DATAMARK Selected by Maine for NG9-1-1 GIS Data Enhancement

Project will move Maine toward a statewide, comprehensive GIS address point layer and road centerline layer for use in life-critical situations

(AUGUST, 2020) – DATAMARK, the public safety GIS team of Michael Baker International, announces that the Maine Public Utilities Commission, Emergency Services Communication Bureau has selected the firm for Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) geographic information system (GIS) data enhancement. This work will be critical as the state moves toward a statewide, comprehensive GIS address point layer and road centerline layer that meet and exceed the National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy (NSDI).  The project includes a review of existing road centerline data and existing structure location data to spatially adjust the geometries to meet national standards and to provide a mechanism for the remediation of missing/incomplete/incorrect address location data and/or attributes. The project commenced in June 2020 and is expected to last through February 2022.

“Our team consists of leaders in the complex technical areas of GIS, public safety and NG9-1-1, all of whom have extensive experience executing large-scale NG9-1-1 GIS data enhancement projects,“ said  Chris Friel, Director of Strategic Accounts at DATAMARK, Michael Baker International. “Our data-forward, full-service – yet configurable – solutions will provide the highest levels of public safety GIS data completeness and accuracy for the State of Maine’s NG9-1-1 services.”

The project will improve Maine’s GIS data statewide to meet the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) recommendation for the horizontal accuracy of GIS data layers. The DATAMARK team will update the existing NG9-1-1 1 road centerline dataset to a more spatially accurate LiDAR-derived road dataset while keeping all the attributes and topological relationships of the linear features.  Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) rules will be configured to align the NG9-1-1 road centerline dataset to the LiDAR-generated dataset. The PAI process consists of performing the change detection, including matching, between the LiDAR generated and NG9-1-1 datasets.  The matched and reshaped features will be shifted to align to the LiDAR dataset while still maintaining topological integrity.

DATAMARK will use two proprietary software solutions throughout this project:

• Address Comparison and Evaluation (ACE): ACE technology will compare Maine’s master address sources to other sources containing address points (i.e., trash records, parcels, utility databases, etc.) and will identify address candidates not within the master address data source.
• Validation Edit Provision (VEP): DATAMARK’s VEP Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution improves public safety communication, location precision and ensures the data meets the stringent NG9-1-1 requirements. The data validation tools are built on the NENA NG9-1-1 GIS database schema and will help to improve Maine’s data after spatial realignment. They will improve the state’s street centerline and address point GIS data using VEP to execute iterative validation checks. The VEP validation engine allows administrators to run hundreds of specific data validations that guide data remediation efforts to improve the quality and completeness of the GIS data.

DATAMARK will work in conjunction with partners Quantum Spatial and 1Spatial throughout the project.