Geographic Information Management in Local Government - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 Case Study — Newcastle City Council NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL AT A GLANCE Key Facts Local authority name: Newcastle City Council Local authority type: Metropolitan borough Population: 270,000 Current state of operation of GIS: Single-supplier/Authority-wide GIS Main GIS products in use: ESRI’s ArcInfo (12 licenses); ArcView (88 licenses) now replaced with ArcGIS, ArcIMS, ArcSDE, and ArcPad Applications: Map production, gazetteer, Envirocall (environmental call center), local land charges, development control, building control, grounds maintenance, street lighting, pollution monitoring, contaminated land, crime and disorder analysis, hous-ing, business, and residential properties database Land and Property Gazetteer status: Corporate gazetteer implemented in 1997 as integral part of local land charges system and based on standards previously estab-lished across Tyne and Wear authorities, with UPRNs held in a structured (non-BS7666) format but able to export data in BS7666 format. Migration to BS7666 accredited gazetteer completed in January 2001 GIM/GIS strategy status: Corporate GI strategy (approved in 1997, revised in 1999, and new one approved in December 2002) Forum for steering GIS: GI strategy group that meets as needed to discuss strategy, standards, and funding issues with GIS user group at working level Staffing for GIS: GIS team of seven staff (within IT Newcastle) with GI liaison officers in each department Contact details: ICT business manager (GIS) (telephone 0191 2116447) What Makes Newcastle City Council Distinctive? Much of Newcastle’s success with GIS derives directly from the strong corporate approach that it has adopted in relation to spatial information, which is backed up by an agreed corporate GI strategy, and associated standards. Of particular interest is the way that Newcastle has promoted the benefits of GIS by identifying and developing a “killer application” that has strong backing from members and officers. Not only has the Envirocall project has been able to show how improved customer ©2004 by CRC Press LLC relations management can be dramatically achieved, but has also demonstrated in a topical way what GIS technology is able to offer. A major lesson from the case study for other local authorities to note is the fundamental importance of identifying a showcase project for GIS. If this project is both highly visible and successful, then it can start the momentum toward GIS that will flow through into subsequent years. Key Stages in the Implementation of GIS Stage 1 (1993 to 1995) — Feasibility study, procurement of GIS software, and provision of map management service. Stage 2 (1995 to 1996) — Development and implementation of corporate gazetteer in conjunction with local land charges system. Stage 3 (1997 to 1998) — Establishment of corporate strategy for GI and rollout of GIS to all major departments, including use of GIS to support the environmental call center (Envirocall). Stage 4 (1999 to 2002) — A period of consolidation of the strategy and building on the early foundations. Considerable work carried out on the gazetteer. Data conversion work performed, particularly in relation to the LLC search process, and the CAPS uniform suite introduced to move toward fully integrated land and property applica-tions. A metadata database also introduced for GI pilot experiments undertaken in Internet-based GIS and establishment of partnerships with external organizations such as the health authority and police aimed at sharing spatial information. Stage 5 (2003 to present) — In order for Newcastle City Council to implement its new GI strategy, it will put in place: • Access to easily understandable, accurate, and current data and metadata, within appropriate security and privacy constraints, to aid decision and policy making • Together with appropriate direction, leadership and control, systems integration, skills, standards, support, sustained levels of funding, and technology Positive Drivers and Success Factors for GIS • Implementation of LLC that encouraged corporate GIS, map management, and development of gazetteer • Best value, modernizing government, the N-initiatives, and pressure for more informed decision making, which have all emphasized the need to relate and share information about geographic locations • Strong corporate approach • Envirocall, which has demonstrated the power of GIS to provide high-quality, easily vizualized information and deliver improvements in business efficiency Problems that Threatened Success • Underestimating the time and cost involved in data conversion (with consequent delays in implementation of local land charges system and corporate gazetteer). • Initial lack of corporate budget to fund corporate GIS infrastructure, software, data, and resources (budget has now been established). • GI liaison officers (in each department) have to undertake duties on top of day-to-day tasks. • Conflicting demands on IT services for support and new development not clearly prioritized. