The Consortium is pleased to announce the membership of the Village of Northbrook. The Village has a long history when it comes to using GIS. Two of the reasons cited by the Village for joining was to create a GIS program that was centralized within the organizations along with one that supports the needs of their residents. The Consortium congratulates its 22nd member and is excited to get started.
We are very pleased to announce our newest GIS Consortium member, the Village of Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Buffalo Grove becomes the 21st member of the GIS Consortium and the 7th Lake County community. The program was kicked off last week and we want to welcome the entire Village of Buffalo Grove staff to the GIS Consortium.
We are pleased to announce the joining of the Village of Woodridge as the 20th member of the GIS Consortium. The Village approved membership at their December 13th Village Board meeting. We are excited about adding a new member and are looking forward to the beginning of another collaborative partnership.
We are pleased to announce that the Village of Mundelein has become the 19th member of the GIS Consortium. With their membership the GIS Consortium has grown to over half a million in population covering over one-hundred and fifty square miles. As the Consortium continues to grow the buying power and efficiency of our membership increases as the costs of staffing, hardware and software are further distributed. We would like to welcome Mundelein and look forward to an exciting and collaborative partnership.
We contributed an article on page five of the Illinois City/County Managers Association (ILCMA) June 2012 newsletter. The article discusses innovations in GIS systems. It also discusseses how economic challenges are changing the way GIS is being implmented. While not specifically about the GIS Consortium the article does rely heavily on trends in GIS and technology we have been working on over the past several years. The full article is available on the ILCMA website.
http://www.ilcma.org/archives/48/June%202012.pdf
Two new enhancements have been made to MapOffice™ this month. They include combination view and auto complete for find and go. Combination view provides the ability to see the standard GISC map side by side with both Google Street View and Microsoft Bird's Eye View. Clicking any of the maps will update the corresponding maps. The combination of the three views in a single image provides new opportunities and efficiencies for field verification. The enhancement to the find and go will provide the user with suggestions for possible address matches. The intent is to make the search function more user friendly and increase its accuracy. Both of these new enhancements are available in MapOffice™ Public and MapOffice™ Advanced.
This month’s update includes the debut of some much anticipated enhancements to MapOffice™. Enhanced search options were added in both MapOffice™ Advanced and Public. This enhancement offers the ability to search for an address including its unit (e.g. #, Suite, -, Apt, Unit) or search for familiar landmarks without knowing an exact address (e.g. police, fire, library, park). In addition to this enhancement new reports were added to the existing community statistics tool. They provide the ability to export results to a spreadsheet as well as five new custom queries related to garbage pickup, fire hydrants, and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts. The community statistics is available only in MapOffice™ Advanced users.
The newest GIS Consortium product MapOffice™ Web Access was rolled out on Febuary 22nd. This application builds on the advanced version of MapOffice™ currently being hosted on community member's local network. By centrally hosting this application on the Internet, the GIS Consortium can now provide greater opportunity for cost sharing and support for mobile users within a controlled and secured environment.
Two months after joining the GIS Consortium (GISC), Tinley Park has deployed MapOffice™ to its citizens and internal staff. MapOffice™ places important local government information on the internet making it accessible to the public. It also empowers internal staff by making a wide variety of GIS information available on demand at all of the Village's workstations.
MapOffice™ is designed with local government in mind. It organizes GIS data into tools and tasks that support typical business processes. The public version makes accurate information easily accessible, which translates to cost efficiency by reducing phone calls to department staff for routine information. In turn, this frees up staff resources to answer more complex questions. In addition to this, the internal version has advanced functionality that provides an easy way to view sensitive utility and public safety data.
We are pleased to announce that the Village of Tinley Park has joined the GIS Consortium. The Village becomes the 18th member of the Consortium and our first in the Chicago South Suburbs. We would like to welcome Tinley Park to the GIS Consortium and look forward to an exciting and collaborative partnership.
On June 21st, a powerful storm with wind gusts as high as 81 mph swept through Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. The severe weather prompted tornado warnings, stopped air and train travel, and caused extensive tree damage along with widespread power outages. Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) estimated that almost a quarter of a million customers lost power. Another equally violent storm struck the area again on July 11th. The severe winds and heavy rains left more than 700,000 ComEd customers without power. GIS played a large role in the response to these events. Here are several examples from GISC member communities:
- Village of Elk Grove Village: Tree collection zones were displayed in MapOffice™ Advanced to assist in the coordination of tree, limb and leaf pickup and disposal.
- Village of Morton Grove: Downed trees were photographed and inventoried to get a big picture of how the storms affected the Village.
- City of Des Plaines: A series of maps was created to show blocked streets, downed traffic signals and power lines, and damaged properties. Large, wall-sized versions of these maps were printed and hung in the Emergency Operations Center to be used during status meetings that occurred throughout the day with all the City department heads. Smaller versions of these maps were created and placed on the internal network for reference. These smaller maps will also be included in an after-action report being compiled by the Emergency Management Agency to help illustrate the storm response actions taken by each department.
- Village of Winnetka: The Village maintains its own electric system, so existing electric circuit maps were used by village crews and provided to crews from other municipalities to assist with reporting power outages. According to the Director of the Water and Electric Department, the circuit maps were invaluable to the success of the crews restoring power as quickly as they did. This was especially true for the crews that were unfamiliar with Village streets and electric circuit alignments.
GIS data, mapping and staff are critical to every phase of emergency management, from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery efforts. Contact your local GIS Specialist to assure that your community is fully leveraging its GIS when unexpected events occur.
Last year the GIS Consoritum (GISC) conducted a survey of the member Fire Departments. Among the topics was the use of wireless in the field along with the type of records management systems used. The goal was to set the vision for future MapOffice™ Advanced development to assure its continued support of Public Safety. The results from the survey reinforce the notion that more and more local governments are turning to technology to improve the efficiency of business processes. More than half (63%) of Fire Departments covering GISC communities have wireless in the field right now with an additional 3 communities providing wireless in the field within the next two years. That said by 2013, 80% of GISC members will have access to MapOffice™ Advanced in the field to use for emergency response.
As a result of the survey the GISC will be researching:
- Providing Mobile Data Viewer (MDV™) functionality in MapOffice™ Advanced
- Within two (2) years, more than 80% of departments will be supporting wireless in the field
- Integrating Firehouse in MapOffice™ Advanced
- Since Firehouse™ is the predominately used software (75%) for pre-plan and records management, integration with MapOffice™ Advanced is critical.
- Establishing MapOffice™ Advanced functionality if wireless connection is not available/down Based on the consortium-wide push towards wireless, having a backup version of MapOffice™ Advanced available when wireless is down will be essential.
The GISC appreciates the time that the Fire Departments took out of their busy schedules to answer this survey.
GIS Specialists Erik Voight, Jason Sphar and Mike Falkofske of MGP Inc. along with former City of Des Plaines Economic Development Coordinator Jennifer Ganser recently published an article regarding local government and information transparency in the February 2011 edition.
Erik and Jennifer outlined the benefits of providing business vacancy information in Google Maps. The authors find that providing this information has reduced the time business space stays vacant and ultimately increases economic revenues back to the City. Jason and Mike describe the benefits of providing parking information on local government websites for Park Ridge and Highland Park. Making parking information available on the web provides information that demystifies local parking ordinances and restrictions which encourages citizens to take of downtown urban spaces.
The content of this article was presented at the Fall Illinois GIS Association (ILGISA) conference and Wisconsin Land Information Association (WLIA) annual conference. GeoSpatial is a publication for GIS practitioners with a circulation of approximately 10,000, primarily in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
The article can be found at: http://emag.geospatialtoday.com
In June of this year it was requested by a Public Works Director that MapOffice™ Advanced provide the functionality to trace up and downstream flow of sewer and sanitary utility lines. The user identified that they would like to be able to click on a point and see all of the storm sewers that are tributary to that point. This month the "Sewer Tracing" task was added. This provides the ability of a community user to click on a utility line that is either part of the combined, sewer or storm system and trace it up or downstream with a single click. Along with visually seeing where the utility line flows there are two tables displaying information related to your query. The first is a table showing some high level summary information and the second details all the infrastructure from the affected pipe. This task puts a complex GIS process behind a single click of a mouse for local government users.
The GIS Consortium (GISC) Information Technology Technical committee met this week to review and discuss the upcoming business intelligence functionality for MapOffice™ Advanced. For years the GIS Consortium has been working to provide authoritative community data on demand in a spatial context. Until now the mapping of community enterprise data relied on Specialists to geocode. Last year Tom Thomey, MGP Inc Executive laid out the vision to be able to map real-time community data in MapOffice™ Advanced at the 2009 GISC Annual Board of Directors meeting. With the roll out of business intelligence this month this has become a reality. Business intelligence allows community staffs to interact with a wide variety of data from their community enterprise systems. Users have the ability to create custom on demand requests. These queries or searches can be saved and run daily. With business intelligence community IT departments are able to setup this service securely in MapOffice™ to give staffs the ability to spatially analyze their enterprise system data like permits, business licenses and crime incidences on demand. In summary business intelligence, leverages the community's GIS investment, provides information on demand and improves efficiency.
In the latest update to MapOffice™ Advanced the ability for community staff members to bring up historical imagery was added. With 17 communities in all the Consortium has collected a wide variety of aerial imagery. The aerial imagery for some communities dates back to 1939. In the example above aerial imagery from 1939 and 2010 is contrasted. GISC Community members have a wealth of aerial photography information and now they can easily visualize it by year. This ability allows for staff members to see historical uses of property. The next step for the development team is the creation of a slider that will provide additional functionality and make the comparison of land use over time easier and more intuitive. Development will continue to add years as photos become available.
The GIS Consortium (GISC) over the past several months has been developing online, on demand tutorial videos for MapOffice™ and MapOffice™ advanced. These videos are found on the GISC website under the video gallery page (http://www.gisconsortium.org/gallery/video/) and available to anyone.
The stated purpose of these videos is to expose the public, decision makers and municipal users to the efficiencies that can be achieved using the MapOffice™ products and tools. To date there is an overview of MapOffice™ available and four in detail tool tutorials. The next video tutorial being created is to show the efficiency of looking up utilities in MapOffice™ Advanced.
Last week the GIS Consortium released the ability to display National Weather Service Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service data for the region. With a series of clicks real time flooding information can be displayed in MapOffice™ Advanced for use by decision makers.
Flood Hazard Mapping is an important component for emergency response in flood-prone areas. Adding flood gauges to MapOffice™ creates an easily-read, rapidly-accessible charts and maps which facilitates the administrators and planners to identify areas of risk and prioritize their mitigation/response efforts. The results were evident when according to Terrence O'Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), said that Cook County received an average rainfall of 4 1/2 inches, "equivalent to over 60 billion gallons of water." With some areas getting as much as 7 inches on July 23rd.
The water level for the gauge in Riverside is shown above and illustrates the impact of the event. Going into flooding season this functionality should streamline flood mitigation planning and response for local governments.
Bob Irvin, Village Manager of Lincolnshire and I will be presenting as apart of the educational series at the International City Managers Association (ICMA) 2010 annual conference on October 17-20th.
The intent of the session is to offer an in-depth look at how a small group of local governments in the Chicago metropolitan area created a geographic information system (GIS) consortium. Panelists will highlight the benefits of sharing resources and outline how they worked together to develop a comprehensive GIS service. Attendees will learn about the consortium development process and governance, as well as the uses and benefits of GIS.
The organization of MapOffice™ you may have noticed has changed slightly. What was once just tools has been separated into two categories. Tools and tasks are now available at differing levels of functionality depending on the version of MapOffice™ you are using.Tool and tasks have been separated as a result of feedback from the user community.
