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1 ANNEXURE:A GIS STRATEGY 1 July 2011 – 30 June 2014 January 2012 Prepared by: Chris Carter MHP GeoSpace (Eastern Cape) Strategy Particulars Date of Approval by HOD / WORKING 17 February 2012

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Page 1: GIS STRATEGY - amatholegis.gov.za · production and marketing by the GIS Unit; and c) huge problems with respect to the accuracy, completeness and currency of several critical GIS

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ANNEXURE:A

GIS STRATEGY

1 July 2011 – 30 June 2014

January 2012

Prepared by: Chris Carter

MHP GeoSpace (Eastern Cape)

Strategy Particulars Date of Approval by HOD / WORKING 17 February 2012

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GROUP: Date of Adoption by Council: 25 May 2012 Commencement Date: 01 June 2012 Revision History: Version 4.0 Review Date: Annually Policy Level: All managers of the ADM Responsibility - Implementation & Monitoring:

IT Manager

Responsibility - Review & Revision: Municipal Manager, Strategic Manager Reporting Structure: IT Manager » Strategic Manager »

Municipal Manager » Council

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

An analysis of the ADM GIS revealed three fundamental weaknesses: a) a divide between Water Operations and Maintenance and the GIS Unit; b) a lack of GIS production and marketing by the GIS Unit; and c) huge problems with respect to the accuracy, completeness and currency of several critical GIS datasets. This 3 year GIS strategy document is focused on addressing these issues, as well as establishing a GIS Shared Service Centre that will further support the Local Municipalities who requires access to this information and technology on a daily basis. Mindful of budget and human resourcing constraints, care has been taken to ensure the GIS strategy is practical and achievable, while raising the bar substantially in the service delivery required from the Corporate GIS Unit and ADM as a whole. The ADM GIS Shared Service Centre (SSC) will provide central GIS services to the Local Municipalities in ADM in a phased approach. A GIS SSC Committee will be established to oversee the establishment of the Centre, agree on the precise services that will be offered and under what conditions, and monitor delivery. It will also ensure continuous bilateral communication between ADM and the LMs on spatial information matters. In 2012 Nxuba, Great Kei, Mnquma, and Mbashe will be serviced by the GIS SSC . In 2013 the balance of the ADM Local Municipalities will be brought on board by mutual agreement. The proposed services offered by the GIS SSC are dealt with in detail in this document and include a data maintenance service on pre-agreed datasets; GIS map production and reporting services and GIS technology support services. Base services will not require financial contributions from participating local municipalities however they will be required to play a strong role with respect to maintenance of data within their areas of jurisdiction. The GIS Strategy identified the ADM GIS organogram as problematic. Additional posts are required to complete the structure, both above and below the existing GIS staff levels. Critically, at least one GIS technician post is required to be created under Engineering Services to assist with the vast amount of water services specific data that is managed and maintained by them. An excellent GIS service relies on excellent GIS data, and the only way to ensure this is to implement rigorous GIS data maintenance procedures. This requires human capacity, funding, established and enforced maintenance processes, and a consistency in all these areas. Certain partner organisations such as Statistics South Africa, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Provincial Government Departments in the Eastern Cape, and the Department of Water Affairs will continue to be the custodians of their data and will continue to maintain and supply this data free of charge on an ongoing basis to ADM. Critical data that ADM and its LMs must maintain are projects, settlements/communities, cadastral data (properties), water and sanitation data, electricity infrastructure, social facility data, and streets and addresses. The strategy deals at a high level on how this can be achieved however a detailed operational plan and workflow will require implementation upon adoption of the GIS Strategy. Immediate projects are the capture of all social facilities within ADM (currently underway) and the undertaking of a detailed and comprehensive land audit for ADM.

