{"id":35142,"date":"2018-06-24T23:55:20","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T06:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=35142"},"modified":"2023-08-04T15:48:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T22:48:52","slug":"city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub","title":{"rendered":"City of Brampton, Canada, Saves Time, Money with GeoHub"},"author":1162,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10562,401,19602],"tags":[1451,1631,301,1171,701],"arcnews_issues":[9332],"class_list":["post-35142","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-hub","category-government","category-open-data","tag-citizen-engagement","tag-collaboration","tag-community","tag-open-data","tag-smart-communities","arcnews_issues-arcnews-summer-2018","arcnews_sections-collaborations"],"acf":{"short_description":"Residents, students, and businesses now have easy access to public information.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Residents, Students, and Businesses Now Have Easy Access to Public Information<\/h2>\r\nBrampton, a diverse and fast-growing city in Ontario\u2019s Greater Toronto Area, boasts a population of just over 600,000, with residents working in key industries such as retail and business services, aerospace technology, and telecommunications equipment manufacturing. Known as the \u201cflower city\u201d due to its historical success in horticulture, the City of Brampton now has ambitious plans to become a connected city that is innovative, inclusive, and bold.\r\n\r\nTo get this effort off the ground, Brampton launched its first iteration of an open data portal in 2011. This was in response to the Ontario provincial government\u2019s new requirement that all municipalities release their facilities\u2019 energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions data. In 2015, Brampton upgraded the portal to ArcGIS Open Data, where it initially hosted 15 datasets online. At the end of 2016, the city rebranded its open data portal as the Brampton GeoHub<\/a>, which is now a comprehensive open data portal based on ArcGIS Hub technology.\r\n\r\nEmployees in Brampton\u2019s information technology division understood that the city\u2019s data was useful for residents, developers, and city employees and wanted to improve services through transparency and community engagement. The GeoHub quickly became the one place where anyone could view and acquire the city\u2019s datasets\u2014from asset, land-use, and infrastructure data to orthoimagery\u2014as well as public data from the open data catalog.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you\u2019re going through the effort to open data, make it useful, make it purposeful, and build awareness\u2014not only to the public, external agencies, and business but also to staff,\u201d said Matt Pietryszyn, the City of Brampton\u2019s information technology team lead of GIS and open data. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to share authoritative information throughout the organization.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":35172,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In the first year of use, the city saved 588 hours of staff time by decreasing the number of data requests it received both from internal departments and members of the public. Given that the GeoHub now has almost 300 datasets (a big jump compared to the 15 it started with), Brampton has virtually eliminated the need to process data requests, saving staff exponentially more time.\r\n

Providing Transparency, Interacting with Citizens<\/h2>\r\nBefore GeoHub, Brampton city staff and residents struggled to find and use data. In most cases, the city\u2019s internal teams or members of the public looked for data, downloaded a file, and then uploaded it into a system before they could view or analyze it\u2014sometimes only then finding out that the data was not what they needed.\r\n\r\nSince GeoHub\u2019s launch, staff no longer have to respond to public requests for information on topics that range from health and safety to infrastructure, since residents, business owners, and students can now get what they need through the open data catalog. In addition, members of the public can leverage high-quality and authoritative datasets to make their own apps. Such access to data not only gives the community a chance to be part of the process, but it also helps the municipal government identify the types of data users want to see.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe are not only providing transparency in service; it is also our aim to foster innovation and transformation in how we interact with our citizens,\u201d said Joseph Pittari, commissioner of corporate services for the City of Brampton. \u201cThrough the GeoHub stories and mapping features, our residents can get a better understanding of their community and its surroundings.\u201d\r\n