Many local government users wanted the ability to measure and conduct other tool type functions with executing their business processes/tasks. The two were separated and definitions for each created.Tasks are focused on work completed by local government. These are functions that occur every day in local government and the addition of GIS makes them more efficient. An example of a task is isolating a water main using the water main isolation task. These differ from tools in that tools work independently of tasks and basemaps. Tools are traditional technical functions of GIS like measure and identify. Examples of tools are measure distance, measure area, identify and markup. These can be used regardless of what view is being used or task is being completed.
Finding the nearest feature is something that local government employees do everyday. It might be finding the nearest hydrant in event of a fire, nearest water valve for shutoff, or nearest schools and medical facilities in event of an emergency. With the nearest feature tool this search can be customized for as many features as you want and what feature you may be searching for.
In the past government had to rely on paper maps to measure the distance to a nearest community asset. With the deployment of MapOffice™ and the find nearest feature tool within seconds of clicking or entering a property you can find the nearest feature that interests the user. It might be schools, hydrants, parks, valves, place of worship, community facilities, landmark or medical facilites. As the GIS system grows so will the possible features to query. Finding the nearest feature is done quickly and easily using MapOffice™ Advanced.
Currently only available in MapOffice™ advance this feature will soon be made available to the public as well. Typically residents choose communties based on the community assets available to them (schools, parks, emergency protection). By providing this tool at the public level residents can find the nearest park, place of worship or school. This public feature will be available at the end of May.
With the building of a new village hall and an updated police station, the Village of Wheeling took the opportunity to put in a new sprinkler system for the outdoor areas of both buildings. The sprinkler system consists of roughly 600 sprinkler heads varying in size, flow, and type tied into a computer system. The Village of Wheeling requested that a map be created showing the location of all the features within the system overlaid on aerial imagery.
To get accurate locations of all the sprinkler heads, a village engineer went out and used a GPS unit to collect all the location information. The points were then loaded into GIS and mapped out on top of the village’s aerial imagery. Using engineering drawings, attributes and line work were added to the map to complete the entire system. Finally, sprinkler zones were added using notes provided by public works and building maintenance crews.
The final product displays the entire sprinkler system on top of the aerial imagery so that maintenance crews can locate any part of the system. By adding the map into the village’s online mapping program, maintenance crews can select a sprinkler and see all the attributes for that specific feature. This allows them to easily make repairs and replacements. Because the computer tied into the system references errors by zone, the zone numbers were added to the system allowing maintenance crews to see exactly where a specific error is located and what other parts of the system are going to be affected. By adding the sprinkler system into GIS, the maintenance crews are able to get a clear look at the system and then make quick and informative decisions on any maintenance or issues.
The Village of Oak Brook hosts the “Taste of Oak Brook” annually during the fourth of July weekend. The event features fireworks, live entertainment and food from local vendors. Since the event draws in a large number of people, the Village wanted to make sure that there was adequate parking so they enlisted the help of GIS. In GIS, parking areas were designated using aerial photography and existing parking lot information. Parking spaces were drawn for field parking based on the village parking regulations and the number of spaces in these areas was determined. Parking spaces were also determined for paved parking lots.
The Village used this information to determine the total number of parking spaces for the event. This included standard and disabled persons parking. By establishing set parking spaces in field areas the village can now accommodate more vehicles and have more people attend the event.
The Village of Norridge requires that every residential property within the Village limits to have at least 65% green space on the property. This means that the homeowner can only have 35% of the property consist of impervious surface areas such as the building, garage, driveway, and patios. Any resident in violation of this policy can face fines and may be forced to make changes to their property. In the past, the Village would calculate the green space percentage by measuring the area of the parcels and the features using a ruler and a pencil. The Village asked the GIS department to come up with something that would aid in their analysis.
A map was created showing the percentage of green space for each parcel in the community. The percentage was calculated by combining all the building foot prints, driveways, garages, and sidewalks into one feature then dividing the area of impervious surface in a parcel by the area of the parcel itself. Even though the number is not necessarily exact due to some of the features, like patios, not being collected in the data, it provides a good starting point for any calculations and allows the village to see what properties may be in violation of the ordinance and then act accordingly. By using GIS, the village is able to cut down the amount of time calculating the green space area by hand and find properties that may be in violation that they might not have had a reason to check in the past.
Springtime in the Chicago land area in some cases can mean more noise from construction then the sounds of birds chirping. And although the nice weather at this time of year allows for field crews to work with little disruption, local residents would often disagree that they are not disturbed. When streets are suddenly closed or traffic begins to build, residents of a community can certainly become irritated and thus complain to the community staff. Even though it is impossible to stop these complaints completely, a community can do their best to notify the residents where and when these big construction projects will be occurring, this is exactly what the Village of Morton Grove did.
With help from the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department, Morton Grove was able to create a construction location map detailing where all of the major projects were happening in town. In addition, the Village Engineer wrote a brief description detailing the scope of each project that was to be included as a legend to the map. Each description in the legend referred to a number on the map allowing a reader to gather information about any of the projects that were occurring. As an end product this map and the legend were then published in the spring newsletter and eventually mailed to all of the village residents.
Considering it is impossible to satisfy everyone all the time, you still have to make the proper efforts to at least try. In this specific case it is easy that publishing a simple map with a legend can allow the Village of Morton Grove to continue providing an important service of public announcements.
Every year the City of Park Ridge contracts with a photogrammetric firm in order to collect important planimteric data such as buildings, driveways, sidewalks, etc. in a computer usable digital format. This data is fundamentally important as it provides a backbone for a Geographic Information System (GIS) and allows for in-depth analysis that can help a city understand the scope of what lies within their city limits. Whether it is counting how many homes are within a floodplain or estimating how many sidewalk squares a community must review each year, this planimetric data has its use. For without it, local governments would have to resort to alternative methods such as laborious field checks or manual counts in a Sidwell parcel map atlas.
One of the more recent uses of this planimetric data was Park Ridge’s task to identify all vacant lots within the city in order to help the Community and Preservation Development (CP&D) Department locate these lots for condition monitoring as well as coordinating their records with Maine township. Normally a task of this magnitude would require the CP&D Department to rely on historical knowledge of these lots or to manually drive the entire community documenting what they find. But now with the use of building footprint data acquired in the past five years, the GIS can easily flag all parcels that do not have a building footprint. Additionally, GIS can use high resolution aerial photography in order to review all parcels that were flagged from the initial review in an effort to reduce the amount of field checks that may still be needed.
In conclusion, although it may seem like a costly investment for a city to acquire planimteric data, its uses in the long run will outweigh the amount of time and money spent to accomplish the same tasks using more conventional methods.
As a new member of the GIS Consortium, the top priority in Lake Forest has been getting data ready for New World. New World used in some of the other Consortium communities, is a CAD software that uses GIS to map out the location of where calls are coming from.
Lake Forest is responsible for dispatching calls for both Police and Fire for the city, as well as the surrounding communities of Highwood for Police and Lake Bluff and Knollwood for Fire. Since there were many detailed paper maps on hand, having this data available at the dispatchers’ fingertips will greatly improve efficiency and response time. There will also be a version of New World running on Toughbook laptops that will be in the emergency vehicles to assist in giving address locations.
Much of the data being used for this implementation was updated and standardized before it was ready to be loaded onto the test server. Once the data is running live, edits will be carried out by Specialists and can be loaded into the active map to keep updates being entered as soon as they come in.
In preparing the data for the New World project, we now have many of the key layers needed for the GISC data conversion out of the way, and this will aid in our progress of delivering MapOffice™ to Lake Forest employees as soon as possible.
A recent development in the Riverside Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of a street inventory. Information captured includes the type of surface material, road base material, cross section type, curb and gutter information, last improved dates, planned improvement dates, and other statistics that can be derived from the GIS such as the length of roadway and even surface area could be calculated quickly.
The street inventory is available to all staff at any time through the Server technology that the village has invested in as well as through the GIS. This data will provide an excellent resource for obtaining improvement estimates and to plan resurface programs in the long term.
A recent development in the Glenview Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of the landscape site locations. Information created includes the site description and which group the site is associated with. One other statistic that can quickly be calculated using GIS, is the total area for each site.
The Landscape map is available to all staff at any time through GIS and or the PDF map folder which is located in the all employee accessible directory on the Server. This data can and will provide an excellent resource for quickly referencing site location and potentially assisting Public Works and the contractors with improved routing.
The 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 Tyler Edens application is an important financial and permit enterprise system that allows the city easily track finances and permit status. The application will only function efficiently if it has good base information such as zoning districts, addresses, and owner information. This information is readily available but requires the tools within the GIS to combine this information into one table. The GIS tools also clean up the County provided assessor owner information to assure owners within the city of Highland Park has correct street names. The GIS office annually creates a flattened import file that is used to keep the Edens data current.
A second role of the GIS is providing the layers for the interactive map within Edens. This map shows parcels, buildings, and utilities. By using the map, users scan interactively select properties and see the related records for each property. This makes workflows more efficient as users do not need to manually search by addresses.
A final support process of the GIS is creating the impervious values for each property. The impervious areas used to asses a storm water fee for water billing customers. Without GIS, the Edens application would not contain much of the valuable information it now contains and would create more frustration for users trying to use the application.
Directions magazine is an international magazine and leading source of information, news and commentary in the fields of geospatial and location-based technologies. Today they published an article related to the GIS Consortium recieving the 2010 GITA Excellence Award. This award is not possible without the hard work and collaboration of the GIS Consoritium communities and Board Members. The is great recognition for all the hard work and innovation that the GIS Consortium represents.
You can read that article here.
The isolation of a water main is an important function of local government. Isolation of a water main needs to occur for a variety of reasons. Typically it is done to allow for maintenance or inspections, but it can also be done in the event of a spill or leak to prevent something from getting in rather than to stop something from getting out. Water main isolation can also used to take a piece of a plant out of use for a short or long period of time or to change the process stream.
In the past government had to rely on atlas books or handwritten notes to determine the impact of a broken water main on the utility network. With the deployment of MapOffice™ and the water main isolation tool within seconds of clicking a pipe the impact of isolating a pipe can be visualized along with a list of effected hydrants and valves. This analysis is done quickly and easily using MapOffice™ Advanced.
An additional feature is that the user can run an address notify and get the addresses of the potential houses effected by the isolation of the selected water main. With the release of this MapOffice™ Advanced tool the complex analysis of analyzing a utility network can be completed within seconds and run for a variety of scenarios providing a valuable service and time savings to decision makers and crews out in the field.
Tom Thomey wrote and Kelsey Rydland contributed to an article on page six of the Illinois City/County Managers Association (ILCMA) April 2010 newsletter. The article addresses the need for GIS in these difficult economic times. While the article is not specifically about the GIS Consortium it is about how the GISC model can reduce the cost of GIS. The full article is available on the ILCMA website.
http://il-ilcma.civicplus.com/archives/48/April2010.pdf
The Village of Oak Brook Public Works department performs a wide variety of services to the village including snowplowing and street sweeping. They also maintain various street lights within the village. Prior to the implementation of GIS, Public Works referenced a hand drawn street light atlas of the village. This contained the location of the street lights as well as their id number and the location of fiber optic lines within the village. While this atlas was useful, it did not contain information on each street light for bulb type, ballast, wattage, etc. If a street light needed repair, village staff would have to reference a separate table.
The creation of a street light atlas in GIS allows Public Works staff to locate a particular street light, its wattage and bulb type and ballast using one source in a matter of minutes. This atlas divides the village into areas based on a grid system which allows street lights to be quickly identified and any corrections or changes noted on the atlas sheets. A street light layer is also available in the Consortium's Map Office application which allows access real time street light data.
