What Problem Did This Local Government Face with Floodplain Data?
Local governments need to work with relevant data from many different sources and stay apprised of changes to that data. One large municipal government that dymaptic serves employs an ArcGIS enterprise geodatabase to store their in-house geographic data as well as select datasets from third parties. To make floodplain data readily available within their organization, the municipal government maintains a copy of FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layers within their database. However, the municipality's copy of FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layers had become outdated.
How Did Dymaptic Approach Automating GIS Data Updates?
Dymaptic recommended automating the data refresh process rather than relying on manual, periodic imports. This ensures that this important dataset remains up to date, without the municipal client needing to dedicate any manpower toward doing so.
What Was Dymaptic's Automated Floodplain Data Solution?
A regularly scheduled Python script using Esri's ArcPy library was the right-sized solution for automating the municipality's floodplain data updates. Dymaptic's deep knowledge of software development and GIS analysis informed that conclusion. Moreover, we understand well that Esri provides world-class support for executing and authoring Python scripts, and that maintaining these is within the skillset of many analysts and technicians who work with GIS but are not software developers.
With the solution defined, the dymaptic team did the following:
- Wrote a Python script to retrieve data from FEMA's download location
- Used ArcPy to connect to the municipality's enterprise geodatabase
- Emptied and repopulated the National Flood Hazard feature class with current data
- Configured Windows Task Scheduler to run the script weekly
- Set up automated email alerts for unexpected script failures
What Were the Results of Dymaptic's Floodplain Automation Project?
With our knowledgeable and proactive approach, this right-sized, dymaptic-built solution has operated maintenance-free since its deployment in April 2020, effectively removing this task from the always-full plates of the city's staff.