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Idaho Collaborative Roads Project: Answering a 911 call to increase government and private sector efficiency
May 29, 2008
POST FALLS, Idaho – A 1992 audit of Idaho’s Geographic Information Systems data found that a single region of North Idaho was digitally mapped by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Kootenai County and the Potlatch Corporation.
More than a decade later, efforts to map Kootenai County, and many counties across the state, still are duplicated by state and federal agencies, and private companies. The redundancy is time consuming and expensive.
Geographic location is a feature of 80-90 percent of all government data. Federal agencies alone spend $2.5 to $3 billion annually to manage the data, which are collected, accessed and analyzed using GIS technologies.
In 2006, GIS data managers from the University of Idaho Library’s Interactive Numeric Spatial Information Data Engine (INSIDE Idaho) – the state’s geospatial database and clearing house – and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe began working with county GIS managers and other agencies to create the first complete digital map of Idaho’s roadways, kept current with weekly updates supplied by participating agencies.
That international, cross-agency effort, called the Idaho Collaborative Roads Project, aims to eliminate costly redundancies across the state and between nations.
“Tribal government has a lot of the same uses for the data as the federal government,” said Frank Roberts, GIS manager for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. “The primary use is for 911 emergency response, but it also will serve a broad spectrum of uses, from our police force to fisheries, wildlife and lake management. We cover a large land area of 6 million acres, so we have a lot larger area of interest than any of the counties. Maintaining data for that area is a huge, cumbersome task. The project is about everybody working together to maintain a dataset.”
The Collaborative Roads Project, found online at http://insideidaho.org/geodata/frameworkPilot/transportation, was made possible by a an initial $30,000 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) grant. USGS recently renewed its commitment with additional grant funding of $45,458.
Project coordination is led by Roberts and Ashley McFarland. Oversight of the automated program is provided by Bruce Godfrey, GIS manager for INSIDE Idaho.
“The manual integration that GIS managers used to do now is handled by the automated program,” said Godfrey. “A few individual counties’ road data have been accessible from the INSIDE Idaho site in the past, but the Collaborative Roads Project represents the first time multiple data sets are accessible in an integrated layer.”
When INSIDE Idaho, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, county and other agency GIS managers came together in 2006, they established a standard set of attributes for roadway data to be harvested and updated by county and other GIS managers. That information is being collected in a “ground-up” model, based on the notion that the closer you are to the pavement, the more accurate your road data.
911 emergency route data already is updated weekly by many Idaho counties. Collecting and making the data accessible is key to the success of the Idaho Collaborative Roads Project.
Kootenai County is a case in point. “What we do here with our roads data is send it right on to the Web, updating it weekly with new addresses and new roads,” said Dave Christianson, Kootenai County GIS manager and chair of the state’s Technical Working Group for Transportation. “With an integrated roads layer, you can go out and grab all the data you need, rather than individually harvesting it from each county.”
Though the frequency varies, Christianson estimates time saved harvesting data in the Kootenai County office alone is about two man-hours a week, approximately a full work day each month.
“Overall we have seen a reduction in data requests needing to be processed by staff, ultimately freeing up time to work on other tasks,” said Christianson. “It reduces time spent on calls coming in. We just point them to the Web site. No one has ever called me back and said they couldn't find it.”
Making vital roads data accessible incurs no additional cost to counties, or the taxpayers who support them, because counties already gather the information to serve their own planning needs.
For the project, contributing agencies are asked to supply two data fields: a cartographic attribute, differentiating types of roads; and stewardship, identifying roads under their jurisdiction. Participants make the data available via the Internet for weekly harvesting by the automated program.
Not only can users download the data, they also can view them using a Web browser or access them via a Web service. The downloadable shapefile allows users to layer their own data – ranging from demographics to weather – on top of the street information. Layering data provides unique insights into the relationships between features.