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC Practical Benefits from GIS • Improved quality and efficiency of map production service. • Saving of one planning technician post (through improved map production). • High-quality information for management, policy, and operational decisions. • More efficient fulfillment of statutory obligations. • Turnaround on local land charges improved to 3 days (from between 6 and 38 days). • Use of gazetteer to support bulk mailing has saved £2,000 to £3,000 per annum. • Envirocall has improved call handling (with call responses on average dealt within 11/2 minutes) and reduced abandoned calls (by 50%) within environmental services department. • Early provision of data to NLPG. 12.1 WHY WAS NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL CHOSEN AS A CASE STUDY? As one of the Tyne and Wear authorities that were involved from the 1970s in the National Gazetteer Pilot Study, Newcastle City Council has a long history of using spatial information. Like a number of other local authorities reviewed in this book (e.g., Aylesbury and Powys), Newcastle City Council is a prime example of the advantages for the implementation and operation of GIS that follow from adopt-ing a strong corporate approach. By committing to an explicit corporate GI strategy and associated standards for spatial data, the council has established a clear road map for GI to guide priorities for the allocation of resources. This has enabled the council to expand the use of GIS to wide-ranging applications across all its depart-ments, and it is planning to open up to public access through implementation of Internet–GIS. Particularly impressive is the way that Newcastle City Council has been able to identify the killer application.The Envirocall project (see Box 12.1) has imaginatively used GIS to support the environmental call center within the Cityworks Directorate, which deals with about 150,000 calls each year relating to rubbish collection, street cleaning, roads and footpaths, grounds maintenance, and pest control. A lesson for other local authorities to note is the importance of finding one or more showcase projects for GIS, which, if politically important, highly topical, and successful, can start the momentum toward GIS that will continue in subsequent years. 12.2 THE BACKGROUND — WHAT HAS NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL DONE? Newcastle City Council is an example of the implementation of a single-sup-plier/authority-wide GIS, using the terminology that we introduced in Chapter 8. It has introduced the software of ESRI across all of its departments with wide-ranging applications that include map production, gazetteer, Envirocall, LLC, development control, building control, grounds maintenance, street lighting, pollution monitoring, ©2004 by CRC Press LLC BOX 12.1 The Envirocall Project Replacing Compulsory Competitive Tendering, the government’s best value initiative, introduced in 1997, requires councils to secure best value for taxpayers’ money across their services. One of the council’s first best value reviews of the customer services department identified major problems in communication, with members of the public who telephoned with environmental problems and complaints kept waiting while internal enquiries were made. In addition residents were also frustrated by the lack of an appointment system for bulk refuse collection and pest control. This growing dissatisfaction underlay Newcastle City Council’s successful bid to the Department of Environment, Transport, and the Regions (DETR) for a best value project in October 1997. Taking advantage of seed funding from the DTLR, the newly-equipped Envirocall call center with 11 staff members was opened in September 1998. For those living in Newcastle with an environmental query or request, a single widely advertised telephone number is available to call. When a resident telephones, the call agent takes down the name, address, or location, and details of the request. Using an in-house application which was built by IT services, with ESRI’s MapObjects (embeddable mapping components and subsequently replaced by ArcIMS) and which accesses the council’s Land and Property Gazetteer, the call agent is quickly able to display a small overview map on-screen.This provides the geographic location, ward name, and other useful information such as refuse collection days. Where appropriate, mapping is used to identify the location needing attention, e.g., if a broken street light is reported, then street light locations can be overlaid on the displayed map allowing the call agent to identify the correct one. Other features such as bus stops, traffic lights, and street furniture are also available for interrogation and enable a request for service to be entered using a linked form (which is then routed to the appropriate section for action). The Envirocall system has dramatically improved customer services. In the first year of operation, service request calls increased by 30%, average time to deal with a call dropped to 11/2 min, and the number of abandoned calls (persons giving up and hanging up before the call was answered) was halved. Authors’ summary from Newcastle City Council internal documents. contaminated land, crime, and disorder analysis, housing, and