A successful GIS implementation has to be more than a series of
shapefiles or coverages that reflect the spatial and attribute
characteristics of the client's infrastructure. Works Consulting
expects every GIS-embedded application or design to do at least one of the
following:
streamline business needs, or
substitute computing power for the high cost of manpower, or
provide insight and decision-support that never before existed
A database is an abstract grid of information unless it
can be portrayed in a more universal medium. Databases that
contain "spatial" (or location) information can be more
readily understood if "painted" into a map format.
Capabilities
By embedding a GIS interface in a spatial-dependent application, a new level
of user comprehension adds credibility to data input, review, and analysis
processes. Suddenly:
the data entry team can critically evaluate the raw data in map format.
the data reviewer can see a decrease in the amount of suspicious
information due to the better methods of performing edit-checks.
the analyst can notice an increased reliability in the sample population.
the decision can be made relative to criteria that never before were
considered.
The GIS-embedded application can serve the needs of multiple agencies when it
is made to be portable. GIS helps deliver that "killer app" that
brings agencies the proper interface to support each other with regional
information.
Reference Accounts
Traffic Records
Arizona's Accident Location Identification Surveillance System (ALISS)
database is in process of being upgraded on the data input
process. The current scope of work will deliver a data entry
system that improves location attributes from 80% accuracy to
100%. The new system will also deliver information on crashes
involving commercial vehicles to regulatory agencies through the
SafetyNET program at FHWA. The new process is designed to
decrease the lag time for crash recording from 6 months to 80 days.
Highway Inventory
HPMS Tools provides all government agencies in Arizona to compile
their highway inventory and operation characteristics to the master
database files maintained by ADOT in Phoenix. Statewide planning
efforts called for a business area analysis of the HPMS in 1996.
Resulting recommendations are continually implemented while
maintaining a schedule of submitting the master database to FHWA in
June of each year.
Traffic Operations
Traffic signal studies in Southlake Texas, Albuquerque New Mexico,
and the greater Kansas City area have benefited from GIS and GPS
component technology delivered by Works Consulting staff.
Whether time-delay travel studies for corridors, or signal
infrastructure inventory, is the question -- Works Consulting has the
best answer for delivering the required data at a desirable cost.
![[Under Construction]](images/undercon.gif)
