topic Re: GIS data and MSAG in Public Safety Questions

GIS data and MSAG

TimWitt2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 14:29:13 GMT

Hey everybody,

Since NextGen 911 will result in the MSAG disappearing and being replaced by GIS data, I was wondering if anybody has a model or process in place that compares the MSAG and the GIS data?

Do you use 3rd party programs, if so which ones?

Tim

Re: GIS data and MSAG

IanMurray — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 19:59:10 GMT

Joe Borgione, Steven Graf, Chris Donohue, GISP, Richard Fairhurst

Re: GIS data and MSAG

StevenGraf1 — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 20:18:17 GMT

I created an MSAG from the Road Centerline file. I'll see if I can recreate the exact steps or build a model this week. Here is the gist of the process I used.

1. Create a unique key field such as Full Road Name + ESN

2. Dissolve the Road Centerline based on the Unique Key

3. Create High and Low fields

4. Populate High fields from the To Fields.

5. Populate the Low fields from the From Fields.

6. Create the Unique Key field in the MSAG

7. Join the two together

8. Use a select by attribute query to find all MSAG records that fall outside the Road Centerline ranges and vice versa.

-Steven

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JoeBorgione — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 21:06:59 GMT

I think what Steven mentioned is a solid approach. As I recall a company named GeoComm has a product. What makes me laugh is their attitude is the MSAG is the be-all end-all and the GIS data needs to be reconciled to it. Given that there is no spatial component to the msag, and it isn't maintained as regularly or as rigorously as the gis Streets data (at least for the two psaps I work for), I have argued that we just accept the GIS data as the de-facto standard. Ooooo-boy, what a s**t storm I started with that....

Re: GIS data and MSAG

TimWitt2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 21:10:28 GMT

That's funny, because in our County we have GeoComm mapping in our PSAP's. I knew about their software but I thought I might be able to do it at no cost

I agree that if both GIS and MSAG are maintained at the same level, then GIS is a lot more important (that is why there will be next gen 911).

Re: GIS data and MSAG

IanMurray — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 21:16:40 GMT

I was just looking and was surprised GeoNET does not have a group for addressing. Perhaps that is something a few of you who work with addressing could put together, much easier then me going over all posts I know of to find the right people to tag to answer such questions.

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JoeBorgione — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 21:29:57 GMT

Check your inbox for an invitation....

Re: GIS data and MSAG

Anonymous User — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 16:49:25 GMT

As agencies migrate from the tabular capabilities within MSAG’s, (Master Street Address Guide) to geospatial reliance through the GIS platform, Esri will continue to support our business partners who provide tools and services to streamline this function. We recommend agencies evaluate these options for best practice evolution of data.

Data Reviewer for ArcGIS can be configured with a set of checks to do this very thing. In addition, Esri also has a series of partners that can work with you to compare current GIS data to your MSAG information. Please reach out to your local Esri rep for further assistance.

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JamesRichie — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 18:38:10 GMT

Hey Steven,

Did you ever iron out a way to do this?

Thanks,

Re: GIS data and MSAG

StevenGraf1 — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:07:08 GMT

Hey James, I switched jobs not too long after that post and kind of forgot about it. I don't have access to an MSAG of Street Centerline file any more. I would definitely be willing to see what I could come up with if I had some test data to work with. I'll see if I can find anything online.

I'll try to get something up here in the next couple weeks.

-Steven

Re: GIS data and MSAG

ChrisHarvey1 — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:52:40 GMT

With the recent activity in this thread, I wanted to add a few comments. Bradshaw Consulting Services (BCS) includes an MSAG comparison tool in our enterprise address management application, TheAddresser, that involves a three step process to locate discrepancies between both data sets using street names, postal communities, and address ranges. In our experience, there will be issues in both data sets.

Since centerlines are generally maintained with greater scrutiny and as NG911 becomes the standard, GIS utilities for addressing need the comprehensive ability to not only identify crucial errors that affect geocoding and routing but should also provide a business-logic approach to editing that protects data integrity as increasingly critical systems rely on those data. This is the approach we've taken with TheAddresser as our public safety apps depend heavily on accurate addressing.

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JamesRichie — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:08:47 GMT

That would be awesome. I was going to try to program it in PHP but found that is was extremely cumbersome and that GIS has a way to do it. I'm not a GIS person so I'm trying to learn the tool set to accomplish my task so anything you find will be a huge help!

