It’s that time of year again. Just as the warm temperatures surge northward from the Gulf of Mexico, the start of Road Construction season begins. Many of these improvement projects can create large traffic buildups and frustrate many commuters and residents. Keeping the public notified on what projects are currently in progress, so they can plan their commuting routes accordingly is very important.

With the winter coming to a close shortly, the excessive season of main breaks is almost over. Water main breaks take away from resources and time that could be put into improvement projects. The easiest way to calculate the number of main breaks on a village street or water main line is to simply count each break and add it up; however, this data collection method only will give you the number of main breaks, it doesn’t account for the significance of those breaks to the integrity of the line as a whole.

In an effort to continuously investigate real world representations in map products, the Geographic Information System (GIS) staff in Elk Grove Village, IL has identified a few data processing operations that provide more context than your typical map.

As the Elk Grove Village Geographic Information System (GIS) was developing their address data it was necessary to gather information from various resources from inside and outside The Village. Many departments had resources with resident and business contact information which result from various existing billing, permit, and inspection procedures such as utility billing, fire inspections, and business licenses. It became apparent that combined together these resources could be extremely useful for village staff and they could be consolidated knowing all records were organized by address information.

Removal of Ash trees has begun in Elk Grove Village, IL to combat Emerald Ash Borer infestation.  An inventory of Ash trees in The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) has been instrumental in planning removal efforts and is now being used to assist planting of new trees.  Mapping the new tree plantings has made it possible to communicate watering and observation duties to be sure staff is doing what they can to ensure the survival of the new trees.  Tracking removal locations where a replacement tree is desired in coming years will be much easier to manage using the GIS as well since the history of tree removal locations will always be available and the expectation that tree removals will exceed plantings for some time due to the Ash Borer threat and budgeting requirements.

Removal of Ash trees has begun in Elk Grove Village, IL to combat Emerald Ash Borer infestation. An inventory of Ash trees in The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) has been instrumental in planning removal efforts and is now being used to assist planting of new trees. Mapping the new tree plantings has made it possible to communicate watering and observation duties to be sure staff is doing what they can to ensure the survival of the new trees. Tracking removal locations where a replacement tree is desired in coming years will be much easier to manage using the GIS as well since the history of tree removal locations will always be available and the expectation that tree removals will exceed plantings for some time due to the Ash Borer threat and budgeting requirements.

For years Elk Grove Village has been maintaining a database to track roadway pavement history and ratings. With their Geographic Information System (GIS) they have been able to integrate the database information into a geographic representation on their roadways which allows for maps to be generated showing the results of a query for specific surface material, base material, maintenance frequency, etc. Using the flexibility of their interactive mapping program the GIS staff has made the pavement history available to all staff. Simply clicking on any road segment will list the years in which maintenance was performed and specifics about each maintenance activity saving staff time to gather the desired information.

Like any community, Elk Grove Village, IL has its share of apartment, condominium, townhouse, and assisted living complexes. At times village inspectors may identify property maintenance issues at such locations which need to be addressed. The Village has mapped these association areas and their related contact information in its Geographic Information System (GIS) providing a quick resource for staff when dealing with issues that pertain to common areas. In many cases the association contact information is available in a community’s water billing database or something similar, but most staff do not have access to those records so the GIS map has been quite useful for all staff to easily obtain the association contact and phone number allowing them to resolve the issues at hand quickly.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was utilized while reviewing the On Street Solicitation section of The Village Code of the Village of Elk Grove Village to determine which lighted intersections throughout the community permitted on street solicitation. Based on the current specifications of The Code it was determined that there is only one intersection where this is permitted. Having a map highlighting not only the permissible solicitation location, but also other factors that affect the permissible locations such as zoning and lighted intersections gives Administrative staff a clear picture of the situation at hand and a resource for Police staff to enforce the regulation. GIS is a tool for them to consider all of the factors pertaining to on street solicitation and decide if revisions need to be made to their policy.

Now that Elk Grove Village, IL has a Geographic Information System (GIS) they can quickly perform a verification of potential sex offender residences. Every so often the Police Department will receive a request for residency by a registered sex offender and the staff is required to determine if the property meets the sex offender residence restrictions of the State of Illinois. Sex offenders are restricted from living five hundred feet from schools, parks, and day cares for example. The location between the inquired property and distances from these facilities can be analyzed quite easily because of the analysis capabilities within the geographic nature of the GIS and the fact that property information is the base of the system. Maps can be produced as well when residency is approved or denied as supporting documentation of the evaluation that was performed.

It was recently realized by the Elk Grove Village, IL GIS staff that most, if not all, of the land division information related to properties was being provided them by their data sharing agreement with Cook County. The data represents all of the components a piece of land is described by in a legal description and includes the Township, Range, Section, Quarter Section, Subdivision, Block, Parcel, and Lot. All of this information was combined in The Village’s interactive GIS map so that staff can have quick access to this information when faced with future land divisions and/or inquiries without an address to identify the location.