It is apparent that technology is getting better as new ways of using it are also on the rise. Within Geographic Information System (GIS), technology also continues to advance and allow for data to be edited in many different environments. One enhancement of technology that GIS has encountered is the ability to make a copy of a database, release it to a field crew for disconnected editing and then bring those field edits back into the original database. In GIS it is considered a “checkout database” and it is something that the Village of Morton Grove is taking full advantage of for their Street Sign Inventory.
The village has a GIS Specialist on site only three times every two weeks making consistent editing a tough task. But with the use of a disconnected editing environment the GIS Specialist can now turn the project over to the community staff and train them how to edit the sign model personally. This will not only make the project more efficient, it will also give the sign shop employees a chance to manage the signs as they are changed out on a daily basis, thus enhancing the integrity of the data. Once a week when the GIS Specialist comes on site, they can review the data, load it back into the original database and then give the sign shop a new database to edit for the following week.
With this work flow in place, it is not too hard to imagine the amount of time and money that will be saved by using the latest improvements in technology. Time and money that would have normally be spent using the old fashioned editing methods.
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.
An accurate inventory of sign locations is crucial for keeping roads safe for driving. Missing signs or faded signs can lead to motorists missing important warnings about road hazards.
In 2003, the city hired an intern to collect sign locations throughout the entire community. The sign information entered into an SQL database as posts represented as Arc/Info coverage points. A custom application was created to allow city staff to edit sign record information. In January 2009, the post points and sign records were migrated to a single ESRI SDE database. This allowed City staff the ability to edit post locations and sign records in an ESRI ArcView environment.
By allowing city staff to edit data, update work is added when completed in the field. Supervisors are able to query the database to plan and track sign replacement programs. Employees also select signs by area to create reports and maps for meetings.
By using a GIS to maintain a sign inventory, the city saves many man-hours that would otherwise be used to searching through paper files. They can also quickly produce maps and reports that are impossible with the mapping component of GIS.
Keeping a utility system running at high capacity is a major component of local government operations. Coordinating maintenance, capital improvement projects, and every day operations can be a challenging task that requires numerous man-hours to run effectively. Having an accurate spatial inventory of utility system components helps a community perform these operations more efficiently by providing a quick reference tool for checking the physical location of a feature and providing vital attribute information such as manhole depth or pipe diameter. To assist with a recent sanitary system cleaning effort, the Village of Winnetka Public Works Department requested that the GIS Department develop a series of maps to help the field crews gain a better understanding of the system before going out into the field.
Having the Village sanitary sewer assets in a GIS (Geographic Information System) system provides a spatial inventory of the system features that allowed the GIS Department to develop the requested cleaning sector maps quickly and efficiently. The alternative to developing these maps was to scan and print a series of old, hand drawn paper atlas maps, which were difficult to read and, in some cases, out-of-date. By using the more current, easier to read GIS-based maps, the field crews had a practical reference tool to use both in the office and in the field to determine the location of the pipes that needed cleaning and the extent of the area that needed work. The maps also provided pipe length and diameter information to give the crews a better idea of the types of pipes they would be working with, which saved resources and man-hours that may have otherwise been spent checking these attributes in the field.
Managing utility assets in a GIS system allows local governments to leverage their available hours and budget constraints to optimize their operations and potentially reduce costs. By providing a spatial format to review and reference utility features both in the office and in the field, the Village has a efficient mechanism for validating utility system information.
Starting in 2009, the Village of Wheeling began using a survey grade GPS system to collect utility information in the field. The village started with the sanitary system, moved on to the water system, and is then planning to collect information for the storm system last. Collecting this information using a survey grade system provides a level of accuracy not normally seen in field collection GPS and allows the data to be integrated into GIS and CAD with minimal effort.
By using a combination of the GPS system, satellite mission planning, and survey equipment, the village engineers were able to accurately collect utility locations. When each system is completed, the points collected in the field will then be loaded into the GIS system and its utility models. By having more accurate data that is verified in the field, the data can be used in a number of GIS projects such as water main break analysis, outfall tracing, and inclusion in MapOffice™ Advanced. Without the most up to date utility data, the analyses could result in incorrect data and conclusions.
In early 2010 a multi-year planimetric data collection project was completed and the data incorporated into the Village of Riverside GIS (Geographic Information System) database. Information collected in this process included features such as roadways, sidewalks, driveways, recreation areas, curbs, retention walls, among many other things.
This new information provides a great resource of real world features to incorporate into existing and future map products. Another advantage of having this much new GIS data is the ability to perform analysis. And one of the first analysis projects was to determine impervious surfaces throughout the village. The evaluation consisted of comparing all impervious surfaces such as driveways, buildings, etc. against the existing parcel information and then calculating the percentage of each property that was improved. Looking at the final map output one can quickly understand where the most improved areas are in the village and this information can support decisions such as evaluating who would be most affected by initiation of a storm water fee.
Every ten years the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a survey in order to find out how many people are living in a specific area among other things. Once completed with the survey, they then eventually release this information to the public. The ability to access this data from the Census Bureau as well as its use to answer important questions is at times invaluable. For the City of Park Ridge, they decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) as there catalyst for first accessing this information from the Census Bureau and second, to determine how many people are living within each municipal election ward.
Based on information from the City Clerk, each election ward within the city requires a minimum population count of 5,000 people. This number ensures that each ward is properly divided in terms of population allowing equal representation for all residents who reside within the city. If the population counts fall below this number, the ward boundaries will be reviewed and adjusted in GIS if needed in an effort to equalize these numbers. Although the current Census Bureau population totals are based on numbers from the year 2000, reviewing the ward boundaries before the 2010 Census survey gave the City Clerk and the GIS Department an understanding of how to analyze this data. Now that this methodology has been uncovered, GIS can easily perform this task when the 2010 data is released. Thus demonstrating how GIS can easily access Census Bureau information and compare it with local election ward data in order to plan for the possibility of future ward boundary adjustments.
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.
The Village of Glenview Inspectional Services executes numerous inspections on a daily basis including all businesses and multi-story non-residential buildings for Fire inspections. Before the advent of Geography Information Systems and MUNIS, Fire inspectors used CityView software (address database) for their daily inspections.
Now, they are able to use MUNIS (for issuing and inventorying permits) and GIS analysis and map design (for evenly distributing all addresses into 4 inspection zones) on their laptops. This not only increases productivity (a higher number of inspected properties in a given day due to evenly distributing addresses into each zone) it also demonstrates the power of integration\central repository for two products (MUNIS and GIS), which saves even more time.
We are proud to announce that the City of Lake Forest has joined the GIS Consortium. The City is the 17th member and largest based on square miles (17.2) and the ninth largest community based on population (20,990). The City implemented their GIS in 1997 and is one of three communities in the Chicago Metro area to have had a GIS program in the late 1990s.
The City GIS is one of the premier programs in the Chicago area and the GIS Consortium excited about the collaborative partnership. The partnership provides an opportunity to work together to share common experiences, best practices, improve efficiency and lower the cost of GIS. Some important upcoming projects are the implementation of New World Systems for emergency dispatch and converting as-built and utility data into the GIS Consortium Utility model.
MGP Inc. through it's relationship with the GIS Consortium has in-depth experience building GIS data for New World Systems (NWS) implementations. GIS data has been built for the following municipalities by MGP; Glenview, Deerfield, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Winnetka, Wilmette*, Kenilworth*, Grays Lake* and Bannockburn.* The communities with a "*" are not members of the GIS Consortium.
The building of NWS data is another example of how collaboration has reduced costs for GISC members using NWS for emergency dispatch. With each implementation the time spent preparing the data and assuring the accuracy of conversion from the GISC model to the NWS model improves. Conversion scripts and best practices have been developed and are shared throughout the GISC. GIS data that supports New World’s GIS mapping system has been built and converted with repeated and predicable success. NWS has recognized the GISC for its ability to manage and create quality GIS data to be used in their systems.
Within the GIS, manmade features such as buildings, bridges, railroads, and roads are classified as planimetric data. The city contracts with Ayres Associates to update planimetric features for about twenty-five percent of the City each year. This ensures that none of the base mapping within the city is older than 5 years. Updated base map layers are important to ensure that new construction and redevelopment area are accurately reflected in the base map features.
The base map layers are used to evaluate existing conditions and plan future updates. By having current layers, the City is assured they are making the best and most accurate decisions. Accurate base mapping is only one of the ways that GIS assists the City with making good decisions.
For a 7.5 mile stretch of Dundee Rd., from Milwaukee Ave. to Green Bay Rd., the only section without a bikeable sidewalk or path is a small section within Wheeling village limits from the Des Plaines River to the Interstate 294 overpass. Without a path or sidewalk, this section of Dundee Rd. can be dangerous for any biker who attempts to ride in the grass or on the street itself. The Village of Wheeling is looking to build a bike path to connect the two sections to help provide a safe passage for bicyclists.
Using GIS, the village planner was able to put together multiple maps to use in proposals to outside agencies for additional funding for the project. The maps show the location of the proposed extension in relation to other bike paths in the area, while also showing how the extension will help connect the existing bike path network. By using GIS, the maps were created quickly and used information from neighboring communities that might not have been available and the map had to be created by hand. No matter what the decision is on additional funding, GIS helped play a role in getting the proposal to the table.
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.
The Village of Skokie has progressively added new users, taking advantage of the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). While adding users is key to the success of the GIS Program, new users have a learning curve for the new applications and software whether it be ArcView™ or MapOffice™ Advanced. Training and demonstrations can alleviate many of the questions and issues users have with interacting with the new technology.
Unlike GIS Professionals, the Village’s users do not necessarily use the GIS applications every day. Without the constant use, the processes can sometimes be forgotten and steps are by-passed. These problems can be eliminated by more frequent training and updates. The Village is now constructing a plan that will increase the training for ArcView users which will in turn increase the information at their finger tips. Likewise, demonstrations for MapOffice™ will occur more frequently, allowing a broad group of users to interact with the application.
Training is essential to fully optimize and understand how the new technology can help the users in their workflows. Understanding the processes and steps will eliminate the time needed to navigate the application and gather a final product.
The Village of Oak Brook police department deals with crime and burglary incidents on a daily basis. With the Oak Brook center mall and extensive business district multiple incidents can occur in a short period of time. Prior to the implementation of GIS, the police department would manually enter each incident into a database by shift, date, location and type of incident. In order to review the crimes for the month, staff would have to sort through the database to determine how many burglaries, residential theft, forgery, etc. occurred. In order to visualize where the crimes occurred, staff would use push pins on a village map.
Using GIS, incidents were able to be visually depicted on a map through a process called geocoding. Geocoding allows addresses to be brought into GIS and placed in the correct location. Once all crimes and burglaries were brought into GIS, analysis was performed to highlight areas of high crime/burglaries. Maps where then created based on crime type (forgery, residential burglary, theft to motor vehicle, retail theft) that highlighted high areas for that particular incident. Summary statistics were then used to show how many incidents occurred per month and beat for each incident type.
The maps allowed police personnel to determine trends in crime and burglaries over the year and determine where additional police personnel would be needed. The police currently update their maps on a quarterly basis and look to do an analysis of crime by shift in the future.
The largest objective for initiating Geographic Information System (GIS) services in the Village of Riverside was to create a digital representation of the utility systems. This objective was realized when a Sewer and Water System Map Books were constructed at the turn of the new year. The books display the culmination of many projects that were necessary to produce such a resource. The first step was to convert GPS point data of the system structures such as fire hydrants, water valves, sewer manholes, etc. into the GIS system. Next the data needed to be connected with water and sewer main features. Additional structures were added as suggested by existing hard copy resources including as-builds and the former map books. Hydrant flow, manufacturer, identifiers, pipe material, and size information about the system was also entered as noted on plans, in other community databases such as FireHouse, and as provided by staff through their knowledge about the systems. The map books incorporate a page grid that was developed and the map design was generated utilizing the repository of other data layers that the GIS houses.
