Using GIS for Design Services

Integrated planning and design is the ideal approach for any project. When developing the site plan for a project, the design team (Urban Designers, Planners Architects and Engineers) can address the various requirements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED): implications of vegetation, prevailing winds, daylight, solar gain and building design on the orientation, window design and selection, heating ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting system. The decisions they make together, result in a more energy-efficient “Green” building.

Can the planning and design team effectively do its work without using a Geographic Information System? The team certainly can. However, the power and flexibility of the data available through GIS enhances the decision making process by quickly, easily and cost-effectively enabling the team to access, view and analyze multiple layers of information.

The Urban Planning and Design firm's GIS staff collects and incorporates into GIS data base, map layers from local government agencies and field date: surveys, topography, vegetation, streets, utilities, soils data, flood plain, wetlands, zoning, community demographics, existing buildings and other structures on the site. In addition, aerial photography, satellite and remote sensing data are incorporated.

GIS integrates this data into a single source and facilitates analysis into usable planning information. The planning team can use the analytical tools of GIS to examine various site constraints—flood plains, water, wetlands, significant trees and setbacks—and generate a composite layer that enables the team to identify an appropriate area in which to build the project. Urban Designers, Architects, Traffic Engineers and Landscapers use the data to aid in planning the visual characteristics of the site and access from roadways.

The team can also perform easy economic analyses of various components of the project. The developer may envision a fee-generation element such as a commercial rental space. However, the new development can be a white elephant for the community if there are not enough people to support it. Using demographic data in GIS, the Urban Planners can map the likely users of the facility, and it can be overlaid with the location of competing facilities. Through evaluation of the demographics and market share, the project's feasibility can be verified.

 While a GIS has drawing capabilities, typically architectural and engineering drawings are drawn in a computer program called AutoCAD, because it is the best tool for this task. Nevertheless, when the design team members use GIS as an integral tool in the process, incorporating the AutoCAD drawings into the GIS to enable stakeholders and decision-makers to easily visualize the plans in the context of the surroundings. The plans can be presented electronically on a laptop, PC or Web site, and viewed anywhere—in homes, offices and public meetings.

In this way, GIS offers an additional communication tool beyond the standard presentation format of board-mounted drawings at one-eighth or one-quarter scale for client meetings or public meetings. A GIS on a laptop computer with a digital projector becomes invaluable in a board meeting or a large public meeting, where an infinite number of overlays can be added to and removed from the plans with ease. Master plans at a 30th, 40th or 100th scale are almost impossible to present to a large gathering unless they are presented electronically, because of the difficulty of producing a hard copy of adequate size.

Once the project has been constructed, GIS becomes the tool to manage long-term facility operations and maintenance, as well as plan for the future. The developer can use the information in GIS for numerous purposes, from ongoing tree management, to planning new facilities. By linking a computerized maintenance management system or asset management to the layers in GIS, the system can be used to track furnishings and equipment, comply with GASB 34 accounting standards or to generate and track work orders.

In the right hands, GIS facilitates planning and design, enhances the public education and approval process, and helps a developer manage facilities more effectively and at lower cost over the long term.