Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/41362
The GIS interfaces with the city's 311 system, with Citizen Service Requests imported directly into the Sidewalk GIS application, allowing the sidewalk supervi- sor to review and manage cases from a single central interface. After inspectors complete inspection reports from field investigations, they return to the office to complete the data attribution and 311 status updates. A determination of responsibility then is made, with the application allowing inspectors to generate a formatted letter to property owners, indicating the city's course of action to quickly resolve the sidewalk issue. Signal Intersections The Signal Light application is a good example of a dataset that has use throughout DPW. Signal Light data are managed in a standalone access application, but the data are available to staff departmentwide through a read-only Web GIS. The GIS reporting application allows users to quickly find a signal-light location and view a formatted report on the specific intersection. The application also supports the linking of files to the intersection with photos and timing sheets, making the application a clearinghouse for signal-light information. As a Web interface, communication and workflow bottlenecks are eliminated, as engineers can quickly access the centrally managed data from their desks to support individual project decision making. Bridges The city is responsible for tracking all bridge-related accidents for the state Department of Transportation. The Bridge GIS is a simple application that manages all bridge-related information. After a specific bridge has been selected, document- linking tools are available, allowing inspectors to cata- log and organize the full history of bridge-accident and investigation reports. As a Web application, any DPW staff can quickly find bridge-related data to support their work. Sewer Asset Tracking The Buffalo Sewer Authority has leveraged the GIS to help track information about its sewer infrastructure. After a detailed CAD-to-GIS conversion project, the city's sewer infrastructure has been integrated into the GIS enterprise, with various DPW divisions relying on the detailed maps of underground assets to support engineering-improvement projects. Sewer engineers use a custom Web GIS applica- tion to associate additional project and system data. And users can select assets on a map to link addi- tional digital files such as photos, inspection reports and as-builts. The application also offers reporting functionality with detailed and summary data for any selected set of sewer assets. lThe Striping application allows users to manage the status of the city's street paint, using historical maintenance, costs calculation and condition ranking. General Viewer Although many of the applications are focused on a specific work practice and related data management, there was consensus that a general GIS Viewer would benefit all divisions so citywide assets could easily be queried and viewed. The GIS Viewer allows staff to view a project site and see all relevant assets that may impact decision making. The city's rich GIS library of assets allows DPW staff to view accurate above- and below-ground assets with a simple browser interface. The Viewer application offers robust functionality, offering common desktop tools such as the following: • Query Builder—Users can identify assets match- ing specific attribute values. The query also supports spatial filtering for data specific to neighborhood and political boundaries. • Selection Interface—Users create selection sets from attribute queries or spatial selection. Selected data can be viewed in a tabular format and exported as a delimited file, allowing staff to create reports of assets matching specific conditions. • Parcel Upload—There are many instances when employees will want to see a list of parcels on a map, so a simple tool was created to upload Excel files of addresses that are highlighted on a map for review. Eric Brady is GIS project manager for Bergmann Associates; e-mail: ebrady@bergmannpc.com. A UGUST 2O11 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 21