The Village took advantage of a printing agreement with FedEx Kinkos provided through their membership in the GIS Consortium. These products will be a resource for Public Works staff when out in the field and can be updated as a whole or one page at a time as needed when the utility system is updated in the GIS as a result of capital improvement projects.
The Village of Norridge has a newsletter that they typically mail to all addresses in the village. In addition to going to all houses, the newsletters are sent to every unit in every apartment or condo building. Because of the natural turnover in apartment renting, many times the newsletters come back to the village because there is no one currently living at the address. This costs the village money in returned and wasted postage. The village asked the GIS department to come up with a map that would present a solution to the problem.
To create the map, the buildings in the village were first sorted out by the zoning code to determine which ones were multi-unit. Then a count was taken for each building to determine how many units were in each one. Labels were then created to display the number of units in each builidng allowing an employee to physically drop off the appropriate amount of flyers and not have any returned in the mail.
By creating and displaying the units on the map, a simple solution presented itself allowing the village to save some money in a time when money is tight. Without GIS, the village would have had to sort through water billing records to determine the amount of units, which would be far more time consuming then the GIS solution.
The versatility of a Geographic Information System (GIS) is usually driven by the user’s request. Although some requests can be more complex than others, it is often times that simple GIS operations help to provide the easiest solutions. For the Village of Morton Grove, the simple, quick and accurate data that the GIS could provide was all that was needed in order to help the Engineering Department complete a survey regarding the selection of the most optimal site for a solar panel installation.
An outside engineering consultant firm was requesting that the Village of Morton Grove answer the following question: “What is the distance from the solar panel installation site to its first obstruction at an angle of 90 degrees and what is the height of that first obstruction?” In addition, they were interested in answering this same question for all obstructions at 10 degree intervals ranging from 100 – 270 degrees. For GIS this was a simple request considering the fact that building heights and angle/distance calculations were easy numbers to derive from pre-existing data. With the help from internal staff, height estimates were assigned to all trees in case they were to be the first obstruction encountered and needed to be considered in survey. From there it was as simple as drawing lines in the GIS at fixed angles and ending these lines where they met their first obstruction whether it was a tree or building. Once all of lines were drawn, it was simple to fill out and submit the survey with accurate numbers derived from the digitized data in GIS.
The overall goal was to provide accurate information so that the engineering consultant firm could determine if the solar panel site location would receive sufficient sunlight or if it would be highly obstructed in its proposed location. By using the tools found within GIS, it was quite easy for the Engineering Department to provide useful numbers that would help in the decision making process as to whether or not the proposed location would be the most optimal. Moreover, the method of using GIS versus sending out field crews to collect this information manually was much more efficient as well as less costly.
The Village of Lincolnwood has been hard at work trying to secure grants that will help produce bicycle routes and paths throughout the Village. The grant, Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC), is administered through the Regional Transportation Authority. It is federally funded to help people of lower income travel to their places of employment. Providing assistance for this grant application has been the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). Throughout the process GIS has played an important part by providing maps and analysis. The Village is a member of the GIS Consortium (GISC) which is a Using the GIS Consortiums subscription to Business Analyst Online, the Village compiled necessary statistics for use in the grant. In addition to the statistics, locations of stoplights were mapped out to provide a list for use in field checks. Also, using GIS, the Village was able to verify that manhole covers and inlets along the proposed bike route corridors were of a certain type; openings were not large enough for a bicycle tire to become stuck.
The grant application process can be demanding and very competitive. With so many communities looking for free money, the more information the Village can provide, the better their chances at securing the grant. GIS has the ability to help during these processes. Map creation and analysis provided by the GIS staff have supplied necessary components of this grant.
The majority of Municipal Departments use hard copy maps for various daily tasks. Maps are still used considerably to show analysis results, however new advances in technology have provided other ways to dispense and even interact with data.
It is very common for maps to be delivered digitally by email in such formats has JPEG, PDF, and Bitmaps. By doing this it saves both time and money, and data\information can be received in a matter of seconds by many individuals at once. Even better, with the advances in technology, dynamic mapping applications are now accessible for everyone to use. These applications place dynamic GIS tools in the hands of all employees. Which allows them to interact with their data and use it for presentations, daily work routines, and creating hardcopy’s for disposal, and again, increases productivity and saves money. Through the GIS program\department the Village of Glenview has access to such a product and that product is, Map Office Advanced.
Map Office Advanced is a web-based dynamic\interactive map that only Glenview employees can use. Map Office Advanced allows employees to search for addresses, retrieve parcel\property summaries, identify police beats, Board of Trustees districts, FEMA floodway locations, measure areas, link to Google Earth, and overlay custom datasets such as Zoning and Snow plow routes, all of which is used for effective and efficient decision making.
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.
The City of Park Ridge has recently invested in a new software application that enhances its ability to provide emergency alerts to its residents. The application, going by the name Everbridge Aware for Citizen Alerts, is a notification sytem that will call people on their phone and inform that about emregencies as well as other helpful non-emergency updates. The data in the system is supplied to the city by willful residents who fill out their information via the city’s website. Residents will give at least one phone number but have the option to supply a cell phone number, a business phone number or even an e-mail address. When an emergency or important event comes up, the system will send a message to the first number that a resident provided and wait for a confirmation of receipt from that resident. If the system does not receive a confirmation from the resident it will try the next method of choice that was outlined by the resident during the application process whether it be another phone number, text message or e-mail.
The next process that the city is investigating is to incorporate local Geographical Infromation Systems (GIS) data into the Everbridge application for more specific uses. Since the Everbridge application already includes a GIS mapping function, it only seems logical to test the water by updating it with data that was created by the city’s GIS Department. The first data layer that is set to be tested is a fire hydrant flushing zone layer. This data layer will supply the Fire Department with the ability to select all residences located within any fire hydrant zone and notify them that there will be hydrant flushing going on in their area soon. If successful, it will serve as a benchmark for the future of using GIS layers within the citizen alert system, thus demonstrating the versatility of GIS data.
One can easily imagine how powerful a system like this could be in getting important information to the public. And with the ability to intergrate local and accurate GIS data, the system can only act as a better service for the residents of Park Ridge.
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.
The City of Highland Park is an established older community that is experiencing redevelopment of smaller structures into larger structures. The larger structures and their supporting infrastructure create a large impervious footprint. These larger impervious areas create larger amounts of storm water runoff that can overwhelm existing storm drainage infrastructure.
The city wants properties to absorb as much of their own impervious runoff as possible. Therefore, they were looking to create an ordinance that encouraged property owners to leave a percentage of their lot as pervious surface. The ordinance also creates a fee applied to owners that exceed this impervious percentage. The collected fees go directly to storm sewer improvements
The Planning Division of Community Development contacted the GIS Office for assistance with analysis for the ordinances. The goal was to rank the lots within residential zoning districts by their percentage of impervious surface. This allows the Planners to develop an ordinance that reflects the varying density of residential development per neighborhood and does not punish residents living in more densely developed neighborhoods
The GIS Office converted county parcel data into a lot layer by combining parcels with the same address. Intersecting overlaying man made data layers such as buildings and driveways created the impervious areas for each lot. Dividing impervious areas by the total are area of the lot created the percent impervious values for each lot. Lastly, the lots received a zoning district based on their underlying zoning district. Then querying the lots in each zoning district provides percent impervious value ranges for each zoning district.
GIS provided information that allowed the Planner to create an ordinance that fairly applied fees only to overbuilt properties within each neighborhood. Without GIS, the Planners could not create the ordinance or would have used a time intensive estimation process. The ordinance ensures owners that overdevelop their lots are assessed a fee for the burden they place on existing storm sewers.
Community users of MapOffice™ Advanced may have noticed a new "Feedback" button now available in the upper left corner of the toolbar. The GIS Consortium (GISC) has released the ability for users at the community level to provide feedback directly and instantly to GIS staff through the MapOffice™ interface. Users are now able to give feedback and provide markups to GIS staff for a range of changes. Examples include a change in address, updating of a pipe size or the relocation of a water main. Community staff in the field have the ability to send modifications and improvements directly to GIS staff. Their input and knowledge is then reflected in the GIS updates. Community staff feedback enhances the quality of GIS data used by GISC members. Their submitted feedback is reviewed by GIS staff and once the change is made an email is sent to the requestor to notify them that the data has been updated.
In order to properly drive a car or walk across a street requires that someone knows where they heading. Although these everyday tasks seem to happen naturally it would be foolish to overlook the hard work that people do to ensure that we are accurately guided. Guidance comes in many forms, but for this article we will focus on the guidance that the City of Park Ridge provides its residents by making certain that their street pavement markings (thermoplastics) are identifiable and easy to follow. For not having crosswalks painted brightly enough or turn lanes not properly identified, could easily result in an unnecessary accident.
Every year the City of Park Ridge conducts a survey of all their intersections and decides which ones need to have their street pavement markings updated, a process that has always been done by an outside contractor until this year. By taking this survey in-house it immediately saved the city $13,000 but then begged the question of what would be the best way to conduct its survey independently. Lucky for the city they have staff knowledgeable in the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS). This system has been used for many projects already and so why not test it out with their Thermoplastic Paving Program.
Once it was decided that GIS would be the method of data collection and storage for this year’s program, the Engineering Technician started to hit the streets and conduct his survey. After only a few weeks of review, the Engineering Technician then brought the data collected in the field into the office and began to digitize the data into a GIS database. This database held information about all pavement markings for both installation and removal as well as what type of marking was included at each location. Moreover, all pavement marking information was assigned to its respective intersection so as to be able to calculate the amount of removal and installation for each intersection. Once all intersections were fully surveyed, the Engineering Technician was then able to run a summary in order to apply a total cost for this year’s program as well as a break down of the individual cost for each intersection. This in turn would allow for easy analysis should the Engineering Department decide to add or remove an intersection based on their current budget. Last but not least, the finalized intersection list will be supplied to the contractor who will do the work accompanied by a map book that displayed what was to be installed or removed at each intersection.
In conclusion, community needs that require definitive answers usually require a systematic approach. In the example above, it easy to see that using GIS not only allowed the Engineering Department to better track and replace their street pavement markings, it also saved them money while they to continue to keep their community a safe place for travel.
The Village of Deerfield has began a using an Engineering Firm to survey and smoke test the sewer storm system within the village. This program involves using provided GIS data to be used in the field by the Engineering Firm and village staff to conduct the smoke testing program. Smoke testing involves using special equipment to help find defects and issues within the sewer storm system. As smoke is passes through the system equipment is used to detect any leaks within the system. Defects are then recorded and mapped using GPS technology. The process also included verifying mapping information and GPS was then used to update, add, or remove sewer storm system infrastructure.
Once the field data and smoke testing program was completed the Engineering Firm provided the GIS department with all the field data collected by GPS, photos of defect areas, and locations of all defects within the system. The GIS department was able to use this information to update GIS data and mapping and also map the collected defects. The maps then can be used to find trends within the system as well pin point locations that where found to be defective.
This multi-year program provides information that is crucial to the village to help maintain the sewer storm system. The program also benefits the GIS department with providing accurate data to map and use in updating and maintaining mapping data. Working together and integrating community processes with the GIS department helps achieve the greatest benefit possible while conducting field maintenance programs
Employees for the Village of Glenview often request very simple, but effective ways for determining attributes for property owners and one of these attributes is\are, zip codes. With assistance from Geographic Information System (GIS), Employees are now able to quickly look at the zip code map and find out a residence(s) zip code in a matter of seconds.
With the readiness of the GIS data\maps for zip codes, Employees are now capable of verifying residences zip codes on the fly. You may not think this is very important, but before GIS, Employees had to look this information up on the County’s website which in most cases took\takes 5-10 minutes. Not only does GIS provide maps like this, it also increases Employee productivity.
