Geographic Information Management in Local Government - Chapter 14

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 MHZ 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 Figure 14.1 (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.) 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. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC ... - tailieumienphi.vn