CorporateGeo - InformaticsNovember 2015

08 Progress ReportCommunique to all

Together, in partnership.Rare events are not uncommon during 2015/16. Astronomers and even casual stargazers are excited about the planets that are currently lined up in a rare planetary event and enthusiastically rise before dawn to witness the planetary conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and Mars in the eastern sky.

As Geo-Scientists we are equally excited about the occurrence of significant events such as the International Map Year,Geography Awareness Week and the International GIS Day.

The International Map Year (IMY) is a worldwide celebration of maps and their unique role in our world. Organised by the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and supported by the United Nations, IMY provides opportunities to demonstrate, follow, and get involved in the art, science and technology of making and using maps and geographic information.International Map Year was officially opened at the ICA conference in Rio de Janeiro in August 2015 and will continue until December 2016.

International GIS Day is held the third Wednesday of November each year, during Geography Awareness Week, a geographic literacy initiative sponsored by the National Geographic Society. GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society.

GIS Day is a global event. Organizations all over the world that use GIS, or are interested in GIS, participate by holding or sponsoring an event of their own. The first formal GIS Day took place in 1999. In 2005 more than 700 GIS Day events were held in 74 countries around the globe. In 2015 there are already 1161 events registered, including the City of Johannesburg’s GIS day event on 18 November 2015.

Our theme for this year’s GIS Day is “Together, in partnership”.

I

In common (Wikipedia) terms the definition of a partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals or interest-based groups who partner together to increase the likelihood of each achieving their mission and to amplify their reach. Synonyms for “partnership” include collaboration, connection, cooperation and relationship. (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2015).

And this is exactly what we at Corporate Geo-Informatics want to achieve in partnership with you, our valued customers, namely a win-win situation where spatial information becomes the asset that increases your productivity and output and creates new opportunities for you to shine! We invite you to join us on this path. Make sure to visit us at our GIS Day to obtain more information.

During October CGIS hosted a delegation from Kampala City (Uganda) for benchmarking on the implementation of GIS-based property Management. During the CGIS walkthrough they gained in-depth knowledge of our property processes and how property information is maintained spatially in the City. We were proud to share our knowledge and experiences. Our November JoGIS newsletter edition is packed with other “geographical conjunctions” for you to enjoy.

Thank you for your ongoing support and remember to complete the upcoming customer survey, which helps us to help you better!

Marcelle HattinghDirector: CGIS

This project consists of a total of 14 229 records of which 3527 have been completed to date. In 99% of the cases it is not just the property in question that needs corrections done, but the surrounding properties as well. The project include history, S.G. Approved and withdrawn properties. This project is currently 25% completed.

2. Deeds Alignment Project (Phase III) This project commenced during the previous financial year with a Pilot area and Deeds Alignment Area II. This project attends to all land type codes, erven, farms and agricultural holdings. A total of 15 066 records were identified for this financial year. This project is currently in progress and 26% completed. 3930 Records attended too date.

3. Alignment of the CGIS Centre Lines and JRA Road Links Project. In conjunction with the Deeds Alignment Project, a project was identified for the alignment of the CGIS Centre Lines and the JRA Road Links. It covers the Deeds Alignment Pilot and Phase I areas. Where possible road names are verified against the S.G. General Plan and the 2 road layers aligned to match. Where renaming of the roads occurred and it is not available on the General Plans, it are referred to the Street Address Section for investigations and confirmations. A total of 2510 (CGIS Centre Lines and the JRA Road Links combined) have been identified of which 3930 have been completed. This project is thus 22% completed to date.

4. Corrections done to the Registered Area ratio calculations Project. (Gaps and Overlaps) An original total of 2219 gaps and overlaps have been identified for corrections. A monthly system generated report is run to keep track of any new additions. A total of 772 corrections have been done to date and thus the project is currently on 35% completed.

5. JPC List This was a project to align JPC’s asset register with the Spatial component. All missing JPC properties were captured spatially. A total of 85 properties were investigated and attended to. The project is 100% completed.