business and residen-tial properties databases. Currently, 12 licenses are in use for ArcInfo (used by the gazetteer team and LLC section) and 70 licenses for ArcView (used authority-wide). It is important to note that while the corporate GI strategy is strongly based on the use of ESRI’s products, it does not rule out the use of an alternative supplier, provided that a good business case can be made and effective integration achieved. However, currently there is no significant use of another supplier’s GIS products. Development and implementation of GIS has taken place over four major stages: Stage 1 (1993 to 1995) — In 1993 the council decided to investigate the feasi-bility of GIS and a consultancy study was commissioned (from TerraQuest Ltd.). This provided a justification for implementing GIS, which the council accepted together with requirements specifications to be used as the basis for an invitation-to-tender to select a GIS supplier. After tendering through the European Union procedures (at that time for tenders above about £120,000, for which advertisement in the European Journal was required) and subsequent evaluation, benchmarking, demonstrations, and site visits, ESRI was appointed as the council’s GIS supplier at the end of 1994. Following installation of hardware (server, workstation, digitizers, and plotters), the planning department began to provide a map production and management service to all departments based on use of ESRI’s ArcInfo (subse-quently replaced in 1997 by use of ESRI’s more user-friendly ArcView product). ©2004 by CRC Press LLC Stage 2 (1995 to 1996) — At the second stage in implementing GIS, the council focused its efforts on the LPG and LLC system under contract with ESRI. The gazetteer was implemented initially as an integral part of the LLC system, though it was selected so as to be capable of operating ultimately as a corporate facility and was quickly extended to other applications. The gazetteer was based on standards previously established across Tyne and Wear authorities (as part of the National Gazetteer Pilot Study) with UPRNs that are held in a structured (non-BS7666) format, though it was able to export data in BS7666 format to enable it to interface to the NLPG and NLIS. To ensure that the greatest value could be made from the gazetteer in conjunction with GIS, the council decided to captured the extents (boundaries) of properties within the gazetteer, starting with “built” properties (approximating to postal addresses) and completing the capture of land parcels several years later. A gazetteer maintenance team was established in the planning department at the outset in order to keep the gazetteer up-to-date. The LLC system was developed by ESRI to meet Newcastle’s specification (and ultimately became ESRI’s first commercially available ArcLLC product). In addition to legal services, those departments (planning, highways, environmental health, and city engineers) that were consulted on the response to enquiries about departmental constraints (raised on Form CON29 as part of the local land charges search) were also provided with screens onto the new system, enabling a gradual improvement in response times to be achieved. Stage 3 (1997 to 1998) — Following a successful trial of GIS for map production and implementation of the LLC system and LPG, the council began a period of consolidation and rollout. User numbers for GIS were substantially expanded across all departments by employing ESRI’s ArcView, integrated with the council’s LPG, as the easy-to-use viewer for datasets of corporate interest. A major effort went into developing applications for use by departments involved in grounds maintenance, pollution monitoring, contaminated land, crime, and disorder analysis, housing, and the business and residential properties database. While all these applications have delivered business benefits to their respective departments, perhaps the most impres-sive and eye-catching application developed over this period was the Envirocall project (see Box 12.1). This application alone was responsible for generating a “head of steam” for GIS, which has continued to the present day. Based on the success of Envirocall, the council is keen to expand the use of GIS to provide call centers and one-stop shops for other services. This stage was also characterized by a consolidation of GI activity, in which the local authority consciously stood back after a period of enthusiastic work and rethought where it wanted to go with GIS for the future. This resulted in the agreement of a corporate GI strategy and the establishment of the GI management group to steer its implementation. The strategy contained a strong corporate com-mitment to sharing information through corporate groups, and implementing a street, land, and property gazetteer for use by systems across the authority. The strategy also incorporated a set of standards for GIS, which included requirements for departments to use ESRI’s ArcInfo, ArcView, and MapObjects software, and for the development of systems using ESRI’s Avenue (ArcView macro language) and MapObjects (embeddable GIS components) together with Visual Basic or MS Access ©2004 by CRC Press LLC ... - tailieumienphi.vn