Elk Grove Village Public Works has inventoried their crosswalk locations using their Geographic Information System (GIS) to assist maintenance and tracking of the walks. Knowing all locations has benefited the department because the data provides support information for map products, road reconstruction projects, pedestrian safety studies, and maybe most importantly maintenance. There are now quite a few different types of crosswalks in The Village including striped, brick, and painted concrete. Through the GIS, staff can assess when these walkways were last maintained and schedule upkeep based on a combination of the type of walk, proximity to schools, and the maintenance frequency specific to that type of surface. Also by referencing the GIS they can be certain none of the locations are missed if an assessment needs to be made of the status of the walks.

In 2011 the Elk Grove Village GIS (Geographic Information System) and Clerk’s Office staff began a project to inventory variances for each property that have been approved throughout the village. A variance is an approved deviation from the municipal land use or building codes.

In 2009 Elk Grove Village Police Department began an evaluation of police beats and staffing by mapping and calculating statistics of calls for service using it’s Geographic Information System (GIS). To continue the assessment in 2010 the GIS was used to map all roadways in town and produce an estimated time for a unit to patrol each police beat. The single lane mileage together with speed limit along each roadway was enough information to calculate the patrol times. Combining the 2009 and 2010 evaluations the Police Department has a much clearer picture of the demands for each beat and the amount of staffing that is needed to meet various levels of service for the residents.

A growing desire for access to information and computer programs while performing tasks out in the field has Elk Grove Village planning to implement a wireless network. Inspectors, police, and fire staff would immediately benefit from such a resource to access systems that are constantly changing while they are out of the office or could be updated more quickly from what they are experiencing and working on in the field. The Geographic Information System (GIS) has been providing maps to highlight existing village facilities where network equipment can reside and the extent of the community that would be covered if access points were installed at various locations. The most efficient locations will be realized from these maps for the desired wireless coverage that is determined.

Elk Grove Village Public Works recently initiated an inventory project for village owned trees, generally being all trees located within medians and parkways.  Using their GPS equipment and seasonal labor the trees are located and their condition, size, and other useful information related to management of the trees are documented.  The village GIS (Geographic Information System) is being used to process the GPS data, track the data collection progress, and evaluate the amount and location of trees in poor condition.  The initial goal is to replace ash trees in poor condition with other, healthy trees of another species.  Having an inventory of the ash trees will allow for rapid and effective management of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), an invasive species, if discovered in the village.  Other objectives that will derive from this information are removing stumps, replacing trees in poor condition, placement of new plantings, and realizing areas that may require more frequent trimming due to the proximity of power lines.

A recent addition to the Elk Grove Village, IL interactive mapping application, MapOffice™, is the Business Intelligence mapping service. Business Intelligence is a tool that is configured with community databases such as permits, work orders, and police incidents giving the map user the ability to dynamically map records in those databases usually by a category and/or date range.

An annual water system maintenance procedure for Elk Grove Village Public Works staff is to service any fire hydrants that do not self-drain. A fire hydrant that has been used at any time during the year, if working properly, will drain the water automatically as designed so the water will not freeze inside the hydrant making it unusable. During the cold winter months when temperatures are below freezing village staff will drain or pump fire hydrants that did not drain properly.

A recent objective in Elk Grove Village has been to map easement information. Easements are a land management resource for many departments as they depict areas where utilities may exist, areas that have been dedicated for future infrastructure and where municipal vehicles have access on private property.

With the recent historical snowfall event, 22” over a 16 hour timeframe, it became a safety issue for Elk Grove Village Firefighters to know the location of their fire hydrants and have access to them. Many fire hydrants had been completely covered by snow because of the amount of snow and plowing efforts from the village, counties, and state.

Roadway improvements have been recorded for decades in one of Elk Grove Village’s community databases. It contains much useful information such as the base and surface materials of a roadway, years in which a road was repaved, and years in which a road received some form of maintenance. This data has been integrated into the village’s GIS (Geographic Information System) to provide an interface to visualize the roadway pavement history.

Land annexed into Elk Grove Village had been on display as a map in the Village Clerk’s Office for some time. This map served as a reference for village staff when receiving inquiries about unincorporated properties. Clerical staff realized the new GIS (Geographic Information System) program provided an opportunity to update the product.

A monthly process for Elk Grove Village is to identify the location and trends of foreclosures within its municipality. A subscription to RealtyTrac provides the desired information which is downloaded over the internet. The foreclosure information is provided to the GIS (Geographic Information System) staff where it is plotted on a map. The quantity of foreclosures is tallied in a line graph to realize trending as well.

A contour line is a representation of equal points of elevation. Contour lines are displayed successively in a contour map to display the change in elevation over an area. The interval between lines defines the resolution of the elevation data.

