Story Map Highlights City-Wide Projects

The City of Burlingame wanted to share with residents information on projects underway around the city.

Our team at Interwest GIS created a public-facing story map for the City of Burlingame website, which highlights various projects throughout the city from Community Development, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works.

Each department is responsible for updating their own content by way of an ArcGIS Online WebApp that each city department has access to. Project data gets created and updated via this editing application, where project boundaries, attributes, and images are entered. 

The public-facing story map then gets updated nightly through a series of Python scripts. The scripts also automatically handle retiring completed projects from the story map after a specified number of days as well as any projects with missing information (ie - missing photos). 

The story map provides users with project details, contact information, and links for additional information. Additionally, detailed map symbology provides users with a quick reference regarding a project’s status as well as the department overseeing the project. 

Due to the high level of automation behind the scenes, minimal effort is required from city staff to maintain the story map allowing residents to be informed and aware of the latest city-related projects in their neighborhoods.  

View this story map here.

Need assistance creating a similar project? Contact Interwest GIS for more information. 

Crime Viewer

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes wanted to provide a crime viewer tool for the public to access both current and historical crime data.

Interwest GIS created a GIS Viewer using Latitude Geographics Geocortex software. Our team created automated routines to download the data from the County's website, import it into the GIS database, and created query layers to merge specific crime codes into broader categories.

The GIS Viewer displays the crime by year and by type allowing citizens to turn on and off layers to focus on the specific types of crime and date range that concerns them.

The public can download the crime data to a csv file if desired and utilize the time slider tool to view the crime in their area chronologically.

The Crime Viewer also has a comprehensive report where the public can view where crime has increased or decreased by category from 2005 - present.

Need assistance created a crime viewer for your citizens? Contact Interwest GIS to discuss your project. 

Fire Run Book

The City of Vacaville Fire Department contacted Interwest GIS to request an update to their fire run book. 

For this project, Interwest GIS was tasked with creating a new updated version of the City’s Fire Run Books. The city had some base layers and additional data layers were created by Interwest. New or updated layers included: 

• hydrants
• fire grid index
• emergency vehicle access points and routes
• master address database points
• water points and lines
• schools
• apartments/condos
• commercial areas
• industrial areas
• manufactured parks
• hospitals 

Using ArcGIS Pro for data editing and ArcMap 10.3 Data Driven Pages, Interwest GIS created a new modern rendition of the City's fire run books. The new and updated data feeding into the run books will serve other uses within the City’s Enterprise GIS System.

Need assistance with fire run map book creation? Contract Interwest GIS to let us know how we can help. 

Operations Dashboard showcasing New Construction Permits

Interwest GIS implemented the Operations Dashboard for the City of Elk Grove to display building permit data. Our team had been creating monthly pdf maps for the City's Building Department and felt the dashboard would be a meaningful way to display both an interactive map and graphs showing the number of residential and commercial permits per month.

A model was created to join the permit data to the parcel data to display in the map and graphs.

In addition to giving a snapshot overview of permit activity, the interactive map allows citizens and staff to click on area and get more information about the permit.

An Operations Dashboard is a great way to display graphs and maps to monitor activities such as building permits or maintenance requests. Need help implementing Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS? Contact Interwest GIS for more information.

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.

Regulatory Street Sign Inventory

The City of St. Helena needed to conduct a regulatory street sign inventory to comply with recent changes to the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standards for retroreflectivity. 

The City had previously conducted a paper survey of approximately 1/3 of the regulatory street signs. Interwest GIS created a GIS layer using the paper surveys and Google Street view to identify the locations of regulatory signs.

Interwest GIS utilized Collector of ArcGIS during over two days in the field to verify the location and capture data for the City's 609 regulatory signs:

• MUTCD code
• sign condition
• whether the signs met retroreflectivity standards
• post material
• sign size
• sign direction
• sign text
• and capture photos of signs that did not meet retroreflectivity standards

The City now has an accurate and detailed regulatory street sign GIS layer that they can use to prioritize the replacement of street signs that don't meet retroreflectivity standards or are in poor condition.

