Surveylab Case Study

Plant City doubles the productivity of field staff with ikeGPS

Plant City needs to accomplish more with less

Industry: State, City and Parks – Asset managementikeGPS solution: ikeGPS205User: Engineering Department, City of Plant City, Florida, USA

Located near the fast-growing west coast of Florida, the charming city of Plant City is planning for growth. In 2008, a complete inventory of city infrastructure including storm water outlets, roadway culverts and sewers was required to manage and plan the extension of the city. ikeGPS205 was selected to assist the Plant City Engineering Department complete their field work and asset data collection. By using ikeGPS205, Plant City has been able to double the productivity of its field inspectors, while keeping them safe at all times. ikeGPS is easy to operate, can capture data under heavy foliage and assist in gathering verifiable data. This has enabled Plant City to increase the completeness and accuracy of their asset databases and share information with other departments through ikeGPS compatibility with ESRI ArcGIS products. As a result of successful ikeGPS-based surveys, Plant City has transferred ikeGPS field methodologies to other departments to assist their asset management usage and develop emergency planning tools.

Daniel Bass, Engineering Inspector and Zlatko Knezevic, GIS Coordinator (right) capturing storm water outlets, roadway culverts and sewer locations from a distance with ikeGPS205.

Plant City encompasses some 28 square miles (72.5 square km) with a population of 33,500 residents. The city owns and operates its water, wastewater and solid wastewater systems. Planning for growth is a time and labour intensive operation and, like many municipalities, the Plant City Engineering team is being tasked to do more with fewer resources.

Zlatko Knezevic, GIS (Geographic Information System) Coordinator at Plant City Engineering Department was initially left with using traditional surveying tools to complete a comprehensive survey of the town infrastructure including storm water outlets, roadway culverts and sewers. “In addition to converting as-built engineering drawings, we have been sending teams out into the field to double-check the positional accuracy of the plans, capture new assets and verify and update the attributes,” says Knezevic. “Our survey-grade GPS units worked very well, but were slow to set up and use. It was taking too long.”

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Knezevic also said that although the GPS handheld units used at Plant City were of high positional accuracy, this feature wasn’t needed for the survey at hand. Additionally, these devices lost the GPS signal under the trees. “So we were looking for a faster data capture solution that would satisfy our requirements without breaking the bank”, acknowledged Knezevic. The new solution also had to be compatible with ESRI’s ArcGIS products to facilitate the integration of field data in the Plant City GIS databases.

At the 2008 ESRI user conference, City Engineer Brett Gocka P.E. and Knezevic discovered the ikeGPS products at the Surveylab booth. They were fascinated. “From what we saw,” continues Knezevic, “the ikeGPS205 was in a class of its own. In fact we didn’t see any other GPS units with those capabilities at the show... or since. We liked the size, the ease-of-use, features, knowledgeable staff and especially the integration with ESRI’s ArcPad software. To us, there are conventional GPS [data] collectors and then there is ikeGPS.” The decision was easy to make and an ikeGSP205 unit was purchased immediately at the conference.

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Doubling the productivity with consistent data capture quality

Safe and verifiable field data capture from a remote location

Easy to use integrated ikeGPS units

With Surveylab’s ikeGPS205 handheld data collection system, the Engineering Department of Plant City has now doubled the productivity of field inspectors.

“Only one inspector is needed to operate the ikeGPS205 unit in the field, whereas with the other tools at our disposal at least two people were required”, proudly confirms Knezevic. “Now we have twice the productivity without any decrease in the quality of data capture. In fact, because ikeGPS205 can be used to capture multiple assets from a single location using the laser range finder, one single inspector can work more than twice as fast than a two-man team with tripod-based GPS.”

Plant City field surveys are completed faster while their database completeness and accuracy proportionally increased. All this with less material and human resources required for the work at hand.

“Not only does the ikeGPS help us capture more data in a shorter timeframe, but it is much safer for our team,” adds Knezevic. “With ikeGPS’s unique laser range finder, our field inspectors can stay by the roadside or in an open area and capture asset data without having to stand in a busy street, wade in storm water drainage ditches or climb steep banks”.

