The rapid increase in urban popu-lations in Canada and around the world is prompting cities to adapt by changing the way they operate. Today, more than half of the world’s seven billion people live in cities; and, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division, an addi-tional 2.5 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2050, as a result of both migration and population growth.

Cities need to operate “smarter” to accommodate and effectively support the massive increase in residents. Not only must they build capacity to address the growing size of their population; they must also provide inclusive services as their population becomes more diverse, both cultur-ally and demographically.

Municipal resources will always be limited, and it may seem that there is little that local governments can do to improve upon their current service programs or pursue new initiatives. The challenge is not to work harder, but to work smarter, using resources that may already exist in the munici-pality.

Data is a good example. Munici-palities collect vast amounts of data, much of which is typically used only for a specific application or by a few departments. There is significant potential in harnessing these various datasets to improve decision making, increase efficiency, enhance citizen engagement, and drive innovation

KAREN STEWART is the Municipal Solutions Industry Manager for Esri Canada, which provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) and municipal solutions. She has more than 30 years of experi-ence in the municipal/utility mapping, GIS, and public works

fields, having worked previously at the City of Sur-rey and Township of Langley in British Columbia. Karen can be reached at <kstewart@esri.ca>.

by Karen Stewart

technology

Mapping the Way to Smarter Communities

through the development of new ap-plications.

Geographic information systems (GIS) are another good resource to ex-ploit, as many Canadian municipalities have this technology already in place. GIS is used to integrate, map, and ana-lyze location-based information, which increases the efficiency of municipal processes. By taking the next step and transforming existing GIS investments into a platform that supports all depart-

The new Halifax open data catalogue features 31 datasets via an intuitive interface that allows users to search and sort data using advanced filtering capabilities.

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ments, municipalities can reach higher levels of productivity. With the rise of cloud computing that has made sharing easier and faster, municipalities can further improve efficiencies by opening up their data to the public so it can be “mashed up” with other data to become even more meaningful and useful.

Opening Up a World of Benefits through Open Data

Forward-thinking cities are al-ready embracing this new idea. Hali-

The Historic HaliTour web app by Jeremy Tupper of Dalhousie University takes users on a virtual tour of numerous historic sites around the Halifax downtown and waterfront areas. It maps museums, forts, government buildings, ships, churches, and other historically-relevant locations around Halifax, along with facts and pictures of each site. The app integrates the community boundaries and building footprints datasets from the Halifax open data catalogue.

fax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is realizing more benefits from their data and GIS through their open data catalogue. Halifax had embarked on an open data pilot project in 2012, which released 17 datasets that gave the public free access to georefer-enced information such as civic ad-dresses, crime data, and public bus routes.

“The open data program we pro-posed would make public informa-tion more accessible and introduce a level of transparency into govern-

ment decision making that wasn’t there before,” said Mark Helm, team lead of data services for Halifax, who spearheaded the open data project team. “Regional council also identi-fied an opportunity for economic development for local businesses. By releasing the data with no restric-tions, no copyrights, and no fees, we’re giving businesses and entre-preneurs the opportunity to get into markets that consume data, such as building web apps.”

“By releasing the data with no restrictions, no copyrights, and no fees, we’re giving businesses and

entrepreneurs the opportunity to get into markets that consume data, such as building web apps.”

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Using GIS, the West Parry Sound Geography Network has built a Smart Story app that tells the story of how their communities are working together to build technological capacity for the area. The app incorporates a large amount of information including a web map, text, photos, and videos. It is a creative and cost-effective approach to engaging citizens in the West Parry Sound smart community initiative.

To engage citizens in the initiative and drive innovation, the municipal-ity hosted Apps4Halifax, an open data contest that encouraged the pub-lic to develop web apps that would improve the lives of Halifax residents using the newly published data. The public response was phenomenal, with 276 app ideas submitted and more than 1,500 votes logged in the public voting. In the end, 38 apps were developed, which tackled a broad range of concerns – from tran-sit, waste collection, and crime map-ping to cultural tourism and parks preservation.

To further improve upon the pilot project, Halifax launched a new open data catalogue in October 2014 that serves up datasets through a cloud GIS platform, enabling it to scale when us-age spikes without putting a strain on the municipality’s internal servers.

The open data catalogue will en-able the municipality to increase efficiency by reducing the time re-quired by staff to handle public data requests. Streamlining the process and transitioning to a no-additional-cost, online, self-serve catalogue has also helped them save money and get public data into the hands of citizens faster. Perhaps more importantly, Halifax has significantly increased citizen satisfaction based on positive user feedback on the project.

Levelling the Playing Field for Rural Communities

Becoming a smart community is a pursuit not only for large cities. Ru-ral municipalities also need to work toward this goal so as not to risk los-ing residents to bigger cities. While they may not have the same informa-tion technology infrastructure as their urban counterparts, this does not mean that rural communities cannot achieve the same efficiencies.

The West Parry Sound Geography Network (WPSGN) – a partnership of seven small rural municipalities in West Parry Sound, Ontario – is a great example of this. The network was formed in 2005 as a shared ser-vice focused on using technology to address the municipal partners’ growing needs for data collection and information management.

One of their members, the Town-ship of the Archipelago, had adopted GIS in the late 1990s and has since embraced the technology as an es-sential business system supporting municipal operations and data shar-ing. To extend the benefits of GIS to neighbouring municipalities and maximize the return from pooled knowledge and resources, the town-ship initiated the formation of the WPSGN and continues to administer the network to this day.

All seven members have access to the GIS platform, which sup-ports various operations including 911 emergency response, planning and zoning, natural resources man-agement, economic development, community engagement, public recreation, and tourism. With one full-time staff member, the network has developed and maintains an open data portal, which allows the public to freely access information from municipal members and other par-ticipating organizations. As well, the network has an interactive mapping application that serves up valuable information to over a hundred mu-nicipal staff and 15,000 residents in West Parry Sound.

“GIS provides a robust centralized data warehouse that supports a vari-ety of critical requirements,” noted Chris Mahon, GIS data management specialist for WPSGN. “It allows our members to quickly and effectively contribute, consume, and analyze community data on their desktop or mobile device. Using configurable templates, we’re able to reduce the time it takes to build web apps and update data from weeks to less than two hours.”

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Every community, whether urban or rural, can become a smart com-munity. Opening up data to the pub-lic is a good first step to achieving this goal. Instead of working harder, municipalities can work smarter by using existing GIS technology to re-lease data.

GIS is a solid foundation for build-ing smart communities. By providing free access to actionable information, municipalities can increase transpar-ency and efficiency. With open data, business partners, consultants, devel-opers, and citizens gain the ability to bring new products and services to market, thus driving innovation and economic growth. When citizens are not only informed, but also involved, in solving community problems, mu-nicipalities can confidently look to a smarter future. MW

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