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Mobile Mapping

Wireless GIS promises to put maps in the hands of government workers in the field. But will government find what it's looking for?

For years, Seattle and municipalities elsewhere have been using geographic information systems (GIS) to design, manage and maintain water, sewer and electrical services. GIS, which requires significant computing power to perform, has largely operated on the desktop where engineers and analysts use powerful workstations to merge maps with data.

This doesn't exactly help workers out in field, where much of the infrastructure is hidden from view - who also need maps to do their jobs. It just hasn't been possible to bring GIS outside where it could benefit those who do the actual digging, building and repairing of water mains and sewer lines.

That situation is beginning to change.

Recently, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) launched an application that allows field workers with laptops and wireless modems to download real-time screen images from the SPU's server-based GIS to perform maintenance work on underground equipment.

"The workers are able to do more in the field and avoid time-consuming trips back to the office," said Bob Bleiler, a project manager in the SPU's Information Technology Office.

Utility workers aren't the only ones benefitting from wireless access to maps and GIS. Police departments are using the technology for quick downloads of crime maps while in their cruisers. Public works departments are linking GIS databases with field workers who have to patch roads, trim trees and repair signs so they can keep accurate data on when and where the work was done; what was done; how often the same work has been performed in the past; the amount of time it took; and most importantly, cost.

Sparking Interest
Several factors are driving GIS out of the workstations and into the field.

First, improved technology has made it easier to develop and run GIS solutions on mobile devices. The explosive use of global positioning systems (GPS) has sparked interest in a number of location-based solutions. MapInfo Corp. has created a variety of location solutions, ranging from those that deliver information about the location to the person in the field to applications that guide workers and customers to locations.

Devices, from laptops to PDAs to Palm Pilots to Pocket PCs, have become more robust. Field workers can do more with the data and maps, thanks to these vastly improved pieces of hardware, which can now display vector and raster images, as well as perform functions based on the software they are running.

GIS software has also come down in size to perform in the mobile world. ESRI's ArcPad provides database access, mapping, GIS and GPS integration to users out in the field, who can view maps, run queries and edit data on the device. MapInfo recently launched Discovery, software that allows workers on the go to share maps and location-analysis reports over the Web.

A host of other mobile software tools exist: FieldWorker uses the Oracle 8i Lite database; MapXtend is a Java developer tool for location-based applications running on PDAs; PocketGIS is a data-capture software program that runs on Windows CE and Solus is a mapping application for PDAs running on Palm OS.

Another factor driving wireless GIS is the expanding number of workers who need to use GIS solutions. "It used to be GIS staff and IT workers who used the technology," said Brian Lantz, vice president of MapInfo's homeland security solutions. "Now it includes everyone from planners and environmental protection staff to EMS technicians."

Some of the pressure to extend GIS to more workers stems from the fact that the software hasn't lived up to its reputation. GIS has come up short as a government tool when kept on the desktop and out of the hands of field workers, according to Ray Rebeiro, president of Echelon Industries, an asset-management consulting firm.

"Many DPWs [Departments of Public Works] have been dissatisfied with their investment in GIS," Rebeiro said. "They haven't seen enough benefit because they haven't been able to put GIS in the hands of their field workers."

Tracking Assets in the Field
Rebiero's company is working with the city of Santa Monica, Calif., to develop a program using the city's existing GIS with Pocket PCs. By pointing to their location on a map that appears on the Pocket PC and entering the details of their task, workers in the field can record their activities while they remove graffiti, paint curbs, fix potholes and perform a wide variety of other tasks. Once back at the office, the information is added to the city's work and asset-management system.

By merging mobile GIS with asset management, public works staff can significantly improve their productivity when it comes to producing work orders and reconciling field data, sometimes by as much as 50 percent, according to Rebiero. This kind of detailed record keeping on asset repairs is necessary to deal with everything from wear and tear on equipment to addressing litigation issues. The more accurately information is kept; the less likely something costly will go wrong.

Seattle has deployed wireless GIS for work management as well. Using laptops equipped with cellular digital packet data (CDPD) modems, workers are downloading map images off the Water Operations Division's Citrix servers, which run the utility's GIS, which uses ESRI's ArcView. According to the SPU's Bleiler, workers are able to download base maps, ortho images and data layers within seconds, with just a few keystrokes. In terms of application development, he described the work as fairly straightforward.

"We just tested the functionality and then sent the workers out into the field. It's a full-blown application now," Bleiler said.

In Camden, N.J., the police department found that having wireless GIS has spawned a wave of new users from the rank and file. The department is using MapInfo's Discovery software to share recent crime data and maps with officers in the field. Most of the ideas for type of maps produced are coming from the officers, according to Bill Lutz, a senior analyst with the departments crime analysis unit.

"We have a bottom-up approach here," he said, noting that officers have asked him to create maps to locate sex offenders, under Meghan's Law, who live within a 1,000-foot radius of certain schools. He's also made maps showing the locations of abandoned buildings, liquor stores and business alarms - each time merging the different sets of data to show new relationships and recent criminal activity taken from Uniform Crime Reports.

The officers load the maps on their laptops, using them while on the beat. Last year, Camden saw a 21 percent decrease in its crime rate and has seen crime drop 44 percent over the past three years.

"I can't attribute the crime drop to using mobile GIS, but it has definitely helped us," Lutz said.

Growing Pains
Despite the growth in mobile GIS, the number of government users still remains small. Part of the problem has to do with bandwidth, since workers in the field have a small pipe for sending and receiving data via the mobile devices they're working with.

Most wireless GIS applications work off CDPD modems, which can send data at the rate of 19.2 Kbps (kilobits per second). With the possibility of greater bandwidth right around the corner - promised by the emergence of 3G standards and 100 Kbps transfer rates - that problem could disappear. But as Bleiler explained, his agency would use the bandwidth to deliver data faster, not to deliver more data.

Another problem is the limited power of mobile devices. PDAs and the like can't redraw a map as fast as a high-powered desktop computer. Wireless customers have to learn how to balance processing limitations, limited bandwidth and user expectations, explained Shane Clark, ESRI's product manager. One person might be perfectly happy to wait 12 seconds as a portable device redraws a map, because he knows the file contains lots of data. Others might complain because they had to wait five or six seconds for smaller map image to change.

A third issue slowing the adoption of wireless GIS is integration. Mobile technology can put GIS in the hands of more workers, but that requires integration of data as information is shared across a greater number of departments. This is especially true for public works departments, according to Rebiero, where databases for asset management and GIS not only have to be linked but must share everything from documents to images to maps in order to be productive.

Making that happen isn't easy.

The bottom line: Wireless GIS is still a relatively new solution in the public sector. "It's still virgin territory and relies on a lot of issues to be successful," said Chris Thomas, ESRI's state and local government industry manager. "ArcPad is perhaps one of our most popular software packages. We simply need both technologies [wireless and GIS] to catch up to one another."
With more than 20 years of experience covering state and local government, Tod previously was the editor of Public CIO, e.Republic’s award-winning publication for information technology executives in the public sector. He is now a senior editor for Government Technology and a columnist at Governing magazine.