Enhance Government Operations with Unified Address and Road Data Management: Webinar Recording and Q&A

[ShreeRajagopalan]

Recently, we hosted a live webinar that discussed how integrating Address Data Management solution with ArcGIS Roads and Highways can transform government operations. Thank you for your interest in this topic and for engaging with us by responding to our polls and exit survey as well as by submitting 50 questions!

During the webinar, we demonstrated how unified centerline management can streamline workflows, improve data quality, and enhance decision-making. We also outlined the key benefits of this integration, such as being able to manage data in an authoritative repository and ability to comply with standards like NextGen (NG) 911.  This webinar is essential for public works, planning, land records, 911 coordinators, and GIS professionals looking to optimize their address and road data management processes.

If you missed it or would like to re-watch, the recording is now available. As we couldn't get through all the questions submitted during the webinar, we have curated the answers and categorized them into topics for you below. 

Address Data Management solution-related:

1. How do I get a copy of the Address Data Management solution?  

The Address Data Management solution is a free ArcGIS Solutions template that you can download.  

2. Does the Address Data Management solution offer rules-based validation processes to remediate data anomalies?  

Yes, the solution comes with some pre-configured calculation attribute rules that support quality assurance when editing as well as validation attribute rules to find common addressing errors. 

3. Can the solution be configured to support multiple editors from various agencies within a region each on separate Esri License Agreements?  

We have seen some regional address authorities host the solution and provide users to other agencies, such as municipalities inside a county to edit their addresses. To edit the branch-versioned service that is used in the solution, all users will need to be in the same portal. 

4. Is there a web-based version for address maintenance?  

Not yet, but we are exploring using the new ArcGIS Web Editor app as the client for editing the address service in the browser. Much of the functionality is already there, but you can't do everything yet that you can do in ArcGIS Pro. 

5. Is "Geo-Fencing" a function in the solution that allows editors from various agencies to edit in their own instance but provide their data to a regional repository?  

Yes, there are a couple ways to do this, but we have seen a regional authority host the solution and service and have local agencies connect and edit their addresses. 

6. Are the validation rules consistent with the National Emergency Numbering Association recommendations for SAPs and RCL?  

There are some rules that align with NENA's recommendations, but it does not cover them all. 

7. Can validations be run on the entire dataset to produce anomaly feature classes to identify all SAPs and RCLs the require remediation? This in an important feature as part of the NG911 submission process. 

Yes, validation can either be run on the visible extent or on the entire dataset to identify errors in the site address point or road centerlines.

8. Can the attribute table be configured to match the NENA schema for NG911 roads and addresses?  

The solution comes with all the required and many of the recommended fields from the NENA NG911 content guidelines. You are welcome to add additional fields to meet your needs. 

9. When editing, can the addresses be added first and then draw in the centerline? There seems to be redundant editing steps. 

It is possible to add the site addresses first and then create the road centerlines, but the Address Data Management solution will not update the road centerline range based on the site addresses. The solution has been designed to automate the editing workflows by first adding the road centerline and then adding the site address points. 

10. Is it possible for Esri to create a solution specifically for Emergency Communications and Public Safety that follow NENA standards for roads and addresses? I can see utilizing the workflows and Location Referencing but it is a lot to configure for 911 purposes. 

The solution comes with all the required and many of the recommend fields from the NENA NG911 content guidelines. Some of our users who implement this solution add additional fields to meet their needs. We also understand that 911 is one of the many use cases for addresses within an organization and have added additional fields and workflows in consideration of this.

11. Single family home subdivisions are often used for centerline demonstrations, but we know that things can get much more complicated than that: business parks, malls, condos and apartments, streets with aliases and popular nicknames, and so forth.  Do these tools handle such exceptions?  

The solution expects a unique site address for every addressable location. This includes business parks, malls, condos and apartments. The data model supports providing unit information to uniquely identify each site address. 

12. Can rules be created to guide the address range updates according to existing address point locations?

This is common request we have heard and are looking at a future enhancement to support this workflow. 

13. How do you handle assigning multiple possible lot addresses when parcels front on different roads?  

You can always update the road name when creating the site address, the tool just attempts to give you a good starting point, but this can always be overridden. 

14. Is it possible to have 2 different address points in 1 lot?  

Yes, it is. Each addressable location should be its own point. 

15. Here's a scenario: 2 houses are located on right side of a road centerline with 1 closer to the road and the other right behind but they happen to align perfectly to e.g 102, what is the best to do this where we can have unique number for each?  

