The Official Website of the Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS)

 
  Massachusetts Geographic Information Council (MGIC)
 
April 6, 1999 - Boston, MA 

"WEB-BASED GIS"

The following sections provide brief summaries, in outline form, of the main points presented by the listed speakers at the April 6, 1999 meeting of the Massachusetts Geographic Information Council (MGIC). 

Moderator - Feng Yang, Town of Brookline GIS Manager

Overview

The April meeting was an expanded session featuring exhibits by GIS product and service vendors in addition to the regular user meeting. The user meeting featured discussion and examples of Web-based GIS Applications. The speakers demonstrated a wide variety of existing applications and discussed their plans and visions for the future.

Presentation by Alan Bishop, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
"METAA Welfare to Work Program"
and Richard Van Langen, MultiSystems, Inc.
"Internet based Transit Travel Information for METAA Welfare to Work Program"

METAA - Metropolitan Employment Transportation Access Association

Collaborative Effort

Original Target Area:
  • Towns Within Regional  Employment Board Areas.

    • View Map (33 kb)
Includes:
  • Boston Private Industry Council.
  • South Coastal Regional Employment Board.
  • Metro Southwest Regional Employment Board.
  • Metro North Regional Employment Board.
Updated Target Area:
  • Towns with Public Transportation System.
  • Include:
    • BAT - Brockton Area Transit.
    • GATRA - Greater Attleborough - Taunton Regional Transit Authority.
    • CATA - Cape Anne Transit Authority.
  • Total of 114 Towns

    • View Map (43 kb)
Focus on Four Main Objectives:
  • Link transportation planning to job development.
  • Identify employment centers lacking public transportation.
  • Create regional perspective to manage employment transportation .
  • Improve transit access for low income communities.
    • Transportation Links - Provides affordable access to employment centers.
    • Service Facility Links - Locate facilities that provide services that support clients and their families.
Transportation Links
  • Public Transit
    • MBTA Bus Lines
    • MBTA Subway Lines
    • MBTA Commuter Rail
    • MBTA Paratransit
    • Regional Transit Authorities (RTA)
  • Private Transit
    • Private Shuttles
    • Bus Carriers
Rapid Transit Lines
  • Bus Routes
  • Subway Lines
  • Commuter Rail
  • Paratransit 
  • Private Bus Lines
  • Private Shuttles


    • View Map (32 kb) of Bus, Subway, and Commuter Rail Lines and Stations
    View Map (18 kb) of Cape Ann Transit Authority
    View Map (33 kb) of MBTA Paratransit Areas (Core, North, Northwest, South, Southwest, West)

Service Facility Links
  • Day Care Centers
  • After School Programs
  • Health Care Centers
Day Care and After School Programs
  • Pre-School Daycare
    • Infant {0 - 15 months}
    • Toddler {16 - 33 months}
    • Pre - School {34 - 60 months}
  • Family Day Care
    • Age {0 - 13}
  • After School Programs
    • School Age {5 - 13}
Health Care Facilities
  • Publicly Funded
    • Community Health Care Centers
    • 67 in target area
  • Privately Funded
    • Private Care Clinicians
    • 900 in target area
Final Product
The GIS landmark database created by MAPC will be used as the foundation behind the Internet accessible interface to be created by Multi-Systems . This interface will provide front line workforce development staff the desk top capacity to eliminate barriers to employment caused by :
  • Limited Income 
  • Limited Education
  • Limited English Speaking Skills
  • Loss of TANF (welfare benefits)

