Sidewalks are an important part of any neighborhood, especially one that is heavily urbanized. Residents need to have a safe option of getting around locally without always relying on something that has four wheels. At a recent Village Board meeting, the issue of some local streets not having sidewalks was brought to the village’s attention. A study was then requested to locate areas of the village that were missing sidewalks, and GIS was the tool selected in order to locate these sidewalk gaps.
For this study, only village owned streets were used. Carriage walks were considered existing sidewalks and treated as such. Using a variety of spatial queries based on existing GIS data, locations were found that contained sidewalk gaps on these local streets. The data was then broken down into three possible categories; The street could have sidewalks on both sides, a sidewalk on one side, or no sidewalks on either side. There also was a pattern of sidewalks existing in front of one house but not the next. Intermittent sidewalks seemed to be common throughout much of the community. Finally, the total number of linear feet of sidewalk gaps was calculated and a map was created for use at the next Committee of the Whole meeting. By using GIS, tedious and time consuming work by village staff of going block by block looking for sidewalk gaps and then calculating the total number of linear feet of those gaps was avoided.
Every community is faced with the task of tracking and maintaining a complete tree inventory within its municipal boundaries. There are a variety of reasons that an accurate inventory is important. With the emerald ash borer causing mass destruction of the ash tree population within the Chicago area, it is very vital to have a detailed inventory in order to monitor the spreading of this disease, or any other disease for that matter, as well as take the necessary steps to prevent the disease from spreading even further. Keeping track of the variety of species is also important not only for disease spreading but also for replanting purposes. Too many of the same species planted too close together causes disease to spread rapidly. An accurate inventory also proves beneficial in budget planning and answering individual resident’s questions regarding trees on a particular property. The Village of Lincolnwood has had all this information locked up in databases for years, but it never had an easy way to access this valuable information. GIS was chosen to be the most efficient solution to address this problem.
The tree data from the databases were tied into their respective addresses and then entered into GIS. A new custom layer was created and added to MapOffice Advanced where any community employee can access the data instantly. All the relevant attribute information is retrieved by clicking on a tree on the map. Currently, the inventory is updated through January 2009 with any additions or removals since then being updated when that data becomes available. Having this at their disposal, a village employee can access a variety of information just by searching by an address, rather than sifting through countless rows of a database looking for a certain tree. The time saved alone makes this a valued addition to MapOffice Advanced.
There is a constant need for road improvements and upgrades throughout a transportation network. However, there are usually insufficient funds available for a community to complete most of these projects. One potential solution to this problem is the Surface Transportation Program. The Surface Transportation Program provides federal funding to state departments of transportation. A portion of this funding is redistributed by IDOT to various Council of Mayors. Lincolnwood is a member of the North Shore Council of Mayors, which is currently accepting project requests for 2013 thru 2017. The one criterion for use of these grants is that the road must be a federally eligible road. There are two road improvement projects that the village is applying for that fall under this realm: adding a dedicated left hand turn lane on Central Avenue at the intersection with Pratt Avenue, and resurfacing Pratt Avenue from Lockwood Avenue to Crawford Avenue. It was determined that GIS would be utilized to prepare the necessary maps for the application process.
Maps were created for both site locations showing the extent and scope of the project. Regional maps were also created showing the location of the project in relation to the surrounding geographic area. These maps will then be used as part of the packet for the grant application that will be submitted by September 30th. If the grant application is approved, then the village will only be on the hook for a fraction of the construction costs rather than having to fund the project independently if it undertook these same projects without the grant.
Communities around the world are always looking for creative ideas to generate extra revenue streams, especially in down economies. Ideas that don’t involve adding or raising local taxes are always the most popular ones. An easy potential source of additional income that would keep local residents content is to lease village owned facilities to cell phone companies for the purpose of erecting cell phone towers to the top of village buildings. In order to assist with the marketing of this idea, it was decided that a GIS produced map would be a useful method to accomplish this goal.
A map was created showing the location of existing cell phone towers and their operators as well as village owned properties and buildings. One important detail to the map was the addition of the tallest height of each village owned building since this has a tremendous influence on a cell tower company’s decision on whether it would be a suitable location for a tower or not. By using the map as an illustration, the village can utilize this as a critical part of any future marketing campaign, while at the same time keep local residents happy without turning to them for the much needed additional revenue.