Although it is possible to put a number on the purchase price of a device that notifies people of an emergency, giving people amble time to reach safety is priceless. Like all Public Safety personnel who pride themselves in the art of providing a safe place for their residents to live, the Village of Morton Grove Fire Department is no different. They continue to look for new ways to ensure that they know their town and they know what their residents need.
One item that makes this list of needs is the ever-important emergency siren. Emergency sirens act as noisemakers that have the ability to be heard for up to almost a mile in distance. If these devices are properly located throughout a municipality, they can offer enough noise to warn all residents of an oncoming emergency. The question is “How do you know where to position these sirens so that they can be heard village-wide.” That is a question that the Morton Grove Fire Department knew might be easily answered by the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) Department.
Considering that the Fire Department already knew where their existing siren locations were located they could start the analysis right then and there. By using a simple tool found within GIS, a process known as a “Buffer” would be applied to existing siren location in order to generate a fixed-distance ring around the existing structure. This distance would depict the range in which the siren manufacturer indicated humans could hear the siren noise. Although the emergency siren manufacturer indicated that the siren could be heard from 5,000 feet away the Morton Grove Fire Department decided to play it safe and run the “Buffer” at a distance of 4,000 feet instead. This way they could add a cushion of ensured safety to their analysis.
Once the first buffer was run it was then up to the Fire Department to locate village owned land that they could use in order to install as many new emergency sirens as it would take to cover the entire municipality. Each time they were granted the right to use a piece of land they would submit the location to the GIS Department to run an additional buffer. Furthermore, they continued to analyze what locations might work as which location might not work in order to reach their goal of blanketing the entire community with an emergency siren call during a time of need.
After many alterations between existing and proposed locations, the Fire Department has narrowed down the placement search to five proposed sites and one existing location. These locations and their respective buffers have been placed on map and submitted to the Fire Department for their internal use. All in all, a once daunting task has now been made easier by the use of GIS.
Since 1994, the Estelle Sieb Center in Norridge has, among other things, held classes and meetings for local communities in law enforcement, fire protection, etc…Typically, these classes can last all day, requiring the attendees to find a place for lunch. In the past, the center would have a few old maps or a village employee would mention a few places in the area. The village wanted to create an updated map that could be distributed to all attendees that would show the locations of restaurants in the village as well as a few near by in Chicago. The village asked the GIS department to put together a map showing up to date restaurant locations.
By using a current business license list and employee input, an 11” x 17” map was created. The map shows approximately 35 restaurants near the Estelle Sieb Center that would be convenient for lunch. Each restaurant is represented by a number that then corresponds with a restaurant name in the legend. This allows for a large number of points to be displayed in small area without having to worry about squeezing text into the map. Because the map is printed on 11” x 17” paper, it can be easily distributed and carried around.
With the old outdated restaurant map at the Estelle Sieb Center, there were issues with people attempting to go to restaurants that were closed. By having an updated map, the attendees could choose a location and not worry about wasting too much time. Because the map was created in GIS, each time a restaurant opens or closes, the changes can be made to the map quickly, which allows the map to be distributed as quickly as possible. This allows the attendee to enjoy their lunch break before getting back to their class.
The Village of Oak Brook contains a wide variety of restaurants. The village posts the list of restaurants and local attractions on their website along with the address and phone number for public use. However, this list is lengthy and contains outdated information. In order to create a more visually appealing and up to date listing, Oak Brook enlisted the help of GIS to create location points, which are then placed in Google Maps. The GIS Department created a map showing the location of each restaurant within the village as well as address information and a link to the restaurant’s website. This interactive map located on the village website allows the user to find restaurants within the village based on location.
Clicking on the Restaurant Location link takes you to a Google Map showing the Village of Oak Brook. A red dot represents each restaurant within the village. Clicking on the restaurant name in the table of contents on the left or on the red dot on the map brings up an information box for that location. Each information box contains the name of the restaurant, address, phone number, and website link if available. Unlike the previous list, the interactive map is easily modified when new restaurants open up or old restaurants close down.
Providing the information in a format that people are familiar with allows the user to access the information without having to learn new software. Providing the location of each restaurant on a map allows residents or other visitors visiting the village to locate a restaurant or eating establishment more easily.
The Village of Lincolnshire has completed a process of identifying all storm sewer outfalls that discharge into streams and rivers. This process was completed to help prepare for NPDES requirements and also to determine if all outfalls have been correctly accounted for throughout the village.
Village staff used provided GIS maps showing the existing storm sewer infrastructure and ArcView technology to review the current system. The review process allowed staff to verify the data in the GIS system and report any needed updates. Staff also assigned a unique id system for each outfall to be maintained for reporting purposes.
After the review, the GIS department conducted the data updates and produced a Village-wide Storm Sewer Outfall Map showing the newly developed id system. This map is currently being used to ensure all outfalls are accounted for and for future planning and reporting activities.
This is a basic example how the GIS department and village staff work together to ensure the current data is correct and ensure data within the GIS system is being updated on a regular basis.
From its inception GIS has used hard copy maps as a presentation media for geographic information. Maps are still used extensively to display analysis results, however new opportunities in technology have provided other ways to distribute and even interact with data. Now-a-days it is commonplace to distribute maps electronically through e-mail as an image, in PDF format for example. Doing so saves both time and money as paper and ink supplies are spared and the information can be received by many people in a matter of seconds regardless of their location. Better yet, due to technology advances, interactive mapping applications are now available to everyone for consumption. These products place GIS tools in the hands of all users allowing them to perform geographic operations in a dynamic way, to discover their data and analysis results interactively, and still provide the opportunity to share that information in an electronic or hard copy fashion. The Village of Riverside has invested in such products through its GIS program and those interactive applications are known as MapOffice™ and MapOffice™ Advanced.
MapOffice™ is a free interactive map of all GIS Consortium member communities in the Chicago Metropolitan area and is available to the general public. This allows residents and business people alike to navigate a place and search for addresses, important places, measure distances, obtain parcel information including PIN numbers and zoning information, and even connect to other services such as the County Assessor, Microsoft’s Bird’s Eye View, and area school district information seamlessly.
MapOffice™ Advanced is an interactive map restricted to village staff in each GIS Consortium community which allows employees all of the functionality of MapOffice™ and then some. Additional tools provide the ability to identify floodway information, view utilities and associated data, map a list of properties of interest, and create address lists for mailings by simply choosing properties on the map. Additionally, custom information can be created to display in this product as well such as zoning boundaries. And the list of tools continues to be expanded based on requests.
Interactive maps are extremely useful tools to facilitate discussion and to derive conclusions about any location or event. In many locations they are used during public meetings and are very effective resources to focus attention to the matter at hand and also allow the flexibility to view areas near or far from an issue area. An opportunity that is not possible when using static images.
Nearly everything in life is related to location. Whether you are looking for a new job closer to home, a beach vacation or your set of missing car keys, everything is correlated to space and location. Geography is heavily associated with location and in recent history has become a staple in people’s everyday workflow. Google Maps StreetView, Bing Bird’s Eye View, MapQuest, and other mapping sites have created a niche in mainstream America that allows people to access geographic information (street names, directions, aerial photography) at the push of a button. This is the basis of Geographic Information System (GIS).
GIS creates an environment that harnesses geographic and tabular data and combines them to better understand the information. This is especially important in local government with its defined boundaries, parcels, ordinances, signage and infrastructure. Paper maps and plans become digital and easier to consume and share via the internet or by electronic document. GIS also has the framework to be a centralized data center and can be incorporated by every department in a useful manner. With data consumption increasing at an exponential rate, the need to associate data with a geographic feature has increased as well. Whether it is crimes on a certain street, creating a mailing list within 500 feet of a certain address, or showing the direction of flow for a sewer line, GIS can create a better understanding of the spatial environment surrounding the decision makers. GIS is spatial technology. GIS is location.
Back in the fall of 2009, a village trustee was trying to inform a resident of the businesses available in the village of Wheeling. The trustee was unable to find anything on the internet or the village website in regards to the business. The trustee asked the economic development department to put together an updated business inventory for the new village website. In turn, economic development asked the GIS department to create a series of maps that would accurately display the inventory information.
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) was developed by Google for an easy way to express geographic elements on internet-based maps such as Google Maps and Google Earth. It was determined the best way to map out all the businesses in Wheeling, was to use Google KML to map out each location as a point with the familiar Google Maps as a background. Close to 900 businesses in the village were categorized as either, Industrial, Commercial & Retail, or Food & Hospitality. By breaking the businesses down into categories, it relieved the issue of congestion when opening a map with close to 900 points. Each category would get its own map so that the user would not be overwhelmed. After the businesses were categorized, attributes such as phone number, address, and website were added to each location allowing the user to click on a point and see all contact information. The businesses were then mapped out and tested before being added to the village website.
By having an updated business inventory on the village website, the village provides information that is important to its residents. With having each business mapped out, a resident or someone visiting the village can find a specific business and then get all related information by interacting with the point on the map. Business locations maps could be created without using GIS, but it would be very difficult. The sheer number of locations ensures that to correctly find a location, a map would have to zoom in and out so as not to appear as just a big collection of dots. By using GIS and Google KML, the village was able to create an interactive map that could provide all relevant information and be accessed by anybody who visits the village website.
Having an accurate inventory of the components that make up a municipal utility system is very important to the overall success of a city or village maintaining that utility at a high performance level. While this type of inventory has traditionally involved descriptive text information regarding a particular utility system feature, with a robust GIS system that same inventory can now contain a spatial component. By adding this spatial aspect, the municipality can better track and maintain their capital investments and the overall integrity of the system. Recently, the Village of Winnetka took advantage of its GIS system to help develop an electric pole inventory for its Water and Electric department to use for future maintenance and analysis.
Developing a utility inventory can include GIS on varying levels of involvement and complexity. For the Village of Winnetka, a basic GIS pole feature class existed prior to the current inventory, however it lacked completeness, both spatially and in attributes, and was not heavily used by the Village staff. To help make the data more complete, the Water and Electric Department hired a utility consulting firm to collect GPS field data of the village poles, using the existing GIS pole features as a base. Having an existing GIS database structure to work from, the data collection only took a few days and was able to be seamlessly transitioned from the field to the office using a simple database relationship. While the Village GIS Department did not create the more advanced inventory currently being used, it did provide the basic framework that made the data collection process run more smoothly and provides the tools for viewing and analyzing the final product.
Moving forward, the Village can now use the electric pole information to help locate potential problem areas and better plan for future enhancements or changes to the system. While the existing, descriptive text inventory that was primary being used was useful for general information about a specific pole, it did not provide a holistic view of how that information related to other assets across the Village. By integrating a spatial component, the department can now better analyze how individual parts of the system relate to each other and be more informed about the system moving forward.
Using GIS as a medium to store utility system information provides a significant advantage to governments at all levels when considering the time and money it can save in general maintenance and everyday labor. Viewing this kind of information spatially and relationally to surrounding features, as the Village can now do with its electric poles, expands the ability of both individual departments and overall government bodies to maintain higher performing systems and more provide more reliable services to their residents.
The GIS Consortium (GISC) has been awarded the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) Excellence Award for 2010. The organization is one of the oldest in the GIS industry started back in the late 1960's. The GITA's Excellence Award is an overall industry award that recognizes a user organization for its outstanding application of geospatial technology. Candidates for the Excellence Award demonstrate dedication, insight and a high degree of initiative in implementing, managing and expanding multifaceted geospatial systems incorporating multiple applications that reach across their organization.
In November the GISC submitted a six page application outlining the GISC model. The article outlined GISC's leadership and insight in the GIS industry along with the dedication of the Board. The article highlighted the business accomplishments of the GISC and the benefits attained by the GISC member communities. Past recipients of the Excellence Award are XCel Energy in Minneapolis, Duke Power Company Charlotte, and Telefonica in Sao Paulo.