Thanks in advance,

-James

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JeremyMullins4 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 14:18:53 GMT

Tim,

There are a few tools that ESRI provides for free that will help you. However, some aspects of these tools will require a Standard or above license. The tool I would recommend the most is the ArcGIS for Local Government schema. This tool, while not NENA-compliant at this time, is fully configurable to be compliant at your discretion. It includes multiple relationship classes, tables, and domains already built so that your data can meet many standards already set by many agencies. The biggest benefit to you would be the integratino of the ArcGIS for Local Government data model and the Address Management tool that works with the schema to not only ensure accuracy between street centerlines, but across your datasets as a whole.

Another great aspect is that this model isn't just used for local government, but for many of the already created maps and apps from ESRI for Emergency Management, State Government, and Law Enforcement, to name a few. The most difficult part is migrating from your current dataset to the ArcGIS for Local Government model. There are many tools provided with this model that can guide you on best practices, including training, demos, etc. I would definitely look into this.

I would start here: Documentation | ArcGIS for Local Government

Re: GIS data and MSAG

RichardOwens — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 19:06:20 GMT

I am also looking for a tool to replace one that we currently use from a company called InfoGeographics out of Traverse City Michigan. The tool works very nicely but they are ending work on it sometime this year. They do have a sample tool that you can try if you are interested in downloading it. The sample tool only give you a few records and is only supported to 10.4.1 I believe. Here is their website and the tool is called AQE(Address Quality Extension tool).

Re: GIS data and MSAG

Anonymous User — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 22:00:19 GMT

We have a few partner who provide some nice tools to assist. I would suggest you reach out to (alphabetically) Bradshaw Consulting Services (Chris Harvey) at: charvey@bcs-gis.com and/or GeoComm (Jody Sayre) at: jsayre@geo-comm.com

Get a demo from each to help you make an informed choice. You might also look at some of the tools and templates on our solutions page, such as; Local Government Information Model | ArcGIS for Local Government

Re: GIS data and MSAG

TimWitt2 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 13:19:29 GMT

This week I have received an excel spreadsheet of all the phone numbers from our MSAG provider. We can request one of these once a year for free. Each phone number has an address attached to it. Here are the steps I came up with to compare it to our GIS address point layer.

1) Create a field in the phone number spreadsheet called FULL ADDRESS.

2) Use the excel concatenate function to populate the FULL ADDRESS field. Don't forget to include TRIM to remove extra spaces.The function will look similar to this: =TRIM(CONCATENATE(B2," ",C2," ",D2," ",E2," ",F2))

3) Now you will have a field that shows the full address that looks like this: 4660 N HIGHWAY 1 PALM SHORES

4) Select the FULL ADDRESS column, go to DATA on the ribbon and click "Remove Duplicates". In the window click on Expand the selection and then only put a check mark in your FULL ADDRESS field.

5) This leaves us with all unique address values in the phone number list.

6) Export your Address Point GIS data in to an excel spreadsheet.

7) If you dont have a FULL ADDRESS field in your GIS data yet, create it in your Excel spreadsheet just like in step 2. IMPORTANT it needs to have the same name as in your MSAG spreadsheet.

8)Go to your MSAG spreadsheet and copy the FULL ADDRESS coulumn.

9) Go to your GIS spreadsheet and go to the last entry in your FULL ADDRESS column. Below this entry paste wha you have copied from your MSAG spreadsheet.

10) Now repeat step 4, which should eliminate all MSAG addresses that you have in GIS.

11) Anything below the last GIS entry will be addresses that you are missing in your GIS address point layer.

Hope this helps!

Tim

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JoeBorgione — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 15:13:29 GMT

"Anything below the last GIS entry will be addresses that you are missing in your GIS address point layer"

But... that doesn't necessarily mean it's a valid address either. Remember telephone companies do two things: provide dial tone, and charge you for that dial tone. They don't verify addresses....

Nice methodology none the less Tim!

timw1984‌

Re: GIS data and MSAG

TimWitt2 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 15:29:17 GMT

Totally agree Joe.

What I do now with the fallout is go through the list and check if address assignment has the address in their system. If address assignment has it in their system, I add it to the map.If they don't have it, I mark it on my spreadsheet. Once I have gone through the spreadsheet I will provide it to them and they can check/research if the marked addresses are valid.

Re: GIS data and MSAG

TimWitt2 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 15:34:52 GMT

And it was also a good feeling that I had 99% in my address point layer

Re: GIS data and MSAG

JoeBorgione — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 18:18:43 GMT

Thats awesome Tim. Makes clean up so much easier when you get big numbers like that. And you are laying the ground work for NextGen 9-1-1. That's pretty swesome too!