Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

Global Positioning System
GVRD - Active Control System - Licence Agreement

RECOMMENDATION

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no Council policy directly related to this matter.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to authorize the Director of Legal Services to enter a Licence with the GVS&DD and BMGS to facilitate the System and to provide Council with information on a joint partnership project between the GVRD and the Province of British Columbia to establish a high accuracy and consistent real time Global Positioning System ("GPS") based geo-spatial referencing system in the GVRD.

BACKGROUND

Over the last 25 years, the Integrated Survey Network (the "ISA"), a network of 3,500+ conventional survey monuments in Vancouver has provided a three-dimentional reference system that consists of geographic and UTM ("Universal Transverse Mercator") horizontal coordinates and elevations based on mean sea-level. This network supports all mapping, engineering, public works, legal (boundary) surveys and geographic information system (GIS) projects. This conventional system requires a dense network of survey monuments to be maintained.

In Vancouver, we are ISA Number 31 as declared by the Surveyor General on June 15, 1990. This followed approximately 15 years of preparatory work to build the monument network. This includes installation, field surveys to set horizontal and vertical coordinates and calculation of the results.

The Land Survey Branch of Engineering Services manages the inventory of monuments including installation of replacement monuments and new surveys to set coordinates on the monuments. The time and effort to manage the system and liaison with BMGS and the Surveyor General has grown over the years as new street furniture, increased vehicles and pedestrian traffic on the roads and sidewalks and an increase in the density of development have proven to make clear sight lines between monuments more difficult to achieve.

Advances to satellite based global positioning systems ("GPS") have allowed this technology to be integrated with the conventional survey monument network. In 1997, BMGS ceased support of the ISA program using the conventional system of survey control monuments. This caused great concern at the municipal level and led to the creation of a GPS Study Group at the GVRD being a sub-committee of REAC (the Regional Engineers Advisory Committee).

DISCUSSION

REAC supports the replacement of the current conventional physical monument system with a GPS based system. Using a network of strategically located GPS based satellite receivers plus a radio broadcast system, accurate positioning can be achieved. The GPS network will reduce the dependency on the dense urban physical monument networks.

The system is currently being used in the City of Calgary, and has also been implemented by the Capital Regional District on behalf of its member municipalities.

A Memorandum of Agreement ("MOA") between the GVRD and BMGS was entered into so as to "establish a framework for the partnership between the GVRD and BMGS in regard to the establishment of a high accuracy and consistent real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) based geo-spatial referencing system in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, in support of surveying, engineering, mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), land information management, socio-economic data capture and management, and precise vehicular location and navigation operations in the region.

On December 1, 2000, the GVRD Board approved funding for the GPS Active Control System through an increase in the year 2001 of $900,000.00 to the Sewerage & Drainage expenditures. The total program costs over five (5) years are set at $2,379,000.00 with a contribution of $500,000.00 from BMGS.

The program calls for the establishment of four (4) Active Control Points (ACP's) within the GVRD (see Appendix "A") that are appropriately configured to allow a few centimetres to one metre positioning by roving GPS users within the GVRD. Equipped with a custom radio that is connected to his/her GPS receiver, within a couple of minutes (or within seconds for slightly less accurate positions), the user will achieve enhanced GPS positions within the provincial standard Geo Spatial Reference.

After exhaustive research, Firehall #1 at 900 Heatley Avenue was identified as the optimum location of the ACP within Vancouver. Over the last year staff at the GVRD, BMGS, the Land Survey Branch and Support Services staff within Fire & Rescue Services have worked together to ensure that the ACP can be installed, including all hardware and software without any negative impacts on the emergency services provided by the staff at Firehall #1.

A Licence has been negotiated between the City, GVS&DD and BMGS with input from Fire & Rescue Services, the Director of Legal Services, the Director of Real Estate Services and the Land Survey Branch.

The Licence was originally structured as a five-year term, but delays in completing the License will result in a shorter term.

The parties to the License will not pay any fees to each other and will cover their own costs. There are very minor implications for the City in that power costs at Firehall #1 will increase by a few dollars a year to supply the power required by the system. Insurance is supplied by GVS & DD and BMGS.

The City can terminate the License if any interference to the operation of Firehall #1 results.

CONCLUSION

With GVRD Board approval for funding of the GVRD GPS Active Control System, work has begun to impliment MOA between the GVRD and BMGS.

There will be workload implications for the Land Survey Branch but these will generally be absorbed as part of the maintenance of the ISA monuments. No additional staff or resources are sought at this time.

With implementation of the System the City will be able to look towards enhanced GIS data capture and intelligent vehicle locations for municipal and transportation authority vehicles.

On our own, we could not afford the implementation of such a program. By working cooperatively with the GVS&DD and BMGS, we can leverage the work to date and receive the program benefits for minimal cost.

The General Manager of Engineering Services RECOMMENDS approval of the Recommendation as described herein.

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