Background
Our client, the Bureau of Land Management, hosts an application called “ePlanning” which manages all NEPA and Resource Management Plan (RMP) documents for the agency. This application has a public facing component which supports hosting project specific information, documents, and maps for all NEPA/RMP projects at BLM. The public can participate in the BLM planning process by submitting comments.
Challenge
To support the public participation process, ePlanning required an interactive geospatial commenting tool for public users, which could be easily customized for each planning project within the non-GIS application. Stakeholders required that internal users could publish project-specific geospatial data and support public commenting on existing features or create new features on the comment map.
Solution
NexGen developed a custom GIS Comment Map Application that we integrated into the larger ePlanning, Java based system. We leveraged Esri tools to develop a solution that allows a user to add a comment to a Webmap, which presents a custom list of questions for the public. This solution uses the Esri Portal to host published feature layers and allow end users to create a project-specific webmap, which they can add to the ePlanning project-specific webpage.
Custom Portal Roles are used to manage permissions and access and to facilitate an automated approval process within the Java application, which modifies Webmap permission to “Everyone” for public consumption. Using the Esri JavaScript API, we built a series of web service calls to the ePlanning application to allow non-GIS ePlanning users to customize each project map and create a list of custom questions for each map comment period. The public users can create a new feature (point, line or polygon) on the map or comment on an existing feature. Using out-of-the-box Esri widgets, the public can also add their own GIS data to the map for analysis, change the base map, view the legend, search on the map, and print their map view. Finally, internal users can run a report to view all public comments received on the map and view the linkage to existing features tied to each submission.
About NexGen:
NexGen Technologies (NexGen) provides the people, processes, and solutions that help make innovative IT transformation possible across your systems and applications.
We specialize in delivering top-tier IT support services specifically tailored for the unique needs of the federal government. Our dedicated team combines cutting-edge technology with deep industry expertise to ensure your projects meet the highest standards of quality and security.
For more information, please contact NexGen at info@nexgeninc.com or (720) 377-1800.