Pedal the Parks is a special event put on by the Village of Lincolnwood with the assistance of corporate sponsors from around the area. This event aims at highlighting the importance of physical activity while show casing the Village’s park system. The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) played an important role in planning this event which includes both a short and long route making this a family friendly event. Multiple departments coordinated and planned the routes for the enjoyment and safety of the participants. The short route contains about 2.5 miles while the long route will take you 6.3 miles while visiting 10 different parks. The event is set for May 19, 2012 from 10am to 3pm.
The Village of Lincolnwood Police Department creates an annual report to share with residents, Village staff, and the Village Board. The report outlines the achievements by the Police Department while also providing crime statistics. In order to better serve the residents, the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department worked with the Police Department to create maps to display the crime data visually by Police Beat. This creates more transparency and allows the Police Department to better assess the crime locations. In addition to providing visuals, the GIS can also provide spatial analysis which is important when trying to locate patterns of criminal activity.
The Village of Lincolnwood recently began collecting a village wide sign inventory. This inventory looks at satisfying a federal mandate requiring communities to establish and implement a sign inventory by January 2012. Using the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) software installed on a Toughbook laptop, Public Works employees have been able to collect 75% of the Village’s signs in less than one month while only working on this project part time. Advances in software have allowed the Village to “check out” software that could not be used in a disconnected environment in the past. Additionally, only a couple hours of training and map setup were required for this project. The Village is collecting data including sign location, type, size, condition, visibility and much more.
More information about the federal requirements can be found through the Federal Highway Administration’s website.
In the wake of this summer’s regional power outages, the Village of Lincolnwood made a decision to perform an audit on the Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) outage report with data from the entire year of 2010. The purpose of this audit was to determine the contributing factors of the power outages within the Village; specifically if equipment failure was a major contributor. The process for this project included analysis using the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). Using GIS, the Village could spatially reference outage location and combined with the tabular data supplied by ComEd, could summarize the elements that contributed to the outages. By looking at the data spatially, conclusions could be drawn much easier by the Village’s employees. After summarizing the data, it was found that trees, equipment failure, and weather were the largest contributing factors to the outages within the Village. The Village will now look at the areas where tree outages were prevalent and work with ComEd and the Village arborist to create a focused trimming program aimed at reducing the number of outages in these areas caused by fallen trees or limbs.
Every year the Cook County Assessor’s office sends out data to communities showing what the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) is of every parcel within their boundaries. The Village of Lincolnwood uses this data for two purposes – owner name and economic development. Both of these uses are extremely valuable to the Village. Since the data has a geographical reference, a Property Index Number or PIN, the Village can use its Geographic Information System (GIS) to harvest, analyze and create products. Lincolnwood depends on County data as a base for much of its GIS features. It is very important to work together with the County since we share infrastructure and geography.
Using the data provided by Cook County, Lincolnwood was able to incorporate it into MapOffice Advanced™, a specialized interactive mapping application for all GIS Consortium members. By linking the Cook County tabular data with Lincolnwood’s parcel data, they were able to publish the owner’s name, EAV, and taxes owed into MapOffice Advanced™. This simplifies the task of finding the owners name through a maze of County websites and provides internal staff answers about property value in regards to development.
Every year the Cook County Assessor’s office sends out data to communities showing what the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) is of every parcel within their boundaries. The Village of Lincolnwood uses this data for two purposes – owner name and economic development. Both of these uses are extremely valuable to the Village. Since the data has a geographical reference, a Property Index Number or PIN, the Village can use its Geographic Information System (GIS) to harvest, analyze and create products. Lincolnwood depends on County data as a base for much of its GIS features. It is very important to work together with the County since we share infrastructure and geography.
Using the data provided by Cook County, Lincolnwood was able to incorporate it into MapOffice™ Advanced, a specialized interactive mapping application for all GIS Consortium members. By linking the Cook County tabular data with Lincolnwood’s parcel data, they were able to publish the owner’s name, EAV, and taxes owed into MapOffice Advanced™. This simplifies the task of finding the owners name through a maze of County websites and provides internal staff answers about property value in regards to development.
