Redevelopment, annexations, new construction, and even remodeling often changes the distribution of services and consequently introduces a record management workflow that needs to be coordinated between utility service providers and municipalities. Periodically villages are contacted to verify service addresses for electric and natural gas utility companies. Most recently Riverside, IL administrative staff was tasked by Nicor to review their gas service address list to verify all provided addresses are in The Village and identify addresses that Nicor may have been missing. This information is integral for the tax reimbursement processes related to the Village’s utility tax ordinance.

Communities everywhere are tasked with providing water samples to the EPA to meet public health compliance standards.  There are various elements the water is tested for and some are tested for more frequently than others.  The Riverside, IL Water Department has utilized its Geographic Information System (GIS) to highlight the distribution of the sample sites throughout the community with the water system shown in the background.   Alternative locations for each site are mapped as well to be used for additional samples or as a substitute when needed.  The samples provided are tested by the EPA and reports are distributed to the public every year.

Riverside, IL has earned the moniker “Village in the Forest” thanks to its planned design along the Des Plaines River with curvilinear streets, expansive parkways, and forested areas. The beautiful landscape that is Riverside does require maintenance, specifically tree trimming, in order to maintain tree integrity, appearance, and maximize safety. The Village’s Forestry personnel are using their Geographic Information System (GIS) to manage their tree inventory and plan trimming efforts. Tracking annual maintenance and their corresponding priority areas gives staff precise records of past activities. Mapping future efforts in the GIS allows staff to modify their plans if funding varies and continue to manage the areas in most need. Maps are generated and distributed when the time comes for the maintenance service company to do the work as well. This gives Village staff confidence there will be no misunderstandings of what trimming is expected and where.

Being that Riverside, IL is located in the Chicago Metropolitan area there are many modes of transit available to the general population in addition to the traditional ones such as bike and bus routes. The Geographic Information System (GIS) staff has consolidated transit information to assist transportation planning efforts in The Village. The data is available to village staff in their interactive mapping application giving them a quick resource to review the transportation network that is available to residents and visitors including website links to the schedules and other supporting documents that the regional transit organizations have made available on the internet including train and bus schedules. A quick look at this information shows how connected or disconnected the various transit options are and may suggest initiatives to promote use of those facilities and their accessibility to businesses or even realize ways to close gaps between the transit stops.

To continue efforts to understand and help manage flooding in The Village of Riverside the history of permits for flood mitigation devices for residential properties were extracted from The Village’s permitting system. Using the Geographic Information System (GIS) the locations of the private property mitigation permits were mapped. Combining this information with other flood related data such as backyard ponding reports, improved surfaces, contours, and sewer infrastructure that The Village has been accumulating and mapping gives a more detailed picture of all factors involved in the ongoing flood mitigation efforts and provides for more effective solutions.

The Village of Riverside has been coordinating with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) since the summer of 2010 to plan removal of the Hofmann and Fairbank Dams along the Des Plaines River in Riverside. The Village has utilized its Geographic Information System (GIS) to create maps that express their desired alignment of access roads and seeding paths to minimize the impact of construction activities on the landscape and existing infrastructure. Using GIS, The Village’s tree inventory and other important data could be shared with the ACE and IDNR to ease design efforts for regarding of Swan Pond Park, also located along the Des Plaines River in Riverside.

The Village of Riverside often performs landscape burns along the Des Plaines River which winds along and through its incorporated area. The Village Forester is required by law to obtain an open burn permit to perform such activities and recently took advantage of their Geographic Information System (GIS) to create a map product to accompany the permit application. Seeing that the burning locations vary from year to year, but are always in and along the same forested areas, the image highlighted all areas that could potentially be burned. Identifying in the map all of the sensitive facilities such as schools, senior care facilities, medical facilities, and even a nearby airport gives a clear picture of any potential proximity issues that may need to be considered as well. Reusing the map product will allow staff to quickly complete the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency permit process each year.

The Riverside Fire Department has been working with its Geographic Information System (GIS) staff to produce updated fire hydrant flow maps due considerably to a significant water system improvement project conducted in 2010. The new configuration of infrastructure was updated in the GIS along with the new flow information for the fire hydrants that resulted from new and larger water mains. A large wall map was produced for the fire station and smaller, double sided maps were printed and laminated for use in the field. With the capabilities of the GIS and the fact that it is a repository for all village data the maps were designed to include all addresses throughout the village as well. Combining the address and hydrant locations with flow information provides a very valuable resource for the Fire staff.

The Riverside Farmers Market is a weekly service The Village of Riverside, IL organizes for its residents.  Held every Wednesday from 2:30 – 7:00 PM during the summer and fall in 2011, The Market has had many vendors and community groups participate throughout the season.  The Village has tasked its Geographic Information System (GIS) to create event maps to communicate to the vendors and groups their setup locations.  With growing interest and turnout the setup locations have often changed from week to week making the event map that much more useful in staging the event.