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The GIS also relies on excellent technology being in place at ADM. This has traditionally been a strength at ADM and needs to continue. Particular attention needs to be paid to the electronic communication lines between ADM and the Local Municipalities to enable the live sharing of data via the GIS website. The implementation of the GIS Strategy will require R6,123,500.00 over 3 financial years. The bulk of this (R4,785,000.00) is required in the first two financial years to accelerate the capture of critical GIS data. Immediate tasks to be undertaken have been tabled one of which is to prepare a detailed and comprehensive implementation plan to ensure the Strategy is rolled out effectively. 2. LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENTS FOR GIS AT AMATHOLE DISTRICT MUNCIPALITY GIS is a critical tool that supports a number of municipal legislative requirements contained in the Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000), the Municipal Structures Act (No 117 of 1998), the Spatial Data Infrastructure Act (No. 54 of 2003), the Promotion of Access to Information Act (No. 2 of 2000) and the Property Rates Act (No 6 of 2004). Very importantly, GIS is a vital tool to support the Municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), undertaken in accordance with the ADMs Spatial Development Framework and with projects that have a recorded spatial location. In addition, from 1 July 2011, the Auditor-General requires valuation and financial asset registers down to component-level with spatial co-ordinates according to Generally Accepted Municipal Accounting Practice (GAMAP). GIS is the only technology that will allow ADM to manage its assets spatially in a visual manner and thereby ensure that all its assets are recorded. 3. BACKGROUND The establishment of the ADM GIS Unit was initiated in 2003 with the purchase of some Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) GIS software and hardware, followed by the employment of a GIS specialist. A Corporate GIS implementation initiative was embarked upon in 2006 with the aim of upgrading the ADM GIS from a standalone GIS to an integrated system that delivers on the needs of the business. The ADM GIS is required to make a critical contribution to the planning processes in the District. A spatial land audit that is GIS based supports the Spatial Development Framework and Land Use Management Systems (LUMS) at both District and at Local Municipality levels. Critically, the GIS supports the maintenance and monitoring of these plans as the environment changes. Examples of these changes are municipal boundary demarcation adjustments, land subdivision and ownership transfer, zoning changes, urbanisation and even longer term changes such as climate change. The ADM GIS also has a critical role to play in recording and monitoring the assets of the District. Two major categories are a) the properties that ADM and its municipalities own, and b) infrastructure. For ADM, water and sanitation infrastructure is by far the most valuable category of asset that has taken an enormous effort to capture into GIS. There is still some work to go on the water network GIS layers for the entire District. The ADM GIS also must provide information support to other components with ADM, especially Municipal Health, Local Economic Development, and Disaster

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Management. The data needs of these components and their priorities have been documented previously. Since 2006 the ADM GIS developed into a fully-fledged Corporate GIS with a GIS Specialist, who reports to the IT Manager, and two GIS technicians who operate an ESRI-based GIS software solution. There are weaknesses in the GIS Unit though specifically with respect to many of the datasets that it has, the GIS Unit’s production capacity and the products and services that it currently offers. There is also a dislocate between the Corporate GIS and the Engineering Water Management System (EDAMS) as well as the ADM Financial Management System (e-Venus). The ADM technical solution consists of a GIS database server and GIS webserver (currently running ArcGIS Server 9.3) that serve data to the GIS technical environment (currently running ArcEditor 9.3 and ArcView 9.3) as well as the intranet environment that services the ADM officials with a simple to use live mapping service containing data for the entire DM. The technical solution is robust, effective and stable using best of breed GIS software in a sensible manner. In addition to the Corporate GIS unit, a Water Services database that is managed through use of EDAMS software under the ADM Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Division also has a GIS component. Water infrastructure is captured and displayed spatially and contextualized using backdrop data from the Corporate GIS. The water services GIS data is maintained outside of the Corporate GIS environment, in the O&M Department, which is also in a different building to the Corporate GIS Unit. There is a serious organisational dislocate between the Water Services GIS and the ADM Corporate GIS. In 2011 it became increasingly clear to ADM that the LMs, more than ever, required very strong spatial information management systems to enable the:

Capture, management and maintenance of their valuation roles Management of their Land Use Management Systems and plans Management of their fixed assets, including water assets of which there are

many Management of their services and revenue generated from those General management and planning of their municipalities

With the data and capacity constraints in min as well as the municipal GIS demands in mind, ADM has developed a GIS Strategy that aims to capitalise on its GIS strengths and opportunities to apply GIS technology to the benefit of both the District Municipality and its Local Municipalities in a sustainable manner. 4 GIS CHALLENGES AT ADM Several serious GIS challenges within ADM were identified in 2010. Assessment of the ADM GIS environment in the context of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis led to the recommendation of fundamental changes within both the ADM GIS Unit as well as within ADM itself. These were required to set a firm foundation for the 3 year GIS strategy. The recommendations were as follows: 4.1 Bridging the gap between Water and Corporate GIS

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The divide between Corporate GIS under IT and the GIS and data activities occurring under the Water Services Operations and Maintenance Unit must be bridged. This matter will clearly not resolve itself naturally since little progress has been made in the past three years. A lack of faith in the ability of the Corporate GIS to deliver on very technical and specific water services needs is worsened by the physical divide between the two units. ADM cannot afford though to have two GIS installations within the organization supported by two different consultants and that operate on two different platforms. There are opportunities for the EDAMS GIS module to utilise the corporate GIS database, both for backdrop data purposes (to contextualise the water related data) and for storage purposes of the water services spatial datasets. The network speed between the buildings needs to be properly assessed to ensure it can sustain this integration opportunity. 4.2 GIS activities of the GIS Unit GIS staff at ADM are not focused on GIS production activities on a daily basis. The specialist is drawn into many administrative tasks and meetings, and the gap in technical mentorship between specialist and technicians is marked. Standard popular sized maps of various information types are not readily available nor are they marketed by the GIS Unit. There is consequently an organisational mistrust of the ability of the Corporate GIS to deliver promptly and correctly on GIS requests. Emphasis needs to be put back into day-to-day mapping and information requests, and the servicing of these requests. This will require pro-active marketing of GIS products to users who are currently not utilising the GIS at all. As the data improves through the proposed GIS data capture projects, so too will the quality of the information products and therefore the confidence of both the users of the information and the GIS technical staff. 4.3 GIS Data Issues constraining GIS Delivery The lack of key quality GIS datasets is holding back the ability of the GIS to deliver on critical information requirements of both the DM and LMs, specifically a) quality cadastral information and its associated land use, ownership and registration status; b) complete and accurate water services infrastructure data and related operations and maintenance and billing status; and c) community facilities data covering all aspects of facilities nominated as critical in the User Requirement Analysis. Several major projects are required to address these data shortcomings with respect to crucial spatial information layers in the ADM Corporate GIS. 5. THE ADM GIS STRATEGY Mindful of the GIS challenges facing ADM, this GIS Strategy document has been prepared with a number of fundamental requirements in mind:

a) As of 1 July 2011, the Auditor-General requires the spatial position of all fixed municipal assets at both District and Local municipal level. GIS is no longer an essential planning tool for municipalities, it is now a critical tool to assist prevent a qualified audit from occurring.

b) Certain fundamental datasets have to be in place for the GIS to deliver on both District and Local municipal requirements. These datasets are required by both ADM and the LMs within it so it makes sense to collaborate.

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c) ADM is required to support and assist the LMs within it and GIS is a critical support tool for the LMs who typically do not have the resources to establish their own GIS units. A GIS Shared Services model is an excellent model to render this support sustainably and cost-effectively.

d) GIS technology is an excellent data integrator. The need is great at ADM to integrate the water infrastructure database with the financial database, both of which must link to data residing in the ADM Corporate GIS. The integration of these systems will require careful planning and then execution by a team representing each system. A first task is to define unique identifiers (IDs) rules for all ADMs fixed assets. This unique ID must be used by all systems referring to the same item, be it in the financial system, EDAMS or the ADM GIS. The same goes for property (cadastral) information although this has already been defined nationally by the Office of the Surveyor-General.

e) The GIS Strategy must be practical and achievable. The ADM has to deliver so much more than it was required to do in the past. By doing a major upgrade of the fundamental datasets required by both ADM and its LMs; and by integrating systems within ADM, the ADM GIS will deliver on these requirements. This is provided that the GIS staff perform their duties in accordance with an explicit service level agreement and that data maintenance procedures are implemented at a detailed level within both ADM and the LMs under the umbrella of a GIS shared services model. These are then the fundamental 6 pillars of the 3 year ADM GIS Strategy:

1. The establishment of a GIS Shared Service Centre (SSC) 2. Explicit detail of what that GIS SSC shall deliver 3. The implementation of a workable organogram for GIS with clear job

functions and key performance areas assigned 4. The capture and maintenance of key municipal datasets 5. Suitable deployment and maintenance of GIS technology 6. Necessary funding for all of the above

Each of these pillars are dealt with in detail in the chapters below. 6. THE ADM GIS SHARED SERVICE CENTRE MODEL After analysis of the status quo of the LMs within ADM it is clear that better use of GIS funding and effort will be derived going forward by centralising GIS support for local municipalities. Economies of scale, better efficiency levels and sound sustainability will be achieved by aggregating GIS infrastructure and GIS data at a District level. The fundamental reasoning behind this statement is that: Base datasets from third parties (e.g. census data, aerial photography and

municipal demarcation boundary data) can typically be just as easily sourced and managed for an entire DM area as for a single LM area.

Many GIS product requirements can be anticipated or agreed upon, and satisfied through the production of regularly updated standard maps, mapbooks or through the provision of on-line (internet based) map services.

In small LMs, a full time GIS technician or specialist is often not kept busy with GIS activities all day every day.

A GIS staffed by only one person leads to inconsistent service levels due to absence or resignation. Absence could be due to vacation leave, sick leave, training or meetings. In the case of resignation, re-filling a GIS position can take as long as 6 months or even more to achieve.

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Pooling resources to ensure a minimum of 3-4 people are employed in the centralised unit provides redundancy that leads to a consistent service. It also provides a potential career path for the more junior staff member leading to a longer average tenure in a post.

In a technical environment, two people working alongside one another is many times better than one. It allows for a sharing of knowledge and workload, divisions of responsibilities, joining forces to get an urgent or big job done, and also enables work to get done back in the office while being represented at meetings.

East London has a much better chance of attracting skilled GIS practitioners than the centres of the ADM Local Municipalities.