Together, in partnership 01Progress Report 02Aerial imagery 2015 02ArcGIS for Server 03What’s new 04CGIS Braai Day 04Map your world 04DP: Staff Awards 05Reporting on special Projects 06

In this issue

Contact Corporate GIS

We value your comments and suggestions.

Please e-mail comments and suggestions to: cgis@joburg.org.za

02 07Progress Report(June 2015 to October 2015)

Spatial InformationFor the period July 2015 to September 2015 the Spatial Info Section has captured 1084 newly registered and S.G. Approved properties. A total of 78 Sectional Schemes with a total of 3073 units were attended to.

9132 Cadastral Corrections were done and 3478 Status Changes were attended to. 35 New CGIS Centre Lines (Roads) and JRA Road Links were captured. 143 Corrections to the CGIS Centre Lines (Roads)and JRA Road Links were done.

Online Maps website: The internal website on “City Maps” via Jozinet received a total number of 1 387 082 hits with an average of 277 416 hits per month.

The external website via eservices (http://eservice.joburg.org.za) experienced a total of 1 026 244 hits

with an average of 205 249 hits per month, for the same period. This is a total of 2 413 326 hits for internal and external website over a 5 month period.

Top 5 themes accessed:- Property Theme- Zoning Theme- Planning Theme (Internal access only)- Transportation Theme- Economic Nodes Theme

Top 5 users- Corporate Geo-Informatics- Valuations Department- Planning Department- Johannesburg Property Company- Revenue & Billing

Aerial imagery 2015

Fax ServiceNumber of subscribers for fax service has increased from 417 to 430 with 15808 requests attended to within 2 working days (16hours) from July 2014 to October 2015.

The number of licensing applications submitted has increased as well from 625 to 1341 which comprises of 1 Gambling, 376 Environmental Health, 439 Liquor and 523 Trade. They are also processed within 1 to 1.5 working days. This statistics are from July 2014 to October 2015.

The zoning data cleanup is continuous, some of the major projects that are targeted on the year2015/2016 financial year are as follows:

Progress on each project

1. Randburg Town Planning Schemes Zoning Verification i. Target is 816 Townships ii. 95% complete

2. Roodepoort Town Planning Schemes Zoning Verification i. Target is 816 Townships ii. 33% complete

3. Johannesburg Town Planning Schemes Zoning Verification i. Not yet commenced

4. Deeds Alignment Project Phase 3 i. Target is 15066 records ii. 89% verified iii. 15% complete

5. Reverse Status Change List i. Not yet commenced

Project Overview

The main objective of data cleanup projects is to have: (i) an error free zoning; (ii) update zoning according to recent amendment scheme; (iii) ensure all the properties have zoning and; (iv) ensure all amendment schemes are complete and linked to the corresponding properties.

Challenges

The following challenges we encountered during the cleanup: (i) incomplete amendment schemes linked; (ii) incorrect amendment schemes linked to properties; (iii) unclean cadastral boundaries (slivers); unable to locate amendment scheme from archive (Records).

Zoning InformationReporting on special project

b. Special Projects:During the course of the 2015/2016 financial year, the Spatial Information Section will be attending to various projects to ensure the continuos adherence to Data Quality. 5 Projects have been identified for this purpose and are currently in progress. This is work done over and above the normal day-to-day work.

1. Legal Area Phase IV Project 2. Deeds Alignment Project (Phase III)3. Alignment of the CGIS Centre Lines and JRA Road Links Project.4. Corrections done to the Registered Area ratio calculations Project. (Gaps and Overlaps)5. JPC List

1. Legal Area Phase IV Project The last phase of the Legal Area project, Phase IV, is also currently in progress. These are all the legal areas that could not be resolved via phase I to III. The correction requires a geometry correction first..

Spatial Information

0306Corporate Geo-Informatics (CGIS) will soon be launching exciting new aerial products for our internal- and external clients.

The aerial products will cover the City of Johannesburg’s jurisdiction area (1644km²), including the Driefontein treatment waterworks, North West of Johannesburg.