To provide a reference for village staff and contractors alike, the Riverside Geographic Information System (GIS) has provided maps of tree planting locations. By mapping this information staff can evaluate the work conducted by the contractor and inspect the condition of the trees going forward. Similarly tree removal products have been generated to identify where stump removal and restoration activities have taken place. This information can easily be integrated into the tree inventory that is also managed using the GIS to obtain accurate assessments of village owned and managed trees.

To promote public safety and awareness in the community the Village of Riverside, IL Police Department is making available a sex offender map on the web. Because it is a densely populated area the information is gathered not only for Riverside, but surrounding communities as well. The State’s Sex Offender Registry provides the offender locations and those addresses are plotted using The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). By law sex offenders are not allowed to reside within five hundred feet of a public school or park. The GIS is capable of producing these exclusion areas with ease making the final map product a combination of the sex offender residences and the exclusion areas.

Besides the flood issues introduced because of the proximity to the Des Plaines River through and along the Village of Riverside’s Western and Southern boundaries, some reoccurring residential drainage issues have been identified. The Village has contracted to have drainage studies performed in these areas hoping to realize some solutions through infrastructure and/or grading changes. Through existing data sharing agreements with Cook County via its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program, Riverside was able to provide contour and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) elevation data to the engineering consultant. Using the GIS to prepare the elevation data for the areas of issue allowed the studies to advance quickly as compared to the alternative of field data collection.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) develops accounting standards for state and local government agencies. The financial reports that are generated are used by the public, including issuers and auditors to assess the financial status of the reporting agencies. One aspect of the accounting process is the value of assets owned by the entity. Because the Village of Riverside, IL has a Geographic Information System (GIS), calculating village owned assets such as utilities and easements can be performed regularly and quickly. Just recently the village utilized its GIS to estimate the village owned easements relative to supporting utility data. Because easement information is filed away as hard copy documents the alternative would have required much research and significantly more staff time.

One of the unique features of Riversidelinois is the design of the community centered around forestry as envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted. Riverside is one of the first planned communities and has been a National Historic Landmark since 1970 due to the historic architecture, winding streets, gas street lights, and vegetated landscape.

Riversidelinois has the benefit of being centered on a commuter train stop that serves areas west of the city of Chicago. Accompanied by dense development in the city center, a high demand for parking facilities is present. The village has chosen to utilize it’s Geographic Information Stystem (GIS) to inventory and evaluate its parking scenario.

Usually unseasonably warm temperatures are welcome during the winter months in the Chicago area. But a forecast including above freezing temperatures was met with some concern due to the historical snowfall event that took place just two weeks prior. Riverside Public Works personnel were aware of the potential for roadway flooding if rain and excessive snowmelt was in store. In preparation for this possible situation the Village’s GIS was leveraged to provide maps so that sewer inlets could be located and cleared off. Without GIS these inlets would be time consuming to locate given they were still covered by snow from plowing efforts.

In order to determine the effectiveness of their current snow removal strategy Riverside Public Works mapped their snow removal routes. Doing so provided a map of the priority streets, parking lots, and sidewalks as well as lengths of roadway included in each route.

Riverside forestry management includes a tree inventory, tree management, and a tree planting program. The village’s GIS (Geographic Information System) supports all of these efforts as a medium for displaying and analyzing that information. The village forester identified an additional management strategy that is of interest to the local Landscape Advisory Commission and that is delineation of no planting zones.

Recently the Riverside Public Works Department was assisted by a Scout project to repair dilapidated benches throughout the village. With the blessing of the Public Works Director resident Ben Cox located and assessed all of the benches within the village. The data collected was provided to the GIS (Geographic Information System) staff to plot the bench locations and incorporate the condition information and photos taken.

Recently the Riverside Historical Commission became aware that the Village’s GIS program could provide them assistance gaining property history information, particularly property images. Part of the Cook County Assessor’s workflow includes capturing an image of the front of every property in its database. Those images are available to the Village of Riverside through an existing data sharing agreement due to the Village’s GIS initiatives.

Rear yard drainage is a notable topic in Riverside these days as the village is preparing to have some drainage studies performed. The village has been using its GIS (Geographic Information System) program to track drainage complaints over the past two years to realize where, away from the Des Plaines River, residents are experiencing flooding or drainage problems.

An annual process for the Riverside GIS (Geographic Information System) program is to obtain parcel data and ownership information from the county as they are the custodians of that data. As a part of the 2010 data exchange the village was provided LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data.