Elk Grove Village has recently purchased a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit to support data collection for its GIS (Geographic Information System). GPS data collection utilizes the GPS satellites in orbit around the Earth to calculate the x,y location of the GPS receiver as well as the time and elevation to a certain degree.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technique where laser pulses are directed toward the earth and the time it takes for the impulse to return provides elevation information as well as some characteristics of the surface below. The village has just received LiDAR data from a private contract and a less dense and unclassified dataset from Cook County as part of the annual GIS Consortium data request.

The Tour of Elk Grove is an annual international bike race that takes place the first weekend in August. There are many components to the event including the races, block parties, a kids’ fest and more. Village staff are therefore highly involved in planning, setup, and management of the event.

Coordination between the Elk Grove Village Public Works and GIS Departments recently has enabled integration of televised sewer records into the GIS system. The initial objective of this effort was to be able to show where televising has taken place and link, or access, the corresponding videos by clicking on the sewer mains in a dynamic map. An added benefit was realized during the integration process in that all comments noted during the televising process such as the location of service lines or where cracks exist in the pipes could be mapped and/or queried.

A recent initiative for the Elk Grove Village Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of police beat and sub beat information including coordination with the Northwest Central Dispatch Center who manages the Village’s emergency calls.

The Elk Grove Village GIS (Geographic Information System) recently assisted an evaluation of outstanding tickets which to date has recovered tens of thousands of dollars for the village.

The recent collection of planimetric data or improved features such as buildings, roadways, parking lots, driveways, etc. in Elk Grove Village has provided for some new analysis possibilities through its GIS (Geographic Information System). One of the evaluations conducted was the distance between primary building structures and also a count of the number of addresses that exist within each building structure.

At the heart of Geographic Information System (GIS) is the organization and storing of data. Typically the data is a geographic representation of a real world feature as well as a database containing fields of information describing that feature. GIS however does allow for an additional level of visualization besides analyzing the existing data within the system and that is the ability to link to existing resources that reside outside the GIS.

Roadway improvements have been recorded for decades in one of Elk Grove Village’s community databases. It contains much useful information such as the base and surface materials of a roadway, years in which a road was repaved, and years in which a road received some form of maintenance. This data has been integrated into the village’s GIS (Geographic Information System) to provide an interface to visualize the roadway pavement history. The GIS allows users easy access to pavement information that can facilitate planning and scheduling of improvement projects as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of certain materials when looking at the road condition assessments. Highly accurate construction quantities can be calculated for roadway surface areas, sidewalk squares, curb lengths, and more because the village invested in base data for the GIS.

The Elk Grove Village Finance Department recently took advantage of GIS (Geographic Information System) in an effort to assess were village stickers had not been purchased nor renewed. Village stickers are required for all registered or housed vehicles in the village and a new sticker is required every year. Sticker fees range from $20 to $145 depending on the type of vehicle and reduced rates are provided for certain demographics.

The Elk Grove Village Fire Department has had Fire Map Books as a resource for many years to assist with dispatch to emergency response events. These map books display roadways and list the location of each street allowing for quick lookup of the general vicinity and routing for a service call. Over the years these maps has degraded in quality so the Geographic Information System (GIS) was leveraged to recreate these map products.

Planimetric data are geographic features captured during a photogrammetric (airplane fight) mapping process that are flat and without elevation information to depict the terrain. Such features include bridges, roadways, building footprints, bodies of water, and railroad lines. Photogrammetry is the most cost-effective method for producing this type of mapping information for large areas and these features typically represent the base data in a map.

All Elk Grove Village police incidents are reported and captured in a database where they can be managed over time. The introduction of GIS in the village has provided the police department an opportunity to enhance their perception and understanding of the distribution of incidents by visually placing them on a map.

The Insurance Services Organization (ISO) is an advisory organization that evaluates risk with the objective to help their customers measure, manage, and reduce risk. In a government setting, ISO will gather information that is often used in insurance underwriting. Therefore they will evaluate how well a municipality manages and mitigates risk and those factors directly affect residents and their insurance premiums.

Information captured in a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be distributed in many different ways including, but not limited to, hard copy map prints, electronic image files, Google EarthTM and as an ArcReaderTM (PMF) project. Of these methods of distribution, ArcReaderTM has been found to work quite well in Elk Grove Village.

One of the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) developments in Elk Grove Village has been the creation of a community Zoning Map and Street Map. It was requested that the village be provided with a color map depicting the zoning boundaries as well as the proper zoning classification. While the zonig map is driven by the local community the street map is more of a GIS Consortium (GISC) standard map product that is suggested as soon as a community joins the consortium. The street map provides a good basis for future mapping products in that much of the fundamental community information is present. These maps have been completed by incorporating many layers of information that have been formulated since the inception of the program.