 Internet based Transit Travel Information for METAA Welfare to Work Program 
 
Description 
  • Design & Development of an Internet-based planning tool that will allow counselors to provide transit travel information to Welfare to Work program participants 
Features 
The system must be able to: 
  • Display the client’s home location 
  • Display location of: 
    • Employer 
    • Day-care Centers 
    • After-school Programs 
    • Health Care Facilities 
    • other relevant destinations 
  • Display transit routes for public & private carriers 
  • Develop detailed itineraries for home-to-work transit trips including: 
    • interim stops 
    • transfer locations 
Implementation 
  • Utilizes Multisystems MIDAS-Customer Information System (CIS) 
    • Provides accurate transit itineraries for travel in the metropolitan Boston coverage area 
    • Itinerary destination may include daycare providers and employers, as long as street address is known 
MIDAS-CIS Foundation 
  • MIDAS-CIS is developed upon a geographic information system platform that has been designed from the ground up to handle routing and transportation problems 
GIS Enhancement 
  • The traditional GIS data model has been expanded to create and maintain specialized transportation data structures such as: 
    • Routes 
    • Patterns 
    • Stops 
    • Trips 
Transportation Network Connectivity 
  • Due to these specialized data structures true transportation network connectivity including overpasses, tunnels and one-way streets can be effectively modeled and applied to complex transportation problems 
MIDAS-CIS & Geographic Data 
  • MIDAS-CIS has the ability to display geographic data files and support network analysis and routing functions 
  • The MIDAS-CIS database consists of multiple data types including geographic data files with associated: 
    • non-geographic/attribute information 
    • transportation network files 
    • transit schedule information 
Types of Non-graphic Attributes 
  • Lines representing street segments will have attribute information associated to each segment that defines: 
    • Street Name 
    • Address Ranges 
    • Direction 
    • Bus Stops 
    • other characteristics … 
Uses of Non-graphic Attributes 
  • Non-graphic data items may be used to: 
    • drive the symbols used to represent geographic features 
    • create labels for map features 
    • describe feature characteristics following geographic queries and or geographic feature selection 
MIDAS-CIS & Shortest Path Calculation 
  • The MIDAS-CIS geographic platform is capable of finding the shortest or best path for moving from one location to another over a transportation network 
  • The shortest or best path can be defined as the one that minimizes  the total value of a particular attribute, such as: 
    • distance 
    • time 
    • cost 
  • A specified arrival or departure time can be entered into the shortest path calculation 
  • Segments to exclude can also be specified 
Shortest Path Results 
  • The results of shortest path calculations are displayed on the map 
  • Directions for traveling the path are displayed in the itinerary window along with respective times 
  • The cost for the respective itinerary is also displayed in the itinerary window 
  • Itinerary results can be printed for the recipient 
View Sample Data Entry Screen (29 kb) 
View Sample Map Screen (59 kb) 
View Sample Itinerary Screen (32 kb) 
View Implementation Schedule (8 kb) 

On-line Demonstration 

  • There is currently a sample demonstration system available at:

    • http://www.multisystems.com
    In the IT Products section as, 
    “Transit Customer Information/Trip Planning, Want to try it yourself?”

Contact Information:
  Alan Bishop 
Metropolitan Area Planning Council 
Phone: (617) 451-2770 
Fax: (617) 482-7185		  
Kurt Dossin, Director of Marketing
10 Fawcett Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 
Phone: (617) 864-5810 ext. 203 
Fax: (617) 864-3521 
Email: kdossin@multisystems.com
Web: http://www.multisystems.com

Presentation by Feng Yang, Town of Brookline GIS Manager
"Mapping Our Community Online"

Brookline GIS: Background

  • Started 3 years ago 
  • Base data obtained from BECO 
  • Major Data development by CDM, Inc. 
  • In-house data development 
  • System setup and upgrade 
  • Applications development 
  • Training, Training, Training! 
Current GIS Systems
  • Servers (ITD): 
    • Sun Ultra60 2 400 Mhz processors and 256 MB memory(Solaris 2.6) 
    • DEC Alpha 2 300 Mhz processors and 256 MB memory (Digital UNIX, shared) 
    • Sun Sparc 10 
  • PCs (User Departments): 
    • more than 40 GIS workstations 
  • Networks 
    • 10/100 Base T Ethernet in Town Hall 
    • Fiber Between Town Hall and Police/Fire HQs 
    • Fiber Between Town Hall and Health Department 
    • ISDN Between Town Hall and DPW Garage 
    • T1 - MEC 
    • TCP/IP 
  • Software Packages: 
    • Unix version of Arc/Info & ArcView 
    • Custom AML & Avenue Programs 
    • Reflection X 
Available GIS Data
Precinct Boundaries Street Center Lines Traffic Signals
School Districts Pavement Edges Street Signs
Police Dispatching Districts Back of the Sidewalks Manholes
Zoning  Right of Ways Light Poles
Building Footprints Rail Roads Hydrants
Floodplain Boundaries Bridges Catchbasins
Wetlands Water Pipes Bus and TStops
Protected and Recreational Open Space Sewer Pipes Geodetic Control 
Private Open Space School Bus Routes Points
Ponds Snow Plow Routes Street Trees
Land Use Transmission Lines Park Trees
Census Blocks Streams Historic Sites
Soils Bus Routes Health Complaints

GIS User Base
Department GIS Stations Users Trained
Assessing
6
6
Engineering
9
9
Planning
5
5
Town Clerk
2
3
Historic
1
2
Highway
2
2
Water & Sewer
3
3
Parks
2
2
Conservation
2
3
Police
3
3
Health
2
7
Econ. Dev.
3
2
Building
1
1
Fire
-
-
Selectmen's Office
3
3

