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| TRACK: Municipal |
| Power to the People: Using ArcGIS Publisher to Share and Explore Geographic Information |
| Todd Gys, CDM |
| The ability to easily share geographic information among users has been somewhat limited in the options for exporting GIS data. Paper plots and exported PDFs are simple ways to present maps, but severely limit the way someone can interact with the data. Providing deeper access to a GIS can require the end user to invest in a GIS application such as ArcView, or require a developer to invest the time and resources to develop an online environment through ArcIMS or similar platforms. Using ArcGIS Publisher and ArcReader addresses this gap in data accessibility by providing more control over viewing and effectively using data than is afforded with paper maps or electronic exports.As a GIS administrator, using ArcGIS Publisher allows data and mapping to be shared with anyone, even if they do not have access to ArcMap. The extension provides settings to control how data is viewed and used, so packaging data for the public is secure and effective. Packaging data for field applications is extremely useful as well; published maps can be explored without the added cost of an ArcGIS license on a field laptop. For the end user familiar with GIS, but that may not have the time, resources, or desire to maintain a GeoDatabase, using ArcReader provides data viewing and plotting tools that far exceed conventional electronic exports such as PDFs, especially when the ArcReader environment is customized. For the novice, it provides an easy way to view and print maps, and more importantly, to get familiar with what GIS data can offer. This presentation will first cover the administrative use of ArcGIS Publisher for packaging, securing and sharing data, and then move forward to cover the end user experience of using ArcReader to explore published maps. |
| Strategies for Self-Funding Municipal GIS |
| Jayson Brennen, CDM; Brett Horr, Town of York CDM |
| Do the words "budget crunch" mean anything to you? In many cases, an initial investment is made to implement GIS but not enough funding is provided to adequately sustain the system and expand it over time. This presentation will outline unique ways to fund the maintenance and growth of a municipal GIS environment without affecting the tax rate. It will also highlight how York, Maine self funds their GIS through fees tied to building permits. Using the strategies discussed, municipalities can more effectively fund the maintenance, update, and growth of their systems. |
| Road Surface Management System (RSMS)Using ArcMap with MS Access and VBA |
| Tim Gunn, P.E., City of Concord, NH |
| This is a work in progress of a Road Surface Management System (RSMS) developed using ArcMap and a Microsoft Access database application. ArcMap and MS Access were customized "out of the box" using visual basic for applications (VBA).This talk will cover: data collection of roads and conditions with ArcMap (on a laptop in the field); analyzing the data with MS Access; using "Routes" in ArcMap to display conditions (or Pavement Condition Indicators, PCI) and repair type; using spatial joins to assign repair type to road segments and calculate construction costs.The approach, calculations and methodology used are based the RSMS developed by the University of New Hampshire Technology Transfer Center. |
| Underground Assets: Mapping and Inspecting Waterbury's Wastewater Collection System |
| Ted Chapin, Woodard & Curran |
| Manhole investigations and studies are a first step toward comprehensive collection system improvements, and are often required to meet consent decree from regulatory agencies. By thinking ahead, these projects can be used to develop a data platform for geographic information systems (GIS), and provide the infrastructure and condition data necessary to start an asset management system to organize maintenance needs and planning. The City of Waterbury used a manhole inspection project as an opportunity to meet regulatory requirements and develop tools that make municipal staff more efficient, such as GIS and handheld computers for remote data collection, and train staff in the skills needed to maintain compliance for the future. The goal of Waterbury's manhole inspection program was to locate its nearly 9,500 manhole structures and assess their overall condition. Key elements of Waterbury's strategy include: scanning existing paper maps and standardizing existing data to create a single base map and pinpointing all manholes on it; applying the latest technology tools, including GIS and handheld computers for data collection, and training city staff to use the applications.The City needed to document the measures necessary to achieve regulatory compliance and improve the overall management and operations of its sanitary collection system. The collection system integrates over 90 discrete sewage areas in the city, which are interconnected by approximately 320 miles of sanitary sewer lines supported by 20 pump stations and four flow metering stations. Nearly 9,500 manholes are built into the collection system-about 20% of the manholes were opened during the initial study. |
