City of Syracuse stands out as sole public entity to be recognized in New York State
Syracuse, N.Y. – Mayor Ben Walsh announced that Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, presented two City of Syracuse departments – Office of Accountability, Performance & Innovation (API) and Department of Public Works (DPW) – with Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for their work on the City’s Winter Weather Operations tool released this past winter. Selected from over 100,000 eligible candidates and standing out as the only municipal candidate from New York State, API and DPW received the award for the Departments’ collaborative, innovative use of mapping and analytics technology, as well as leadership in the field of government technology at the annual Esri User Conference this summer.
As one of the snowiest cities in America, a large portion of Syracuse’s municipal operations involve managing the significant amounts of snow that blanket the city each year. Diving headfirst into snow management, the City of Syracuse began to look for new ways to use GIS and leverage spatial data and insights to make better government decisions and provide efficient, effective and equitable services to residents. After seeking guidance from Esri, the City of Syracuse implemented the Winter Weather Operations (WWO) solution this past winter.
“As a city that embraces winter, Syracuse was excited to be the first to put Esri’s winter weather solution into action,” said Mayor Walsh. “By partnering with Esri to support this digital platform, it allows for our City operations team to focus more on snow response, and to monitor and adapt our snow operations to provide the most effective, efficient and equitable service to our constituents.”
“GIS enables users across all industries to take a geographic approach in creating a shared understanding of the challenges they set out to solve,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. “I am honored to present these awards to all the organizations recognized for the many ways they are applying geospatial technologies to their achievements, in fields from government to business and nonprofit initiatives. By mapping common ground, they are setting an example for how the world can work together and take action on shared goals.”
The tool takes live data from sensors on plows, transforms it using real-time data analytics, feeds it into an online platform and produces spatial analytics that aid in decision-making. The multifaceted solution ultimately produces:
- a live web map for residents to monitor where and when streets or sidewalks were plowed and gauge real-time conditions before heading out in snowy weather;
- an internal fleet management system for the City’s Department of Public Works to track resources, plows, and illegally parked cars preventing plows form clearing streets;
- and an operational dashboard for the City leadership to measure performance and improve operational costs.
“We are excited to take this technical solution and the knowledge gained to use GIS more strategically as an organization,” said Conor Muldoon, Deputy Chief Data and Innovation Officer of API. “The data-driven framework developed for this tool will be used to improve many other City services, such as optimizing our routes and introducing turn by turn navigation for the City’s snow plow fleet this winter.”
The City of Syracuse was one of 193 organizations—in areas such as commercial industry, defense, transportation, nonprofit work, telecommunications and government—and the only public sector entity in New York State to be honored.
Esri staff annually nominate hundreds of candidates from around the world for consideration, and Dangermond selects the finalists. The SAG Awards are intended to demonstrate an appreciation for organizations using GIS technology to understand complex data and meet challenges around the world.
For more information on how the City of Syracuse is innovating through the use of technology, visit http://www.innovatesyracuse.com/our-impact
