GIS for Local Government: Public Works

Authors: Brett Lucas and Stewart Berry

Introduction

This article explores how to use GIS in local or Municipal Government. Many local governments are being asked to have a more transparent relationship with their citizens, which has been supported by technologies like geographic information systems (GIS) and other data visualization tools which allows communities to manipulate, analyze, and present data in a geographic form. GIS as a tool, can help local government decision-makers, policymakers, and others visualize data for a variety of applications.

This could include:

Constructing and managing road networks
Analyzing land use for infrastructure planning
Identifying areas for waste disposal and stormwater management
Analyzing environmental conditions
Tracking assets for maintenance and repair

As a local government, utilizing GIS can help you better communicate that data through a visual component. Many local governments have found ways to leverage geospatial data across an organization in areas like building permit inspections, code enforcement, and street repair.

GIS Software for Government

Maptitude mapping software is an ideal software platform for local governments (especially smaller municipalities on a tight budget at only $695) to leverage geospatial data across an organization. Maptitude is a full featured desktop or online GIS and mapping software that gives you the tools, maps, and demographic data to analyze and understand how geography affects you and your community.

In this article we will demonstrate an application of Maptitude in the municipal government sector for public works.

Public Works – How to add utility lines to a map

For this example, we will be using the City of Perry, Iowa. Perry is a town of 7,000 people located approximately 16 miles to the northwest of Des Moines. One of the features that makes Maptitude so ideal for this task is that when the United States County Package is used, several different aerial imagery layers are available. These are a great beginning point for creating the geography of water and sewer lines as we demonstrate in the following steps.

Download a free mapping software trial of Maptitude Desktop or use your existing Maptitude Desktop license.
Start Maptitude, and choose "New Map of United States", click OK, choose "U.S. City", type "Perry, IA", and click Finish. A map zoomed into Perry Iowa is displayed.
Next, you may want to turn on some aerial photography (three choices are available in Maptitude) to aid in creating a utility layer. I recommend setting the opacity to 50%. Zoom into your area of interest. The result should resemble Map 1.

Map 1: Maptitude map showing the study area

Now, we want to add some sewer mains that go from the wastewater treatment plant to one of the neighborhoods located southwest of downtown. To map sewer lines, we need to create a new line layer. To do that, click on Tools > Editing > New Layer. A new window will appear. Within the window choose the radio button for "Line Layer". Name the new layer "Sewer Main". choose the radio button to "Add the layer to the current map window". Click OK.

Figure 1: New Layer window

Next, in the Display Manager (normally docked to the left of the Maptitude screen), click the style icon for the "Sewer Main" layer and change the line width to 2 and the color to brown. When mapping public works data, sewer lines are generally mapped in green or brown, and water is generally mapped in blue. Reclaimed water is generally mapped in purple.
Now would be a good time to modify the layer and add some fields to describe our Sewer Main. Choose Dataview > Table > Modify to add some new fields to your line layer. Add a new field called "Pipe Type" (20 characters) and a second field called "Pipe Size" (2 characters). For Pipe Type, change the field type to "character", and for Pipe Size, change the filed type to "Integer". Once the changes are made, click OK. The result will resemble Figure 2.

Figure 2: Modify Table window

With "Sewer Main" as your Working Layer, if not already open, open the "Layer Editing Toolbar" by clicking on Tools > Editing > Layer Editing Toolbar. Next, choose the "Add line" button and start laying out your sewer main on your Maptitude map. Once you have added a line on the map, click on the "green light" button. The result will resemble Map 2.

Map 2: Maptitude map showing the sewer main from the wastewater treatment plant

Next, we need to zoom in and edit the location of the sewer main (to make sure it is in the middle of the alley) within the neighborhood located in the northeast portion of the map. Going back to the "Layer Editing Toolbar", click on the "Modify line" button to edit the location of the sewer main. Click on the line you wish to edit. Some square "shape points" will appear, and you interactively use those to modify the location of the line. Once done, click on the "green light" button to commit the changes.

Map 3: Maptitude map showing with edited Sewer Main location in alley

With "Sewer Main" as your Working Layer, click on the "Edit line attributes" button on the toolbar, and then click on the sewer main in the neighborhood. A new window will appear for the Dataview. Here we can edit the information in the two new fields that we recently created. In the "Pipe Type" field, enter the word "Ductile Iron". In the Pipe Size field enter "8" for 8-inch diameter. The result will resemble Figure 3.

