ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: October 23, 2002
Author/Local: Rhys Williams/7282

RTS No. 03021

CC File No. 1189

Council : November 5, 2002

TO: Vancouver City Council

FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT: Improvements to Managing Engineering Infrastructure Data

INFORMATION

The General Manager of Engineering Services submits this report for Council's information.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The Engineering information technology goals include upgrading and improving its Geographic Information System (GIS) to better support the Department's mapping, design, and operations groups. This strategy formed the basis of Engineering's participation in the original Municipal Applications Partnership (MAP) project. There has been a series of follow up reports to Council regarding the MAP project from Corporate Services, Community Services, and Engineering Services. This report outlines Engineering's move forward strategy and completes the last of the follow up reports.

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no applicable Council Policy.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to inform Council on the new approach to better support Engineering's infrastructure in GIS.

BACKGROUND

In July 1998, Council approved a joint report from Community Services, Corporate Services, and Engineering Services, to collectively fund a $5.9 million implementation of information technology to enhance the use of GIS in the City. This work was determined to be integral to Engineering Services' ability to manage its infrastructure and to share this information across City departments.

Given the size and complexity of the MAP project, it was divided into a number of phases for implementation. To date, the accomplishments of the project in Engineering include: the delivery and recent upgrade of VANMAP to include 17 new layers of information to staff; delivery of a mobile GIS database for the City's street furniture subsequently used for street vendor proposals; delivery of the first set of digital orthophotos of the City which are being upgraded in 2002 to a higher resolution; daily updating of the Land Titles data into GIS thereby improving co-ordination with the Land Title Office in New Westminister; development of a GIS database of traffic calming devices throughout the City to aid in the planning processes; and considerable analysis on methods and tools to better use our GIS information.

In July 2002, Council received for information a joint follow-up report from the General Managers of Engineering Services, Corporate Services, and Community Services, which provided an update of the project and outlined a strategy to move forward on a Departmental basis to take advantage of improvements in technology while continuing to ensure common standards to allow the sharing of key information across the City.

At that time Council also received companion reports from Corporate Services and Community Services identifying their move forward strategy. The report before you today outlines Engineering's move forward strategy and completes the last of the 4 follow-up reports.

DISCUSSION

Going forward, Engineering will be meeting its GIS needs through an integration of GIS with Computer Assisted Drafting and Design (CADD) and web tools. This strategy leverages off the evolution of the GIS industry to more standard and open products, thereby reducing reliance on proprietary software and allowing the potential future use of other GIS products.

CADD tools are already heavily used by the Engineering staff to perform mapping and design functions and the Department will be able to leverage off significant in-house knowledge and expertise. Over the past several months, these tools have been successfully demonstrated to work with the City's GIS environment. Technology and business standards for these tools at the City are well defined and understood.

Web tools have also been successfully demonstrated to work with the City's GIS environment. Furthermore, Engineering has worked closely with Corporate IT to develop the necessary Corporate standards for this technology.

As part of its ongoing commitment under the MAP project to share data across the City, Engineering has also successfully worked with Community Services to extend the existing Licensing system into the Streets Administration Branch. In addition, Land Title data has been successfully integrated into the Corporate Property Information Management Project.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Engineering Services' share of the capital funding for the MAP Project was $1.3 million, based on a charge against sewer, water, and streets capital projects. To date, Engineering has spent $662,000. Based on the investigations of the new technologies, staff intend to produce the deliverables originally set out in the MAP Project within the remaining budget of $638,000.

It is worth noting the original MAP report anticipated $200,000 in Engineering ongoing costs. To date, these costs have not been required as existing resources have been realigned to perform much of the work within existing budgets. In keeping with the approach of the original MAP report, any additional costs are to be reported to Council along with the appropriate increase in Engineering fees for sewer, water, and street infrastructure based on service improvements and/or any opportunities for mitigation of these costs through decreases in operating costs as a result of implementing this technology. It is expected that Engineering will report back next year once the net operating costs have been defined and the associated funding is required.

CONCLUSION

The MAP project has delivered a number of successes. This report outlines a move forward strategy for Engineering Services that will complete the goals of the MAP Project within the original budget.

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver