Syracuse is typically a snowy city, with an average yearly snowfall of 127.8 inches. Big snowstorms have serious implications for city operations, with one lesser-known impact being that the Syracuse Fire Department (SFD) has to shovel all of the roughly 5,700 fire hydrants in the city. The Fire Department recognized an opportunity to track the status of hydrant shoveling in real time and, consequently, to better allocate their resources during a storm. So, SFD approached our Office of Analytics, Performance, and Innovation (API).
The Need for a New Method
Typically, firefighters would have accomplished this by bringing along laminated maps of their fire station districts and crossing the hydrants off with grease pencils once they were shoveled. Firefighters would then use the map to estimate their progress, report this back to Fire Chiefs, who in turn would report to the Fire Department administration the total percentage of hydrants shoveled. The process made it difficult to report progress with precision or in real-time, to provide exact detail on how many hydrants were left to shovel in a given fire district, or to pass the information off to the next team in between shifts.
Our objective was to digitize this process by building a tool that mapped all the hydrants, tracked shoveling progress, and could be used to report that progress to Fire Chiefs or to other crews in between shifts. Importantly, the tool had to be compatible with the specific Mobile Data Transmitter (MDT) device used on all SFD trucks to send data to other trucks or to the fire station. Additionally, in order to visualize and interpret the performance data, the Fire Chiefs requested a dashboard which could provide an overview of shoveling progress and inform the allocation of SFD resources to shovel the remaining hydrants.
Building the Map
To accomplish this, we worked with Chief Sara Errington, Fire Chief at Station 09, and Joe Zuckerbraun, who specializes in the data mapping platform known as GIS for the Syracuse Water Department. We utilized the Syracuse Fire Hydrant dataset, which was recently added to the Syracuse's Open Data Portal, as a base dataset. This dataset contains a list of all city fire hydrants and their street addresses, making it the perfect foundation onto which the new map could be built.
Next, we created a status option that would designate whether the hydrant had been shoveled already or was still in the queue. To tie it all together, we built a web map through ArcGIS Online using different colored fire hydrant icons to distinguish, at a glance, whether a hydrant had been shoveled or not.
With all the component pieces in place, we finally had to make the map interactive so that firefighters could update the status of each hydrant after shoveling. We took advantage of ArcGIS Experience Builder to do just that.
Up to this point, the work had taken place on computers. Before the tool would be ready to go live, however, we needed to verify that it would work in the field. We went to a fire hydrant near Station 09 and then tested the map, using the MDT device in the truck, to confirm that the status changed appropriately.
At this point, we also collected feedback on the usability of the map. It was important to us to make sure that the map would be easy for firefighters to navigate using the touch screens on the devices in the trucks.
Below is a screen shot of the current iteration of the map.
Designing the Dashboard
After getting positive feedback from SFD regarding the interactive hydrant shoveling map, we switched gears to work on the shoveling dashboard. This was an integral piece of the puzzle because, in order to make decisions about allocating resources, Fire Chiefs must be able to understand which areas are furthest along in shoveling efforts and which have the furthest to go. The dashboard does the crucial work of dividing the approximately 5700 datapoints across the city into digestible chunks and providing actionable insights.
Rather than displaying the hydrant data as thousands of red and grey hydrant icons, we decided to break the map down by fire station. Segmenting this data into specific areas covered by fire stations tethered the hydrants in need of shoveling to the firefighters responsible for shoveling them.
First, we configured the dashboard to display the percentage of hydrants that had been shoveled by each station out of the total number in their area.
Then, we added an additional level of detail at the request of the Fire Chiefs: we grouped these stations and any shoveling progress data into units called “Cars.” That may be confusing on first read, but a “Car” refers to the specific Fire Chief that oversees the groups of stations and would oversee any response to a fire in that area. The reason it is called a “Car” is because Fire Chiefs typically show up to a fire in a car rather than a fire truck.
In essence, this added detail enables Fire Chiefs to see the percentage of shoveled hydrants in the area they are responsible for and may need to respond to in the event of a fire – a pertinent piece of information so that Fire Chiefs can ensure their area is ready to perform if called upon.
Takeaways
Due to Syracuse having a very mild winter for the 2023-2024 season, the Fire Hydrant shoveling tool was only required for one snowfall. However, it performed as expected, allowing Fire Chiefs to track the number of hydrants that had been shoveled in real-time. The need for paper or laminated maps was eliminated. Estimated progress reports were replaced by exact data that shed light on remaining priorities. Judging by Syracuse’s track record, it is only a matter of time until the next whiteout winter. We are pleased that, thanks to the active involvement of SFD, we were able to put in place a tool that improves day-to-day operations.
Our partnership with the Fire Department has also spurred discussions about other interactive mapping tools. One such example is the need to track and visualize the periodic inspections of building lockboxes and elevators to convey visually which locations are due for inspection and which locations have been flagged for issues.
The firefighters at SFD are constantly looking for innovative tools to improve their operations – particularly tools that can be quickly built and iterated upon. For our part, we are happy to see better data collection practices and digital mapping leading to better outcomes across the city.
More collaborations to follow!