The Village of Lincolnwood has been working extensively to connect their enterprise software to MapOffice Advanced™, the Village’s interactive mapping application. The new tool, Business Intelligence, connects the data from enterprise software to the mapping application by linking database servers and creating a web service to communicate to the application. This will enable the Village to view data which has an address associated with it, geographically.
By linking enterprise data to a spatial component such as MapOffice Advanced, the Village can analyze and visualize data that otherwise would be viewed in a table. Another aspect of this is the importance of publishing data that other departments and divisions do not have access to. By publishing data using MapOffice Advanced, the data custodian can limit who views the data because it can be fully integrated into the Village’s Active Directory.
Business Intelligence is a great tool that will promote data sharing and allow data to be viewed in a spatial context. Currently the Village is using it to complement New World Systems Dispatch software Police and will eventually incorporate RecTrac by Vermont Systems which the Parks and Recreation Department uses.
Communities in the GIS Consortium (GISC) all use MapOffice™, a web based mapping application that supports communities business processes. The GISC provides two versions of MapOffce to ensure that certain data and tools are not made available for external use. MapOffice™ Advanced, located only on the Village of Lincolnwood’s internal network, provides opportunity for the staff to request data to be integrated into the base map.
After the requests are made, business processes that the data will support are documented. Once this is completed the development of the custom layer is completed and loaded into the application for the Village’s internal use. Examples of the custom overlays include alley vacations (pictured), speed humps, traffic circles, parking restrictions, and street responsibility. These layers are all used to analyze questions and better understand the geography behind certain community issues.
The Village of Lincolnwood is holding its 34th annual Turkey trot on Sunday November 21, 2010. This event features multiple races including a 5k and 10k run, a 5k walk, and a Drumstick Dash for the children. During the planning phase of this event, the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) was utilized by preparing route maps as well as site plans for the pre and post race festivities. By using GIS the Parks and Recreation Department was able to visualize and share important aid station and registration information to all departments, including public safety, assisting in this annual event.
The Village of Lincolnwood, in an effort to reduce vehicular accidents and provide safer driving conditions within the Village, collected data for a line of sight ordinance. This ordinance targets areas where landscaping blocks the view of drivers turning to and from arterial roadways to residential streets. In order to accomplish this, GIS was used to provide the total number of intersections and to map data previously collected data such as intersections with a line of sight conflict as well as vehicular accidents at these locations. Data was gathered directly from Public Works staff as well as from the Village’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). GIS was then able to summarize this information quickly and accurately. This work assisted community staff members in the writing and passing of a Village ordinance to restrict the amount of obstructions.
The Village of Lincolnwood Development Department began a program aimed at creating better parking situations at strip malls throughout the Village. The Village began this campaign by gathering parking lot data consisting of number of spots and designations (Handicap), required spots determined by Village ordinance, as well as business information such as name, land use and business square footage. Assisting in this study, the Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist was able to take the address and business information, map it and create a visual representation of strip malls that have and do not have adequate parking. This study will assist in providing locating businesses where they can have proper amount of parking spaces. By analyzing this data, the Village is looking to prevent congestion and possible traffic flow disruption along adjoining streets.
The Village of Lincolnwood’s Geographic Information System (GIS) team has been hard at work developing tools to increase productivity and simplify employee’s workflows related to geographic data. Through MapOffice™ Advanced, a customized web mapping application, Village employees have many tools aimed at extracting tabular data using geographic contents.
The latest is the Water Main Isolation Tool, is aimed at providing Village water maintenance crews the ability to find all water valves connected to a section of water main. Water crews can now simply click on a water main and find all connected valves eliminating field work and research. This in turn will save not only time, but also water during a main break which can become very problematic during the winter months.
In addition to showing connected valves, the tool documents affected water hydrants, which have importance if a fire were to break out in the vicinity during a main break. Village water crews are very excited to use this new tool as they had said many good things during a demonstration last week. New tools are routinely published in MapOffice™ Advanced on a monthly basis.
The Village of Lincolnwood uses their Geographic Information System (GIS) to promote vacant businesses on their website, trying to lure new tenants into the area. Providing this information, not only gives developers an opportunity to see the statistics on the property, it provides a map to visualize the area. Currently, this map also provides traffic counts for major thorough-fares.