A related table was created for maintenance tracking. Collector is used in the field to update each sign's condition, date maintenance was performed, etc.

Web maps can be used to view locations and types of signs as well as condition so maintenance expenses can be planned over multiple fiscal years. 

Need help with the setup and/or collection of a street sign inventory? Contact Interwest GIS at: http://www.interwestgrp.com/serv-gis.php  

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

Mailing Labels for Owners, Occupants and Neighborhood Groups

The City of Berkeley was in need of a mailing label application that could export lists of addresses based on a buffer around a parcel, point, or line.

The City required mailing labels for the following: 

1. Owners: A query layer was used to combine the two parcel layers into one Owners layer: one for parcels inside the city and one for parcels within a half mile of the city boundary.

2. Occupants: A query layer was used to join the point layer of occupants with the parcel layer to create one parcel layer allowing all occupants of a single parcel to be selected when the parcel is selected.

3. Neighborhood Groups

Interwest utilized Esri's Web AppBuilder to create the application in the City's ArcGIS Online Account.

The users can search for the APN, Situs Address, or Neighborhood Group name.

The search locates and selects the parcel:

The Situation Awareness widget was utilized to provide the buffer and export. Initial the buffer, input the # of feet to buffer around the parcel and the buffer will draw on the map.

Click the Owner, Occupants, or Neighborhood Groups tabs to view the selected parcels and download the csv file.

The tool can also be used to drop a point, draw a line, or draw a polygon to select the owners, occupants, and neighborhood groups. 

Need assistance creating a mailing label application for your agency? Connect with us at: http://www.interwestgrp.com/serv-gis.php 

Location Analysis

With the passing of Proposition 64, many cities need to provide their council and citizens with information on where they could potentially open a marijuana dispensary.

City of Ukiah staff needed to provide their city council with options on where dispensaries could be located that would meet the location requirements including:

• 600ft distance from schools
• Distance from youth facilities (250ft or 500ft) 
• Zoning 

In addition to the static maps for City Council, an interactive web app was created using Esri's web app builder. The web app allows the planning committee to review the locations, owners, and see summaries at two different distances from youth facilities.

Need help with a GIS location project? Connect with us at: http://www.interwestgrp.com/serv-gis.php 

Interwest presenting at the Seventh Annual Los Angeles Geospatial Summit

Interwest GIS Analyst Mallory Graves will be speaking at the Seventh Annual Los Angeles Geospatial Summit in February. Come check out her presentation:

Date: 2.24.17
Location: USC Radisson Hotel
Presentation: Engaging Communities in Environmental Cleanups using a Web GIS Story Map
Conference Details: Seventh Annual Los Angeles Geospatial Summit 

Comprehensive Parcel Report

Interwest provides custom reporting services to public agencies. The City of Wildomar needed a quick way to provide the public with information about their property. 

Interwest created a custom JavaScript GIS Viewer for the City. Users were already able to turn on all of the layers they needed, click on a parcel and view parcel details or attributes from other layers.

They needed a quick way to provide a report to citizens or developers with the parcel information as well as info on the property's flood zone, fault zone, community service area, council district, etc. The parcel report does just that and loads in under two seconds. 

Interwest developed a custom web based report that can quickly be saved as a pdf file for printing. The report uses SQL Spatial to compile all the details of the property into one report as well as display a map of the property. 

The report is accessible outside of the viewer as well as from a toolbar on the viewer and from the parcel pop-up for maximum flexibility.

The report also provides links to the County's assessor maps and subdivision tract maps. 

Contact us if our GIS Team can help you with your custom reporting needs! 

Transit Demand Model

Interwest GIS provides transit demand modeling for public agencies. For Shasta Regional Transportation Agency (SRTA), Interwest used the ArcGIS-integrated planning tool called Transit Boarding and Estimation Simulation Tool (TBEST).

