# Presentation: 949131

## Building Footprint Data Collection and Processing

- Allen Sparks
- Enterprise GIS Program
- Resource Information Management Division
- National Information Services Center
- Office of the Chief Information Officer

## Presentation Outline

**History of the Buildings Standard**
**Buildings Data Model Implementation**
**Initial Data Collection Efforts**
**Lessons learned**
**Next Steps**

## History of the Buildings Standard

- Buildings chosen as “low-hanging fruit”
- Standards team formed
- Standard developed through multi-year process
- Regional GIS programs agree to support effort
- Implementation started FY2007

**Notes:**
Facilities Management program interested in NPS buildings dataset.
 With at least some program support and a need for a “test case”, buildings were chosen as the easiest candidate for the first NPS buildings enterprise dataset.
 A team was put together. Team was made up of representatives from several different programs, including some park representation and database expertise. Throughout the standards development process, however, membership of the team changed dramatically as level of commitment was too much for some and others became involved because of vested interests.
 The standard development itself took almost three years. The long time span was due, at least partially, to the fact that the NPS had never undergone this type of process before.
 Towards the end of the process, as the standard was “being solidified”, regional programs agreed to support the data collection/creation efforts.
 Implementation of the standard started at the beginning of fiscal year 2007, and a few months later, parks/regions really started to get involved.

## Buildings Data Model

- Original Model

## Buildings Data Model

- Implemented Model

## Initial Data Collection

- Geodatabase & Shapefile templates
- Rudimentary Upload/Download Workflow
- Simple Summary Statistics
- Documentation
- Support (Contact Form)

**Notes:**
After standard was developed, it became obvious that an “interim” plan was needed, as programs that had contributed resources (Facilities Management) were interested in seeing results and NPS GIS wanted to get the enterprise GIS efforts underway as quickly as possible.
 So, even though the standard was still not completely solid – though at the time it was thought to be solid, development of infrastructure and workflow was started.
 Parks and regions were encouraged to start collection of data.
 Most tool development was put on hold at this time, as the standard wasn’t solid enough to merit much investment of development time.
 A basic download/upload workflow was developed to allow NPS GIS users to interact with the enterprise dataset in a limited way.
 Quite a bit of time was spent on the development of end user documentation.
 An informal support structure was put into place.

## Access to External Data

- FMSS
- Read-only Direct Access to Oracle DB
- SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to Replicate Data. *(Session 19)*
- Efficient & Easily Repeatable
- LCS
- Unable to Obtain Direct Access
- Manual Extract/Transform/Load
- Generate 3 Reports – Save as Access97
- Load from Access97 into SQL Server
- Inefficient & Error-Prone

## Creating Park Templates

-  Model Builder used to:
-  Query FMSS & LCS extracts
-  Create schema and relationships
-  VBScript generated
-  Command line wrapper
-  4-6 hours to create templates for all parks

## Download / Upload

- Active Directory Organizational Unit
- EGIS “OU”
- Park Groups used for Access Control
- Scripts for creation and management of groups
- Read, or Edit (Upload) Access
- Folder structure with Access Control Lists (ACLs) containing EGIS Groups

## Download / Upload

- Active Directory Organizational Unit

## Download / Upload

- _[http://](http://egis.nps.gov/)__[egis.nps.gov](http://egis.nps.gov/)_
- EGIS Contacts Table
- Simple Table in SQL Server
-  Doesn’t Support 1:Many User:Park relationships
- “Primary” users get Upload access
- ‘Data Grabber” Web Page
- Integrated Windows Authentication
- User selects Park, then Dataset
- Uploaded data placed in folder
- Email sent to RIMD Staff
- All transactions logged

## EGIS Contacts Table

## Download / Upload Overview

## Download / Upload Overview

## Slide 15

## NPS System Viewer

- _[http://](http://insidemaps.nps.gov/npssystemviewer)__[insidemaps.nps.gov/npssystemviewer](http://insidemaps.nps.gov/npssystemviewer)_

## Completion Statistics (20080401)

| Region | FMSS Buildings | EGIS Buildings |
| --- | --- | --- |
| AKRO | 1166 | 555 |
| IMRO | 8318 | 6428 |
| MWRO | 2868 | 269 |
| NCRO | 1135 | 913 |
| NERO | 3425 | 186 |
| PWRO | 7264 | 56 |
| SERO | 3652 | 1837  |
|  | 27828 | 10244 |

## Lessons Learned

- Database Model
- Highly “Normalized” is good for data integrity, but increases complexity of data development;
- Solutions:
- Simplify the Model;
- Develop Tools for Loading and Validating Data;
- Tools would need to be Model-Specific
- Generalize the Model **and** develop tools
- ** Reusable Model and Tools **

## Lessons Learned

- Database Model
- Requests for minor revisions to standard
- Polygon_Type, Point_Type
- Map_Method
- Position_Error
- Opportunity to simplify model
- Remove Subtypes
- Move link fields to Buildings Table
- Some re-coding of data required
- Implications for data distribution
- need to deliver transformed data back to the field

## Lessons Learned

-      Data Collection and Distribution
- Download / Upload is labor intensive
- ** Current process does not support delivery of existing Building Footprints to parks
- Current Solution is Not Scalable / Sustainable for Multiple Simultaneous Theme Collection Efforts
- Solutions:
- Improve Download / Upload Process *(Interim)*
- Use Distributed Geodatabase technology
- Leverage Lessons Learned by Dave Best
- Collaboration with Army Corps of Engineers

## Lessons Learned

- Data Display
- Basemap Performance
- It is not feasible to develop a service-wide basemap with reasonable performance
- A commercial-service is required
- Currently using ESRI ArcWebServices

## Next Steps

- Database Standard and Model
- Publish comments and responses to proposed standard revision
- Final revision to model
- Publish on Data Store
- Transform Existing Data into New Model

## Evolution of the Model

## Next Steps

- Data Collection / Distribution
- Revise Process for Generating GDBs
- Generate New GDBs and Shapefiles
- Update Documentation
- Begin a new Data Collection Cycle

## Next Steps

- Data Display
- Revisions to System Viewer
- See Session 24 (Nate Irwin)
- ArcGIS 9.3 Services
- Microsoft Virtual Earth Basemap

## Future “Generic” Standard

## Questions?