The Village of Oak Brook contains a number paths and trails including multi-use paths in Fullersburg Woods. The paths run through Central Park and many of the residential subdivisions. They provide residents and visitors the opportunity to stay fit and explore the village. In order to assist residents and visitors the Village hired an outside vendor to create a bike path map showing the location of the various paths throughout the village as well as important places of interest such as the Drake Hotel and Historic Graue Mill.
While this map was useful for a general overview of the bike paths across the village did not include detailed information such as ownership and bridge locations. In order to create a more detailed and accurate map, the GIS department was contacted to revise and update the bike path map.
The new bike path map included additional bike paths that had been added since the publication of the old map. Since the old map had not been updated since 2005, some bike paths were missing and some places of interest were added and removed. Bridge locations were also added to inform the public of crossings.
In order to improve the maintenance of the bike paths, the paths were broken into categories based on ownership/maintenance. All village owned paths on the street were color coded as blue, park district paths were color coded as purple, all other village owned properties were color coded as red and all other paths including forest preserve paths were color coded as orange. These categories allow village staff to quickly identify who was responsible for each path in order to quickly make repairs should they arise. The on road and off road classifications also proved to be a useful resource for the public as they could easily identify the surface type of the paths.
Garbage collection is an essential service provided by municipal government that, in many communities, has become ingrained in the weekly routine of community residents. While collecting garbage seems like a straight forward process, often there are weeks or months of planning that are necessary to determine pickup locations for a given route that are efficient in both time and resources. Recently, the Village of Winnetka Public Works department decided to reallocate their garbage collection pickup locations to help maximize the efficiency of each truck driver’s route. To assist with this, the Village GIS department provided support during both the planning and implementation stages of the project.
The first step in developing new garbage collection zones was to determine how the current pickup locations related to each other spatially within the Village. Prior to integrating GIS into this project, the Village used a series of address lists to determine the truck driver’s routes. These lists often had overlapping address ranges, which could lead to confusion for new or replacement drivers. This also did not provide an option for the drivers to see how the addresses were distributed in relation to each other, which could often lead to them taking an inefficient route to pickup each address. Using these address lists, the GIS department mapped out each collection area and provided a map to the Public Works department for review. The map showed the department how the driver’s routes were distributed across the Village, which allowed them to notice several inefficiencies that were not obvious using the address lists alone. Utilizing the maps, the department was able to successfully reallocate the pickup locations within the collection areas to improve both driver time and resource efficiency.
To help implement the new routes, the GIS department developed a series of smaller maps that are used in the garbage trucks to assist the driver’s in learning the new pickup locations. The maps not only help the drivers to see where new pickup locations are in each collection area, but they also allow for the drivers to see the street layout within the collection area to help determine the best possible pickup route. By combining the reallocated collection locations determined by the department office staff with the ability to see the Village streets in the surrounding area, the maps provide a powerful tool for drivers to use in determining the best collection route.
By using GIS as a tool for visualizing its garbage pickup locations, the Village has been able to improve the efficiency of the driver’s routes while not reducing the level of service provided to its residents. While the address lists used previously can still be referenced for individual pickup locations, the maps act as a supplemental, quick reference tool to see how these locations are distributed spatially across the Village.
The Village of Wheeling is responsible for the landscaping and upkeep for various public areas throughout the village limits. There are roughly 160 different areas ranging from village owned property such as village hall, to areas along streets such as right-of-ways and cul-de-sacs. Each year the village bids out the job and provides a large map for reference. This map contains numbers that represent locations detailed in an accompanying document. The document provides basic location information, a description, and the type of services needed in that area i.e. mowing or landscaping. The village asked the GIS department to simplify the process and provide an updated product to be given to any company bidding on the project.
For this particular project, a map book was created to provide the best combination of location and attribute information. Each map page corresponds to a section of the village that needs to be maintained referenced in the document that is given out. Every page contains an aerial image with the specific area outlined as well as a smaller map to show where the specific area is in relation to the rest of the village. The pages also contain the attribute information for each location such as the class, location ID, address or relative location, and a brief description. The pages are provided in standard PDF format for ease of use.
By converting the project from a large map and an accompanying document to a map book, the entire process has been simplified. The workers in the field no longer have to cross-reference a document to a large map to determine what needs to be done in a specific location, all the information is provided directly on the map book page. Because the maps are standard letter size, they can be easily transported in a binder or reprinted if there is a change or a page is lost. By using GIS, the village is able to provide more accurate and legible information to any company that provides landscaping and mowing services for all village owned properties.
Emergencies happen when we least expect them which is why it is so important to be prepared. Situations arise in communities that, with the right preparations, can be easily contained and remedied. The Village of Skokie has a Geographic Information System (GIS) that incorporates mapping and analysis to better understand and prepare for emergencies.
Working with the Village’s Fire Chief, who heads the emergency management team, the GIS Specialist was able to create zones for damage assessments to be used in the field after a disaster takes place. This product was initially used during a training exercise in which a simulated tornado made its way through the village. Search grids help the field crew by limiting and defining their area to search. A map of the specific grid is given to the field worker who then searches and documents locations of damage and other obstructions. The final damage assessment is sent back to the emergency operations center to be reviewed.
GIS has given the emergency management team another angle in preparing for emergencies. Mapping software has been installed on laptops for mobile use and large poster size maps were printed for visual aides. Preparation is crucial to sustaining and overcoming any emergency and GIS provides an extra tool to help that process.
The Village of Riverside 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 vehicles that are registered to a Riverside address and a new sticker is required every year. Sticker fees range from $65 to $95 depending on the type of vehicle.
Initially a review of purchases in the previous year was performed in the Finance office to identify businesses that did not renew their stickers. Next GIS was utilized to compare all residential addresses 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. Significant penalties are enforced upon individuals who do not purchase a sticker after which they may purchase a current year sticker. The village web page concerning village stickers is available here or under the ‘For Residents’ tab on the www.riverside.il.us home page.
Considering penalty fees and potential new applicants a modest estimate of generated revenue to the village resulting from these efforts would be 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.
Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Lincolnshire. The Village of Lincolnshire Police Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Police Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.
The Dispatch Department uses a very advanced Computer Aided Dispatch System or (CAD). This system handles all aspects of emergency dispatch from the initial call to proper resource dispatch. The system also performs very important incident reporting activities which the Police Department uses to review and analyze their activities. The common component in all of these functions is location and mapping.
The Village of Lincolnshire GIS department works both with the Police Department and their CAD vendor to load and update all mapping the data needed to support the system. This includes providing highly accurate mapping data developed by the Village of Lincolnshire to the CAD vendor for loading into their system. The provided mapping data includes extremely accurate street centerline files, address point locations, all district and beat layers, common places layer, and highly detailed aerial imagery. This mapping data is also maintained by the Village of Lincolnshire and is updated by the GIS Department reducing the overall cost of not relying on a third party vendor and lesser quality of data. This also ensures the mapping layers are as current as possible and makes it possible to update and refresh changes when needed with minimal effort.
In summary, every phone call to dispatch uses some form of the provided data to record and assist Dispatch and Officers with the most up to date and current information. The data is also indirectly consumed by the public in large including Village residents because they benefit in a highly efficient and accurate system when consuming E911 services.
Understanding the trends of what is happening in the housing market is difficult to do especially if you are not in the realty business. Houses may be sold, rented or even more dramatic, torn down in order to build a new one. In this article we will focus on two parts of the housing market that at times can have a significant impact on a local community, housing demolitions and property foreclosures.
Unless you are out driving the streets everyday it may be tough to locate all of the homes in a community that have been torn down or are vacant due to foreclosures. At the Village of Morton Grove, like many other community governments, they have had a permitting application in place for many years in order to help them keep track of important construction operations that require permits. On top of this software, the village has also invested in a service to retrieve property foreclosure information from the internet. But how do you analyze all of these records spatially in order to know if there are any trends in housing within your community borders? For this difficulty alone, it makes analysis a tough thing to do unless you have a visual component such as an accurate map.
This is where the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department was able to lend a helping hand. The ability to retrieve records from the permitting application in the form of an address and knowing what type of permit was issued (i.e. single family demolition) was a strong step in the right direction. By having a simple common denominator in the form of an address allowed the two departments to work with each other and better yet, allowed these addresses to be displayed spatially on a map. By using a tool called geocoding, the GIS was able to search a address data file and locate where an address falls on a particular parcel. Moreover, this same geocoding process was followed for property foreclosure information. Once these addresses were converted into a true geographical location, they could then be represented on a map allowing building officials to begin analyzing the trends that are happening on the streets within their community.
Without being able to locate these demolitions and property foreclosures geographically, it is very difficult to analyze what trends may be forming on a daily basis. Moreover, instead of leaving these records hidden in a database it is much easier to give this data a geographical location in the form of a map which in turn can to tell the village board what is really happening to the homes within their community.
Overall, it is very important for a community to see the big picture in order to identify where problems have occurred and where new ones may arise in the future. Moreover, it is also worthy to note how multiple departments can work together at identifying these problems in the first place so that they may plan more affectively for what be coming on the road ahead.
Emergencies happen when we least expect them which is why it is so important to be prepared. Situations arise in communities that, with the right preparations, can be easily contained and remedied. The Village of Lincolnwood has a Geographic Information System (GIS) that incorporates mapping and analysis to better understand and prepare for emergencies.
Working with the Village’s Fire Chief, who heads the emergency management team, the GIS Specialist was able begin the process of incorporating the GIS for use in emergency situations. This process began with the installation of software and continues with training the individuals on the Emergency Management Team in the technology. Not only does the Village have to train employees in the use of GIS software, but also has to prepare paper maps incase power and printing are disabled during the emergency.
GIS has given the emergency management team another angle in preparing for emergencies. Mapping software has been installed on multiple workstations and large poster size maps were printed for visual aides. Preparation is crucial to sustaining and overcoming any emergency and GIS provides an extra tool to help that process.
Police, Fire, and EMS dispatch plays a very important and crucial role for any State, County, City, or Village; and any Dispatcher, Police officer, Firemen, or EMT will tell you that timing and accurate information is everything. The Village of Glenview utilizes Geography Information Systems (GIS) by integrating GIS data into their New World Systems (software mapping applications) for accurate computer aided dispatch. GIS and NWS give dispatchers the ability to supply all Police, Fire, and EMS with the most up to date address locations.
Before GIS; Police, Fire, EMS, and Dispatch had to rely heavily on paper maps (or no maps at all) which were not 100% accurate and in some cases hand drawn. Now, by using the power of Geography Information Systems and New World Systems Police Officers, Firemen, EMT, and Dispatchers are able to respond to calls much faster and more effectively, which in return saves time (it would take to loop up the address) and money (gas and loss productivity.)
In conclusion, as States, Counties, Cities\Villages grow so does the demand for Police, Fire, and EMS along with the demand for accurate data and mapping. Not only does GIS allow for this to happen, it can also assist with decision making on critical cost saving issues.
Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Glencoe. The Village of Glencoe Public Safety Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Public Safety Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.
The Dispatch Department uses a very advanced Computer Aided Dispatch System or (CAD). This system handles all aspects of emergency dispatch from the initial call to proper resource dispatch. The system also performs very important incident reporting activities which the Police Department uses to review and analyze their activities. The common component in all of these functions is location and mapping.
The Village of Glencoe GIS department works both with the Public Safety Department and their CAD vendor to load and update all mapping the data needed to support the system. This includes providing highly accurate mapping data developed by the Village of Glencoe to the CAD vendor for loading into their system. The provided mapping data includes extremely accurate street centerline files, address point locations, all district and beat layers, common places layer, and highly detailed aerial imagery. This mapping data is also maintained by the Village of Glencoe and is updated by the GIS Department reducing the overall cost of not relying on a third party vendor and lesser quality of data. This also ensures the mapping layers are as current as possible and makes it possible to update and refresh changes when needed with minimal effort.