The tools attempt to give you a good starting address number based on the location along the road centerline. You can always change the number to what it should actually be if it doesn't give you the correct address number. 

16. How do you work address points when lots get split out? Do you have a suggestion on keeping them inhouse until permits are pulled showing site plans with access?  

We have seen it done both ways, it has varied based on what organizations want to do. The site addresses have a status field on them that can be used to define to give you more control on this as well.

17. So, multi point per parcel is available? 

Yes, there is not explicit relationship in the solution between parcels and address points. Each addressable location should be its own point.   

18. Is Chris actually creating the situs address as he creates the roads?  

Yes, Chris' demo showed this. Some organizations may have different users or departments managing the centerlines and site addresses. Some do both at the same time. 

19. Does the address data management solution work with traditional versioning in SDE? 

The Address Data Management solution can work with traditional versioning. However, you will need to remove all the validation rules from the feature classes delivered in the solution. Because validation rules in enterprise databases can only be applied and used with branch versioning.

Note: Validation rules are the rules that allow you to check for common errors in your site address points and road centerlines.  

20. Any best practices if an organization uses building footprint? Can we replace the address points with polygons?  

You could certainly add your building footprint layer to the ArcGIS Pro Project that comes with the Address Data Management solution and use the standard editing tools to edit/update the building footprints. You could continue to leverage the tools and attribute rules to manage your road centerlines and address ranges. However, it would take a lot of customization to add similar attribute rules to the footprints polygon feature class to automate the populating of address information during editing. 

21. Would it be possible to add a "Starting Address Number" to the tool that creates multiple addresses along a road?  Rather than guessing where to put the first point, you could just enter "100" as the starting point and set the increment to "8".  

Yes, this is an enhancement we are planning to add in a future release. It is a minor change to the attribute rule to add this ability. 

22. As a newcomer to maintaining road/address data in GIS, could you explain why there is a master road name table and you also enter the road name manually on the street centerline? Why not use a relationship class and add the road name global id?  

This could definitely be possible, but you lose some things by not having the road name on the segment itself, for example labeling or showing a pop-up. So we felt it was best to store the name on the centerline itself.

ArcGIS Roads and Highways product-related:

1. What’s the difference between Roads and Highways and linear referencing tools in ArcGIS?  

Linear referencing tools in ArcGIS and within the Roads and Highways extension both work with measures and provide the ability to manage your data using this dimension.  Both allow you to create routes, inspect data, visualize event data, and perform basic analysis.  Adopting Roads and Highways provides a variety of additional capabilities. These include additional route editing tools for common road-related workflows, event behaviors to automatically update events, robust event editing tools in Pro and the web, multiple linear referencing method support, time awareness to analyze changes over time, additional analysis and reporting capabilities, and persisted shapes within feature classes allowing route and event data to be used throughout ArcGIS, such as in Experience Builder, Field Maps, and other web experiences.  Read the blog. 

2. Do I need a license to use ArcGIS Roads and Highways?  

ArcGIS Roads and Highways is an extension to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise. The extension for ArcGIS Pro is an add-on to a Professional or Professional Plus user type. The extension for ArcGIS Enterprise is a CPU-based license that is supported on Standard and Advanced versions of ArcGIS Server.  

3. How do I access the widgets that were shown during Eric’s demo?  

The location referencing widgets used for finding routes and adding events were released with ArcGIS Enterprise 11.3. The straight-line diagram that Eric showed in the demo is based on the Dynamic Segmentation widget that was released with ArcGIS Enterprise 11.4. 

4. This edits to a plat -- What about editing to an orthographic image? Secondly, how would this work against a current road centerline geodatabase. 

Editing on an orthographic image would be the same as editing on a plat. You can append your existing centerlines to the workflow. 

5. Is Roads and Highways available now? 

ArcGIS Roads and Highways has been available in ArcGIS Pro since version 2.6 along with corresponding Enterprise version 10.8.1. 

6. Is an event being stored in a relate one to many situation or another type of database tool? 

One to many. 

7. Can the linear referencing be opened to a left side street characteristics vs right side characteristics? 

 Yes, you can model business characteristics on an event as left and right side. 

8. Can road sign speed limit locations be used to create events for route speed limits? 

Yes, you can locate events via route and measure, coordinates, or as an offset from other point features such as signs. 

9. Can polygon edges be used to create event locations? 

This feature is something we’re interested in building in a future release. 

10. Can the routes be exported using the LRS information to create a segmented centerline for special applications?  

Yes, you can dynamically segment the centerlines and events to create a combined output of all road attributes using the Overlay Events geoprocessing tool in Roads and Highways. 