| Base Mapping Quality Control and Quality Assurance Process Overview |
| Mike Doyle, Chas. H. Sells Inc. |
| The presentation will give an overview of quality control and assurance in the process of collecting GIS base map data in a photogrammetric environment. There will be an overview of softcopy photogrammetry and the tools and process involved in collecting planimetric data in an accurate way. The process involved in transforming this line work into a fully topological GIS data set and the process both automatic and manual for data quality control and assurance.The presentation will include recommendations for end user quality control review procedures and recommendations for use of ArcGIS 9 tools for checking data integrity. |
| Learn to "Fly High" with ArcGlobe: Tips and Tricks for creating an ArcGlobe Scene |
| Susan Scanlon, Fuss & O'Neill |
| Learn to "Fly High" with ArcGlobe: Tips and Tricks for creating an ArcGlobe SceneFirst learn about what data comes with ArcGlobe and how to best add your own data, including adding elevation data for a realistic view. Once you have the data added, you will learn how to work with caching in ArcGlobe for efficient display and navigation. You will discover how to best navigate in ArcGlobe, in both global mode and surface mode; using tools such as the navigate, fly, and walk tools. In addition, you will learn tips and tricks for using the animation toolbar and how to best capture/create fly through scenes. |
| ArcGIS as a Gateway to Municipal Information System |
| Mohammed A. Hoque, Town of West Springfield, MA |
| Getting information quickly, efficiently and sharing them with other departments are very crucial for local government. Using ArcGIS as a gateway to information made that a reality in Town of West Springfield, Massachusetts. Spatial data are organized in Personal GeoDatabase and non-spatial data are maintained in department's own databases in Oracle, MySQL or MS-Access. ArcMap and ArcIMS, with customized interface and Java/VBA functions, connect databases such as Tax database, Permit database etc. using ActiveX Data Objects or JDBC, and help town officials find spatial and non-spatial information from a single platform. ArcMap is extensively customized to search parcels, plans, streets, engineering drawings etc., to open sale deeds, plans, drawings etc. in external applications or add them to map, and to generate reports or create mail merged letters for notification. Now town officials spend more time on decision-making and less for information searching.Keywords: ArcGIS, ArcIMS, Municipal Information, Assessor |
| Build-out Analysis: A Tool for Municipal & Public Sewer Planning in Vermont |
| Karyl Fuller, Lamoille County Planning Commission |
| Build-out analysis provides towns with a visual representation of their town's future. In particular, this tool illustrates the consequences of current zoning. Often, this information is used to inform a discussion on amendments to the zoning regulations. But this information can also be useful in other areas. This presentation will present two case studies in Vermont, Morrisville and Wolcott, where discussions on public sewer systems were informed by build-out analyses. Wolcott was considering amending their zoning by-laws and a build-out analysis was done to provide assessments of the current and proposed zoning changes. During this time, Wolcott was also studying the possibility of adding public sewer to its two villages. Both of these processes were highly iterative, which ultimately lead to changes to the proposed zoning by-laws. Morrisville wanted to study the possibility of extending some sewer capacity to the town of Morristown, and a build-out analysis was needed, to provide information on the village's future sewer needs. This analysis was also able to provide spatial information on the current customers of the public sewer system, as well as, providing the somewhat surprising result, that most of the future sewer needs were not commercial but residential under current zoning. build-out municipal planning sewer analysis Vermont. |
| Tying it All Together: Municipal System Integration and Content Delivery Tips |
| Michael Olkin, Town of Amherst, MA |
| The success of GIS in local government relies upon tight integration with other enterprise databases and easy access to end users. The presentation will discuss methods used in Amherst, MA for simple content delivery and system integration using ArcSDE with SQL Server, Customized ArcReader applications and ArcIMS technology. Demonstrations will show an under-the-hood glimpse at end-user applications and system integration between SQL Server and Oracle databases. |
| Creating & Editing Tips and Tricks |
| Susan Scanlon, Fuss & O'Neill |
| Creating
& Editing Geodatabase Data - Tips and TricksLearn tips and tricks for creating
geodatabase data, including setting the spatial reference with the help
of a developer sample. Once the data has been created, you'll learn how
to best prepare the editing environment, setup snapping options, and work
with edit context menus most effectively. You'll also discover great data
creation and adjustment tools from the editing, advanced editing, and topology
toolbars.