The Amathole DM GIS Shared Service Centre will have the following key features: a) A documented, secure and fully available GIS database will be housed at the

GIS Shared Service Centre. The GIS Shared Services Centre shall, on a monthly basis, send updated GIS data that it has captured or updated to each Local Municipality. These data sets are to be explicitly listed as part of the Service Level Agreement.

b) The ADM GIS Shared Services Centre will be resourced with a minimum of three permanent municipal GIS staff members, which may be supplemented by service providers contracted on a medium to long term basis or supplied by other organisations such as the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs. Service providers may be used as needed to take up unusual workloads required within the District as well as to supply expert support. The service providers will in essence level out the workload at the GIS Shared Services Centre to ensure that the three permanent staff members (or more) are kept busy but are not overloaded. Poor service will immediately undermine trust in the GIS Shared Service Centre’s ability to deliver. Existing staff at Local Municipalities that have been trained to use GIS will complement the shared services model and provider a stronger internal support function within the LM.

c) Services offered by the GIS Shared Services Centre as well as the levels of service

that can be expected shall be detailed in a Service Level Agreement which must be strictly adhered to. The Service Level Agreement shall be signed between the Municipal Manager of ADM and the Municipal Managers of each Local Municipality. There shall be a separate and specific Service Level Agreement signed between each Local Municipality that lists the services that will be supplied to that Local Municipality, with conditions, as well as the expectations on both parties and consequences of non-performance. The Service Level Agreement shall initially be for a 3 year period.

d) The performance of the ADM GIS Shared Service Centre shall be monitored by

the ADM Joint GIS Steering Committee on a quarterly basis. A performance management monitoring system must be implemented to effect this. The ADM Joint GIS Steering Committee shall consist of at least one representative from each party (LMs and DM) that have an active and signed Service Level Agreement in place.

e) The ADM GIS Shared Services Centre will lead the implementation of GIS policies,

standards and specifications to ensure that all spatially related data that is captured as part of any Local Municipal or District Municipal study or project is done so to common GIS data standards. The existing GIS policy at ADM will

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require revision to incorporate the GIS SSC requirements and key performance areas.

f) GIS funding for all LMs within ADM should be pooled and managed as a single

central budget for the benefit of the participating municipalities within the District. Financial contributions agreed to in the Service Level Agreement shall be transferred by the LMs in the first quarter of each financial year (i.e. by the end of September of each year at the latest). ADM shall ensure that it has the management capacity to administer and manage the ADM GIS Share Services budget to satisfy all audit requirements.

g) The annual agreed budget transfers may be topped up by the LMs to cover

additional services rendered or special projects, for example the commissioning of new digital aerial photography for the District area or a study to capture street names for all of ADMs streets.

h) The ADM GIS Shared Services Centres shall provide the full range of GIS services

to participating municipalities in accordance with the Service Level Agreement. It will establish, manage and maintain a GIS website that will allow access to GIS information to all municipalities via the internet. It will provide data, GIS data capture and maintenance services, GIS specialist support services, GIS training and advisory services, analytical services, GIS programming services (where required), and GIS management support services.

7. GIS SERVICES OFFERED BY THE ADM GIS SHARED SERVICES CENTRE (SSC)

The ADM GIS SSC shall provide a suite of GIS services to its municipal clients in accordance with the Service Level Agreement. This agreement will define who the clients of the GIS SSC will be, what services they will be offered, what protocol must be followed in requesting these services, and what they will pay for the various services offered, if anything at all. Services offered by the ADM GIS SSC shall include the following: a) GIS software provision services

Provision of all GIS software required by both ADM and the LMs Maintenance of all GIS software required by both ADM and the LMs to ensure

stable, bug-free GIS platforms that offer modern GIS functionality Provision of technical support and limited formal GIS training on software

b) Baseline GIS services to all LMs

Map production of standard popular maps from A4 size to A0+ size Production of information products in both digital and hard copy formats. GIS analysis requests that take one working day (8 hours) or less to satisfy. Customised maps produced on demand, as per client requirements. A GIS web-based “self-help” map service that allows any LM official with access

to the internet and sufficient login rights, to query and print relevant information held at the ADM GIS SSC on demand. The service is to be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The web service must be simple to use and fast, maximising the use of appropriate and available high speed internet technology. It must enable a user to produce maps of up to A3 page size.

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A data provision service to officials, the public and service providers doing work for the LMs.

A data capture service of spatial data on pre-agreed datasets prioritised by the relevant LMs.

A database maintenance service on pre-agreed datasets to ensure the GIS is current, complete and accurate.

The last item has a major impact on the capacity requirements of the ADM GIS SSC. GIS data maintenance is a key factor for GIS success within the District. It is thus a strategic key performance area of the ADM GIS SSC which must not be neglected at all costs. The issue of GIS data maintenance is dealt with more fully later. A scan of municipal GIS implementations across South Africa reveals that municipal GIS units are too focused on map production without enough attention paid to data maintenance. The result is a partially satisfied client who has a map product but does not generally have confidence in the accuracy, completeness and currency of the data displayed thereon. There are also severe limitations in using the GIS for advanced analysis. Baseline ADM GIS SSC services should be provided to all participating municipalities in line with the Service Level Agreement. The costs of baseline GIS operations shall be covered by the ADM GIS Shared Service Centre central budget. Baseline GIS services will be provided by a combination of the three permanent GIS staff members (officials) stationed at the ADM GIS SSC and supplemented by the contracted service providers if required. The permanent staff members shall be focused on the day-to-day running and operations of the ADM GIS SSC. This will include client liaison, job management, map production and GIS analysis. Service providers will typically only assist with highly technical tasks such as customisation of the ADM GIS website where programming is required, as well as with bulk data capture and update work such as the update of the property GIS data layers. c) Advanced GIS services on demand From time to time, GIS projects will be required to perform detailed and

advanced analysis on an area. This analysis is time consuming and could take several working days to perform. Examples could be: “prepare a socio-economic profile of Great Kei based on latest available data”, or “show areas of backlog of access to various services within Mbhashe LM based on certain criteria”, or “report on municipal expenditure on projects in Mnquma LM based on area, type and relative to socio-economic needs”.