In summary, every phone call to dispatch uses some form of the provided data to record and assist Dispatch and Officers with the most up to date and current information. The data is also indirectly consumed by the public in large including Village residents because they benefit in a highly efficient and accurate system when consuming E911 services.
Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Deerfield. The Village of Deerfield Police Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Police Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.
The Dispatch Department uses a very advanced Computer Aided Dispatch System or (CAD). This system handles all aspects of emergency dispatch from the initial call to proper resource dispatch. The system also performs very important incident reporting activities which the Police Department uses to review and analyze their activities. The common component in all of these functions is location and mapping.
The Village of Deerfield GIS department works both with the Police Department and their CAD vendor to load and update all mapping the data needed to support the system. This includes providing highly accurate mapping data developed by the Village of Deerfield to the CAD vendor for loading into their system. The provided mapping data includes extremely accurate street centerline files, address point locations, all district and beat layers, common places layer, and highly detailed aerial imagery. This mapping data is also maintained by the Village of Deerfield and is updated by the GIS Department reducing the overall cost of not relying on a third party vendor and lesser quality of data. This also ensures the mapping layers are as current as possible and makes it possible to update and refresh changes when needed with minimal effort.
In summary, every phone call to dispatch uses some form of the provided data to record and assist Dispatch and Officers with the most up to date and current information. The data is also indirectly consumed by the public in large including Village residents because they benefit in a highly efficient and accurate system when consuming E911 services.
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.
Within the sector of local government there are many important services that a community provides for their residents. Among the long list, one service that often gets a lot of discussion is the condition of the streets, or better yet, the street resurfacing program. Whether residents file a complaint about the vast number of potholes on a street or someone passing through town inquires about a refund for a road induced flat tire, the general condition of a street attracts a fair amount of attention. With these ideas in mind the City of Park Ridge decided to take a different approach at surveying the condition of their streets in an effort to better understand the current state of their road infrastructure.
The city decided that to maximize the use of their time and money they would create a street resurfacing inventory with the help of the Geographic Information System (GIS). The GIS would allow the city to analyze the conditions of all streets from one central location as well as provide them with the ability to query for what streets rated poorly in what particular year. In turn, this would help the Engineering Department by keeping some of the work in-house and also allow for an archive of the street conditions per a given year at the click of a mouse.
Back in 2007 the Engineering Department decided to migrate their paper documents for this program into a GIS database. The database was very simple as it only included the name of the street, the “To” and “From” street names for a specific street segment and the rating each segment was given. Each year since it’s inception the database is given a new field for archiving purposes. This field will retain the same street ratings as the previous year until the Engineering Technician is able to update them via field checks. Not only does this archiving method allow for the analysis of street degradation over the years it also helps the Engineering Department answer simple questions from the residents like “When was my street was last paved?” or “Why wasn’t my street paved this year?”
What used to take hours of research by way of reviewing paper documents now only takes a few seconds with a simple check in the database. The Engineering Department does understand that the archived data only goes back a few years but are confident that having their data in a centralized database will pay off big moving forward into the future. Furthermore, although the legwork for migrating the paper documents into a GIS database was a bit long, the benefit for having this data in a digital format has made the investment in GIS worthwhile.
In conclusion, community projects that require definitive answers usually require a systematic approach. In the example listed above it easy to see that using GIS allowed the Engineering Department of Park Ridge to answer some serious questions in regards to an important community service, street resurfacing.
The City of Highland Parks contains a vibrant downtown full of many service-orientated businesses that wish to provide outdoor seating for their customers. The City of Highland Park requires these businesses to apply for a permit, which allows outdoor seating. One of the main purposes of the permit is ensuring that the outdoor seating locations do not cause a public safety hazard by obstructing the pedestrian traffic or by being too close to the street
Part of the permit application process requires the requester to submit a hand drawn map showings were the tables and or chairs are located. They must also diagram a five-foot clear walkway around or through the outdoor seating area. These hand drawn maps create many issues including, legibility, not drawn to scale, and inaccurate measurements. Previously these drawings required field verification by a city employee. These field verification often held up the permit process as the person processing the permit had to wait for verification from the person who checked the site in the field.
In 2006, the City of Highland Park asked the GIS Department to create digital maps for these permits. The GIS approach held many advantages. The five-foot clear walkways were accurately applied to each map. Map symbols representing correct table and chair alignments provide an accurate display of the site setup. Furthermore, the digital maps contain other obstructions, such as planters, lights and trees. By creating the maps in standard scales, users can accurately measure distances on them. Field checks are not longer required to verify the site as most issues are reviewed on the paper copies of the maps
The maps are digital products that are easily updated as businesses makes changes to their outdoor seating areas. Many of the same businesses apply for these permits every Spring. Because the permits contain existing maps from previous years, it removes the cost of creating new maps every year. GIS was effectively used to make previously manually intensive process into a quicker automated and more accurate process.
The Village of Lincolnwood is not within a park district, but provides its residents with an in-house parks and recreation department. Over the years, Lincolnwood has refined and added services to offer residents with a wide array of programs. Programs include summer camps, adult softball leagues, a farmers market and much more. In order to provide service in the best possible way, Lincolnwood has applied for accreditation through the Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD). This is a voluntary evaluation which provides feedback to improve the delivery of services and programs. If, at the end of the audit, the Village proves it has met specific guidelines set by the IAPD, it will have earned the Distinguished Accreditation.
Geographic Information System (GIS) played a large role in the application process. Part of the accreditation application process involved highlighting the parks in maps specific to their location in the Village. Showing the parks with a buffer around it, the Village, using GIS, was able to depict service areas for each park. Parks are put into three categories depending on size: mini, neighborhood, and community. Mini Parks are one acre or less and service an area of ¼ mile while neighborhood parks are between one and twenty-five acres and service ½ mile in all directions. The Village of Lincolnwood currently does not have a park in the Community Park category.
In the end, GIS has provided a visual reference to areas where residents have access to parks. Showing all the parks and their overlapping service areas has been a great resource in the application process. Supplying quality maps and having the ability to analyze the locations in a geographical way has proved how important GIS was in this process.
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.
During the winter holiday seasons, local municipalities often will setup a series of decorations or lighting displays to celebrate the holidays and provide a fun attraction for the community’s residents. While the amount of decorations on display is mainly regulated by a community’ budget, some times these restrictions can come from a lack of existing space or resources for displaying or powering a certain decoration setup. For the Village of Winnetka, this was the case for a business district area located at the northern end of the Village. While many of the businesses and residents in this area wanted to have more lights displayed in the areas numerous trees, there were not sufficient power sources available to accommodate this request. To determine the best solution for this problem, the Public Works and Water and Electric departments used GIS to assist with the planning and mapping of numerous proposed scenarios.
Before any solutions to this issue could be considered, the tree locations and existing lighting setup of the project area needed to the inputted into the Village’s GIS system. This information was provided to the GIS department by the Public Work’s Forestry division, which is responsible for ordering, installing, and maintaining the lights before and during the holiday season. Once this data was inputted, an initial map of the lighting arrangement was produced to allow the departments to review the existing lighting and determine potential locations for additional lights. From this preliminary map, three light display scenarios were developed by the Water and Electric department based on plausible sites for expanding the electric utilities in the area to provide the necessary power.
Once a final lighting arrangement was decided on by both departments, the expansion of the electric system and the additional lighting funds needed to be discussed and agreed upon by the Village Council. To assist with this, the GIS department developed two maps, one showing the proposed electric system additions and the other showing the proposed tree lightings overlaid with the existing tree lighting. By using a spatial tool to show, visually, the proposed plan for the holiday lighting in the project area, the Water and Electric and Public Works departments were able to provide a comprehensive view of the changes to the council, as well as other departments and agencies involved in the project. As a result, the proposed lighting arrangement was approved and is currently being implemented for the current year’s holiday season and into the future.
Prior to GIS being used to assist with the Village of Winnetka holiday lighting expansion proposal, the project information was stored in a series of excel spreadsheets and other document formats and was not organized across the involved Village departments. With the necessary project data now developed in a spatial framework, the Village has a comprehensive and organized inventory of both the past and future holiday lighting plans to assist with any future expansions or existing project alterations.
JULIE (Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators) is a not-for-profit corporation that provides homeowners and professional excavators with a place to call when planning to dig. Before any ground breaking occurs, the homeowner or excavator has to call JULIE and answer questions about the excavation. JULIE will then notify its members with underground utilities in that area to be marked. Because the Village of Wheeling is a member of JULIE and owns a majority of the sewer and water lines in the village, they are responsible for going out and marking utility locations.
Previously, municipalities indicated to JULIE the location of utility lines according to quarter-section numbers from large plat maps. If a community had just one utility feature in a quarter section, any excavation in that quarter section would require notification to the municipality and field verification of the location. This has lead to many erroneous calls and locates to areas where no actual municipal underground utility existed, even in neighboring communities.
JULIE is now allowing municipalities to submit boundaries, using GIS, based on their utility systems to be used in JULIE's notification system in place of the quarter section method used in the past. This submission can potentially cut down the number of JULIE related service calls a community will receive and perform, saving the community in JULIE costs per notification and time for conducting unneeded locates.
The Village of Wheeling has taken advantage of this opportunity and submitted a new boundary that solely encompasses the utilities in the village. This will result in the village not having to respond to JULIE locates outside of the village limits saving time and money. Without GIS, the village would have had to keep the current boundary and potentially waste even more money and time with any future JULIE locates.
Addresses play an important role in the day to day activities of the Village of Lincolnshire whether it is for water billing information, permits or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link to answering such questions what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in?
In order to create a centralized location for the address information in Lincolnshire, a master address database was created in the Geographic Information System (GIS). This database contains address information from several sources including water billing, community development and the official address map produced by the village. In the database, each address follows the United States Postal standard with a pre direction, address number, street, pre modifier (such as street or avenue) and a post direction.
Every address in the database is represented by a point feature known as an address pin point. This point has specific x and y coordinates that allow it to be placed in a known location on the earth. This point is linked to a table containing information about that particular address including a PIN number, parcel information and assessor information.
The address pin point is typically placed in the center of the corresponding parcel. Using aerial imagery and building information, this point can be placed at the entrance of the main building to better depict the location of the address. Moreover, this address is stored as a primary address pin point. A secondary pin point is established for buildings and parking lots that have the same address as the main building, but are located on another parcel.
Address pin points allow for quick and simple retrieval of data at a particular location. Additional data layers including utilities, subdivisions and library districts can be overlaid onto the address pin point to quickly determine the location of the nearest fire hydrant to a property or the number of homes within a particular library district. This eliminates the need for village staff to check multiple sources for information which essentially can save both time and money.
Since the address pin points are directly tied to a database, any additions or deletions can be quickly made and stored as a saved edit. Addresses can also be labeled and set to a defined scale. Prior to the creation of the database the village had to manually update every address on a paper map annually with any changes to the community boundary, parcels and streets. This took a significant amount of time depending on the amount of changes in a particular year. Also due to the large scale of the map, reading addresses in highly dense areas such as apartment complexes or townhomes proved to be difficult. In GIS, these addresses can be viewed electronically and maps can be created at any scale in order to easily view and locate addresses.
Overall, it is easy to see how the creation of a centralized address database will assist every department throughout the village. For example, the Community Development Department can quickly locate an address and determine which zoning district it is apart of without having to search a zoning map or permits. The Public Works Department will be able to identify and notify all of the residents that will be impacted when a water main break occurs and the Police and Fire Departments will be able to locate and respond to an emergency call at a particular address. All in all it is safe to say that the enhancements a village will receive by having an accurate address database will become known as the GIS programs continues to evolve and relationships with other departments continue to strengthen.
