INFORMATIONAL REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Informational Report Regarding Bi-yearly Project Status Report of the GIS Services Program
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Deliver and Enhance High Quality Efficient Services and Infrastructure
BACKGROUND
On October 29, 2019, Arini Geographics was awarded a contract for Enterprise GIS Consulting Services. The contract was awarded as a three-year professional services agreement for the initial term of the contract, with the option of one additional two-year renewal term. Council has requested a bi-annual project status report of GIS services. This is the third report.
DISCUSSION
With location a common attribute across numerous city services and assets, the City’s Enterprise GIS Program is a framework of people, process and technology enabling geospatial and asset information across departments to be managed in a single system. Integrating this information and making it available to staff and the public enables operational effectiveness, data driven decision making, cross departmental and regional coordination, citizen engagement and transparency.
Efforts are focused on both projects and day-to-day operations. Despite challenges encountered by shelter-in-place regulations, there is significant progress for the current reporting period.
Projects - Highlighted project accomplishments during this reporting timeframe:
|
Project |
Current Reporting Period |
Next Reporting Period |
|
infoMap Upgrade |
ü Completed |
|
|
Streets Sign Inventory |
ü Completed |
|
|
Streets Trees Inventory |
In Progress |
Completion Planned |
|
PD Records Mgmt System |
In Progress |
Completion Planned |
|
Mobile Map for PD |
In Progress - *Note below |
Completion Planned |
• Launched the new and significantly improved infoMap 3.0, available to City staff, providing maps and location-based information such as address, parcels, streets, ownership, property reports, zoning, FEMA floods designations, council districts, etc., plus a wide variety of mapping, redlining, querying, and reporting capabilities. In addition to migrating from obsolete underlying technology, the new infoMap is now hardware and web browser independent and can be used on both desktop computers and mobile devices connected to the City network. Productivity improvements include the ability for maps to be saved and shared online, controlled access, and ability to upload other mapping layers (such as Google Earth/Maps) for custom geospatial analysis and cartography. Supported by a new help system specific to the City and regularly scheduled training, the upgrade is expected to increase the usage of GIS information as part of everyday business and improve decision-making citywide.
• Completed citywide street signs inventory: located and photographed 9,064 signposts holding 13,885 signs, together with specifically designed digital cartography to be integrated with the City’s EAM, featuring a comprehensive sign symbol library of more than 450 representations to the federally established standard (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, MUTCD).
• GIS inventory of sidewalks and trees lining the City streets started on April 12, 2021 and upon completion will be integrated with the City’s EAM.
• Created the Mobile (Multi-source) Map for 911 field operations and tested on a first responder Mobile Data Computer (MDC). This is to be synchronized with the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. *This activity is being continued into the next reporting period to allow for issue resolution with the vendor and additional testing.
• In preparation for the new Enterprise Permit Management System, significant effort went into providing map-based productivity enhancements such as several ways of searching and mapping sites of interest, as well as optimal routing for inspections. Location validation was completed for more than 500,000 permit records to be migrated to the new citywide Enterprise Permitting System.
Planned activities over the next six months:
• Overhaul of the City Enterprise GIS Infrastructure with significant technology improvements to ensure higher availability and security, optimize performance and better support transactional GIS through multiple integrations. This major update will replace end of life underlaying technology, preventing potential business interruptions to the Enterprise GIS system and mission critical applications currently integrated with GIS (permitting, 911 dispatch, records management, publicly available apps and story maps, etc.).
• Complete GIS inventory of sidewalks and City trees, providing the Department of Public Works with first ever comprehensive inventory of trees along City streets. This is necessary for computerized maintenance management.
• Complete the testing and deployment of the Mobile Map for Mobile Data Computers in Police vehicles, synchronized with the Computer Aided Dispatch system.
• Update the speed limit attribute of the City Streets layer, based on the data from the new traffic signs inventory. The refresh will improve the optimal routing functionality being used in public safety, traffic engineering, building inspection and code enforcement applications.
• Integrate the 2020 high-resolution aerial imagery into the City Enterprise GIS Basemap. This new natural color image is the result of the ongoing partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the Cities and special districts, which will enable the City to refresh its aerial imagery yearly at a very affordable price.
• Implement a new Operations Dashboard, which offers a near real-time visualization of edits done to the City Enterprise Basemap. The Operations Dashboard will be available internally to all City staff.
• Begin implementation of Mobile GIS for Silicon Valley Power’s field operations, which will enable field crews to access and edit critical utility information right from where they work.