GIS application development requiring specific programming and interface customisation. An example might be an application that exports certain data from the municipal financial management systems into a central database and runs a set up queries to check for property description correctness and consistency in their valuation role and electricity accounts database.

Ad-hoc GIS services requiring GIS specialist skills. An example could be the use of a GIS specialist for a two day strategic planning workshop to assist with “live” prioritisation of proposed IDP projects for the new financial year.

The GIS SSC Manager will decide on whether this GIS project work is done by internal staff, given to service providers, or declined if the both the capacity and the financial resources are not available. It is emphasised that the permanent GIS staff members must be fully and gainfully employed at all times.

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8. THE HUMAN RESOURCE STRUCTURE OF THE ADM GIS SSC Organisational issues require attention at ADM. A sustainable and secure corporate GIS requires suitable staffing and clearly defined roles to support it. Currently ADM has 3 GIS posts: one named “GIS Specialist” and two named “GIS Technicians”. The GIS Specialist is also performing the role of GIS Manager and has KPA’s assigned as such. At a technical level operations are not occurring as they should though, the role of spatial DBA is unclear, and the mentorship responsibilities between technicians is not established due to the flat structure on their levels. The GIS organogram requires a re-structure if the staff are going to be held accountable for the delivery of their services. Going forward, four specific job functions are required in the ADM Corporate GIS: The GIS Manager who is responsible for the implementation, management and marketing of the GIS in the organisation. He/she is responsible for ensuring the GIS responds to organisational needs, through constant involvement and interaction with ADMs management and its activities. The GIS manager must manage the system, technology and people required to update and maintain the GIS database. The GIS Manager is responsible for providing strategic GIS direction to the IT and Strategic Managers. The GIS Manager will manage the ADM GIS SSC and shall chair the GIS Shared Services Steering Committee Meetings held jointly with the LMs. He/she will carefully manage the workload between internal staff and any GIS service providers who may be used to take up excess work that the GIS SSC cannot cope with. The GIS Manager will liaise with the relevant parties to ensure that clients’ needs are satisfied and that GIS data maintenance operations are occurring with the latest available data received from participating LMs. The GIS Database Administrator is responsible for all aspects of the GIS database including the database technology, software configuration and data integrity. The administrator is the gatekeeper of the Corporate GIS data who ensures that data is secure and backed up. He/she will be responsible for the database design for new datasets as well as ensuring that new data entering the ADM GIS conforms to the existing design and rules. Metadata and the data dictionary is also typically maintained by the administrator. The GIS Database Administrator reports to the GIS Manager. It is possible to outsource this function on an as-needed basis, else to up-skill a traditional DBA within the organization to perform this function. The GIS Specialist is responsible for using GIS technology for the benefit of the organisation, whether it is by producing maps, reports or doing statistical analysis. The GIS specialist is an expert in the use of GIS software (e.g. Arc Editor, ArcView and 3D Analyst) which are his/her daily production tools. The GIS specialist reports to the GIS Manager and supervises the GIS technicians on data capture and maintenance issues. He/she must communicate constantly with the users of the GIS as well as the technical staff to ensure the GIS products meet the needs of the users. The update and maintenance of the GIS website is the responsibility of the specialist. The GIS Technicians capture and maintain the organisational GIS data. The GIS technicians also produce maps and services client requirements as instructed by the GIS specialist or GIS Manager. The technicians report to the GIS Specialist who

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mentors them in best practice GIS methods. The Specialist and Technicians form the technical team who work side by side on larger projects and are managed by the GIS manager to ensure maximum productivity and collaboration to deliver on client requirements. Service providers may be required to supplement internal capacity, particularly for mass GIS data capture projects. The fluctuating nature of the workload involved in large GIS data capture projects lends itself to the private sector performing this function when necessary. Data maintenance must be performed though by the GIS SSC in collaboration with the Local Municipalities. An exception is the cadastral data which requires specialist skills to maintain on a monthly basis at not a great cost. The GIS organogram required to support the ADM Corporate GIS and GIS Shared Services Centre is proposed below. New proposed posts are shown in blue. It is critical to create and fill the two GIS Operator posts (under GIS) and the one GIS Technician post (under the Operations and Maintenance) immediately so that GIS data capture and maintenance will continue smoothly after the large data capture projects have been completed. History at ADM has shown that it is unlikely all of these posts will be consistently filled due to the high turnover of staff in the GIS industry. The creation of the GIS Manager post may be done in the following financial year. 9. GIS DATA CAPTURE AND MAINTENANCE PLAN Numerous GIS datasets are considered critical to municipal business. A lack of action and a lack of capacity by various spheres of government regarding who should be maintaining which datasets has led to a lack of spatial data maintenance in South Africa in general, and in ADM in particular. The ADM GIS SSC provides the ideal vehicle to ensure that a thorough and consistent GIS maintenance programme actually does occur on municipal level GIS data. While this sounds a simple task, the details around this data maintenance are not trivial matters at all. So why would the GIS SSC succeed in active GIS data maintenance where nearly every other municipality outside of a Metropolitan in South Africa has failed? There are key strategic advantages that the ADM GIS SSC has over existing municipal GIS Units:

