Regional project coordination using a web based GIS Application
Problem
Have you ever driven through a neighborhood and noticed the same street dug up several
times in a short period of time? Or have you ever driven through a neighborhood and
found a freshly overlaid street being trenched? All too often we experience these
scenarios. Why is that? The organization silos that the re-engineering trend of the
nineties was supposed to eliminate are still pervasive. Cross-organizational
communication is typically secondary to satisfying immediate project responsibilities.
Unfortunately, most organizations have not discovered or invested in a useful tool to
store and access the information required to prevent the aforementioned scenarios. As a
result the planning and scheduling of many projects resides in the isolated minds of
departmental experts or private reports.
Currently in Sacramento County, communication is a challenge for external customers
such as utilities. The method of obtaining planned project information within
Sacramento County consists of knocking on the proverbial doors of every department in
the Public Works Agency. When a utility goes knocking on the door of the
Transportation Department, Water Quality Department, Water Resources Department,
and the Construction Management Department, it is only a hope that they are able to
interface with the appropriate person right away, but the likelihood is that they will be
sent off with paper prints from each department. It is safe to assume that there is a
significant amount of time invested by a customer to obtain required information.
Solution
The Sacramento County solution is SEROW – Street Excavation in Right-Of-Way, a
user-friendly project coordination application that requires only a compatible web
browser and a network connection. SEROW is a web-based application that contains
project data for construction projects in Sacramento County that include right-of-way
excavation. The most powerful features of the application are the online tools that enable
the creation and maintenance of project data, and the automated email notification
processes that track project data status. These tools eliminate the need for a database
manager to “baby-sit” the application database. The main application Graphical User
Interface (GUI) is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Main SEROW GUI
The main SEROW GUI is structured in five main components. Included in the
components are the (1) Main Map Window, (2) Overview Map {pop-up}, (3) Toolbar,
(4) Query Window, and (5) Dynamic Attribute Window {pop-up}. The components are
illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Main SEROW Components