GIS Map & Data Requests

  • Map Requests: 
    • Numerous internal requests
    • Lots of public requests
  • GIS Digital Data Requests:
    • Purchase 
    • Data Exchange between public agencies - MOU
  • Procedures for data and map requests:
    • Fill out the request form
    • Full deposit
Better Access to Public Information
  • Traditionally:
    • Engineering Department Counter
  • Web Site:
    • Data Dictionary, Data & Map Request Forms and Procedures, On-line Map Library
  • Map Catalogs to be distributed to:
    • Town Clerk's Office, Engineering, Assessors, Library, Selectmen's Office, ITD 
Issues to Consider in the GIS Web Development Processes
  • Internet services/WWW servers
  • Web design tools
  • Internet vs. intranet
  • Interactive web-based GIS applications vs. static web pages
  • "What you need" vs. "what's available"
WWW Services/WWW Servers
  • Internet Service Provider (ISP)
    • Merrimack Educational Consortium (MEC)
  • WWW Servers
    • Town/School separate www servers (internet)
    • Town-side Intranet server
  • Web Master/Web Site Maintenance
Web Design Tools
  • MS FrontPage
  • Adobe Pagemill
  • WWW GIF Animator (shareware)
Internet vs. Intranet
  • Information shared within the organization
  • Information provided to the public
  • Currently Brookline GIS has identical information both on the Town's intranet and the Internet 
Interactive vs. Static
  • Interactive:
    • ArcView IMS/Map Object IMS
  • Static:
    • JPEG, GIF, TIFF image files or Adobe PDF files
  • Internal Use:
    • Full-blown ArcView or Avenue Applications vs. AV IMS/MO IMS
  • External Use:
    • How many Brookline residents would obtain information from the Town on-line?
    • How much MORE information would they be able to obtain from an interactive GIS web application than a library of maps in PDF file format which are updated periodically?


      • The decision was made to use alway-current static maps in image and PDF for the external users.

"What's available" vs. "What's needed"
  • Fast growing new web technologies and tools - exciting & confusing
  • Technology is a means to an end - be clear on what the purpose of your application is 
  • Choose the right tools
To view Brookline's "simple and informative" GIS web site visit
http://www.townofbrooklinemass.com/gis/

Contact Information:
  Feng Yang 
Phone: (617) 730-2005 
Fax: (617) 739-7571 
E-mail: feng_yang@town.brookline.ma.us

Presentation by Raj Singh, Syncline, Inc.
"Outsourcing GIS for 2000 and Beyond"

Some Questions for You

  • Who uses 
    • ESRI
    • MapInfo
    • Other
  • Who has a web site
  • Who uses internet map servers
  • Who plans to use internet map servers
    • In-house development?
    • Contract it out?
Overview
  • How to plan a map service project 
  • System architecture & design 
  • The MassGIS project 
  • The Syncline Model 
How to Plan a Map Service Project
  • Should the problem be solved using the Internet? 
    • Property-based zoning lookup
    • Abutter's notices
    • Parcel information lookup
    • Site plan and project review
  • Audience: GIS user or not? 
  • Budgetary issues
    • desktop GIS (and training) for all?
    • technical support
    • application development
The MassGIS Project
  • Goals 
    • Replicate MassGIS Data Viewer online 
    • Speed development by using existing code base
  • Pros 
    • Online viewing and query of all MassGIS data
    • Rapid development
  • Cons
    • Slow Internet performance (large ESRI applet)
    • Complex interface
    • Hard to replicate ArcView in a Web browser
  • Try out the Mass MAPS Application
The Deerfield Beach Project The Syncline Model 
  • Goals 
    • Reduce the cost of deploying web applications
    • Speed application development
    • Create a stable, high-performance map serving environment
  • How Outsourcing Works
    • Service firm runs a web server, map server, application server, etc.
    • Contracting agency may 
      • turn all or part of the web site over to service provider
      • standalone applications or applets may access service provider's map server.
  • Pros
    • No hardware of software startup costs, monthly service contract
    • No maintenance, troubleshooting in the middle of the night
    • You have option of developing your own software
    • Service exists outside your firewall
    • High-performance server (maybe better than you could have bought)
    • High level of expertise
  • Cons
    • Data must be delivered to service provider
    • Less control over the server
    • ESRI or MapInfo only (in Syncline's case)

Contact Information:
  Raj Singh, Vice President 
Syncline, Inc. 
Phone: (617) 661-7134 
Fax: (617) 661-7135 
Email: info@syncline.com
Web: http://www.syncline.com		    

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