In today’s digital age, we are increasingly becoming accustomed to real-time access to data and information and the ability to edit and create data regardless of our location. Advances in modern mobile technologies, as well as cellular and wireless networks over the last three decades, have accelerated our ability to make real-time data-driven decisions and collect and communicate data from nearly any location on the planet. While early mobile technologies were limited in capability and typically very expensive, today’s advances have resulted in affordable, easily implemented, and highly configurable personal and business solutions to our modern mobile needs.
On the East shore of San Francisco Bay, the City of Berkeley, CA is progressive and innovative. The City maintains an established and robust enterprise GIS program and has partnered with Geographic Technologies Group (GTG) to improve GIS and create sustainable digital platforms for City operations and management.
In 2017, Berkeley with assistance from GTG developed and implemented a GIS Strategic Plan. The following year, the City again engaged with GTG to develop a Mobile GIS Action Plan as a follow up to key findings in their GIS Strategic Plan. During the creation of the GIS Mobile Plan, GTG engaged onsite with key stakeholders and facilitated a digital survey to assess the state of mobile solutions and identify mobile GIS needs for each department. While many departments were utilizing mobile technology, only a few of these were integrated with GIS platforms. The Mobile GIS Plan outlined recommended mobile solutions and efficiencies.
Mobile GIS Technology actively combats organizational inefficiencies with increased accessibility to digital government data outside the office setting. Modern state-of-the-art mobile GIS technology solutions allow government staff, elected officials, and residents access to a wealth of spatial and non-spatial data and data collection and analysis capabilities via a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet. A well-formed mobile GIS solution can be configured to allow users the ability to query and filter data, search for specific addresses or locations, analyze data and interpret and make decisions via data visualizations such as charts and graphs. A mobile GIS solution can also be configured to allow staff or residents to collect or edit GIS data from the field and save the changes directly to source systems within the government organization’s data stores.
With the mobile GIS digital survey data in hand from Berkeley Departments, the GTG team made recommendations for mobile implementations based on their expertise and experience with mobile GIS devices and solutions. These recommendations included considerations for hardware and devices, mobile operating systems, network connectivity, GNSS/GPS receivers, data storage and hosting, power, ergonomics, durability, and workflow development. Many mobile solutions from Esri were also presented for implementation, including solutions developed with Survey123, Collector for ArcGIS, Operations Dashboard, Workforce for ArcGIS, Navigator for ArcGIS, Explorer for ArcGIS, Drone2Map, and further industry-specific apps based on department needs. GTG then provided Key Performance Indicator (KPI) metrics for tracking and analysis of implemented mobile solutions.
Equipping a state-of-the-art mobile GIS workforce requires many considerations to leverage modern GIS technologies for the greatest return on investment. The key to a successful mobile GIS implementation is to ensure that the solution is configured to create efficiencies in business processes and that it ultimately results in meeting the needs of the end-users of the data. By untethering staff and residents from an office or home workstation, it is possible to access, analyze, and collect civic data anywhere. This mobile GIS component of an effective government enterprise GIS creates efficiencies in workflows, heightens the accuracy of field operations, and improves the lives of the residents it serves.
Along with the adoption of the City’s Mobile Action Plan, the City of Berkeley has pursued initiatives as laid out in the Multi-Year Phased Implementation Plan in the 2017 GIS Strategic Plan. They continue to push forward with innovative GIS solutions and continue to partner with GTG to ensure success and efficiency with implementation.
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For more information about mobile GIS solutions, please reach out to the GTG team at 888.757.4222 or email moreinfo@geotg.com.