Capacity. The GIS SSC has the benefit of a core permanent GIS staff component made up of officials, supplemented by a private-sector based pool of resources that can be heavily deployed or reduced to zero depending on workload and current demand.

Service Level Agreements. The GIS SSC will operate within strict policy and performance criteria. This has never been done before within the municipal GIS environment in the Eastern Cape. If the GIS SSC does not deliver in terms of clearly measurable key performance areas, action will be taken.

Funding. Through the joint collaborative funding model, adequate funding will be made available to enable maintenance of key spatial datasets to occur. Funding is committed three years in advance, so there is security in this

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funding stream and mass data capture programmes can be spanned over multiple years if required.

Consistency. The ADM GIS SSC will implement a GIS data maintenance programme that is focused on the capture and maintenance of key critical and important datasets over a long period. This consistency will result in increased user confidence in GIS information products and therefore increased reliance on GIS products for decision-making. Success will breed success.

In summary, a GIS data maintenance programme run through the ADM GIS SSC will succeed because of a consistently funded and resourced maintenance programme that is instituted by people that will be intensely monitored with repercussions for failure. The ADM GIS SSC must focus on the capture and maintenance of spatial data that is: a) clearly of municipal interest only, b) is practically best maintained at municipal level due to the level of involvement by municipal officials in that spatial information layer, and/or c) which is essential to the municipal GIS and should be, but is not, maintained by a more relevant third party. An assessment of municipal functions within ADM and their associated GIS data requirements has indicated a long list of priority spatial datasets. This list has been informed through input from ADM officials at a formal User Requirement Assessment session as well as using detailed knowledge of the business of local municipalities. Each data set on the list has been prioritised according to overall municipal need (1 being “critical” to the functioning of the municipality, 2 being “important”, and 3 being “nice to have”). The nominated requirements (why the municipality needs this data) have been listed. Core attributes, in other words the key information needed about the spatial data listed, have also been nominated. Finally, the impact of properly maintaining the dataset in order to satisfy municipal requirements as well as the proposed maintenance organisation for each dataset has been nominated. This data list serves as a strategic guide for GIS data maintenance operations at the ADM GIS SSC. It is important to make special note of the data sets that are of importance level 1 that also have a maintenance impact level of 1. A data set of critical importance to the municipality and that also has a high data maintenance impact poses both a serious threat to proper operations of municipal functions but also dangles the carrot of high reward should diligent maintenance occur. Several of these datasets are clearly the responsibility of local government to maintain. Data nominated as key data maintenance performance areas required of the ADM GIS SSC are as follows: Projects. Who is doing what, where, when and at what cost is critical topical

information required to assessing what is being done to address infrastructural and projected service level backlogs within ADM to meet targets

Settlement extents and their names, their alternative names and their detailed socio-economic profiles

Cadastral data being the property boundaries and related data to which all billing and land use data will be attached

Water and Sanitation Infrastructure, critical for asset management for the Water Services Authorities as well as service delivery measurement. From 1 July 2011

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the Auditor General requires the position of all municipal fixed assets to be co-ordinated. GIS in no longer a “nice to have”

Electricity Infrastructure, also for asset management and service delivery monitoring

Facility data (e.g. schools, clinics, hospitals, community halls etc) Street centerlines and names to enable navigation to water meter readers The above-mentioned water services related information is vital to ADM, water provision is ADM’s primary business function. The need for this data has been long recognised by ADM and significant funds and effort has been put into the capture and collation of this data into EDAMS, the ADM water management system. The Operations and Maintenance sub-directorate within the Engineering Directorate is best placed to handle the maintenance of this data in conjunction with the Project Management Unit and Finance. Water services as-built plans must be submitted to ADM according to the GIS specification in the ADM technician specifications pack. This data must be immediately checked against that specification before approval and final payment to the service provider concerned. This function must be performed by the GIS technician within the Engineering Directorate. In particular the following positional data must be meticulously managed together with the required engineering and asset management required attributes: Boreholes used for community water supply Reservoirs and water tanks used for community water storage Springs and abstraction points used for community water supply Water supply reticulation being the water pipelines connecting the bulk water

supply to the supply points (standpipes, house connections etc) Sewer pipelines Water standpipes and supply points for community water supply Pipeline devices being the valves, meters, joints, end caps, etc that connect

