The Town of Windsor, Colorado Invests in ArcGIS® Enterprise
Windsor, Colorado builds a solid GIS foundation for its future.
Challenge: Staying Up to Date with Current Technology
Keeping systems-of-record software current with the latest technology can be challenging in small-to-medium-sized GIS departments. Aiming to provide optimal support for the Town of Windsor, Colorado and its citizens, Windsor’s GIS team made a significant investment in ArcGIS® Enterprise. Windsor wanted to maximize its use of ArcGIS Enterprise. The Town also needed to transition to the latest Esri software, including ArcGIS® Pro, for a more secure and solid foundation. Windsor chose to use this system upgrade to review its GIS environment architecture and improve on its arrangement to best serve the new configuration.
Solution: Upgrading to ArcGIS Enterprise and Automating a Labor-Intensive Process
Partnering with Windsor to help them achieve their objectives, the Argis Solutions team began by evaluating the current GIS system, noting critical path elements. An ArcGIS Pro workflow using a Python toolbox was recommended to manage this workflow. Previously, Windsor had developed 47 discrete attribute rules that were functioning in its ArcMap™ environment. Argis rebuilt these into rule scripts within ArcGIS Pro using the Arcade scripting language.
Windsor’s user and portal setup were reviewed and implemented during the initial stages of federation, including the ADFS implementation. Then Argis started and configured the portal web and set up the Portal for ArcGIS® website with basic UX/UI and Town branding identity.
Additionally, Windsor recently invested in new survey-grade GNSS equipment in order to capture high-accuracy mapped representations of newly added potable water infrastructure. The new data being collected is a great improvement in quality over the previous CAD extraction processes, but still required substantial manual translation of linework and attribution. Going forward, Windsor wanted to automate these tasks in order to save time.
The Argis team documented the data collection process Windsor used to document its water utility assets as new development was constructed, paying particular attention to documenting Trimble Business Center (TBC), the GPS data processing software Windsor elected to use. An automated workflow was designed using ModelBuilder™ and geoprocessing services written in Python to convert the TBC data into a completed data set of approximately 14 layers that included complete topology of the water network. This greatly reduced the time invested by the GIS staff to manually convert water mains and points into useable data.
Result: A State-of-the-Art GIS Foundation
The Town of Windsor is reaping the benefits of their investment in upgrading to ArcGIS Enterprise. By automating its data conversion for its water system, Windsor is reducing work hours and costs. Installing a solid foundation for the Town’s system of record will serve it for years to come. With this technological groundwork in place, Windsor is well-positioned to take advantage of many new Esri offerings like ArcGIS® Hub, ArcGIS® Story Maps, and more. The future looks bright for the town of Windsor.