11. This demo has the data tables already created. If I'm getting a new subdivision map from planning, how easy is it to create the table data in order to use the linear referencing tools?  

If you are interested in learning more about implementing ArcGIS Roads and Highways, please reach out to us or check out our fundamentals training course.

12. How would this solution interact with an existing asset management solution from a third party that consumes features based on their distinct IDs?

ArcGIS Roads and Highways supports integration with third-party systems such as asset management solutions.  You can learn more about integration patterns here.  

13. Are the event layers only available on enterprise?  

LRS Events are feature classes within the geodatabase.  They’re represented as layers within maps and services in ArcGIS Enterprise for query, editing, and analysis. 

14. Can you explain again what events are? What do they represent in real world?  

Events are road characteristics and assets associated with the road.  You can model any business attributes you want as events. 

15. Can you set up events for your own layers outside of this solution?

Yes, you choose what events and attributes are in your LRS network.

Integration of Address Data Management and ArcGIS Roads and Highways-related:

1. How do I use my data in this combined model you showed?  

The Address Data Management solution and ArcGIS Roads and Highways provide information models out of the box that align to reduce data duplication.  The Address Data Management Solution download includes a geodatabase with all feature classes and tables needed. Roads and Highways feature classes and tables can be configured into the same geodatabase using geoprocessing tools.  

2. Does this solution need to be deployed to Enterprise/Portal or can it be deployed to AGOL and managed/edited through Pro? 

The integration of the Address Data Management solution and ArcGIS Roads and Highways is supported on ArcGIS Enterprise, with data management workflows supported in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Experience Builder.

3. Can you show what the database looks like for this feature? 

You can learn more about the schema for Roads and Highways from this page and in the data dictionary file for the Address Data Management download.  

4. Why would you use file geodatabase to load instead of edit branch version directly?  

Many users utilize file geodatabase to load data for initial deployment.  For transactional editing, users should move data into a branch versioned enterprise geodatabase and utilize services for editing. 

5. Does the app have a fishboning feature that visually shows address point misalignments? 

A fishbone diagram for visual QC is a feature we're looking to build in a future release. 

6. Which license type is used to perform these edits?  

The Address Data Management solution requires a Professional user type. ArcGIS Roads and Highways is an extension to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise. The Roads and Highways extension for ArcGIS Pro is an add-on to a Professional or Professional Plus user type. The Roads and Highways extension for ArcGIS Enterprise is a CPU-based license that is supported on Standard and Advanced versions of ArcGIS Server.  

7. And are any extensions deployed? 

ArcGIS Roads and Highways is an extension to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise that is deployed for this demo. 

8. Are these different experience builder apps, or one app configured for different workflows?  

There are two template apps for linear referencing in ArcGIS Experience Builder. You could use those as-is or customize them, or start from scratch and create your own apps with any of the linear referencing widgets.  

9. What data sources can be used; AGOL, Portal, ArcGIS SDE, ArcGIS Server?  

The feature classes and tables that are part of Address Data Management and Roads and Highways are stored within a geodatabase.  Those layers can be added to maps and published as services using ArcGIS Enterprise for query, editing, and analysis. 

10. What versions of ArcGIS Pro is this available?

This integration is available at ArcGIS Pro 3.3 and ArcGIS Enterprise 11.3 or later releases. 

11. Does the location referencing tool restrict you to what's on the Master Road Name table in the same way it does for the Address Management Solution?  

The location referencing tools don't have the same restriction as you saw with the Master Road Name table. However, you could configure the route identifiers with domains and attribute rules to put restrictions based on your business rules. 

12. Can this solution connect to existing street centerline fields or would I need to use a new feature class to populate the solution fields from my existing street centerline?  

You can append your existing data to the Solution using the Tasks in the ArcGIS Pro project template that is included. 

13. Is the data model similar to Parcel Fabric?  

Address Data Management and Roads and Highways have their own schemas that can be configured to work together.  Like the Parcel Fabric, all three use geodatabase concepts like feature datasets and take advantage of branch versioning and services for editing. 

14. How could this effect geocoding addresses with locators addressing historical name and new names of streets?  

This workflow should not impact that process. 

Resources 

• Learn more about the integration of Address Data Management and ArcGIS Roads and Highways. 
• Submit the form if you'd like to have a discussion around how this can work for your organization.
• Attending UC? Be sure to add these sessions to your schedule and/or visit us in the Transportation showcase.