A Rising Star in Open Data<\/h2>\r\nBrampton\u2019s profile is rising as it sees increasing success with its open government efforts. It is already the second most open city in Ontario, beating out other Canadian stalwarts like Ottawa and Vancouver, according to Open Cities Index Results published by Public Sector Digest<\/em> last year. Brampton also won the Canadian Open Data Rising Star 2017 award in the Canadian Open Data Awards.\r\n\r\nIts success can be attributed to the city\u2019s hardworking GIS and open data team, supportive leadership, and collaborative internal departments. Brampton\u2019s GIS and open data team is made up of 14 forward-thinking GIS professionals working toward the shared goal of distributing the city\u2019s data and GIS tools to a wide audience so that city employees, local businesses, and residents can employ business intelligence and GIS services as typical capabilities.\r\n\r\n\u201cPromote your location platform everywhere\u2014in every meeting and every hallway discussion,\u201d advised Gaea Oake, the program manager for the GIS and open data team. \u201cMeet new people in the organization and talk about data with staff you haven\u2019t worked with in the past. Engage with the public. Data-driven governance and citizenship is gaining importance because it\u2019s a quick way to begin connecting citizens to strategic initiatives and show them that cities are aware of where they\u2019ve come from, have a strategy in place, and will be held accountable for moving forward.\u201d\r\n\r\nBrampton\u2019s GIS and open data team has also worked tirelessly to educate city staff about what is available in GeoHub\u2014from data and maps to visualizations and collaboration opportunities. Letting teams know that there is a central, authoritative location to find content for better decision-making has made a \u201creally big impact,\u201d said Pietryszyn.\r\n\r\nIt hasn\u2019t been an easy journey to get departments to share their data. But things are changing, according to Pietryszyn.\r\n\r\n\u201cThrough initiatives like the Smart City Challenge, hackathons, and other activities that aim to modernize how cities run their business, awareness is growing,\u201d he said. \u201cMunicipal leaders are beginning to understand that when you make good, purposeful data available publicly, it\u2019s easier for businesses to make the decision to locate in their city. Students have access to accurate and real-world data to analyze and understand their city. Small businesses benefit and are able to better grow the local economy.\u201d\r\n\r\nPietryszyn said that the GIS and open data team is constantly working on adding more datasets to its open data catalog\u2014influencing departments to release business data along with location data while also making sure that what\u2019s being released is accurate, current, humanized, and purposeful.\r\n

Becoming Future Ready<\/h2>\r\nNext on Brampton\u2019s journey to becoming a smart community is putting its recently finished City Dashboard to good use. A public-facing performance dashboard, this online tool helps members of the community understand how the city\u2019s day-to-day undertakings produce positive outcomes. Residents can monitor categories such as Finances and Assets, Community Well-Being, and Livability and see whether the city is meeting its targets or needs improvement. In the Economy section, for example, users can see that Brampton is working to improve the jobs-to-population ratio, while under Customer Service, residents can find out that the city is providing good-quality transit service, since it is meeting its target of only receiving one complaint per 10,700 rides.\r\n\r\nPietryszyn said that cities striving to become \u201cfuture ready\u201d through open data and more transparency need to embrace their GIS departments.\r\n\r\n\u201cMunicipalities struggle to understand what their GIS can do for them, or just what it is exactly,\u201d he said. \u201cRecently, we\u2019ve spent less time explaining to people what GIS is and more time showcasing apps and how we can partner to solve problems and make their data more purposeful through quick dashboards and visualizations to tell their business units\u2019 stories. This is the biggest win across the organization for GIS. It doesn\u2019t have to be complicated or time-consuming.\u201d\r\n\r\nLearn more about how the City of Brampton is thinking bigger<\/a>. Follow @CityBrampton<\/a> on Twitter and check out its Facebook page<\/a>, too."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nCity of Brampton, Canada, Saves Time, Money with GeoHub | Summer 2018 | ArcNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Residents, students, and businesses now have easy access to public information.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"City of Brampton, Canada, Saves Time, Money with GeoHub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Residents, students, and businesses now have easy access to public information.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-04T22:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/06\/OpenData_GISTeam_card.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub\",\n\t \"name\": \"City of Brampton, Canada, Saves Time, Money with GeoHub | Summer 2018 | ArcNews\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2018-06-25T06:55:20+00:00\",\n\t \"dateModified\": \"2023-08-04T22:48:52+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"Residents, students, and businesses now have easy access to public information.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/city-of-brampton-canada-saves-time-money-with-geohub#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"ArcNews Articles\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 3,\n\t \"name\": \"City of Brampton, Canada, Saves Time, Money with GeoHub\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/a9bd4568e9ff3d11069fe7b326e0123c\",\n\t \"name\": \"Citabria Stevens\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/CitabriaStevens2_small.jpg\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/CitabriaStevens2_small.jpg\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Citabria Stevens\"\n\t },\n\t \"description\": \"Citabria Stevens is the managing editor of Esri's ArcNews magazine. 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