Geographic Information Management in Local Government - Chapter 14 pdf

CHAPTER 14 Case Study — Shepway District Council SHEPWAY DISTRICT COUNCIL AT A GLANCE Key Facts Local authority name: Shepway District Council Local authority type: District council Population: 100,000 Current state of operation of GIS: Multi-supplier/Authority-wide GIS Main GIS products in use: ESRI’s ArcInfo and ArcView; Autodesk MapGuide Applications: Map production, gazetteer, planning control, building control, LLC, shore- line management, deprivation mapping, town center audits, rural transport, and the NLUD Land and Property Gazetteer status: The LLPG is advanced and already providing benefits to customers GIM/GIS strategy status: No strategy but underlying corporate acceptance of the value of GIS Forum for steering GIS: Office technology liaison group has an overall view of IT, including GIS Staffing for GIS: No full-time staff dedicated 100% to GIS, but several who are extensive users Website: http://www.shepwaydc.gov.uk Contact details: ICT manager (telephone 01303 852267) What Makes Shepway District Council Distinctive? Shepway is a good example of a district council implementing Web-based GIS. Building on the experience gained in establishing a digital map base, Shepway’s success is the result of a corporate approach to a cost-effective vision by working in partnership with others. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC Key Stages in the Implementation of GIS Stage 1 (1994 to 1997) — Management and printing of the corporate OS map base by environmental services Stage 2 (1997 to 1999) — Handling coastal datasets for shoreline management by construction and health services; exploration of corporate desktop GIS Stage 3 (1998 to 1999) — Deprivation mapping and town center audit by economic development service; enquiring into the availability of Web-based GIS products Stage 4 (1999 to present) — Deployment of corporate GIS using the council’s intranet. Extensive use of GIS for LLPG maintenance, LLC, and planning Positive Drivers and Success Factors for GIS • OS/Local Authority SLA that prompted the setting up a digital map base • Government initiatives, e.g., modernizing government and NLPG • The strong corporate approach reinforced by a simple but explicit strategy and joint working • Reduced costs facilitated by Web-based deployment Problems that Threatened Success • Excessive deployment costs for Stages 1 to 3 — now resolved by using Autodesk MapGuide • High data capture costs at all stages — which is still an issue Practical Benefits from GIS • Improved quality and efficiency of the map management and production service • High-performance searching for addresses and planning and building regulations applications • The ability to link in other address-based applications throughout the organization 14.1 WHY WAS SHEPWAY DISTRICT COUNCIL CHOSEN AS A CASE STUDY? Although Shepway District Council has used GIS since 1994, its use was limited in the early years to a maximum of five intensive users employing highly functional software. During 1997 and 1998, the authority recognized the immediate need to provide online access to GI for the vast majority of its staff and ultimately to make it widely available to the general public. At the end of 1998, an external consultant drew the council’s attention to the availability of new, Web-based products. At the same time, the government was making it clear that it wanted councils to be able to transact their businesses electronically within a decade. Therefore, corporately adopt- ing a view of “if it’s useful, let’s do it,” Shepway District Council decided to be one of the first councils to make its geographic databases available online. In April 1999, development began on Shepway’s intranet, and its approach to implementing Web- based GIS led to our decision to make this Kent district council a case study. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC 14.2 THE BACKGROUND — WHAT HAS SHEPWAY DISTRICT COUNCIL DONE? Shepway District Council is an example of the implementation of a multi- supplier/authority-wide GIS, using the terminology that we introduced in Chapter 8 — it has introduced ESRI software for a very small number of “power users” and Autodesk MapGuide across all of its departments. One ArcInfo license is used within environmental health, planning, and building control services for corporate map management and data capture, one ArcView license in environment and street scene for shoreline management, and two ArcView licenses in the economic development service for the town center audit, the rural transport study, the NLUD, and for deprivation mapping. Further ArcView licenses are employed for LLPG maintenance and LLC use. There are 150 concurrent users of Autodesk MapGuide throughout the authority. The system was developed jointly by the council and an external company, with the software supplied by an Autodesk reseller, Data View Solutions, who also provided the training. The software runs on a Viglen XX3 server with a 500 MH Z Intel Pentium III processor, 17 GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM. The operating system is Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, and the MapGuide server runs in association with Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0. The major databases and processing systems currently linked to GIS are planning applications, building regulation applications, and the planning system property database using ADDRESS-POINT. This is currently being enhanced to use the LLPG. Development and implementation of GIS has taken place over four major stages: Stage 1 (1994 to 1997) — The SLA between local authorities and the OS to provide digital mapping prompted environmental services to obtain ESRI’s ArcInfo for the management and printing of the corporate map base. During these early years, a few expert users produced high-quality printed maps that were made avail- able to other staff on request, but there