The Collaborative Roads Project currently includes roads data from 16 Idaho counties. Ten additional counties are in the process of putting their data in an accessible GIS format. “The coverage that we have doesn’t support all needs, and is not meant to be the answer to all transportation needs in Idaho,” said Christianson. “Through this collaboration, we wanted to prove that local entities could collect highly accurate data and share 911 data, and there are a lot of benefits from that. The Idaho Roads Project allows the data creators be the data providers.”
The impacts of the project will be significant and diverse, its collaborators predict. For example, Avista Utilities currently uses the information to update their regional internal GIS system to identify new construction areas, and for use in their outage management program.
Spokane County accesses the data to provide updates to their COPLINK application. COPLINK identifies areas were crimes have taken place, also revealing those areas were crime is prevalent. That data also can be used by families and businesses relocating to Spokane County.
The automated program was designed to accommodate other data sets as well. In the future, the program might integrate a layer identifying structures, parcels of land available for development and other information local governments choose to make available, Godfrey noted.
Now that the pilot program has been tested and proven sound, Idaho Roads Project collaborators are hoping to gain support from the Idaho Department of Transportation, and funding from the state.
While the need for geospatial data is recognized, particularly by government agencies, consistent funding has been hard to come by. A 2003 geospatial data Implementation Plan for Idaho (I-Plan) outlined a strategy to coordinate, manage, collect, maintain and distribute Idaho geospatial data critical to building a “Framework” – data deemed essential to public and private sector decision-makers in the state and the nation. Transportation is part of Framework, and roads are a high priority dataset within Transportation.
“The I-Plan was Idaho’s early attempt to respond to the call for a national spatial data infrastructure,” explained Gail Ewart, geospatial information officer for Idaho. “The intent was to realize spatial base data that would serve Idaho and plug into The National Map. Unfortunately, the plan was never implemented due to changed funding priorities at USGS.”
Ewart and other GIS professionals across the state are embarking on a strategic planning process that will refresh the I-Plan and renew efforts to implement it.
“The Collaborative Roads Project will be looked at as a model for horizontal integration – bringing a number of smaller geographies into a statewide dataset and keeping it current and accessible, which are also key aspects of Framework,” said Ewart. “We’re now hoping to secure stable funding mechanisms for all of Framework, including the Collaborative Roads Project. It is a great example of an effort that has sprung up in a void and needs to be supported.”
GIS managers, state, city and regional planners, those serving in local and state government, and other stakeholders interested in providing input that will shape statewide GIS activities for the next five years, are invited to attend one of six GIS Strategic and Business Planning sessions. Each session is scheduled to run from 8:15 a.m. until 3:15 p.m., at the following locations:
- McCall, June 10: Payette National Forest Supervisor’s Office Conference Room, 800 W. Lakeside Ave.;
- Lewiston, June 11: Brammer Building, Main Floor Conference Room, 1225 Idaho St.;
- Post Falls, June 12: University of Idaho Research Park, large classroom, 721 Lochsa St.;
- Nampa, June 24: Nampa Civic Center, Banquet Room, 311 3rd St. South;
- Twin Falls, June 25: College of Southern Idaho, Taylor Bldg., Room 276, 315 Falls Ave.;
- Pocatello, June 26: Idaho State University, Pond SUB, 921 S. 8th Ave, Salmon River Suites (top floor).
For more information, contact Gail Ewart at the Idaho Geospatial Office at (208) 332-1879 or gail.ewart@cio.idaho.gov.
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About the University of Idaho
Founded in 1889, the University of Idaho is the state’s flagship higher-education institution and its principal graduate education and research university, bringing insight and innovation to the state, the nation and the world. University researchers attract nearly $100 million in research grants and contracts each year; the University of Idaho is the only institution in the state to earn the prestigious Carnegie Foundation ranking for high research activity. The university’s student population includes first-generation college students and ethnically diverse scholars. Offering more than 150 degree options in 10 colleges, the university combines the strengths of a large university with the intimacy of small learning communities. For information, visit www.uidaho.edu.
DE-5/29/08-SCI/INSIDE
Contact: Joni Kirk, University Communications, (208) 885-7725, joni@uidaho.edu
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