The village of Riverside GIS (Geographic Information System) program mapped crosswalk locations in an area of town due to an event that occurred near a school. As a result of initiating this data creation, the remaining village crosswalks and some additional roadway striping information were mapped to have a complete inventory of their locations in the GIS system. Various village departments can now benefit from this information.

As a member of the GIS Consortium the Village of Riverside participates in an annual data collection process which allows them to obtain remotely sensed information, or data collected from a distance. An advantage for the community is that they receive cost savings being a part of such a large group contracting these services. Data collection from the past two years has provided planimetric data such as buildings, driveways, roadways, etc. This spring the village collected a new orthophoto. This orthophoto is a series of aerial photos that have been geometrically corrected and referenced to remove distortions and properly represent the location of features in the image.

Although Geographic Information System (GIS) are used to store and retrieve data often times in a highly complex fashion, they also provide a medium for map simple production. A special event map is a regular request of GIS professionals and can be generated in a relatively short time frame with good communication between the event coordinators and the map maker.

A recent development in the Riverside Geographic Information System (GIS) has been the creation of a street inventory. Information captured includes the type of surface material, road base material, cross section type, curb and gutter information, last improved dates, planned improvement dates, and other statistics that can be derived from the GIS such as the length of roadway and even surface area could be calculated quickly.

In early 2010 a multi-year planimetric data collection project was completed and the data incorporated into the Village of Riverside GIS (Geographic Information System) database. Information collected in this process included features such as roadways, sidewalks, driveways, recreation areas, curbs, retention walls, among many other things.

The largest objective for initiating Geographic Information System (GIS) services in the Village of Riverside was to create a digital representation of the utility systems. This objective was realized when a Sewer and Water System Map Books were constructed at the turn of the new year. The books display the culmination of many projects that were necessary to produce such a resource. The first step was to convert GPS point data of the system structures such as fire hydrants, water valves, sewer manholes, etc. into the GIS system. Next the data needed to be connected with water and sewer main features. Additional structures were added as suggested by existing hard copy resources including as-builds and the former map books. Hydrant flow, manufacturer, identifiers, pipe material, and size information about the system was also entered as noted on plans, in other community databases such as FireHouse, and as provided by staff through their knowledge about the systems. The map books incorporate a page grid that was developed and the map design was generated utilizing the repository of other data layers that the GIS houses.

The Village of Riverside 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 vehicles that are registered to a Riverside address and a new sticker is required every year. Sticker fees range from $65 to $95 depending on the type of vehicle.

A sign inventory allows for the quick identification of signs for replacement based on criteria such as age and condition or high vandalism areas. It can be used to manage personnel and maximize productivity if combined with work orders and maintenance activities as well as provide for supplemental information in map products as was done recently in a pedestrian safety assessment near Ames Elementary School in Riverside.

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. As a member of the GIS Consortium the Village of Riverside participates in an annual data collection process which allows them to obtain such planimetric data. An advantage for the community is that they receive cost savings being a part of such a large group contracting these services. The current service provider for photogrammetric mapping is Ayres and Associates of Madison, WI.

As was described in the August 2009 article, a Village of Riverside master address database was created in the Geographic Information System (GIS). This database was generated from several sources including water billing, permits, fire inspections, and business licenses. Each address follows the United States Postal standard format and is represented geographically by a point at the location of the addressed structure or property.

Addresses play an important role in the daily activities of Village of Riverside staff whether it is for water billing information, permits, or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link for answering such questions as what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in? However, obtaining this information for a specific address often requires searching through multiple spreadsheets, databases, and paper documents.

Riverside has a central business district that includes a train station for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. The railway services communities from Aurora to Chicago and is convienent for the residents of Riverside and adjacent cities and villages such as Lyons and North Riverside.

Being situated along a river has many advantages, but can also create many issues that have a direct impact on the residents adjacent to these natural features. Riverside has most of its southern boundary defined by the Des Plaines River and there are significant natural areas throughout the community that surround the river which provide for activities such as fishing and scenic walking. These landscapes usually act as a buffer from flooding that can occur during major rain events, but do not always absorb the impact of these events.

One of the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) developments in Riverside has been the creation of a community Zoning Map and Street Map. It was requested that the existing village Zoning Map be created within the GIS Department as 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.

A recent addition to the Village of Riverside has been the Geographic Information System (GIS) services. Although GIS is being used in the village to inventory multiple data items the tree inventory has gained popularity. A few years ago the village used Davey Consultants to locate the trees in the village parks using GPS equipment. They also identified trees existing in the parkways and associated that information to the nearest address. This information was incorporated into the GIS by downloading the GPS data which was already in a geographic data format because of the original collection tools that were utilized. The tabular data was then matched to an address in the GIS system and from there it was incorporated into a geographic database with location context.