was no online access for the vast majority of staff, leading to: • A continuing need to walk to map cabinets in order to retrieve maps • The inability to maintain a common map base for all staff • The use of outdated maps that were often in poor physical condition (Dean, 2000) Stage 2 (1997 to 1998) — In 1997 construction and health services acquired a license from ESRI to use ArcView for handling coastal datasets derived from the Beachy Head to South Foreland Shoreline Management Plan, and this activity has continued up to the present time. Also during 1997 and 1998, the authority recognized the need to deploy GIS more widely to its staff. The huge fall in the cost of desktop GIS systems, compared with the early workstation-based systems, made this more feasible than before. It was also realized that a corporate GIS system would be able to link multiple databases, bringing forward the possibility of using a corporate address database. However, there were still factors mitigating against the extension of GIS: ©2004 by CRC Press LLC • Despite desktop systems being available for around £1000 per user at the time, the cost of implementing GIS for a large number of users would still be extremely high for a district council. • The available desktop systems generally provided too much functionality for the average user to understand. • Desktop GIS required a relatively high-specification PC. • There were concerns that the network efficiency could be compromised by the transfer of large quantities of map data. • Conventional client/server technology was not suitable to deliver the council’s ultimate aim of making GIS functionality widely available to the public (Dean, 2000). Stage 3 (1998 to 1999) — During 1998 the economic development service began using ArcView for general deprivation mapping, and in 1999 this was extended to town center audits, a rural transport study, and to developing the NLUD. All this work continues at present. At the end of 1998, an external consultant drew the attention of the council to the availability of Web-based GIS products. Although they were then still in their infancy, the following features were recognized: • The GIS functionality provided was suitable for in excess of 95% of staff. • The cost per desktop was extremely low (a marginal cost of around £35 relative to £1000 previously). • Data compression techniques ensured that network efficiency would not be com- promised. • Any PC capable of running a browser with a suitable plug-in would be able to access GIS, with no specialized software required. • Centralized deployment would reduce overheads. • Access could be given to the public via the World Wide Web (Dean, 2000). Stage 4 (1999 to present) — In April 1999, development began on Shepway District Council’s intranet. As part of this process, extensive evaluation criteria for the selection of Web-based GIS were compiled and various products evaluated. The main criteria included were: • Straightforward import facilities from OS data and other major GIS products • Nonproprietary programming language • The ability to connect to multiple databases simultaneously • Straightforward printing facilities • The ability to split OS maps into multiple layers (Dean, 2000) Based on these criteria, Autodesk MapGuide was selected as the product that best suited the council’s purposes, and development of the GIS system commenced in July 1999. The work was undertaken by an external consultant and the Ash- ford/Shepway in-house IT unit. The main system was completed within a month but was not fully deployed until the implementation of the intranet in October 1999. The GIS immediately proved to be a popular application, permitting every member of staff with a PC to use the OS digital map base. ADDRESS-POINT could also be ©2004 by CRC Press LLC accessed via a MS SQL server database enabling around 46,000 property records to be searched in under 3 seconds. A batch interface to the council’s planning and building control systems permits the upload of data every evening into the central MS SQL server intranet database. Using GIS, it is possible to find both the planning and building control applications within any selected area. Figure 14.1 illustrates this by showing planning and building regulations applications at the Civic Centre, Folkestone. It is intended to extend this functionality to include the LLPG soon. Many additional coverages were made available during 2002, including ancient monuments, ancient woodlands, conservation areas, river and tidal flood areas, sites of special scientific interest, and areas of outstanding natural beauty. The council was an early participant in the NLPG project. It provided BS7666- compliant data to the hub in December 2000 and connected the local land charges system to the (LLPG) early in 2001. Shepway’s ICT strategy indicates that major systems should be connected to the LLPG as soon as practicable. An investigation into the business and technical requirements involved in connecting all significant systems to the LLPG is under way. Shepway is already part of the NLIS at Level 2, i.e., starter system is in place, and has found the service to be of value to some of the customers using the land search service. An upgrade to NLIS Level, i.e., automated interface with NLIS Hub 3, is imminent. Figure14.1(See Color Figure 2 following page 134.) Shepway District Council’s planning database showing planning and building regulations applications at the Civic Centre, Folkestone. (From Shepway District Council. Reproduced with permission from Ordnance Survey. © Crown Copyright NC/03/16653.) ©2004 by CRC Press LLC 14.3 WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS IT SET UP? There is no formal GIS steering group, although the office technology liaison group takes an overall view of IT. In Shepway, GIS are not seen as an end in their own right but as just one, albeit important, aspect of IT that has significant potential in making corporate data more usable