Problem
AGIS was contracted by the Town of Clifton Park, New York to conduct a needs assessment and to prepare an implementation plan for a town-wide GIS. For a number of years, the Town maintained a GIS within the Planning Department and small number of its staff were experienced using ArcView 3.2 and MapInfo Professional desktop software for data development and map production. However, the demands placed on Planning to meet the GIS needs of the town had out grown the initial system design and there was a increasing desire among several departmental managers to access a GIS and spatially related data.

Solution
To prepare departmental staff for the needs assessment process, AGIS initiated its interview and research process with an educational seminar designed introduce GIS to those unfamiliar with the concepts and functionality of a GIS. AGIS then conducted a series of one-on-one interviews with six (6) departments to document information management processes; geographic information managed; computer hardware, software and network capabilities. The main goal of the interviews was to discuss all of potential GIS applications specific to the functions of the department.

The resulting Needs Assessment Report was as an analysis of all the potential GIS applications required to meet the client's needs as well as an outline of spatial data to be used in system development. In its analysis, AGIS found that several departments shared the same basic need to examine and map parcel and infrastructure data. However, in these departments desktop-computing equipment tended to be old and would require significant investments in memory if the most current desktop GIS software were to be used. To circumvent this need for hardware (and extensive training) investments, AGIS proposed a system design that could accommodate the needs of the greatest number of users without abandoning the higher-level GIS functions currently performed by the Planning Department.

System design diagram

The recommended system design incorporated two tiers of GIS deployment. The first was as set of customized intranet applications deployed using ARCIMS 3.1 by ESRI. The web-enabled applications would provide users, who had little to no GIS training, with the ability to query and map parcel, infrastructure and permit data. AGIS compiled a complete set of intranet system recommendations including hardware, software, and customization options. The second tier was the installation of ArcGIS desktop systems in 2-3 departments where data development and editing would be performed on a regular basis.

The advantage of the two-tiered approach was to focus higher-level GIS functionality where the expertise and resources were available as well as provide much needed, basic GIS functionality to users in multiple departments in one or more physical locations.

Problem
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) contracted AGIS to lend expertise in creating a facility siting model for CHP (combined heat and power) energy facilities. NYSERDA's goal was to design a model that could be used across the country to promote energy efficiency through CHP.

Solution
AGIS worked with NYSERDA engineers to construct a methodology for the tool. The goal was to create a application to allow users to build a facility siting model based on a set of one or more geographically significant criteria (economic, social, environmental, transportation, infrastructure, etc.). Each criterion is based on a geographic relationship between a criteria reference layer (e.g., gas lines) and a list of potential candidate sites (based on existing industry locations).

The user may then select from a set of spatial analysis operations (e.g., select sites within an area; select within a proximity). Each candidate site is analyzed and scored based on the criteria entered into the model. The output is a GIS data layer of candidate sites assigned a cumulative final score indicating the most preferable DG/CHP locations.

AGIS initiated a comprehensive review of all available spatial data relevant to the model across three dimensions of criteria: social (positive factors); access to fuel (positive factors) and constraints (negative factors). Initial results proved that some critical data components (e.g., gas lines, utility lines) did not exist or would be difficult to construct. All spatial data was compiled into a geodatabase using ArcView 8 for ArcGIS.

A total of 30 different datasets were used to evaluate potential locations for DG/CHP. Each dataset represented a measurable criterion such as heat loading, electricity demand, and availability of landuse and local/state economic incentives.

It was necessary to identify a set of specific sites (e.g., industry locations) that, based on their nature, may be well suited to benefit from CHP power generation technology for use as an input to tool. For "proof of concept" purposes, a surrogate list of sites in NYS was developed based on NYSERDA's previous experience. This included those industries that have a high demand for electricity and heat, a very high demand for electricity, or a need for a highly reliable source of uninterrupted power.

Two sources of data on industry locations in New York State were identified. Commercial business listings are available from a number of sources (e.g., pay-for-purchase mailing lists), and for a limited group of requestors, similar data are also available from the New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL).

An automated process for measuring spatial factors against a potential candidate list was developed for ArcGIS (version 8.2). ArcGIS was selected as a processing platform due to an extensive and growing user group, direct compatibility with common GIS data formats, and the long-term expectancy of the product line. Customized functions for ArcGIS were created using the ArcObjects programming language. The resulting application is known as the Geographic Location Assessment Tool" (GLAT). GLAT is an ArcGIS extension and is activated as a custom toolbar.

The application design provides a great deal of flexibility to support a wide range of user-defined models, and the ability to edit those models to incorporate new and improved data layers as they become available. Although the first version of GLAT was developed using New York State data, the system has been designed to work with data for any geographic area (e.g., other states). In addition, the full set of ArcView functionality can then be used to further display and analyze the model output.

GLAT is a GIS-based modeling utility designed to evaluate geographic criteria significant to the siting of DG/CHP energy generators. However, GLAT is fundamentally a site suitability model-building tool and may be used for broad-based facility siting projects. The flexible system design can support the inclusion of a wide range of input GIS data (ESRI geodatabase or shapefile format) and a virtually unlimited number of user-defined models.