Our clients can look forward to the following products:

Product one: 15cm Pixel resolution colour Orthophotos, including LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data (4 points per m²) and 25cm derived contoursThe capture of the orthophotos and LIDAR data have been completed. A camera sensor error was encountered during the capturing phase,which delayed the completion of the first phase of the product by three days. Visibility (smog and clouds) also impeded the finalization of the initial image capturing.We are glad to announce

that the processing- and quality assurance phase have since been completed by the service provider and CGIS will soon receive the first imagery set for internal quality assurance. A trained team of five CGIS staff members are on standby to assist with the verification of the supplied aerial

imagery (at a scale of 1:500). The Orthophotos and 25cm derived contours will be available on our soon-to-be launched new ArcGIS for Server online map viewer.

Product two: Oblique imageryThe capture of the oblique imagery for the CoJ jurisdiction area have been completed. Processing of the imagery is almost complete and will then be provided to CGIS for quality assurance purposes. Integration investigation with our new ArcGIS for Server online map viewer is currently in progress.

Product three: Building footprints and 3D building models

Building footprints and 3D building models to be generated as / when required. Focus will be on any additional areas identified as part of the Corridors of Freedom initiative.

Product four: Multi-spectral ImageryA new edition to the existing range of CoJ aerial products available to clients. 8 Band multi-spectral satellite imagery will allow GIS User Departments (e.g. City Parks & Zoo and Environmental Management) and external clients to utilize the power of this imagery dataset for analysis purposes.

These products will be available from our Projects Section, launch date to be finalised and communicated.

The above 2015 imagery products will be showcased at our GIS Day on 18 November 2015. See you there!

Aerial imagery 2015 (continued)

ArcGIS for Server go-live

The time has finally arrived to go live with ArcGIS for Server.

Corporate Geo-Informatics (CGIS), together with our GIS service provider (Esri South Africa) will soon be reaping the fruits of several years’ hard labour, when the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) migratesto ArcGIS for Server.

The ArcGIS for Server migration project initiated when the City’s IT Department (Group Information Communication Technology and Information Management) procured state-of-the art server infrastructure to host the ArcGIS for Server project as well as several other key CoJ applications.

The state-of-the-art servers are hosted in the newly revamped Data Centres hosted at the Braamfontein Metro Centre and Roodepoort Metro Centre.

CGIS and Esri South Africa has done extensive enhancements on all the GIS desktop applications,

including (but not limited to) the Cadastre capture graphical user interface (GUI), Zoning capture GUI, Street Address capture GUI and Online map viewer. The enhancements will include the upgrade of the application software from version 9.3.1 to version 10.2.2

Several user acceptance testing (UAT) sessions have been concluded and signed off.

The UAT documentation, together with other supporting documentation are currently being compiled for submission to the CoJ Change Advisory Board (CAB) for consideration and approval. Once approved, the CGIS Directorate will halt all GIS data capturing to allow the migration of the geodatabase from DB2 to SQL and the upgrade of all CGIS desktop PC’s to ArcGIS 10.2.2.

Expected downtime to complete the migration is five working days. Date to be communicated extensively to all CoJ User Departments, before go-live.

Project CommentsDuplicate Active street numbers identified on registered properties

• Total number of duplicate street addresses identified = 6 348

• Total number of duplicate street addresses still to be activated = 5 705

• Total number of duplicate street address numbers activated to date = 679

• 10% DONE

Activation of permissible street numbers identified on registered properties

• Total number of permissible street addresses identified = 8 973

• Total number of permissible street addresses still to be activated = 8 181

• Total number of permissible street address numbers activated to date = 792

• 8.83% DONE

Checking addresses sharing same street CL

• Total number of addresses sharing same street CL identified = 181

• Total number of addresses still to be checked and corrected = 51

• Total number of addresses checked and corrected = 130

• 81.82% DONE

Checking properties that have 999 addresses

• Total number properties that have 999 addresses = 58

• Total number of properties that have 999 addresses still to be checked and correct = 1 (site inspection to be done)

