Administrative Lessons Learned

PhiladelphiaNeighborhood Information System

http://cml.upenn.edu/nis

Presenter:Dr. Dennis Culhane, CML Faculty Co-Director

University Of PennsylvaniaCartographic Modeling Lab

• Neighborhood Information System

• City of Philadelphia and University Of

Pennsylvania Partnership Model

Agenda

The Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System is a family of interactive mapping applications that allow you to find information about your neighborhood.

The NIS consists of:

parcelBaseneighborhoodBase

crimeBasemuralBase

PhillySiteFinderschoolBase*

The Philadelphia- University of Pennsylvania Partnership Model

City agencies:

• Provide data and in-kind services of data processing staff

• Provide internal political support for interagency data requests

• Identify critical policy questions to address

The Philadelphia- University of Pennsylvania Partnership Model

University Responsibilities:

• Archives the data (data warehousing)

• Coordinates data exchange agreements

• Designs GIS applications for end-users

• Hosts and maintains websites for applications

• Conducts basic research and policy analysis (supports nonproject researchers as well)

Establishing A Team

City staffs a City staffs a Data Policy Data Policy

Group of the Group of the Key Agencies’ Key Agencies’

Data Data Management Management

StaffStaff

++

Penn provides Penn provides Project Manager, Project Manager,

Database Database Administrator, Administrator,

Applications Design Applications Design Team, and Team, and

Applications Applications DeveloperDeveloper

NIS Data Providers• City Planning Commission

City-wide parcel coverage• Licenses and Inspections

Housing code violations, demolitions, clean and seals, vacancy

• Philadelphia Gas Works Shutoffs, housing characteristics

• Revenue Department Property tax arrearages, lien sales

• Water Department Shutoffs, suspended service, delinquency, vacancy

• Board of Revision of Taxes Owner’s name, sales date/price, land and building

characteristics • Office of Housing and Community Development

Digital photographs of vacant lots and houses, vacancy survey

• Post Office Vacancy (suspended mail service)

Administrative Records

What are they?

Data routinely gathered for operational or businessPurposes by public or private agencies

Examples: Medicaid claims, vital statistics, housingcode violations, school attendance andachievement, police incident reports

Policy and Program Uses for Administrative Records

• Needs assessments for program targeting

• Monitoring progress on select indicators

• Program siting decisions

• Grantee proposals

• Grantee reporting

• Funder reporting

Data Security/Access IssuesData Security/Access Issues

• Scheduled, periodic updates of data essential• Consistent data quality audits needed• Data warehousing is to the mutual benefit of researchers

and city government

• The City’s Data Policy Groups are the arbiters of authorization for access

• Agreements between City and University protect city’s data, set requirements for security

• Property-specific information is currently accessible to City agencies and contracted CDCs

• SUMS application is available to City Agencies only• These arrangements are subject to change

Research Advantages

• Produces repeated measures data, ideal for time series analyses

• Produces data amenable to user-defined small area geographies (below tract, block group, or even block); ideal for studying the "natural" clustering of phenomena, and for creating more sensitive space-dependent models

• Supports spatial analytic statistical approaches: econometrics, social ecology, epidemiology, multi-level modeling

• Creates new variable opportunities: clustering-contiguity measures, distance, travel time, social boundaries/buffers, displacement effects, controls for spatial autocorrelation

• Improves research collaborations between University researchers and city agencies’ policy analysts

Accessibility

• Requires “Data Exchange Agreements” or “Memoranda of Understanding” (MOUs) or “Business Agent Agreements” (HIPAA)

• Usually requires political support of the agency, and an agency purpose

• Spirit of mutuality and shared benefit b/w agency staff and researchers

• Web applications can be used to distribute aggregate data; making them broadly accessible

Confidentiality

• Identified data require technical and human data security standards, and

• Identified data usually require specific study approvals

• Aggregated data (including raster) generally do not require data access approvals

• Some suppression rules may be necessary with vector aggregations (HIPAA/FERPA)

Additional Info

• For project overviews: http://cml.upenn.edu http://cml.upenn.edu

• To try our aggregate application on neighborhoods: http://cml.upenn.edu/nbasehttp://cml.upenn.edu/nbase