has provided for a common location for related information and the ability to view where these events, infrastructure, services and regulations exist throughout the community. Once the data is mapped in the GIS it can continue to expand in accuracy of geographic representation and by capturing additional attribute information. Often, analysis is requested after realizing the relationships that exists between all of this information and the results can bring a significant benefit to a staff, department or the entire community.
One of the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) developments in Elk Grove Village has been the creation of a community Zoning Map and Street Map. It was requested that the village be provided with a color map depicting the zoning boundaries as well as the proper zoning classification. While the zonig map is driven by the local community the street map is more of a GIS Consortium (GISC) standard map product that is suggested as soon as a community joins the consortium. The street map provides a good basis for future mapping products in that much of the fundamental community information is present. These maps have been completed by incorporating many layers of information that have been formulated since the inception of the program.
As mentioned previously, the zoning map requires the creation of zoning boundaries with their respective zoning types listed usually done by displaying these districts in the form of a proper color scheme. The former black and white zoning map was referenced to be sure that all of the previous map elements were incorporated such as the street name index, revision list, legend and effective date. The street map incorporates important places, recreation areas and trails throughout the community. Not to be overlooked, the street name index can be very useful for an individual who is not familiar with the village. Considering this, the index has been expanded to include the grid number of the important places and recreation areas providing map users with a reference for quickly looking a specific place of interest.
Other than the layout of the map itself, the data used in both maps helps to give them a consistant look and includes the street names, roadways, neighboring communities and grid. Rather than having these maps made at separate times during the fiscal year these two maps are created at the same time making it easier to consider what message each map communicates as well as the similarities that would persist between the maps.
There have been a number of map reviews resulting in the final products. These maps are currently being distributed throughout the village and can be provided as either a hard copy that is printed at almost any size desired or electronically in an image format such as a PDF that is viewable with Adobe Reader. All data layers within the map have been stored in geographic databases that allow for continued use, modification and additions. The map layout has also saved so that it is available for future map production which allows for the underlying data features within the existing map to be updated while the layout of the existing map remains the same.
In conclusion, it is important to note that knowing where you are in town or what zoning district a property falls under are questions that are asked everyday. Moreover, by having the essential tools such as accurate maps to answer these questions the efficiency of the village staff’s daily workflow can be enhanced greatly.