Case Studies

City of Saskatoon Engages Citizens and Improves Pothole Reporting and Repair Updates with GIS-based Web Ap

Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/705972

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 1 of 3

Challenge In 2011, the City of Saskatoon launched Saskatoon Speaks, a community engagement initiative where citizens shared their vision for Saskatoon over the next 50-70 years. Ranking among the top priorities for Saskatoon citizens were civic engagement and city mobility. This includes concerns about the degradation of driving surfaces in Saskatoon due to a significant freeze/ thaw cycle each year. Citizens expressed similar feedback in subsequent annual civic services surveys, leading to the City's decision to increase funding in road repairs and maintenance in 2014, which led to the subsequent development of a road repair and maintenance program called Building Better Roads. In the summer of 2014 alone, this included 178 lane kilometres of construction and rehabilitation of Saskatoon's streets. Based on citizen feedback, the City wanted to increase civic engagement in road maintenance and repairs and improve its Web site. Although the City offered an online form to report potholes, road maintenance crews found it difficult to pinpoint the location of repair requests. In early 2014, the City identified the need for an interactive online map that would allow the public to report potholes and check for repair updates on a desktop, tablet or mobile device. Additional key requirements included automatic email confirmation to citizens reporting a pothole; a hybrid system architecture that combined internal and cloud IT infrastructure; and the security and protection of personal information submitted by citizens. In addition, the City needed the app to launch inside an aggressive three-month window in advance of its annual pothole repair blitz in the spring. Citizens use GIS-based application to help lead the City of Saskatoon's charge during pothole blitz In 2014, the City of Saskatoon launched Building Better Roads, the most ambitious, well-funded road improvement project in the community's history. The program's first major initiative was streamlining the City's annual spring pothole blitz. To improve citizen engagement and repair updates, the City launched a publicly-accessible Report a Pothole application. Built on the ArcGIS platform, and leveraging the extensive GIS data infrastructure the City has maintained and improved for over 25 years, this Web-based, crowdsourcing tool allows citizens to quickly locate and report potholes on an interactive map from a computer, tablet or mobile device. Between March and September 2014, more than 3,800 potholes were initiated through the Report a Pothole app. Additionally, pothole-related calls to the City were dramatically reduced. 1 Esri Canada | City of Saskatoon engages citizens and improves pothole reporting and repair updates with GIS-based Web app

Articles in this issue

view archives of Case Studies - City of Saskatoon Engages Citizens and Improves Pothole Reporting and Repair Updates with GIS-based Web Ap