Automobile dealerships have become a staple in the Village over the years. By analyzing dealerships outside of Lincolnwood, the Village can ascertain the type of automaker not serviced in the area, and offer incentives to bring these dealerships into Lincolnwood.
GIS provides a visual context in which to analyze the data by plotting the dealerships on a map with the auto maker type. This project is just the beginning for Lincolnwood who plans to leverage their GIS to make more informed decisions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At the beginning of summer, the Village of Lincolnwood contracted a company to record video of the entire sewer system to find areas that needed to be upgraded and fixed. During this project, the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) was brought in to provide support by creating detailed maps depicting all manholes and gravity mains in the combined sewer system. Analysis was then done to create an address for each manhole. This was accomplished by using a specialized tool in the GIS to find the nearest address point to each manhole.
After the data and video had been collected, it was sent to the GIS Specialist for review. At this time it was determined that the video could be integrated into a map, so the end user could simply click on a manhole to see video of that particular stretch of sewer main. Once a manhole was clicked, a pop up would show data for that specific entity. A video also would be embedded into the popup with the user having full control. A link to a PDF report containing all information collected by sewer televising company is also provided.
This is a new way to provide information that would usually be a product by itself. The ability to embed the video will greatly reduce the Village’s time in finding which video belongs to what manhole. By directly linking the video to the manhole village staff can easily locate which video they would like to see.
At the beginning of summer, the Village of Lincolnwood contracted a company to record video of the entire sewer system to find areas that needed to be upgraded and fixed. During this project, the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) was brought in to provide support by creating detailed maps depicting all manholes and gravity mains in the combined sewer system. Analysis was then done to create an address for each manhole. This was accomplished by using a specialized tool in the GIS to find the nearest address point to each manhole.
After the data and video had been collected, it was sent to the GIS Specialist for review. At this time it was determined that the video could be integrated into a map, so the end user could simply click on a manhole to see video of that particular stretch of sewer main. Once a manhole was clicked, a pop up would show data for that specific entity. A video also would be embedded into the popup with the user having full control. A link to a PDF report containing all information collected by sewer televising company is also provided.
This is a new way to provide information that would usually be a product by itself. The ability to embed the video will greatly reduce the Village’s time in finding which video belongs to what manhole. By directly linking the video to the manhole village staff can easily locate which video they would like to see.
Over the past decade, communities throughout the mid-west have battled with invasive species. These Invasive species in our rivers and lakes have affected the way we use these natural resources. Likewise, our trees have become a focal point of disease and invasive species including the Emerald Ash Borer and Dutch Elm Disease. Because of this, it has become necessary to manage trees.
Urban forestry has evolved with the use of technology. Nature’s Path, a forestry consulting firm servicing the Village of Lincolnwood, was brought in to create a tree inventory which would be used to manage the Village’s trees. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), Nature’s Path created an inventory encompassing the entire village. All trees were logged on village right –of –ways, medians, and other village owned property while given attributes pertaining to the health, size, and age.
Using the tree inventory in GIS has helped Public Works service the village in a more timely fashion. We can now visually see the locations of certain classifications of trees on maps and provide geographic analysis. But this is not all. GIS creates ways to perform advanced queries and provides results in multiple formats – tabular and graphical. For example, if all the ash trees need to be located as a precaution to the Emerald Ash Borer, the locations can be provided within minutes in map or table form.
Knowing the quantity of trees that require servicing as well as the health and size assist in project planning. Since the ash borer and elm disease are regional issues, it is imperative that communities have easy access to tree data in order to better plan, manage, and share information on a larger scale.
The Village of Lincolnwood uses Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) from New World Systems which allows Police dispatchers to log emergencies and look up the necessary information to fulfill the emergency request. Technology has allowed the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) to be integrated into this process. The GIS portion of the CAD program allows dispatchers to search addresses and verify that an address exists within the community. In doing this, dispatchers can confirm that a location is serviced by their department, find what police beat/subbeat the location is in and see which officer is closest to the scene.