Examining Ridership 
The validated model is visual and interactive, with tools for examining ridership forecasts based on socioeconomic, land use, and transit network builds for the service area.

• Captures the current socioeconomic and land use conditions for a service area
• Codes these conditions within a transit network
• Determines stop-level ridership
• User creates scenarios to determine potential impact on future ridership

Ridership Projections 

Intewest GIS used TBEST and GIS to project ridership under different scenarios including:

• Adding a new Route
• Re-routing an existing route 
• Adding Sunday Service
• Increasing fares

Does your transit agency need assistance with transit modeling? Contact Interwest's GIS team for more details! 

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.

Using GIS for Transit Analysis

Interwest provides GIS services to public agencies to analyze route changes and ridership. The City of Elk Grove is conducting a Comprehensive Transit Analysis that will be used to define the future of transit in the City.

Interwest GIS created an interactive web application using Esri's Web AppBuilder to show existing and proposed routes. As part of the analysis, the City's transit team developed a "service plan working paper" that included exhibits showing the recommended service improvements. This web app displays the information in an interactive form that allows the public and council members to review the proposals with more flexibility.

The web map also needed to display the relationship between routes and major employment centers, schools, and hospitals.

Interwest GIS worked with IBI, the City's Transit Consultant, to convert the proposed routes from Adobe Illustrator exhibits into a format that could be published to an ArcGIS Online web map. Special attention was placed on the zoom scale of the application to support the visual requirements of offsetting routes to display multiple features while ensuring it wasn't possible to zoom in far enough for the routes to appear not on the roadway.

Performing Cost Effective Asset Management Inventories Utilizing GIS

Interwest was honored to be selected to speak with the Town of Atherton's Public Works Superintendent Steve Tyler at the APWA Public Works Conference in Richmond. 

Below is a link to the slides from the presentation Mark Dumford and Steve Tyler gave on November 3rd. 

Open Data and Agency Collaboration

Interwest was honored to be chosen to speak at the 2016 MISAC Conference in San Diego. 

Below is a link to the slides from the presentation Steve Gay, GISP gave on Open Data and Agency Collaboration on Sun, October 9th.

Need help implementing configuring ArcGIS Open Data for your agency? Contact our GIS Team to find out how we can help your agency meet the open data requirements in Assembly Bill 169 Chapter 737.  

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! 

Using GIS to achieve ADA Title II Self Evaluation & Transition Plan Compliance

Interwest provides GIS services to public agencies to assist with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) Title II Self Evaluation and Transition Plan requirements for agencies with 50 or more employees. The goal of this project was to perform a self evaluation of the City of Ceres’ programs, services, and public right-of-way and develop a transition plan for the City to ensure compliance with the ADA.  

ROLE OF GIS

GIS created a tool to assist the City of Ceres in automating the collection and monitoring of facilities and curb ramps.

DATA CREATION

The GIS Team acquired data from Stanislaus County, used existing City data and digitized new data needed to develop basemaps and for running the ranking analysis on the ramps. Our team created a data model to capture physical attributes and images of the ramps, published the data to the City’s ArcGIS Online account, and created web maps to be used for curb ramp collection in Collector for ArcGIS. 

Interwest GIS worked with the City to develop ranking criteria based on location and physical properties identified during collection to assist in mapping the curb ramps by priority. 

FIELD ASSESSMENT

Interwest provided a team of two field personnel who collected images and attributes in Collector on iPad minis. The assessment was completed in three weeks. 

After the field inspection phase was complete, the GIS team worked with engineers implement the ranking criteria. For example, ramps in high traffic locations with excessive slopes or concrete displacement would receive a high priority rank.

MONITORING AND PLANNING 

After all the rankings were determined, Interwest GIS created an overall city map displaying the curb ramps ranking and published it to the City’s ArcGIS Online account for viewing by City staff. 

City staff can use the data and map to monitor, plan, and track improvement of the curb ramps withing the City. 

Need help developing your agency's ADA self evaluation and transition plan? Contact Interwest's GIS Team for more details! 

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.