1. Using GIS to Monitor Snow Removal and Track Costs
Indy SnowFighter
Using GIS to Monitor Snow Removal and Track Costs
Indiana GIS Conference
March 1, 2011

2. Who Are We? Joe LaCombe, Woolpert, Inc.
Cheryl Spencer, City of Indianapolis

3. Overview
SnowFighter History
Challenges
Needs
Technical implementation

4. Indy SnowFighter History
SnowFighter is a custom application that was initially developed for the purpose of giving DPW Operations the ability to see where snow fighting activities were happening within the City.
First SnowFighter application was developed by ESRI in 1995 as an ArcView/Avenue application.
Standalone application from the Hansen Work Management system
Various application updates over the years.
Later iterations of the application tied into Hansen and added functionality.
SnowFighter was first developed in the mid 90’s as an ArcView/Avenue application for the purpose of helping the Department of Public Works Operations division see where snow had been plowed within the City. The first iteration had no ties to a work management system, it was simply a map that showed the route aging based on someone entering the completed plow times, after a driver radioed in to say the route was complete.
Over the years, the application has been redone using MapObjects technology. Enhancements in later iterations included ties into the Hansen Work Management system used by the City to allow DPW to calculate snow materials and cost information for any given snow fight.

5. Challenges Aging technology Desktop installation
Difficult to make application changes, updates or enhancements as requested by DPW.
Desktop installation
Request needed for each person who needed the installation on their PC
Local shapefiles required annual updates
Time spent troubleshooting machine specific problems
Initially the application worked well, but as the years passed and the technology aged, installations on new machines with newer operating systems were sometimes problematic. DPW often made annual requests for enhancements or changes to the application and these were difficult to complete as the technology became obsolete.
Since the application required a desktop installation, that meant each person who would potentially use the application during a snow fight needed a desktop install. It was time intensive to go to each machine, as at that time no packaged push was available. Also, as employees left and a new employee replaced them or if an employee received a new machine, a new installation was required. Additionally, each computer with a SnowFighter installation needed new shapefiles annually, as routes were changed prior to the snow fight season.
Additionally, there were sometimes machine specific differences that caused the application to have machine specific quirks.

6. Application Update Needs
Update the underlying technology to a supported platform
Web based solution to eliminate the need to install on specific user machines
Change the business workflow into the Hansen system to help speed up application performance
Make cost tracking information easier to access
Since the application had essentially reached the end of it’s technology lifecycle, the first need for an updated version was to update the underlying technology to a supported platform.
In order to combat the problems of desktop installs, a web based system was desired. One application update on a web server, would mean all users see that update without needing a reinstall on their PC. The web based solution also eliminated the machine specific problems that often plagued the previous application in it’s later years.
In the original application, Hansen work orders were created and sent for each route plowed. This lead to a lot of complicated back and forth writing between the GIS system and the work management system. It was desired to change the behind the scenes business logic to send one work order per 12 hour shift. This change in the application workflow would increase application performance and makes it much easier to calculate cost information associated with the snow fight, such as salt usage, driver wages and overtime costs, as well as contractor costs.

7. Needs continued…
Add roles to the application to filter necessary information to the job role.
Create a “viewer” application for high level administrators to see what is happening real-time without having a login to the SnowFighter application.
Less coupling to the work management system in case of updates or changes in the system.
It was desired that roles be added to the application, such as Administrator, Operator, … and the view of the application be filtered so the role type would only see the screens that were appropriate to their job duties. Also, for the role of the operator, it was desired that the map be filtered to only show the information relevant to the garage they were dispatching from (3 in total).
A separate viewer application for the high level officials, such as the Mayor, DPW administrators or Public Information Officers was also created using the same underlying data and map services, including the aging, to allow a view into the snow fight, without having to see all the screens that are necessary for an operator to perform their duties.
It was also desired that the integration with the work management system be tied together less tightly than the current application in order to reduce application breakage problems if the work management system changed or underwent an upgrade.

8. Technical Implementation

9. Technology ArcGIS Server 10 Flex API 2.2 .Net 4
Windows Communication Foundation Data Services

10. Process DPW Users Login Start Snow Fight Start Shift Dispatch crews
Log comments
Track time and cost for laborers, vehicles, and materials
Data is submitted to Hansen as part of new work order

11. SnowFight Tracking Database
Architecture
Admin
SnowFight Tracking Database
Supervisor
Hansen
Operations
Assistant
Contractor
ArcGIS Server 10

12. Assignment Details Console
Interface
Operations Console
Map Console
Assignment Details Console
Routes View Slider

13. Application Architecture
SnowFight Tracking Database
Data
Web Service
Reporting Service
Hansen
Web Service
Hansen

14. Data Model

15. Resource Tracking Snow Fight ID Shift ID District Dispatch Assignment
Employee
Vehicle
Salt Usage

16. Operations Console

17. Operations Console

18. Map Console

19. View Routes in Progress

20. View Route Aging

21. Continue to work the Snow Fight
Complete Assignments
Dispatch new assignments
Log comments

22. Close Shift

23. Reports

24. Reporting Information
Snow Routes Plowed By Area
Driver on-route times
Vehicle usage and breakdowns
Contractor Assignments
Labor Costs
Equipment Costs
Material Costs
Material Usage

25. Benefits
More accurate tracking of labor, equipment, and material resources during snow event
Seamless, automated integration with Hansen
Use map and GIS as an aid
Review numbers during a snow event
Access information from previous snow events for analysis
More accurate projections for the future

26. Questions

27. Thank You! Joe LaCombe, Woolpert, Inc. – joe.lacombe@woolpert.com
Cheryl Spencer, City of Indianapolis –