Enterprise GIS facilitates cooperative projects and reduces costs throughout city departments

Jim Baumann

Writer Esri Redlands, California

he City of Loveland, Colorado, was founded in 1877, a part of America’s great westward expansion during the 1800s. As a stop on the Colorado Central Railroad, the city quickly began to increase commercial activity and soon established itself as a local agricultural center. In the later part of the twentieth century, several high-tech companies relocated their manufacturing facilities to the area. This stimulated the local economy and caused a surge of growth in the community. With this growth in population came the need to both expand and better manage city services.

LOGIC introduced into the city’s GIS

In 1988, the city’s water and power departments implemented GIS to manage utility infrastructure. Detailed information about the condition of the features specified in the infrastructure database was attached to each respective feature. This information, such as the age, size, and maintenance record, allows the city to better maintain its infrastructure and more accurately determine when it should be repaired or replaced.

Loveland progressively expanded the use of GIS technology until it ultimately developed into a citywide, enterpriselevel GIS, which became known as the Loveland Geographic Information/ Cartographic (LOGIC) system.

An important part of the LOGIC system is the inclusion of a Local Government Template, which was developed in close collaboration with Esri. The template provides a general framework of standards and procedures for application development and data storage. As a freely available template, other cities can use it when implementing GIS. The LOGIC system operates in a coregroup, distributed-user model; that is, the city’s GIS Division personnel create and maintain common data and GIS applications for other departments. Department users then employ the system to assist them with their work.

“I’ve been with the city for several years and we haven’t done any GIS-based projects that don’t prove a positive ROI [return on investment],” says Brent Shafranek, Senior GIS Specialist, City of Loveland. “In every one of our projects, GIS has allowed us to save time and/or money, simplify workflows, or implement cooperative projects. GIS is a huge benefit to our city in these challenging economic times.”

Establishing metadata standards

While Loveland’s GIS Division is responsible for maintaining the primary geospatial datasets for the city, there are many GIS users in other departments who also create their own data. Because of the wide use of GIS in Loveland, the division initiated a data inventory and documentation project.

The data inventory database tracks which data layers are used in specified map documents and who owns the data files. The data documentation, or metadata, allows GIS users to understand how the data was created, what the various attribute codes mean, and appropriate uses of specific datasets. The metadata has also been included in the data available for download from the Internet, giving users outside the city information needed to properly use the city’s information.

Using GIS in public works and beyond

Loveland’s Departments of Public Works and Water and Power have deployed GIS throughout their operations, including water, wastewater, stormwater, power, solid waste disposal, and streets; their latest work is a tree inventory for city parks in the Parks and Recreation Department.

The Public Works Department widely uses remote data collection in traffic sign inventories, sewer line maintenance, pavement marking painting, and sidewalk ramp surveys required for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ArcGIS geodatabase is replicated in the field crews’ mobile GIS devices for reference and review. Field crews use simplified forms designed by the city’s GIS Division to reduce data entry time from the field. Changes are recorded and subsequently uploaded to the database from the field, where they undergo confirmation and quality control by city GIS staff members.

ArcGIS has helped the city reduce its overall costs because it is used as a shared resource, since the data can be collected once and then accessed by various departments for their own needs, benefiting the entire municipal operation. For example, the Public Works traffic sign inventory data includes location for asset management purposes and photos for easy visual verification. The city’s Police and Legal Departments can use this information for a quick confirmation of the posted speed limit in a particular area, or the Engineering Department can use it when determining the total number of a particular sign type needed for replacement purposes.

Jim Baumann can be reached at (909) 793-2853 or jbaumann@esri.com.