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Implementing the New York city GIS utility
Jim Hall
PlanGraphics, Inc. at NYC DoITT 59 Maiden Lane, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10038
Jim Hall
PlanGraphics, Inc. at NYC DoITT 59 Maiden Lane, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10038
Abstract
In early 2000 New York City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) created the New York City GIS Utility, which is focused on providing leadership and resources for growing New York City government's geospatial capabilities. In the time since, the GIS Utility has designed, created and populated the City's centralized geospatial data repository, developed about a dozen GIS web applications and worked with over 20 City agencies to grow their capabilities by giving them guidance, technical assistance and resources to enable them to get their business done better, faster and cheaper. This presentation will review the history, mission, roles and activity of the GIS Utility and will highlight lessons learned in the design and implementation of the GIS Utility. Lessons learned by the GIS Utility staff in their work in responding to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 will also be covered.
Introduction
History
Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) have been in use in New York City government since at least 1978, but traditionally all activity and resources were departmentfocused.
In 1999 a citywide GIS needs assessment study occurred. This study recommended that the City establish an entity to provide centralized cross-agency GIS coordination, data handling and technical support. The primary product of this study was the Citywide GIS Utility Master Plan, which led to the creation of the New York City GIS Utility in early 2000 by the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT).
Staffing
Mr. Alan Leidner who had been the acting MIS Director at the Department of Environmental Protection, transferred to DoITT to assume the position of Citywide GIS Director. A City procurement specialist transferred to the program and in June 2000 three full-time technical contractor staff were brought on-board. Now the staff of the GIS Utility is comprised of three full-time City staff and six full-time contractor staff with part-time help from dozens of others.
Mission and Roles of the Utility
Mission
The mission of the GIS Utility includes the following:
- House the GIS data that are of common interest to multiple City departments, as well as external utilities and other organizations and the general public.
- Standardize GIS data that are shared by multiple organizations.
- Standardize the system configuration for accessing GIS data stored in the central repository server.
- Review participant departments’ system configuration to ensure it is compatible with GIS Utility standards.
- Provide means for the user communities to access the GIS data stored in the central repository server.
- Serve as a liaison among departments to facilitate the sharing of GIS data owned by other departments and organizations.
- Implement policies for GIS data sharing and accessing among participating organizations.
- Apply international GIS and IT standards to facilitate GIS data sharing in a multi-vendor environment.
The roles of the GIS Utility include the following:
- Maintain the central GIS data repository.
- Provide the tools and applications for the departments and the users to access, query, and download data for the central GIS data repository.
- Provide technical support and training to the users for data access and sharing.
- Maintain network and data security to protect the information assets in the central data repository.
- Maintain metadata for the data owned, managed, and maintained by the Utility.
- Define the data standards for the shared GIS data.
- Assist in organizing and supporting the development of applications that use GIS data.
- Provide technical support and advice to the New York City GIS community, especially City agencies.
Introduction
The activities of the GIS Utility can be divided into four broad categories that include the following:
- Data handling
- Application development
- GIS needs assessment and planning
- Technology and standards assessment
Data Handling
The primary focus of the GIS Utility has always been data. This has traditionally involved the following activities:
- Extracting, transforming and loading of existing City data
- Implementing international standards where they add value and are relevant
- Creating new datasets
- Performing quality control or quality assurance of other’s data
- Maintaining data
- Compiling and maintaining geospatial metadata
- Distributing data to licensees
Application Development
The most visible face of the GIS Utility is often the myriad web applications that have been created for DoITT and other City departments. The first application created was Everyone Map, which went live on the City’s intranet in December 2000. This site is still the flagship GIS website for the GIS Utility and provides integrated general user access to a wide variety of mapping and tabular data for the City’s 250,000 staff. A screenshot of the application is included as Figure 1 on the top of the next page.
Figure 1. – Everyone Map Screenshot
The second major GIS website completed was the Emergency Online Locator System (EMOLS) which former Mayor Guiliani personally unveiled to the public in August 2001. This website was completed to support the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which needed to communicate geographic information to the public during emergencies such as hurricane or winter storm evacuations. Five different versions of the EMOLS application have been created since to support different types of emergency information communications. EMOLS has received national awards from Public Technology, Inc. and the Urban Regional Information Systems Association.