In addition, Plant City contains extensive woodlands with heavy foliage that, in the past, have made GPS reception problematic. “But with the ikeGPS unit, we can stand in an open area, point the ikeGPS at an asset located under the trees and capture the attributes quickly and easily,” supports Knezevic.

Knezevic confirms that setting up the ikeGPS205 unit for required data collection was extremely easy. “We created a basic shapefile layer in ArcGIS and then loaded it into the ikeGPS205. We then created a basic form with ArcPad and sent our inspectors out into the field to collect data and fill out the form with some basic information and notes [on the assets targeted]. Once they were back at the office we downloaded the data directly into the workstation.” This methodology makes it simple and

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straightforward to double-check the positional accuracy of engineering plans, capture new assets and verify and update the attributes stored in a main database.

The unit set-up was so easy, in fact, that it took only a half-hour to show the inspectors how to use the ikeGPS205. “Our inspectors are very knowledgeable about the assets in the field and the attributes that we were trying to capture,” continues Knezevic, “but they are not GIS people. So having very simple to operate field units was a definite bonus”.

Knezevic is also impressed with the ikeGPS205’s robustness. “We take it out in the wind and rain, and even drop it on occasion,” he says. “But through all that, it works without any issues whatsoever. When you send a unit out into the field, you want to be able to rely on it. The ikeGPS delivers.”

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Multi-divisional, data sharing and emergency management potential

As of July 2010, the Plant City Engineering Department was nearing completion of their initial asset capture exercise. “Right now we’re almost finished with the storm water outlets, roadway culverts and sewers,” says Knezevic, “and are trialling ikeGPS systems for creating inventories and re-establishing records for streetlights, signposts, traffic signals and intersection signage. The Traffic Department has also expressed an interest in using our ikeGPS205 to help them complete their inventories.”

The data captured by the ikeGPS205 unit is being made available to taxpayers and property owners in Plant City. “One of our initiatives,” concludes Knezevic, “is to open our datasets to the public via the internet. This will help people see exactly where the assets are in their neighborhoods.”

“We have also been using the data in our on-going negotiations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help develop more accurate flood plain maps. In this case, placing land parcels in the wrong flood plain designation can result in unnecessary flood insurance that can significantly lower land values, cost homeowners extra and, ultimately, reduce Plant City revenues. But with ikeGPS, we can capture accurate and up-to-date information quickly and feed it directly into our mapping systems. ikeGPS is clearly in a class by itself,” confirms Knezevic.

(a)

(c)

(b)

(d)

Geo-positional information and photos of a Plant City culvert (a), storm water drain (b) and bridge (c) are validating the state and condition of Plant City storm water infrastructures. The data is subsequently imported in the Plant City ArcGIS mapping system and shown in a city map along with other engineering data layers (d) for further analysis and cataloguing.

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AT A GLANCE

Key reasons Plant City selected the ikeGPS205 unit

• Fast data capture solution that could capture data under foliage

• Ease-of-use and integrated features into a single handheld rugged device

• Laser rangefinder allowing data capture from a distance

• Compatibility with ESRI’s ArcGIS and ArcPad

• Knowledgeable staff and expert support

Technology used

• ikeGPS205 series GPS data collection unit from Surveylab

• ArcGIS 9.5 (or ArcGIS 10)

• ArcPad Mobile GIS software

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Key benefits for Plant City

• Fast data collection system: at least doubles productivity for field inspection staff

• Much safer and easier to operate in the field than traditional tripod-based GPS units

• Verifiable data capture to quickly cross-check information, increase completeness and accuracy of their other mapping databases

• Robust device that can be used under heavy foliage

• Cross-functional and multi-divisional uses across Plant City departments

Customer quote:

“Because the ike205 can be used to capture multiple assets from a single location using the laser rangefinder, one single inspector can work more than twice as fast as a two-man team with tri-pod based GPS.”.

- Zlatko Knezevic GIS Coordinator for the Engineering Division at Plant City

For more information please contact:

Richard TaylorVice President - ikeGPS Americasrichard.taylor@ikegps.comoffice: (281) 681 0356fax: (281) 681 9252www.ikeGPS.com

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