pipes to one another and that are found on pipes. EDAMS will continue to be the repository for all water infrastructure data and related attributes. A project must be immediately undertaken by the GIS unit and Operations and Maintenance to enable a sub-set of this information to be stored and automatically updated in the Corporate GIS. Similarly, EDAMS must have access to the other important backdrop datasets held in the ADM Corporate GIS. It must be noted that generally water services infrastructure GIS data is not in a complete and consolidated state in the ADM GIS. This urgently required integration exercise is required before a sound water infrastructure maintenance programme can be initiated. The Operations and Maintenance department has undertaken to do this task. The ADM GIS SSC must monitor the update processes of these datasets closely. Water infrastructure will require data maintenance attention on a daily and weekly basis. There is a huge opportunity to utilise GPS/smartphone technology in conjunction with GIS technology to enable and ensure that water operators, process controllers, community based organisations, plumbers and technical managers capture important data in the field and send it automatically through to a central and integrated database via the cellphone communication network. The design and implementation of such a system is as a separate project and is therefore not dealt with in detail in this GIS strategy document. The diagram over the page identifies the

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key role-players required to design and refine the system from a currently manual and dysfunctional one, to an automated and functional one. It is recommended that a task team be formed to effect this initiative consisting of Engineering (both O&M and PMU), Finance and GIS.

The ADM GIS relies on several partners to update GIS data supplied by external sources. These partners are:

The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health (for updated health statistics and facilities)

The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Education (for updated education statistics on facilities)

The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Public Works (for government buildings and road infrastructure data)

The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Transport (for transportation planning, road statistics and road centreline data)

The Eastern Cape Provincial Office of the Premier (for Province-wide GIS data) The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Local Government & Traditional

Affairs (for surrounding municipal GIS data and the Provincial Spatial Plan) National Department of Water Affairs (for water statistics) National Department of Rural Development (the Deeds Office for deeds data;

the Office of the Surveyor General (for cadastral land parcel data); and the Chief Directorate : National Geo-Spatial Information (for updated colour aerial photography)

Statistics South Africa (for demographic information) National Demarcation Board (for all demarcated boundaries) Independent Electoral Commission (for voting statistics)

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This list is not exhaustive as many other institutions and organisations will supply data to ADM from time to time. Direct or indirect (via Office of the Premier for example) relationships have been established with these GIS data custodians. All government departments share data free of charge except for the Deeds Office that charge for ownership data. 10 DEPLOYMENT OF GIS TECHNOLOGY Although the international GIS community has made great strides in developing open GIS data formats that enable a plethora of different GIS platforms to read, write and utilise data held centrally in one central database, much of this relies on very fast communications between these platforms. Internationally, the availability of incredibly fast internet connections enable different GIS environments to access central databases over internet communication. These are often assumed to be in place. This is not the case in South Africa generally and definitely not the case at ADM and its family of LMs specifically. GIS data must be readily available at both ADM and its LMs in a form that facilitates rapid and guaranteed access to it, including local plotting of large format maps on demand. For this guaranteed service, the GIS data for those LMs needs to be replicated locally. The small LM GIS servers that were purchased and provided to the LMs in 2010 must be utilised for this data storage purpose. The ADM GIS website will be a primary point of access to the GIS data by ADM officials. Data must be stored in the same format at the LMs as at ADM, with the same structure and same data naming conventions to facilitate the easy sharing of GIS projects, maps, templates and tools between the ADM GIS SSC and the LMs. This sharing of technical work will save a lot of time and will foster a closer working relationship between the ADM SSC and the LM GIS Technicians. ESRI ArcGIS technology has been chosen by ADM as its GIS platform and there is no reason to change this. ESRI GIS software dominates the government environment in the Eastern Cape and indeed in South Africa. The GIS software must be maintained, just as ADM maintains its server software and desktop software licensing. This has been very well managed in the past and ADM are fully up to date with GIS software maintenance up until late 2012. It should be noted that ESRI offers an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) option for District Municipalities and their LMs. The ELA is a three year agreement that enables the DM and LMs to deploy unlimited GIS software licenses throughout their organisation, and covers all maintenance as well as some software training and support. The ELA is expensive, approximately R1M per annum and may only be justified later in the GIS Strategy period, in around 2013/2014. The GIS SSC will put a system in place to ensure that the GIS data pertinent to each LM is replicated and updated at least on a monthly basis at the LM offices. This will happen manually initially with the intention to fully automate the replication through overnight transfer of updated database between the ADM GIS database server and the LM server or workstation that hosts the GIS data once electronic communication lines between ADM and the LMs improve. 11 FUNDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY

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The implementation of the GIS Shared Services Strategy requires funding. ADM should not be expected to fund the entire service however in the spirit of support to the LMs in line with an existing shared services initiative undertaken by ADM, the initial costs of establishment of the GIS SSC shall be borne by ADM. It is proposed that consultations with each LM within ADM should be held to present the GIS Shared Service that ADM intends to implement. An appeal to each LM should be made to contribute to the funding of the GIS Shared Services Centre to the tune of R200 000 per annum from 1 July 2012. The projected funding required from the 2011/2012 financial year up until the 2013/2014 financial year totals R6,123,500. This 3-year budget excludes staffing related costs for the GIS SSC.