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| Using Land Characteristics to Analyze Potential Development Intensity and Future Conservation Areas in Rhode Island |
| Christina Delage, RI Statewide Planning Program |
| Rhode Island is preparing its third land use plan since 1975 but this will be the first time GIS is utilized as a major planning component. This component - Future Land Use Project -- benefits the land use plan by providing geographic data and visual analysis results. Additionally total acreage for specific land use, land cover, and analysis areas were calculated for use in the plan. ArcGIS 9.0 was used to model various geoprocessing tools, SQL queries, a development/conservation intensity matrix, and development/conservation priority matrices. The Future Land Use Project assessed land suitability, assigned potential development intensity and conservation categories to all land in the state and prioritized the development and conservation intensity categories. This project was completed in the phases described below. Phase 1: Land Suitability Analysis on a Statewide Level - The objectives for this phase were to identify concentration levels of natural resources and limitations to development to determine the lands' suitability for development or value for conservation. Phase 2: Assign Land to Development and Conservation Intensity Categories -Intensity categories were based on concentration values from the land suitability analysis, proximity to sensitive water resource areas, and access to current public water and sewer. These categories ranged from areas most suitable for dense development to areas most suitable for protection. Phase 3: Prioritize Potential Future Development - Development priorities were based on development intensity categories, proximity to current or extended water and sewer infrastructure, proximity to highway interchanges, bus stops, rail stations, and arterial highways.Phase 4: Prioritize Potential Future Conservation - Conservation priorities were based on proximity to permanently protected lands, Department of Environmental Management's priority acquisition sites, existing and proposed bikeways and natural corridors, and locality within or west-southwest of the proposed Mid-State Greenbelt. Phase 5: Unified Statewide Future Land Use Map - Created by combining results from Phases 3 and 4 with surface water and currently protected lands.The results of the Land Use Project identified areas most suitable for protection as well as areas best suited for a variety of development types, optimally in compact, dense patterns that reduces sprawl. These results will be incorporated into a unified statewide future land use dataset that will help guide communities to protect natural resources, local character, and promote community centers. Key Words: GIS, Future Land Use, Land Suitability Analysis, Development Intensity, Land Conservation. |
| Creating and Presenting Interactive Decision Support Systems |
| Pete Young, Community Oriented Geography & Judy Colby-George, Spatial Alternatives Spatial Alternatives |
| Judy Colby George of Spatial Alternatives (Yarmouth, ME) and Peter Young of Community Oriented Geography (Burlington, VT) will demonstrate several examples of custom interactive decision support systems that they have created with ArcGIS tools. Crafting interactive decision support systems involves modeling issues and also making it easy to change modeling parameters on the fly as people view and respond to map and chart outputs. This is possible for basic applications with entry-level ArcGIS tools and for complex applications with higher-level ArcGIS tools and/or with ArcGIS extensions like CommunityViz. Creating a good analytical model is part of the challenge. Streamlining a model to run smoothly as an interactive decision support system is also important. What matters most, however, is designing a model and its interactive elements so that decision makers intuitively understand and trust the model outputs and can thereby gain effective decision support. There's no one recipe for developing effective interactive decision support systems. Ms. Colby George and Mr. Young will present examples relating to a variety of community planning, natural resource planning, and public health planning issues. |
| Back to the Future: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Move to a Geodatabase |
| Bill Elliott, Sanborn |
