ArcGIS 10’s Data Driven Pages functionality greatly improved the creation of mapbooks by allowing a reference layer to determine the extent and scale of the map. It would be nice to see this functionality expanded into charts and summary reports.
This could be done by allowing the active feature in the reference layer to serve as the basis of a “select by location” statement to create a dynamic “selection layer” in the map document. This selection layer would then drive dynamic charts and summary reports which could be added to the page. The end result would be a page with a map, a chart, and a summary report.
For instance, the reference layer could be pressure zones within a water distribution system. The "selection layer" would be configured to select all water mains within the active pressure zone. Each page would have:
- a reference map for the pressure zone,
- a pie chart summarizing the condition of the water mains in the zone (driven by the “selection layer”), and
- some summary statistics about the mains in the zone (also driven by the “selection layer”).
Combined with ArcPy scripting, this functionality could be used to regularly generate executive reports on assets maintained within the geodatabase - allowing for spatially-enabled reporting.