Crime happens. Crimes are committed randomly, deliberately, while others are just crimes of opportunity. The Village of Skokie’s Police Department has been using Geographic Information System (GIS) to better understand where and when crimes are committed. By using geographic analysis, the Police Department can identify hotspots of criminal activity.
Geographic analysis of crimes helps the police department classify and patrol certain areas that generally have more crime. By mapping crimes the police can visually see clusters of like offenses. Skokie also has a tool in the Police Department that bridges the gap between the Crime database and mapping by creating a file that is easily used in the Village’s GIS, already populated with crimes. This eliminates time needed for the GIS Specialist or Police Department to format a spreadsheet of crimes to be used in the mapping process. Streamlining the process enables the police to use the most current data while using the least amount of time to accomplish their goal.
In the end, mapping and analyzing crimes helps the police better understand what goes on in the community. By finding clusters and hotspots, the police can patrol higher risk areas to better deter criminal activity.
A sign inventory allows for the quick identification of signs for replacement based on criteria such as age and condition or high vandalism areas. It can be used to manage personnel and maximize productivity if combined with work orders and maintenance activities as well as provide for supplemental information in map products as was done recently in a pedestrian safety assessment near Ames Elementary School in Riverside.
Presently the Riverside sign inventory consists only of traffic control signs including stop signs, yield signs, one way signs and the like. The system Geographic Information System (GIS) is setup, however, to include any kind of sign such as parking restriction signs and road name signs as well. Inclusion of these additional signs would create a more complete inventory.
Each sign is additionally provided a relationship to the post or structure that supports it. That way multiple signs can be added to existing support structures and if a support structure is damaged or missing the inventory will provide the information to identify what signs were on that structure. Potential lies in the fact that other infrastructure may be related to a post as well. For example a street light post may not only support the street light, but also signs.
Recently the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) revised the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standards to promote increased safety on the nation’s streets and highways. As of January 22, 2008 there is a minimum sign retroreflectivity mandate meant to improve the visibility of traffic signs at night. Due to these changes state and local entities will be required over time to assess their signage, develop a replacement plan, replace non-conforming warning and regulatory signs, and eventually replace street name signs. Aware of these new regulations the GIS inventory can be utilized to prepare for and manage these phases of sign improvements.
One of the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) developments in Oak Brook has been the creation of two maps showing the capital improvement road projects from 2010-2014 and from 2015-2019. Prior to the creation of these maps, all of the road capital improvement projects were stored in a pavement management system or PMS. This contains information on the portion of the road to be resurfaced, the type of resurfacing to occur (overlay, microsurfacing, etc.) and the year in which each is going to occur. For example, a road that is microsurfaced in 2009 could have an overlay in 2010.
The Pavement management system while extensive, is not practical. Previously, when residents had a question as to when a road was going to be resurfaced, the engineering department would have to search through the PMS to locate that particular street. This proved to be time consuming and a waste of staff time and resources.
In order to visualize the road projects over the next 10 years, the existing road centerline was broken into segments based on the limits of resurfacing. Information such as the resurface type and year were added to the roads. Using this information, two maps color coding the road segments by year of resurfacing were created. The first map color coded the roads from 2010-2014 and the second map showed all road resurfacing projects from 2015-2019. The two maps were published to the village website as a reference for village residents.
In the past few years, the Village of Norridge has contracted a company to come out and take an inventory of all the trees within the village limits. In addition to the location of each tree, the company inventoried the species, trunk size, health, and other descriptive information. Although the database that was created from the information has been useful, the village was looking to better utilize the information.
The GIS specialist was asked to map out each tree location using address information from the database and aerial photography. A point was placed for each tree in the right of way in front of the address listed in the database. The point was then moved to the location of the tree by using the aerial photography to narrow down where in front of the lot the tree was located. For areas with multiple trees on the same lot, special location instructions were included in the database. By mapping out each location, the village was able to get a visual representation of the tree dispersion.
With each tree now visible on a map, the village was able to determine what areas were lacking trees and should be the focus of any future plantings. The village was also able to see a visual representation of any tree that are susceptible to diseases i.e. elms and ash trees, allowing them to see what areas of the village would be most affected. By using GIS, the Village of Norridge was able to get a different perspective on already existing information. This new information has allowed them to make informed decisions on the future of the village’s trees.
According to federal law, “Adult Uses” are protected uses under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and if a community does not provide a sufficient amount of land area for this use to exist, the municipality can be considered as violating free speech. Furthermore, this municipality could end up in Federal Court.
Morton Grove drafted regulations in their zoning ordinance in 1998. At that time, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that 3% of a municipality’s total land area should be available for an Adult Use location. In addition, the State of Illinois adopted legislation that required adult uses to be a distance of no less than 300 feet from a residential area, church, park, or school. Adult Entertainment Facilities in the Village of Morton Grove were made special uses in the M-2 General Manufacturing District only, and met both federal and state regulations at the time. Based on more recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, the new constitutional test is that “Adult Uses” must be allowed as of right in a location that comprises either 1% of the total land area of the municipality or 5% of the total non-residential land area; thus the reason for conducting this study.
In regards to these new rulings the Village of Morton Grove, not only wanted to determine which of the newly prescribed land areas would yield the least amount of acreage they would need to make available for an adult use, but also wanted to determine if they could increase the distance from a residential area, church, park, or school in which an Adult Entertainment Facility could be located from the previous 300 feet buffer to 500, 700, or even 1,000 feet. All of this of course would be dependent on the possible amount of land area inside of the M2 Manufacturing District that could satisfy the new Supreme Court rulings. The project challenge now resided in finding enough land area inside of the M-2 Manufacturing District to comply with the federal rulings, increase the buffer distance, and try and keep an new state laws an Adult Entertainment Facilities from locating on major thoroughfares. The first step was to determine the acreage for 1% of the total land area, and 5% of the non-residential land area. This was calculated very efficiently by using the GIS system, which showed that the 1% of total land area was 32.75 acres and the 5% of non-residential land was 26.47 acres.
Therefore, if the Village of Morton Grove was able to find at least 26.47 acres inside of the M-2 Manufacturing District, and not on a major thoroughfare, they could then start measuring out the possible distances from residential areas, churches, parks, or schools to see if an increase from the original 300ft buffer to either 500, 700, or 1,000ft was feasible.
- Would there be enough usable land inside of the M-2 Manufacturing District to conclude this study?
- Would the Village of Morton Grove be able to increase their buffer and strengthen their ordinance on Adult Entertainment
These sorts of questions are what got Senior Planners investigating the use of GIS for its time saving techniques and accurate analysis of the village’s land composition. Now it was up to the GIS Specialist, with assistance from the Senior Planner, to calculate the possibilities of increasing the strength of the village ordinance on “Adult Uses.” Facilities? The GIS Specialist for the Village of Morton Grove was contacted by the Planning Department in regards to this project and a meeting was held to exemplify the ease of this analysis by using the GIS.
The first primary goal was to obtain a center point for the entire M-2 Manufacturing District in order to get a visual display on where parcels with a larger land area lied close to this center point. By doing so this would help ensure that a larger buffer has a better chance of being implemented without affecting residential areas, churches, parks, or schools The second objective was to start collecting parcels that totaled at least 26.47 acres that did not lie on major thoroughfares. Once this criterion was met the GIS Specialist was able to create multiple buffers at the 300, 500, 700, and 1,000ft ranges in order to see what areas, if any, outside of the M-2 Manufacturing District were affected. Furthermore, this part of the analysis allowed the GIS to prove whether or not a new ordinance could be written with a stronger restriction placed on Adult Entertainment Facilities. Even better, this analysis saved the village planners time and inaccuracies from attempting to measure these distances by hand. The GIS provided the answer and it was apparently obvious that the Village of Morton Grove could indeed increase their buffer distance from residential areas, churches, parks, or schools from the original 300ft restriction to a 700ft buffer restriction as long as the Forest Preserve was not included.
“The GIS saved the analysis and we can share it with other communities that may want to do the same thing when/if they update their codes. Maybe the ease of this with GIS will serve as a wake up call to all the communities that haven't but should update their adult use regulations to avoid any legal challenges!”(Jacobson, B. 2006)
The Village of Glenview is currently applying for a roadway improvement Grant Application for Chestnut Ave (from Lehigh Ave to Waukegan Rd.) In this process, a key component for consideration is the economic impact to the neighboring community of a roadway project, both short term (construction jobs) and long term (improved ability of customers to access stores, productivity increases due to shorter travel times, and possibility for future area redevelopment. ) It is the Village’s responsibility to demonstrate how a project meets this criteria.
Utilizing the power of Geography Information Systems (GIS) the Chestnut Ave Corridor was analyzed and along with a Site map; Business, Demographic, Income, and Executive summaries were generated. The GIS Department used a free application called Business Analyst to generate these reports and map. In addition to the reports and map, the Village has hired a Financial consultant to help them prepare the “Economic Competitiveness” section of the grant application. Business Analyst is a tool in which they use on a regular basis and charge an hourly rate of $250.00.
In a time when the economy is like it is and municipalities are looking for ways to trim budgets without laying employees off, if it were not for the GIS more money than necessary would have been spent. In addition, Business Analyst is a free and cost effective\revenue generator application the Village can use for future projects.
The 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.
Everyday residents of the City of Park Ridge access other parts of their neighborhood and town via the use of a sidewalk. Although many citizens of the city do not pay much attention to these sidewalks, they are quick to notice when there is impedance such as a large crack or a bump up in the concrete. Moreover, these impedances can be labeled as trip hazards and can cause injury to residents. For this reason alone it is very important for the city to track all of these trip hazards and do their best to remove them from the sidewalk system.
Every year the Engineering Department for the city surveys all public sidewalks in town in order to verify which sidewalks need replacement. From there they document each sidewalk square that is to be replaced and assign that square to the address that it is in front of for billing purposes. Although this method was effective for the inventory part of the project it proved cumbersome when the project was turned over to the contractor who was to remove and replace each specific square. This is where the Engineering Department used the resources of the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department to help in the mapping and data inventory of these squares.
The ideas of using GIS in conjunction with the Sidewalk Inventory Program has been in progress for the past three years with each year proving more efficient in terms of collection and mapping processes. The newest collection method starts with the Engineering Technician driving the entire city and marking out all of the squares that are to be replaced on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Once these locations are marked down the Engineering Technician then comes in house and uses GIS’ ArcView application to select all Address PIN Points for each sidewalk square to be replaced and then copies it into a new GIS data layer. The reason the Address PIN Point layer is used is because it already incorporates the Parcel Identification Number (PIN) that can be later used to gather resident owner information for invoice and billing purposes, much more efficient than searching for all resident owner information and PIN numbers manually.
Since the new GIS data layer is created it easily allows for additions or removal of sidewalk squares if residents are unhappy with what was selected for them by the initial survey. Once the layer is finalized, it is then used to create a series of maps indicating where these sidewalk replacement squares are located as well as how many squares are to be replaced at that specific address. These maps are then printed off and handed out to the contractors doing the sidewalk replacements so that they are aware of where to go within the city and how many squares to replace at each location (see Image 1). From there, the contractors only need to look for the marks on the sidewalk square that were painted on by the Engineering Technician at the beginning of the inventory program, much more simple than looking through a spreadsheet for a particular address.
Since the inception of using GIS for the Sidewalk Inventory Program, the Engineering Technician has continually voiced how GIS has not only helped him but has also helped the Public Works Administrative Assistant with invoicing and billing as well as helping the contractors with a better streamlined work flow when operating in a foreign municipality. Overall, it is always great to see how multiple departments can come together with the use of GIS in order to make a once difficult task easier and more efficient.