and accessible. The authority is currently in the process of recruiting a systems development manager with major responsibility for corporate GIS management. This person will be responsible for ensuring that all corporate data is up-to-date, BS7666-compliant, and capable of being presented via Web-based applications to the public, staff, and councilors. The systems development manager will also assume the role of the council’s OSLO. 14.4 WHAT DOES SHEPWAY DISTRICT COUNCIL PLAN TO DO IN THE FUTURE? The aim is to provide both public and professionals with a one-stop online information service available through the Internet. As the system is rolled out to more users, the current 150-seat capacity is expected to grow to a projected capacity of around 230 seats. The aim is to match all property-related databases with the LLPG. These will be added to GIS, allowing corporate GIS to become an umbrella for access to all spatially related data. The vision is that Shepway’s residents will be able to identify a property and retrieve all the data pertaining to that property which they are entitled to view. Shepway’s Implementing Electronic Government Statement identifies the fol- lowing intentions of future GIS development: • To add additional data layers to the intranet version. Although some data have been captured and are waiting to be added to GIS, there is still a significant amount of data that could be captured. The council recognizes that capture of this data requires a coordinated effort but has not yet begun the necessary planning and resource allocation. A strategy for adding additional data layers will therefore be addressed during the financial year 2003–4. In the meantime, however, it is intended to procure expert advice on the best way forward for the capture of Shepway’s properties as a polygon coverage, using the Ordnance Survey’s new MasterMap product. • Deploy GIS applications on the Internet. GIS will be used where appropriate to deliver applications having a significant spatial element. The local plan will be one of the early deployments on the Internet. As further business uses for GIS are identified, these will be added and incrementally improved in subsequent years. The use of GIS will assist the council’s operational decision making by providing officers with improved access to information and will provide an enhanced use of the Internet for customers. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC 14.5 WHAT WERE THE POSITIVE DRIVERS AND SUCCESS FACTORS FOR GIS? Much of the success of Shepway District Council is due to a number of significant drivers and success factors that have helped to provide a climate of support for the project. Four positive drivers that have been of particular importance in encouraging the council to develop Web-based GIS are: • The Ordnance Survey/Local Authority SLA in 1993 that prompted the establish- ment of a digital map base for the authority • Government initiatives such as modernizing government and the NLPG that encouraged the Web-based approach • The need to take a corporate view of spatial data and to make them available to all staff, and eventually to the public • Reduced costs facilitated by Web-based deployment Two success factors that have ensured that Web-based GIS is seen as an achieve- ment by the council are: • The strong corporate approach reinforced by a simple but explicit strategy and joint working among managers, consultants, and vendors • Low-cost deployment opportunities for Stage 4 together with the enthusiasm of the staff 14.6 WHAT WERE THE NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT THREATENED SUCCESS? Although there have been many positive encouragements for Shepway District Council, there are a number of negative factors that have potentially threatened success. These include: • The excessive deployment costs for Stages 1 to 3, which were resolved by using Autodesk MapGuide corporately, thereby achieving very low per-user costs • The high data-capture costs at all stages, which is still an issue 14.7 WHAT HAVE BEEN THE PRACTICAL BENEFITS? GIS in Shepway have delivered a wide range of benefits: • Improved quality and efficiency of the map management and production service — no longer necessary to use paper maps because consistently up-to-date mapping is readily available via desktop PCs • High-performance searching for addresses, planning applications, and building regulations applications (often used in preference to the source systems) • Ability to link in other address-based applications throughout the organization in order to give a corporate view ©2004 by CRC Press LLC All these have been achieved with nonstaff costs averaging less than £10,000 annually since 1994. 14.8 WHAT ARE THE LESSONS FOR OTHERS? The Shepway case study carries many lessons for others including: • The advantage of a corporate approach with a clear but simple vision and a “let’s do it” attitude • The progress that can be made with an approach that is committed to action, and by working in partnership with all the other players — management, staff, vendors, consultants, and other local authorities • The importance of striving for a cost-effective affordable (sustainable) system • The need to take advantage of the momentum arising from government initiatives in order to develop GIS projects that deliver benefits to a wide range of users ©2004 by CRC Press LLC . server intranet database. Using GIS, it is possible to find both the planning and building control applications within any selected area. Figure 14. 1 illustrates this by showing planning and building. service • High-performance searching for addresses and planning and building regulations applications • The ability to link in other address-based applications throughout the organization 14. 1 WHY. Council is an example of the implementation of a multi- supplier/authority-wide GIS, using the terminology that we introduced in Chapter 8 — it has introduced ESRI software for a very small number