Feature "Our vision of creating a common operating picture with a geographic perspective gives everyone the information they require along with the basic GIS functionality necessary to do their jobs in the best way they can." Malcolm Meikle, GIS Coordinator for the San Diego Port District The Port of San Diego maintains a diverse facility spread across 6,000 acres. With the exception of the San Diego Convention Center, the San Diego Port Authority is responsible for the port: park and concessionaires, the walkway, large public art installations, the commercial shipyards and ports, and the recreational boating marinas surrounding San Diego Bay. Operating these assets generated revenues of $133.7 million in 2007. The port, which uses information technology (IT) enterprise systems, such as SAP and a document system to manage business information, realized that applying the same concept to space management would be advantageous. The system the port envisioned would be accessed by every department and used by anyone from summer interns to the CEO. The port had been using GIS since the 1990s in the engineering and real estate departments. Although both departments were essentially creating and using the same data, this data was not shared and efforts were duplicated. However, there was no easy way to share data. "Our vision of creating a common operating picture with a geographic perspective gives everyone the information they require along with the basic GIS functionality necessary to do their jobs in the best way they can," explained Malcolm Meikle, geographic information systems coordinator for the San Diego Unified Port District. Making GIS Part of the Daily Workflow Three years ago the port's information technology department added ArcGIS Server, a complete and integrated server-based GIS, to its ArcGIS Desktop software. This change made facilities data accessible to the departments that needed it. The goal was to streamline workflows by identifying tasks, questions, and requests that were best answered using a geographic approach. This approach paid off. "Using GIS, the time it takes to access critical information went from seven to eight hours to mere minutes because the data is now located in one location and it is up-to-date," said Meikle. "Just this change has sped up our workflow and is driving faster, more informed decision making." The port worked with various departments to customize interfaces using ArcGIS Desktop and generic Web browsers to give access to port data that now resides in a single location: a geodatabase. The geodatabase is the common data storage and management framework for ArcGIS Server. Source data is also managed in the geodatabase, which minimizes redundant copies and eliminates the possibility of varying versions of data. Adopting new technology to improve business processes can be a daunting task. The port found it needed to keep daily tasks as unchanged as possible while incorporating tools for bringing real benefits to the users. CAD has continued as the technology used in the data production environment for creating drawing files for structures around the port. Designers use the ArcGIS for AutoCAD extension, a free tool from Esri, to bring GIS data into the CAD environment. Using this extension, engineers can continue working with familiar software while gaining access to GIS data. It can be GIS data created in-house or GIS data from ArcGIS Online, an Esri-hosted repository of GIS maps, layers, and tools. ArcGIS for AutoCAD has proven to be a valuable tool since it allows operators to see the GIS basemap in their native CAD environment and find answers to questions because all the information is accessible through the basemap. "AutoCAD users are drawn to this tool because it gives them a window into GIS information while still allowing them to work in their familiar AutoCAD environment," said Continued on page 32 With GIS, the Port of San Diego can efficiently manage assets located on 6,000 acres surrounding San Diego Bay in California. www.esri.com ArcUser Winter 2010 31