Creating our Public Works Story

Check out Brad's presentation from the April 2017 Sacramento GIS User Group on creating a CIP Storymap for the City of Rancho Cordova.

Storymap Highlights Public Works Projects

The City of Rancho Cordova's Public Works Department wanted to showcase to residents the various projects the City was working on. 

Interwest provides GIS Services to the City and was asked to create a map board which depicts various public works projects along with a description, status, a site photo, and funding source(s) for the City's State of the City event in November 2015. 

November 2015 Map Board

The map board was a big success and it was decided that it should be updated annually each year at the State of the City. 

November 2016 Map Board

Knowing this information would work well in a digital format as a story map, in early 2016 a plan was enacted to create a story map with a similar look at feel. A small group of people in the Public Works Department came together to coordinate this project.

The primary goal is to identify some of the many projects managed through the City's Capital Improvement Plan and Community Enhancement Fund (CEF). The application includes projects at various stages of progress from planning through construction and completion as well as ongoing projects, and for each it provides the project name, a brief description, a representative photo, as well as the funding sources, and contact information where you can learn more. 

Story Map 2016

The challenge was to gather all the necessary information on up to 50 projects managed various project managers in the department. In order to do this a MS Excel spreadsheet with all the projects was setup, providing project managers a familiar way to update the details of their projects. This table was linked into MS Access which also made the data available to GIS applications. Once the updates were complete, the GIS staff used model builder to join the table and populate a GIS layer for the tour points which could then simply be exported to a CSV file for easy uploading to ArcGIS Online.

Model Builder

Updates to this application are planned quarterly as time permits (January, April, July, and October) at which time old projects can removed, existing projects can be updated, and new projects can be added. Check it out at: http://arcg.is/2j1wI1Q 

For general questions regarding the projects in this story map please contact Rancho Cordova PublicWorks at (916) 851-8710.

For help, more information, or to report problems with this application please contact Brad Findlay, GIS Analyst at bfindlay@cityofranchocordova.org

Honoring our Heroes: Military Banner Program

The City of Elk Grove launched a Military Street Banner Program honoring veterans who reside in the City or resided in the City and are now deceased. The City designated 75 poles for the program. 

Interwest GIS solved the following needs for the City:  

Provide the contractor installing banners location information
Interwest created a web map of each banner's location to assist the contractor in installing the banners. 

Provide City staff a way to track the installation date of each banner with workflow reminders 
Each banner is installed for a 12 month period after which the banner is removed a new banner is printed and installed in its place. City staff needed a way to track the installation date of the banners with workflow reminders of when a banner needed to be removed so the staff could order the printing of a new banner and schedule the installation. Interwest's GIS Team created a SharePoint list that integrates with the GIS streetlight data to feed the installation map for the contractor and the public map. 

The SharePoint list contains all streetlights. Each evening an SSIS package runs and imports the data from the SharePoint list into an SDE table. A spatial view is used in the map to join the table to the streetlights layer. A script is also run nightly to update the data in ArcGIS Online so the public map is up-to-date. 

Provide the public a way to find the location of their veteran's banner
Until a custom banner has been purchased, banners honoring all veterans are displayed on the poles. A public web app was created to assist the public in searching for and locating their veterans banner. A story map was also created showing the veterans photo, name, branch, and rank.

Croudsource Storymap GIS Game

We had a work retreat last weekend in Monterey, CA. 90 families from our Northern California offices gathered for a fun weekend. Terry, the president of our company, suggested our GIS team make a game for the retreat. (yes, actually, we are hiring ;)

Premise of the Game:
Earn points for sharing photos of your trip via a web app accessible on a smart phone

Our team created 5 different applications and tested them out in the field. The options we evaluated included:

• WebApp Builder 
• Public Info AGO Template
• Find, Edit, Filer AGO Template
• Citizen Report Web App
• Crowdsource Storymap

We settled on the Crowdsource Storymap, key reasons included:

• Intuitive, easy to use
• ability to login from facebook, google, or ArcGIS Online
• Gallery feature to easily view other employees' photos

Game Logistics:

1. Point layer of 15 destinations at the Asilomar Conference Grounds and around Monterey 
2. A second point layer with 3 hidden destinations
3. A leaderboard webpage to display
1. The top 10 point earners
2. Clues for the 3 hidden stops
3. Once someone found a hidden stop, display the username and date/time it was found 
4. Link to launch the game
4. Employees were set loose with their phones and a link to the leaderboard  
5. A script ran every 15 minutes to download the crowdsource layer from ArcGIS Online to our SQL Server, give points based on proximity to the 15 destinations or 3 hidden destinations, verify the user did not already get a point for this location, and update a table with each users' point total. 

At the end of the game, we downloaded the photos and shared them at a slideshow during the Saturday evening dinner where the top three point earners won prizes. An extra prize was added for the funniest selfie with Terry!

Our Southern California offices are gathering for a retreat in one week in San Diego. We are working on a new dataset for their retreat and a fun new point scheme!

Check out the Crowdsource Storymap and let us know if we can help create a game for your next team building event! 

Historic Sites Story Map

Interwest's GIS Team recently created an Historic Sites Story Map for the City of Ukiah to highlight images, history and provide a spatial reference for citizens and tourists to visit the sites.

Story maps are a great way to showcase your agency's assets. Story maps can also be turned into mobile applications using AppStudio to give wider access to public art, historic sites, and tourist attractions.

Need help telling your city's story with a Story Map? Contact Interwest's GIS Team to learn more.