| Since the early 1900s, The Sanborn Map Company has been creating and updating large scale fire insurance map book volumes for over 12,000 cities and towns across the United States. The Sanborn fire insurance map details include: o Building outlines and setbacks, construction materials, number of floors including basement levels.o Building name, function/use, location of doors, windows, stairwells, and internal walls.o Streets names and building addresses.o Right-of-way widths, house and block numbers. o Fire hydrants, property boundaries, railroads, pipelines, and wells.Even today, Sanborn maps are relied upon by planning, code enforcement, community development and public safety departments to complete essential work tasks. With the adoption of enterprise GIS by local government, the benefits of providing Sanborn map data to multiple departments in easily accessible electronic form are very persuasive. Sanborn map data can be even more useful when combined with other data layers as part of an integrated GIS. This presentation will examine the value of the data on the Sanborn fire insurance maps for enterprise use, and introduce a series of digital offerings that provide Sanborn map data in formats that can be integrated into any city or town's ESRI GIS for maximum benefit. KEY WORDS: Sanborn Maps, Fire Insurance Maps, Large Scale City Maps, Building Details, Address Points. |
| Use of 3D GIS in the Urban Planning Process |
| James Alberque, Gary S. Smith, Josh Friedman, Boston Redevelopment Authority |
| In the spring of 2005, the City of Boston and Mayor Thomas Menino, in cooperation with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and other city agencies began looking at enhancement opportunities involving portions of Dorchester Avenue in Dorchester. Known simply as "The Avenue Project" this planning effort incorporates input from the community with available opportunities from City programs and departments. The BRA has a long-standing interest and experience with GIS and 3D visualization. Within the confines of City Hall exists a complete balsawood model of the entire city with each building represented. While this is very helpful for small group discussions, the model is not transportable or able to respond to different "what if" scenarios. Moving to a virtual environment offers the opportunity to take the model city to public meetings on a laptop computer. Building the virtual environment within a GIS further expands the analysis capabilities and utility of the model to the entire planning process. This paper discusses the methods used to create the virtual environment for the three intersections and the ongoing utility to the total planning process. The virtual environment was created in ArcScene and employs SketchUp to create and display existing and proposed structures in the geo-specific multipatch format. Tips, tricks, suggestions and recommendations for other communities will be presented. |
| GIS Web Hosting Services Allows the Town of Sanford to Broaden its GIS Audience |
| Bill Botting, Town of Sanford |
| The Town of Sanford has centralized access to its GIS using an interactive web-based application. A collaborative approach was taken to design and implement a user-friendly GIS web site to serve both the public and municipal staff. The use of web hosting services allowed the Town of Sanford to defray the high cost of maintaining the hardware, software, and expertise necessary to provide web-based GIS services. The Town's GIS web site allows users to view property information, list abutters, perform spatial overlays, and print mailing lists and maps. A Microsoft Access Database was used to automate the frequent extraction and formatting of parcel detail data from the Assessor's mass appraisal database, including ownership, assessed value, and construction details, so that the GIS web site data remains up-to-date. |
| Tri-Community Street Map |
| Rachel Keats, Woodard & Curran |
| A detailed street map and index was created for three coastal Maine communities: the City of Saco, the City of Biddeford and the Town of Old Orchard Beach. This street map uses planimetric data from each community and includes streets, hydrography, and important points of interest. ArcInfo 9.0 was used to create the map. All data is stored in a personal geodatabase and feature class annotation was used to label streets and water features. The map is currently available for viewing and download through the City of Saco's online GIS website. |
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| Social and Economic Aspects of Location |
| John Vogl, Town of Londonderry, NH |
| Using the Town of Londonderry, NH as a case study, the poster will illustrate the positive and negative aspects of location as it pertains to economic development, housing choices, commuting trips and social involvement. The Town of Londonderry, pop. 25,000, is facing several issues that accelerate growth patterns including the potential secondary impacts from the widening of I-93, introduction of the airport access road, and the opening of a 700 acre industrial park, each of which drive location decisions relative to living and/or working in the Town. |
| Building a 3D Database for the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Feng Yang & Gary Smith, Town of Brookline |