Figure 3: Info window

Now we need to add some sewer laterals from the sewer main to the back of each of the houses. We will create a new layer called "Sewer Lateral". To do this, choose on Tools > Editing > New Layer. A new window will appear. Within the window, choose the radio button for "Line Layer". Name the new layer "Sewer Lateral". Choose to "Add the layer to the current map window". In the Display Manager, make the "Sewer Main" layer the Working Layer, and change the line width to 1.5 or 2 and the color to light brown. You may also want to open the Dataview (Dataview > New Dataview) for the layer and use Modify Table to add fields to describe the sewer lateral (e.g., install date, material, size, etc.).
With "Sewer Lateral" as your Working Layer, open on the "Layer Editing Toolbar" by clicking on Tools > Editing > Layer Editing Toolbar. Choose the "Add line" button and start laying out your sewer laterals on your Maptitude map. Add the lines to the map and then click on the "green light" button. The result will resemble Map 4.

Map 4: Maptitude map showing the sewer laterals off of the sewer main in the alley

Now we need to add some water mains from the water works facility to the neighborhood. Unlike sewer mains which are generally located in the alley, water mains are usually located in the street in front of the house. We will create a new layer called "Water Main". To do this, click on Tools > Editing > New Layer. A new window will appear. Within the window choose the radio button for "Line Layer". Name the new layer "Water Main". Choose to "Add the layer to the current map window". In the Display Manager, make the "Water Main" layer the Working Layer, and change the line width to 2 and the color to medium or dark blue. You may also want to open the Dataview (Dataview > New Dataview) for the layer and use Modify Table to add fields to describe the water main (e.g., install date, material, size, etc.). The result will resemble Map 5.

Map 5: Maptitude map showing the water main from the water works facility

This would be a good time to modify the layer and add some fields to describe our Water Main. choose Dataview > Table > Modify to add some new fields to your line layer. Add a new field called "Pipe Type" (20 characters) and a second field called "Pipe Size" (2 characters). For Pipe Type, change the field type to "character", and for Pipe Size, change the filed type to "integer". Once the changes are made, click OK.
Next, we will want to zoom back into the neighborhood where the sewer laterals are located. If need be, now is a good time to edit/modify the line location of the water main.
Next, create a new layer called "Water Lines". In the Display Manager, make the "Water Line" layer the working layer, and change the line width to 1.5 and the color to light or medium. You may also want to open the Dataview (Dataview > New Dataview) for the layer and use Modify Table to add fields to describe the water line (e.g., install date, material, size, etc.). The result will resemble Map 6.

Map 6: Maptitude map showing the water lines going to each

Now with all our sewer and water line infrastructure laid out, we need to add water meters. First zoom into the neighborhood, so we can see the sidewalks.
We will create a new layer called "Water Meter". To do this, click on Tools > Editing > New Layer. Within the window, choose the radio button for "Point Layer". Name the new layer "Water Meter". Choose to Add the layer to the current map window". In the Display Manager, make "Water Meter" the Working Layer. Edit the layer style by choosing a hexagon with a dot in the middle. Make the size 12 and blue. You may also want to open the Dataview (Dataview > New Dataview) for the layer and use Modify Table to add fields to describe the water meter (e.g., date of installation, ID or ERT (encoder receiver transmitter), etc.). The Style window will look like Figure 4.

Figure 4: Style window

With "Water Meter" as your Working Layer, open the "Layer Editing Toolbar". Next, choose the "Add point" button and start laying out water meters on your Maptitude map. Add the points on the map, and then click the "green light" button. The result will resemble Map 7.

Map 7: Maptitude map showing the water meters in front of each home

With the Water Meter layer as the Working Layer, click on the "Edit Point Attributes" button and edit the data in the water meter fields. For the "Install Date" a drop-down calendar will appear. The "ERT Number" has been set up as an 8-digit number to fill in. The result will resemble Map 8, with the Water Meter layer Info window shown.

Map 8: Maptitude map showing with water meters and the Water Meter layer Info window

Conclusion

Once completed, you will have a utilities map for the community. The map can be saved as a pdf or jpg to be shared as a static map on a website, or it could be printed out to poster size. Maps created within the desktop environment can also be uploaded and turned into an online interactive map via the Maptitude Online portal.

Maptitude is an extremely powerful software package for municipal governments for public works. For example, water crews could use the results of such an analysis to better determine where leaks are occurring based on the age of the pipe.