Mobile GIS Speeds Inventory

By Pete Pearson, HWA GeoSciences Inc.; Jeremiah Podleski, Perteet Inc.; and Garet Couch, Wind Environmental Services, LLC

A sidewalk and curb inventory using ArcPad was undertaken by the City of Seattle, Washington, to fulfill multiple planning and compliance goals. Effective quality control and team and workflow management techniques helped complete this ambitious project in a tight time frame while maintaining accuracy and compatibility with an existing system.

In 2007, the City of Seattle, Washington, undertook a large-scale, citywide inventory of sidewalks and curb ramps. The city initiated the project to meet multiple objectives, including Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, sidewalk facilities management, and a larger mission to improve citywide walking conditions. In April 2007, the city selected HWA GeoSciences Inc., along with subconsultant Perteet Inc., to complete the inventory in seven months. The project required attribute collection and digital photographs for every block-face in the city. [A block-face is one side of a street between two consecutive intersections.] This involved approximately 46,000 sidewalk segments.

To meet the challenge, HWA and Perteet deployed an efficient mobile GIS solution. HWA focused on the formation and management of the field teams while Perteet designed a mobile GIS strategy that would meet the data requirements of the city as well as the practical challenges crews would face in the field. Perteet and HWA turned to Esri business partner Wind Environmental Services, LLC, a GIS development firm located in Bonne Terre, Missouri, to provide an effective mobile field technology setup. This setup included Wind Environmental's new Wind Image software that can automate the assignment of photographs to features collected in Esri ArcPad software.