| Building a 3D Database for the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts- A Pilot StudyFeng Yang, GIS Manager, Town of Brookline, MassachusettsGary Smith, GreenMountain Geographics LLCTen years after Brookline's initial implementation of GIS, a rich 2-D database has been constructed, updated and stored in an ArcSDE/SQL Server database to serve all internal departments and the general public through the town's enterprise-wide GIS system. Brookline GIS group has been able to keep up with vast amount of GIS requests by departments and the public in a timely fashion, partially due to this readily available and updated database since data development is usually very time consuming. Without a library of 3D objects, creating a somewhat realistic 3D view of a desired area in Town is still a challenge and very time consuming. Through this pilot study of an area identified by the 2005 Brookline Comprehensive Plan, we are exploring ways to begin building a 3D database for Brookline so that in the future, we not only have a rich 2-D database but also will have a rich 3-D database to meet the increasing needs for geospatial visualization and analysis. In this pilot study, Sketchup, ArcGIS 3D analyst and other related technologies are used to fully render the study area. Buildings are built using Sketchup to allow their addition to the 3D landscape as multipatch features. Trees and many landscape features are taken from existing 3D symbols. New symbols are created using Sketchup, ModelBuilder 3D and others when needed. General construction of a multipatch building starts with the selection of a building footprint from the existing 2-D building footprint layer. This process establishes the X&Y coordinate base for the building. Cleanup of the building footprint is necessary to establish straight-line edges and clean outlines. The structure is then completed in Sketchup. Detailed facades are created using textures of the building taken from digital photographs of the structure and other sources. A simplified TIN is created for better graphic performance. A landcover layer is created to depict the streets, parking lots, grass covered areas, sidewalks, and bare earth.This presentation will demonstrate the creation and use of aforementioned technologies, discuss advantages and disadvantages of the technologies use, and recommend strategies for building a 3-D database for the rest of the town. |
| Building a Web-Based GIS Viewer to Reduce Operating Costs |
| John Przybyla, Woolpert, Inc. |
| As more users get introduced to GIS technology, additional expenses like software, maintenance/support, and licensing costs are inevitable. Organizations with 50+ or more employees that actively utilize GIS technology face a significant financial and operational struggle supporting desktop GIS software installation and maintenance. Typically, organizations deploy ESRI's ArcView desktop GIS technology to large numbers of users, because ArcIMS does not provide the sophisticated tools that experienced users want. Although most organizations are aware that web-based GIS technology can reduce these costs, they are unable to accept the tradeoffs in capabilities that such web GIS products typically require.This presentation will discuss a case study on how a web-based GIS data viewer using ESRI's MapObjects Java technology was built to replicate ArcView desktop GIS functionality for 100+ casual users at a large metropolitan government agency, thus providing an easily maintainable solution and reducing support costs. |
| How to get started with Geoprocessing in Model Builder and Python Scripting |
| Susan Scanlon, Fuss & O'Neill |
| How to get started with Geoprocessing in Model Builder and Python ScriptingLearn the advantages for accessing geoprocessing functionality through building models or python scripts. Understand the differences between model builder and scripting - when to choose the appropriate method to best accomplish your task. In both environments, you will learn how to bring in data, geoprocessing tools, and output data, set parameters, create documentation, and share these models or scripts with others. |
| Enterprise GIS for Small Communities |
| David W. Pollock, Woodard & Curran |
| The development of a GIS program for any community can be a challenging, even daunting task. For smaller communities this task becomes even harder, with smaller budgets and staffs, but the same demand for information and services. Because of this, many smaller communities have not implemented their own GIS programs and have fallen behind in both utilizing and providing this service. Early adoption by larger communities has led to the maturation of software and expertise, allowing smaller communities to invest in GIS at lower risk and cost. One of the biggest lessons learned was to develop the GIS across the entire enterprise, rather than focusing on one or two departments. Enterprise GIS allows all geospatial data and applications to be shared across the entire organization, including the public. This level of sharing enables department, staff, and citizens to benefit from the GIS program and make better, more informed decisions. This presentation will focus on Enterprise GIS - defining it, how new technology has made it possible for everyone, and how smaller communities can now implement their own programs using it.Key words: Enterprise GIS, Small Communities, Municipalities |
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