• Enterprise GIS integration and location awareness for new records management system (RMS) for the Police Department.
Day-to-Day Operations - Quality assurance and critical data updates are continually being performed in several areas:
Statistics and information related to Enterprise GIS activities can be found in the attached infographic (Attachment 1), indicating the number of addresses updated in the City Basemap since November 1, 2019 and the dynamic number of records in the Enterprise Geospatial Repository (EGR) by department. Enterprise GIS Web-based Applications, infoMap and MapSantaClara usage statistics are also shown both by functionality and geography. It should be noted that numbers are trending up, reflecting an easing back towards normal activity as we worked through the pandemic and restrictions lifted.
• City Enterprise GIS Basemap - specialized mapping system keeping track of the City’s foundational map layers (includes addresses, streets, parcels, ownership, general plan and zoning designations, flooding and noise delineations, multiyear aerial imagery) and key-related attributes. From October 1, 2020 through April 30, 2021, nearly 9,000 addresses were updated, ensuring that residents, businesses, and government officials operate with the most current data. This is a 37% increase over the previous reporting period, likely reflecting increased development activity as the pandemic restrictions are gradually lifted, data updates in conjunction with the cleanup, and updates needed for the upcoming Permit Management System implementation.
• MapSantaClara - this web-based application provides tailored access and reporting functionality to the public at large: <https://map.santaclaraca.gov>. From October 1, 2020 through April 30, 2021, over 27,000 visits were made representing an increase of 52% over the previous reporting period, likely due to the ongoing citywide clean-up campaign since the residents are using MapSantaClara to check their address / property status and pick-up timing.
• Open Data Geospatial Portal - this web-based repository provides the business community, other agencies, City contractors and the public at large with up-to-date common GIS data layers such as streets, addresses, parcels, voting districts, census blocks, etc. without the need to request such information, saving City staff time and enabling applications to direct-read and process GIS information. Providing the public with updated authoritative data is a core aspect of the GIS program, thereby increasing confidence, transparency and trust: <https://map.santaclaraca.gov/data>
• Story Maps - six publicly-available, web-based applications that facilitate information dissemination and increase the level of service to the public, including Development Projects and Live Traffic Cameras: <http://santaclaraca.gov/devprojects> and <http://santaclaraca.gov/trafficcam>
• Public Safety - remains one of the City’s top priorities and has many GIS interconnections. Dedicated datasets, maps, map services, applications, and integrations, for both Fire and Police Departments, are being maintained and map updates to the Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system are being done at scheduled intervals; successfully completing two planned updates in the past six months. The reliability and importance of keeping the data current has several implications including officer safety, response times/routing and more.
• Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) - key focus area enabling more effective management of City's assets to improve their utilization and performance, reduce capital costs, reduce asset-related operating costs, extend asset life and subsequently, increase return on assets and quality of service. EAM also helps improve environmental compliance as well as meet occupational safety regulations.
• Regional GIS Collaboration and Coordination - the City continues to collaborate with neighboring cities, the County of Santa Clara, and other government agencies to ensure regional timely and quality data acquisition and sharing. Through an ongoing effort, we have acquired new high-resolution aerial imagery, which will become an integral part the Enterprise GIS Basemap before the end of the current fiscal year. High resolution imagery helps locate things on the ground without field visits, location awareness and coordination. Additionally, the imagery is used for identification and extraction of discrete objects, which are City assets. With the increased development activity in the City, this is especially helpful. Other regional activities include seamless countywide Basemap GIS layers sharing and upkeep, as well as emergency response preparedness.
• Steady State GIS - fulfilled numerous requests from various City departments, including producing mailing lists for specific areas requested, improved Council Districts map, with higher resolution and better legibility, plus new individual maps for each district, now publicly accessible on the City's website <https://www.santaclaraca.gov/our-city/government/mayor-and-council/council-districts>. Change of addresses, parcels and streets are being tracked on a weekly basis and property ownership is being updated monthly through reports received from the County of Santa Clara Assessor's Office. A non-exhaustive list of other GIS layers that are being regularly updated includes: FEMA Flood Zones and LOMA notifications, Annual Clean Up Campaign locations and dates, and the addition of new developments throughout the City.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This is an informational report only and no action is being taken by the City Council and no environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) is required.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no cost to the City associated with this report other than administrative time and expense.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Note and file the Informational Report regarding the Bi-yearly Project Status Report of the GIS Services Program.
Staff
Reviewed by: Gaurav Garg, Director of Information Technology/CIO
Approved by: Deanna J. Santana, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. Infographic - Enterprise Geospatial Program Activity