Water meter billing can be a significant source of revenue for any local government, so ensuring that the billing address information is valid and complete is critical to the success of collecting all the necessary fees. A key component to maintaining these utility accounts is assuring they are up to date and cross-checked with other sources, which can often be difficult and time-consuming. To assist with validating the account locations for each billing record, the City of Des Plaines Public Works department asked the city’s GIS department to map out all the utility billing addresses in order to get a better understanding of where potential address problems exist.

A significant part of any local government’s economic vitality relates to property development and improvements that require a building permit. Permitting fees provide vital income and can help to increase department budgets and the potential for capital improvement spending. As part of an effort to better track permit applications and highlight trends over time, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development (CED) department asked the city’s GIS department to develop a map product to display permit locations.

Keeping a record of the past is important to help give those in the present and future a better idea of how their current surroundings developed. Whether these surroundings are cultural, political, or genealogical, tracking the history of each can be a way to maintain a connection to where an individual or group of individuals came from. The same holds true for municipal entities, which can track the historical development of their political boundaries using annexation records that are maintained over time.

Federal funding is a fundamental part of local government by helping to provide the necessary monetary assets for programs ranging from infrastructure improvements to low income housing support. While numbers and statistics related to a specific program are the nuts and bolts that eventually lead to funding being denied or awarded, including a spatial analysis of the data as a component of the funding application can help to clarify the provided information and increase a local government’s chance of receiving the requested funds.

During an emergency event, the type of event, the extent of the area affected, and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response is controlling where information is coming from and which pieces of information are more critical than others. Using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) as a tool in all stages of the emergency management process brings a spatial component to the planning and implementation of an action plan, helping to visualize all relevant information for a more efficient and successful community response.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have the capacity to perform complex analysis of data to reveal patterns or relationships across a given space. However, the software used to perform these analyses is often thought of only as a tool for generating maps. While creating a visual representation of the data in the form of a map is a major component of GIS, it is not the only way it can be used to assist local governments in completing their everyday tasks. Generating data statistics and other analysis results is also a critical function of a GIS system that can help to consolidate the search for information and reduce the amount of time spent on a project. For the City of Des Plaines, IL these statistics have proven to be a vital asset for everything from gathering basic knowledge of the city systems to compiling reports for various departments.

Seasonal operations planning is a process all municipalities, large and small, must go through as the seasons change throughout the year. Whether it’s ordering salt for the winter months or flowers for the spring plantings, all municipalities are involved with planning out the process by which seasonal services will be executed. For the City of Des Plaines, IL Public Works department, snow removal and street salting have always been two of the primary services included in the winter operation plans. In past years, the various plow and salting routes have, primarily, been determined by the individual truck operators and had little coordination across the department from route to route. To help better coordinate this effort, and to avoid routes overlapping, the department asked the city’s GIS department to assist in creating a series of city-wide maps showing the various routes to help make the overall snow plowing process more efficient.

The safety and maintenance of train gates is an issue all communities with rail lines crossing through their borders must deal with. For many, the image of train gate lights flashing causes feelings of impatience, but, in most cases, the wait for a train only lasts a few minutes or so. However, train gates can malfunction, which can cause significant traffic congestion and train delays. Recently, the City of Des Plaines, IL engineering department decided to analyze train gate malfunction and delayed train information gathered from January 1st- June 30th of 2009 at the city’s thirty-two at-grade train crossings. In doing so, the department wanted to determine if there is a problem with the city’s rail system that requires further investigation.

Transportation projects can fall under several different categories, from new road construction and pavement resurfacing to bike lane development and railroad crossing re-grading. One common theme among all these project types is the amount of planning that is required to successfully execute each one and minimize the effect each will have on traffic flow in and around the project areas. To assist with this process, the City of Des Plaines, IL engineering department utilized the city’s GIS program to develop numerous transportation data layers and products that allow for a more coordinated departmental approach.

To help respond to a potential community-wide emergency, most local governments have an emergency response plan in place to assist with the organization and execution of community policies and protocols. As technology has improved over the years, the City of Des Plaines, IL started integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into a tool for assisting with the management of an emergency event response.

As the environment becomes a focus within local government, issues such as sewage discharge into fresh water rivers and streams becomes a concern. As part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Study (NPDES), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works with the City of Des Plaines to ensure they are taking the necessary steps to regulate and reduce the amount of sewage discharge they produce.

Allowing multiple users to edit the same database within a Geographic Information System (GIS) system can often be very important to maintaing an efficient and steady workflow. While it’s possible for one database user to make edits and then have another user make additional edits on the same database, this approach can be risky as data can be lost or corrupted. To help avoid this situation the City of Des Plaines, IL implemented a SDE-based approach to managing its sewer utility system that allows for more than one user to perform edits on a set of data with the capability to review the changes to ensure data integrity is maintained.

Recent improvements in the manufacturing practices of energy efficient lighting solutions have made “going green” a more viable option for local government. The City of Des Plaines, IL has begun the process of investigating these alternate lighting solutions for their city-owned streetlights to become more environmentally friendly and to provide a cost savings for the city.

In June 2008, the City of Des Plaines Community and Economic Development Department started a webpage on the city’s website called “Great Eats and More”. The idea of the webpage was to highlight various city restaurants and attractions in an effort to help generate additional business, thus accentuating some of the things that set Des Plaines apart from their surrounding communities.