Better decision-making and greater accountability through data
Summary
Accelerate GIS is a proposal to Council put forward by Streets Alive Yarra – a group of residents who support a more beautiful, liveable, and accessible city. We suggest that Council enrol residents and other volunteers to populate the database of Yarra’s geographic information system (GIS).
The project would quickly increase the breadth and depth of a shared evidence base available to residents, officers and councillors.
It is difficult to overstate the value of joint access to an up-to-date detailed spatial database, which would enhance public debate, support evidence-based decisions, and facilitate quicker decision-making. This approach would also boost residents’ confidence in Council decisions. Rather than requiring reports from officers on the current situation, councillors could go straight to the data.
To achieve this, data on many subjects must be gathered and uploaded to the GIS. Recruiting volunteer data collectors is a practical, quick, and low-cost means to this end.
Background
The City of Yarra has a modern and highly capable GIS software system (ArcGIS from Esri). One early application of the system is the public map of infrastructure works:
Real value from GIS can be unlocked if councillors are able to see maps of different types of assets, and then direct officers to fill the gaps.
For example, if Council wishes to improve access for people with disabilities, e.g. by offering a disabled parking bay within a certain distance of every property, it would be useful to have a map showing the location of all the disabled parking bays in Yarra, which would show the gaps that need to be filled.
We understand that Yarra has approximately 300 disabled parking bays, and our analysis indicates that Yarra would need triple the number to 1,000 to be able to offer one within 150 metres of each property, e.g. to enable people with disabilities to park reasonably near to friends or shops.
The challenge for officers is to geo-locate each disabled parking bay. It would take too long for GIS staff to walk our streets, and the opportunity cost would be high. It would also be a high cost to engage a contractor.
To solve this dilemma, we suggest that Council can radically reduce the time and cost to geo-locate each item by enrolling volunteers to upload data, via a web-form that links to Yarra’s GIS, in a similar way to how Snap Send Solve enables users to pinpoint the location of a problem. Streets Alive Yarra would also be happy to contribute our dataset, here’s an excerpt showing disabled parking bays in central Yarra:
The image illustrates how GIS can be used to identify under-provision of a service. For a particular asset class, the GIS could easily be configured to report appropriate metrics, such as the number of properties served by each, the catchment area for each, or the maximum distance to a property.
Council Policy can be based on this data. For example, policy could set targets for the total number of disabled parking bays, the maximum distance between them, and the maximum distance to a property. Progress against the policy can be easily measured and tracked each year, as new disabled parking bays are added.
Mapping community assets
​​This data collection approach can be applied to a broad range of community assets, such as:
- Kerbside uses
- Loading bays
- Car share vehicle bays
- Disabled parking bays
- Crossovers
- Footpath infrastructure
- Zebra crossings
- Wombat crossings
- Measurement of footpath width
- Bench seats
- Footpath obstructions
- Electricity poles
- Parking sign poles
- Street sign poles
- Bike parking hoops
- Water infrastructure
- Drainage grates and pits
- Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) rain gardens
- Public transport assets
- Bus stops
- Tram stops (not accessible)
- Tram stops (accessible)
- Public toilets
- Wheelchair accessible
- Not wheelchair accessible
We suggest the first project in Accelerate GIS be “public toilets”, because it would be a small dataset and be immediately useful as a Council webpage.
Supporting asset management
Going further, Yarra’s GIS could receive and store a photo of each asset, or store multiple photos of each asset, e.g. one per year, to make it easier for the asset management team to determine if the condition of an asset had changed significantly, or if repairs were required.
The GIS could even publish a list of assets that hadn’t been photographed within the last year, to help guide volunteers to upload the most valuable information.
Conclusion
Streets Alive Yarra would be pleased to meet and discuss the details of this submission.
Published 10th December 2024