Other GIS websites created have included the following:
- Poll-site Locator application for the Board of Elections [internet]
- GIS Utility Home Page [intranet]
- Capital Project Browser application for the Department of Design and Construction [intranet, but being migrated to the internet]
- Asbestos Mapping application for the Lower Manhattan Air Quality Task Force [intranet]
- GIS web interface for the Mayor’s Management Report coordinated by the Mayor’s Office of Operations [internet]
- GIS web interface to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s HPDInfo system [intranet]
- Property Info application for the Economic Development Corporation [intranet]
- Mass Transit Strike Information application for the Department of Emergency Management [internet]
Non-web applications development has also occurred. One of the more notable is the geographic enabling of the City’s recently released 311 (non-emergency customer information) system. The GIS Utility enabled remote access to the Department of City Planning’s Geosupport system, which has a VSAM architecture running on a mainframe. The City’s requirements included a sub-second response time for all queries and 99.999% uptime, which were both met with custom technological solutions.
The GIS Utility has also been able to create and publish two product suites that have utility across applications and systems and provide assistance with a third. These include the following:
PCGeo – The component collection and systems architecture enables remote SNA or IP-based access to Geosupport. Coders can call either the C-based DLLs or the Java-based JARs in their applications. Both transactional and batch processing are supported. It is expected that this architecture will soon be extended to provide remote access to other City mainframe-based assets including the City’s primary permitting system and potentially the City’s real estate / assessment database. PCGBAT – This product supports remote batch Geosupport processing on a Windows client. The end user sets up a simple control file that defines the processing parameters. Performance and processing speed is comparable to traditional Assembler or JCL-based processing via a SNA client.
Geosupport for Windows – The Department of City Planning has re-compiled mainframe code in a Windows environment and their Geosupport for Windows product supports the porting of the Geosupport functionality and data to any Windows-based computer. The GIS Utility has helped with testing and the development of a component to support multi-threaded request handling. All of these product lines are in active maintenance and are available free to other City agencies.
GIS Needs Assessment and Planning
Starting with the publishing of the GIS Utility Master Plan in 2000, the GIS Utility has completed strategic assessment and planning projects for the following City or quasi-City agencies:
- Economic Development Corporation
- Department of Environmental Protection
- Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management
- Department of Finance
- Department of Design and Construction
- Department of Housing Preservation and Development
Special strategic planning projects have also been required including:
SPAZM Development Plan – Working in cooperation with the Department of City Planning and the Department of City Finance a plan for digitizing and/or enhancing the various components of the legal map of the City was compiled. The abbreviation “SPAZM” stands for streets, property and zoning map.
Private Utility Data Sharing Plans – In 2000 the GIS Utility began working with the largest electric utility in New York City to define a data sharing agreement primarily focused on facilitating the City’s sharing of its data while receiving select information about the company’s utility infrastructure. The GIS Utility also has begun similar discussions with a large private telecommunications utility.
Technology and Standards Assessment
The GIS Utility has taken it upon itself to regularly review new technologies for their value and relevance for the New York City government user community. This effort has included review of new methodologies and products in the realm of data, applications and systems. A review of existing and emerging GIS and IT standards has also been ongoing. Although many have been reviewed, only a few have been selected for implementation by the GIS Utility.
Lessons Learned
Almost three years of design and implementation activity at the GIS Utility have led to many lessons learned. Most notable among them are:
- The products and services of the GIS Utility must match the customers needs – this requires constant monitoring and adjustment
- Visible products, esp. web applications, bring publicity and support for future activity
- Optimal website performance has been a key driver for many technological architecture decisions
- Most geospatial standards are not directly applicable to an urban local government GIS program, but several new or emerging ones hold promise
- Interagency coordination and cooperation are crucial to the successful implementation of GIS technology in local government
- The support of the City’s emergency service agencies has been invaluable in helping the GIS Utility get both support and resources
- “Thriving in the diversity” works! – New York City government uses perhaps the greatest variety of GIS and IT vendors and products found anywhere in the world and the GIS Utility has been able to gain access and more data into and out of an unprecedented range of systems
The terrible events of September 11, 2001 brought a new role to the GIS Utility. On the afternoon of the 11th OEM asked that the GIS Utility come to the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to directly support the City government’s rescue and recovery efforts. The GIS Utility in turn asked for assistance from the City’s GIS community and over 100 volunteers responded to help staff the Emergency Mapping and Data Center within the City’s EOC. The center operated on a 24/7 basis for six weeks and produced maps and other information products in response to over separate 2,600 requests from over 100 different City, state federal, non-profit, academic and private organizations. The primary lessons learned from this effort include the following:
- An organization’s ability to respond to an emergency is largely driven by the availability and quality of data. Also, assume that all data available – and more – will be used in supporting emergency response.
- During an emergency it is imperative to understand what information is needed by who at what update frequencies. Establishing and maintaining communication with the “customer” is crucial.
- No organization should waste significant time or resources preparing for a specific type of emergency, but should focus on building a robust but flexible capability that is highly effective, mobile, adaptable and timely in its response.