2024 SAG Award Winners

City of Lawrence, KS

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Project Goal

The City of Lawrence has established a culture of GIS that is pervasive across their organization with a robust ArcGIS Enterprise managed by an administrative GIS team in the IT department led by Micah Seybold, GIS Manager. They have strong GIS workflow and analysis adoption in most departments and especially in the Municipal Services and Operations Department (MSO) where Darren Haag manages asset focused staff and systems.

MSO developed an ArcGIS Pro sidewalk network model that helps the City make informed decisions about sidewalk repairs and gap closure. The model includes data from a localized transportation disadvantaged populations analysis by planner, Jessica Mortinger, and her team to elevate equity and potential pedestrian demand in decision making. The new approach using GIS data modeling was essential to creating a comprehensive program that moves the needle on community goals for multimodal transportation and is responsive to community desires to improve walkability.
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Business Problem Solved

Separate sidewalk programs existed for filling in gaps and repairing sidewalk defects. Project selection was request-based or focused assigning work to sub areas of the City and improvements were “piecemeal”. Progress toward a high functioning sidewalk network was slow, projected to take 8-10 years. Factors like need for disadvantaged populations were not considered.

Technology Implemented

ArcGIS Pro

ArcGIS Enterprise

Network Analyst extension

ArcGIS Field Maps

Development Team Biography

Darren Haag, GISP, is the Asset and Innovation Manager in the MSO Department for the City of Lawrence, Kansas. He has worked in the GIS industry for 18 years and in Lawrence for 4 years with prior stops at the City of Topeka, KS and private firms. He also has an overlay role with the city as the Asset Management Coordinator.

Charles Myers, is a GIS Analyst with the City of Lawrence MSO and assists in the management of transportation data. Charles has analyzed features for urban planners, surveying firms, and city governments over his 8 years in the field.

Jessica Mortinger (she/her), AICP, is the Transportation Planning Manager for the Lawrence-Douglas County MPO. Her work focuses on engaging with the community to develop policy, process and programmatic solutions to improve multimodal transportation.

Micah Seybold, GISP, is the GIS Manager for the City of Lawrence. He has worked 24 years at the city in various roles after earning a Geography degree at the University of