Creating a way for dispatchers to easily locate an area is imperative to the timely response during an emergency. It also helps to visually see the queried address on a map to easily locate the area in which the emergency is taking place. This method saves time from finding an address on a paper map. Digital maps that are used by the dispatchers also incorporate aerial photography. This allows dispatchers to see in the field, without leaving the dispatch office.
The use of the Village’s GIS has helped the police locate areas and find information in a timely manner. When people have emergencies, time is everything and GIS provides a way to easily find the important information to help provide a safer environment for residents.
The Village of Lincolnwood and other members of the Geographic Information System Consortium (GISC) have the ability to use a one of a kind application to assist the public. MapOffice™ Advanced is a mapping application that allows non-GIS Professionals to use local data resources to collect and distribute information through simple web navigation. This application is solely available on the village network. It is an intranet based application providing a convenient way for employees to access a wealth of visual and textual information without leaving the computer.
MapOffice™ Advanced allows users who have no formal training in Geographic Information System (GIS) to use the data in their daily workflows. By using this application, the Village can decrease costs and improve the efficiency of the workforce. In the past, when a resident called and inquired about a property’s zoning classification, an employee used to set the phone down, walk to a map on the wall and try to locate the address. This is now streamlined in MapOffice™ Advanced. Simply type in the address, click on ‘Parcel Summary’, and the zoning classification, along with other information related to the address appears. PIN numbers, links to the Cook County Assessor’s website, and school district information are also available.
Before GIS, the data was located in each department. Utility data was at public works, zoning classification in community development, etc. With the new approach, GIS centralizes the data, and publishes it for employees connected to the village’s network to access. This creates a powerful tool that can be utilized by every department.
Every year mother nature takes its best shot at northern Illinois bringing snow, ice and rain to every crack and crevice of our infrastructure. During the cold weather months, changes in temperature and moisture are continually creating a freeze and thaw cycle that batters our roads producing potholes and other concerns beneath the surface.
Considering that water mains reside below the surface of streets, sidewalks and driveways they are subject to heavy stress during the winter due to the freezing and thawing cycles that continually move the earth’s surface. Since water mains are not flexible, the slight movement of earth can cause tiny fractures and even eventual breaks. Once a fracture is created it most likely prone to break at some point in the future. Although this has been happening for years it is not until the implementation of the Geographic Information System (GIS) Department at the Village of Lincolnwood that research was done to attempt to indentify and predict where these breaks would happen. Whether it is the same pipe that continuously breaks every year or it is a water main that has never been broken since its installation the idea of tracking this information made GIS a viable option for analyzing this information within the village. As breaks occur every month they can be mapped out and stored within a GIS database for geographical location positions. Once the data has a position on the earth it is much easier to identify larger areas that contain a higher density of breaks or analyze why a certain area may have no water main breaks at all. From there, preventative measures such as replacing pipes or increasing the pipe size can be looked into as a method to limit the cost of repairs future water pipe repairs.
GIS creates an environment that can easily analyze geographic data and help facilitate decision making. By keeping records of all water main breaks in the GIS, the Village of Lincolnwood was able to locate and analyze problem areas as well as plan better for the future.
Using the village’s Geographic Information System (GIS), tabular data can be visualized and placed into geographically correct places. The Recreation Department, in conjunction with school districts 74 and 219, has created a free service for new residents who do not use English as their primary language to familiarize themselves with the community and its resources. This service includes a bus tour of important places in and around Lincolnwood.
The GIS department was asked to assist the Recreation Department by creating a map. Using GIS, the village was able to create a map for this event depicting useful resource centers as well as other important places such as the Post Office and grocery stores throughout the village. While GIS can be used for detailed geographic analysis, its roots as a mapping application can also be very beneficial. By placing and labeling points on a street map of Lincolnwood, residents can easily navigate and return to places of interest located on the map. Also, using this map can give the residents and village staff an overview of the sites not included on the bus tour just as much as the ones the ones that are. Included in the margin of this map was a list of sites outside of Lincolnwood’s boundary that are beneficial to new residents, thus providing one more additional and valuable resource.
By working together it is easy to note that GIS Department in conjunction with the Recreation Department have come together to help the residents of Lincolnwood find their way to resource centers located both inside and outside of the village.