MapBook Generator Extension for ArcView GIS

GIS Works for Public Safety in Greenville, North Carolina

Like a lot of cities, Greenville, North Carolina, has been building GIS data and internal capabilities for several years. The long-range goal for the City of Greenville is to utilize GIS technology across the entire enterprise. In order to move toward that goal, the City has deployed several Esri software programs including ArcInfo, ArcView GIS, and MapObjects. The City, for instance, used MapObjects and Visual Basic to design a GIS Web site (map.ci.greenville.nc.us) that delivers land information such as parcel ownership, city zoning and land use, and FEMA flood zones.

In an effort to continue the GIS growth in the City, the Management Information System (MIS) Department worked with the Fire and Rescue (F&R) Department during 1998 and 1999. MIS met with F&R and produced a departmental GIS Needs Assessment document. The needs assessment outlined a number of potential project areas and possible solutions to move the department forward in the realm of GIS.

One of the primary needs for F&R was the ability to produce standardized street and hydrant maps for use in emergency vehicles. The department had very coarse, hand-drawn maps of various areas in the City showing the streets and their names. These maps were generally outdated and did not represent many of the new streets added within the City. Another area of concern was that the hand-drawn street maps did not always contain the necessary hydrant locations. After several discussions between MIS and F&R, it was decided that the solution would focus around a GIS application that produced map books and then regularly updated them. This course of action was taken while keeping in mind that there would be future development to create a mobile GIS application to be carried onboard the emergency vehicles.

The City of Greenville contacted Ground Control (www.grndctrl.com), an Esri Business Partner, for the application development. The City knew that Ground Control had similar experience and would be able to develop the application efficiently. "We had used Ground Control in the past, and we were very pleased with their efforts. We were looking for a good technical firm as well as one that could easily become part of our development team, which included MIS and Fire and Rescue. They seemed like a natural fit," said Lex Turner, GIS manager, City of Greenville.

Using street centerlines with names and address ranges as the primary basemap source, the MapBook Generator creates maps with labels on the streets as well as any other data layers such as fire hydrants, tax parcels, annotation layers, etc. The staff at the Fire and Rescue Department can now produce up-to-date map books for any section of the City.

Upon completion of the map pages, this application creates a complete street index detailing street names with block ranges and which page they appear on for quick in-field reference. Users can create entire map books or segments of the map book at their discretion, and the MapBook Generator provides updated maps with current data automatically.

Overall, the map book application project has been a great success. Although still in its early stage of implementation, the map book application enables fire and rescue personnel to utilize current map data on a daily basis. In addition, the City can also leverage the application into other departments needing a map book product. During the flooding that followed Hurricane Floyd, for example, Ground Control and members of the City of Greenville MIS, Public Works–Engineering, and Planning departments worked to quickly redesign the map book application for use in postflood inspections. The resulting map products proved invaluable in the assessment and inspection processes following the storm. "We are very pleased with the map book application and with the work that has been done by Ground Control. This was a total team effort between the City of Greenville, Ground Control, and Esri. It is always very satisfying to be part of a project that benefits our citizens and our City staff," said Turner.

For more information, contact Doug Ruppel, Ground Control (tel.: 910-487-1008, Web: www.grndctrl.com).

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