• Total number of properties that have 999 addresses checked and correct = 57

• 98.28% DONE

Deeds alignment project • Total number properties that have to be checked = 15 066

• Total number of properties still have to be checked and correct = 10254

• Total number of properties have been checked and correct = 4 812

• 31.94% DONE

Incorrect street names list by Nick Clopper

• Total number of street names that have to be checked = 15 066

• Total number of street names that still have to be checked and correct = 992

• Total number of street names that have been checked and correct = 948

• 48.87% DONE

Reporting On Special Projects

04 05

The CGIS department is known for their creative ideas; if it is not a collage or an art exhibition they celebrate CGIS Braai Day in style on September 2015

The Property Information Systems section pulled out all stops to make this day memorable and provided quality wors rolls, milk tart and cold drinks at a special price. During CGIS Braai Day funds were raised by staff to contribute towards the CGIS departments’ year end function.

CGIS Braai Day celebrated in style….

A BIG Thank You to our management for allowing us to not only WORK HARD but also PLAY HARD....

DP: Staff Awards7 October 2015

CGIS is known to strive to improve data quality, controls, processes and system applications. During the past 3 months several new applications were implemented. The aim of the new applications were to replace old technology, improve validation on the quality of the data, to shorten turnaround times and ultimately provide business with the control on and visibility of their environments.

For the first time, reporting functionality was implemented within the Land Information System (LIS) Environment or Property Value Chain (PVC). A total of 20 data exception reports were identified by business. These reports include a list of ‘Registered properties without market values’, ‘Properties received from the Deeds Office not on LIS’ and ‘COJ owned properties acquired in the Deeds Office and not on the Asset Register’ to name a few.The reports thus provide visibility on specific records or data sets that are exceptions to the business rules. Related management reports were also developed. These reports are generated monthly and provide an over view of all the individual exception reports. It ispresented in graphs and charts. This provides visibility to management on positive or negative trends.

The Deeds Processing Environment was also modernized. Outdated applications were replaced with advanced.NET applications. The ETL (Extract Transform and Load) tools previously used to upload and process data were also replaced. Business now has the ability to load and extract data and process data, functions that were previously done by consultants. One of the biggest advantages is that Deeds data updated or captured by business is instantly visible on the LIS Admin Client. No overnight processing is required anymore. Additional validations on the Deeds Maintenance process were added. Currently there is a 122 validations done on each deeds record before it being processed into LIS or SAP.

The slogan of the project was for business to ‘Regain Control and Visibility……….’

What’s New…..

The City of Johannesburg’s Corporate Geo-Informatics (CGIS) team have partnered with the GISSA, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Esri South Africa to promote GIS and related careers to high school learners from schools across Johannesburg.

The annual Map your world through GIS event, now in its seventh year, is aimed at Grade 11 and 12 geography learners as they embark on choosing careers. Spread over three days with morning

Map your world through GIS

You might think that this all happened somewhere in a park in Johannesburg, but NO we celebrated this special day on the 8th floor in the CGIS department. Colleagues we treated during the fundraising event gourmet style.

Feedback from colleagues ranged from: “wow never knew that CGIS Braai Day could be so much fun” to ….“can’t wait to see what you will come up with next year….”

and afternoon sessions, the event provides students with an overview of what GIS entails, its applications and job opportunities in the field. The event further serves to inspire students in geography and new geoscience technologies.

This year the event format changed to include field data collection along with map work exercises. This brings home the overall process and purpose of GIS to students. It also shows the importance and value of accurate information gathering, which has applications beyond the field of GIS.

Upon arrival at the sessions students connected to the UJ Wi-Fi, downloaded the ArcGIS Collector app to their smartphones, before being divided into groups of four and sent onto the campus to map points of interest. Upon returning to the computer labs the students could view and manipulate the information, and see how the points could collectively be spatially analysed to gain insight.

Seven schools attended the Map your world through GIS event, which took place at UJ’s Department of Information and Knowledge Management, and the GIS magic rubbed off on more than 320 individuals.

The GIS community is proud of all who participated – keep up the GIS enthusiasm!