12 IMMEDIATE TASKS AND WAY FORWARD The critical path for the way forward is as follows:

I. Prepare a detailed implementation plan for the period. II. Establish a small GIS Implementation Task Team must be established at ADM

consisting of the Strategic Manager, the Office Manager, the IT Manager and the GIS Specialist. The Task Team will drive the implementation of the Strategy and monitor progress. It should initially meet every 2 weeks, thereafter monthly once the project programme is running smoothly.

III. Secure budget to implement the GIS Strategy and GIS Shared Services Centre. Some funding has already been secured, other funding, particularly the Local Municipality contributions, will require marketing and planning for in the forthcoming financial year budget projections.

IV. Initiate the GIS Land Audit Project (Phase 1) immediately. This data will underpin all GIS integration at property level including billing, land use and service backlog determination.

V. Implement the GIS integration pilot project between EDAMS, Corporate GIS and eVenus to integrate the GIS data pertaining to properties and water assets.

VI. Form the GIS Shared Services Committee to be chaired by ADM and with representation from each of the Local Municipalities. Initiate the first meeting where a Terms of Reference of the Committee should be presented.

ADM GIS STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION BUDGET: 2012-2014

PROJECTED EXPENDITURE 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 TOTAL1 GIS Software and System Maintenance R 350 R 385 R 423 R 1 158 500.002 GIS Data Project 1: Social Facilites Data

Capture R 250 R 0.00 R 0.00 R 250 000.00 3 GIS Data Project 2: Water Service

Infrastructure Consolidation and Maintenance System establishment R 0.00 R 500 R 250 R 750 000.00

4 GIS Data Project 3: Cadastral Land Audit Capture and maintenance R 1 200 R 1 200 R 240 R 2 640 000.00

5 System integration at both DM and LMs R 0.00 R 250 R 275 R 525 000.00 6 Setup and operation of GIS Shared

Service to R 300 R 150 R 150 R 300 000.00 TOTAL PER ANNUM R 2 100 000.00 R 2 485 000.00 R 1 338 500.00 R 6 123 500.00

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VII. Create the two GIS Operator posts and the one GIS Technician post under Operations and Maintenance. The process of writing job descriptions, performing job evaluations (gradings), advertising, interviewing candidates and making appointments is time consuming and must be vigorously led by the GIS specialist and the Strategic Manager,

VIII. Work on and Implement GIS data maintenance procedures now for the land audit data and the facility data that will be arriving soon so that these operational procedures are in place when the data arrives. These procedures will require marketing and promotion both within ADM as well as within the Local Municipalities.

IX. Deliver on day-to-day GIS products and services that are required by both ADM and the LMs in accordance with this Strategy.

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AMATHOLE DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY GIS STRATEGY OPERATIONAL PLAN : 2012-2015

Description 2012 2013 2014 2015

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2

Institutional establishment of GIS Shared Service Centre (SSC) Establish GIS Project Steering Committee and meet monthly Establish GIS SSC Committee and meet quarterly Write Terms of Reference for the GIS SSC, review and finalise. Review GIS Services delivered by GIS SSC and refine processes. Investigate and report on system connectivity options between DM and initial 4 LMs Establish improved GIS connectivity / capacity at LMs Train municipal officials on GIS Develop marketing products and market with GIS at DM and LMs Ensure ADM GIS Unit responds to requirements: organogram, work programme etc Review and Update GIS Strategy and GIS Policy annually Implement GIS data maintenance regime at DM and LMs Prepare a general GIS Specification covering all data required in GIS format

Write specific GIS specifications for water, sewer, roads, and electricity as-builts Prepare/Review and packaged data maintenance forms for targeted datasets Implement data maintenance regime including facility data maintenance application at NXUBA, GREAT KEI, MNQUMA AND MBASHE LMs

Refine maintenance model, forms and methodology. Roll out to other LMs in ADM Review data maintenance programme and adapt annually. Cadastral Based Land Information System establishment Complete land audits of NXUBA, GREAT KEI, MNQUMA AND MBASHE LMs Link cadastral to land use for GKM&M LM data. Report anomalies. Fix. Link cadastral to rates and services billing data for GKM&M LM. Link cadastral to water billing data for ADM. Integrate land audit data with building plans at LM level Complete land audits of NKONKOBE, NGQUSHWA, AND AMAHLATI LMs

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Link cadastral to land use for NN&A LM data. Report anomalies. Fix. Link cadastral to rates and services billing data for NN&A LM. Develop live linkages to billing systems Data cleansing of financial data based on ghost records, missing properties, incorrect property descriptions and owners

Maintain land audit data on a quarterly basis. Water Service Infrastructure Integration Project Document system components and database requirements: EDAMS, e-Venus and GIS. Scope Intergration plan.

Scope and Implement pilot project to test integration capabilities. Evaluate. Implement system integration based on pilot project success Implement water system data maintenance mechanisms