1. Snow Plow Tracking and GIS
A tale of Two Cities
As a consultant I've worked with both the City of Columbus and the City of Dublin to develop snow plow tracking GIS applications. Both Cities faced similar challenges and had similar goals when developing their Snow Plow AVL / GIS Systems. During today's presentation we'll focus on the technical components of each solution. By comparing and contrasting these two Cities I think you will quickly see that there is no wrong or right way to implement an AVL. Each community has to work with a different set of constraints such as the size or scale of each community and IT resources available within each community.
Shoreh Elhami
Citywide GIS Manager
City of Columbus Ohio
Erick Lobao
GIS Manager
PRIME3SG
Brandon Brown
GIS Administrator
City of Dublin Ohio

2. A Tale of Two Cities *Simplified Centerlines Resources Columbus Dublin
Vehicles 87 25
Staff
140 50
Square Miles
229
Centerline Miles
8,976
~300
Centerline Segments
86,897
1,124*
This slide gives the audience a sense of scale. Columbus is clearly a larger community.
*Simplified Centerlines

3. Challenge 1 2 3 4 Gather User Requirements Application Design
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Challenge
Gather User Requirements
What is this thing supposed to do?
How should it work?
Application Design
Web-Application
User Interface
Data Development
ESRI Geoevent Extension for ArcGIS
System Architecture
Geoprocessing
Implementation, Testing, Deployment
Happy Users!!
Happy Servers!!
In developing a snow plow AVL / GIS system each community faced a similar design challenges or questions. They essentially had the same
The diagram shows the basic architecture.
Both using Verizon Networkfleet
Both using geoevent extension
Please note we’re going to switch back and forth between Dublin to Columbus, with each focusing on each piece of the challenge.
Dublin will kick us off.

4. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

5. Dublin Megan’s Dream (Public Works Director)
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin
Megan’s Dream (Public Works Director)
All Snow Vehicles – AVL, plow & salt sensors
Easy way for staff to see:
Which roads have we not treated?
Vehicle history
Snow event status updates
Public view of our progress
In developing a snow plow AVL / GIS system each community faced a similar design challenges or questions. We’ve simplified this into three items.

6. Dublin Requirements Reality Agile(ish) project management style
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin
Requirements Reality
Agile(ish) project management style
Technical Jibberish

7. Columbus Internal Application - 2013 External Application - 2014
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Internal Application
(Support Dispatchers, Supervisors & Decision Makers)
Display “Real-Time” Truck Information
Search Truck Activity
Generate Standard Reports
External Application
(Answer common questions from the public)
What has been treated?
What priority is my street?
City of Columbus started off with an internal application which replaced an existing system (C.O.M.B.A.T.) and later a public application was added.
Essentially we went through two distinct requirements phases which involved different groups and resulted in two distinct, focused applications.
The internal application is focused on dispatchers, supervisors, and decision makers actively participating in a snow event and monitoring the results of the snow operation). Highly flexible tool with detailed reports and basic analysis capability.
The public application is focused on serving citizens with relevant information. Not snow operations people, so how do we present data to them in a manor that’s easy to understand? How do we streamline the process of displaying data? We came up with a “question” based workflow (1. What has been treated?, 2. What priority is my street?).

8. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

9. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

10. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

11. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

12. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

13. Columbus Beta Software IT Infrastructure Internal Application
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Beta Software
IT Infrastructure
Internal Application
Public Application
At the time the internal project was underway ESRI’s geoevent extension was in Beta. We began working closely with ESRI to install and configure geoevent and received hotfixes during our initial application development.
From a system architecture standpoint, the City has a robust set of server requirements for enterprise applications. Also, at the time of the initial project we had general hardware recommendations from ESRI but as an early adopter we took a conservative approach and worked the application through a development server, staging server, and a production server.
Also important to again re-emphasize that we developed two different applications at different times focusing on the needs of internal staff and the general public.

14. Columbus Here’s a quick sample of the IT infrastructure. Key is
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Here’s a quick sample of the IT infrastructure.
Key is
-Development
-Stage
-Production
-Public Production added later.

15. Columbus Internal WarriorWatch
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Internal WarriorWatch
Discuss internal app. Inspired by existing C.O.M.B.A.T. application.

16. Columbus Internal Warrior Watch
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Internal Warrior Watch
Discuss internal app. Inspired by existing C.O.M.B.A.T. application.

17. Columbus Public WarriorWatch (Activity Cache)
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Public WarriorWatch (Activity Cache)
Discuss public application, again two different apps focused on two different users.

18. Columbus Public WarriorWatch (Priority Cache)
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Public WarriorWatch (Priority Cache)
Discuss public application, again two different apps focused on two different users.

19. Dublin Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin

20. Dublin Geoevent workflows Saving Data SQL Views Services Web Maps
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin
Geoevent workflows
Filter trucks, detect sensor status, populate data table, update street table if activity
Saving Data
Only save what we really need
Simplified Centerlines
SQL Views
Let the database do some heavy lifting for stats
Services
Stream services
JSON websockets
Web Maps
Our size and data management approach let us solve the challenge in our own unique way.

21. Columbus Geoevent workflows Enterprise Data Performance Enterprise
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Enterprise
Geoevent
Python
Geoevent workflows
Enterprise Data
Performance
Our size and data management approach let us solve the challenge in our own unique way.
During the data development we had to balance the performance of geoevent with our existing enterprise data architecture.
The “operational data” such as street centerlines and snow maintenance zones are managed in the City’s enterprise geodatabase by public service GIS users. That layer is used by a number of other existing applications, Warrior Watch is just one more application that uses centerlines.
During the data architecture phase, the number of centerlines in our service area required us to use a combination of Geoevent & python to deliver an “enriched data stream”. Additionally, file geodatabases were necessary to improve performance of the geo enrichment and caching process. While we consume the enterprise database as much as possible, we needed to use file geodatabase for processing which introduces additional data management in order to get the performance necessary.
Warrior
Watch
Internal
Public
Python
fGDB

22. Dublin Leaf Removal – trucks were out doing work
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Dublin
Leaf Removal – trucks were out doing work
Showed areas for improvement in GeoEvent Processes
Sequencing
Data storage vs pass through
Single large process or separate processes
Backup environment to turn on if needed
User feedback during an event

23. Columbus Hired a company to perform load testing
Requirements
Application Development
Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus
Hired a company to perform load testing
Applied various tests from 500, 1000, to users (ramped 0.07 seconds or on impulse). As a result, made several changes including:
Additional Cores
Additional Memory
Modifying GeoProcessing Functions

24. Columbus Requirements Application Development Data Development
Testing & Implementation
Columbus

25. Conclusion and Steps Ahead (Snow Plow AVL / GIS is AWESOME!!!!)
Decouple Event start/stop control & status updates
Show trucks (last reported position) on public map
Test integration with Waze
Management Console
Dashboard Metrics
Simplify Data Processing