2023 SAG Award Winners

Office of the Chief Information Officer

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Project Goal

The State of Iowa - Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program needed a geocentric way to store, analyze, manage, visualize and communicate broadband activities. Citizens need to see broadband availability, providers need to understand where grant money can be used for broadband buildout, and leadership in all areas need to see the effectiveness of the program.
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Business Problem Solved

ESRI products provided a way to visualize and communicate the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program to constituents. Manage key components of the program lifecycle by creating maps and applications to show broadband availability, locations of grant eligibility and awarded grants. Provide survey or response mechanisms to challenge published data, and allow grant applicants to submit broadband eligible locations/areas as part of the grant application process. Analyze and synthesize data related to broadband availability. In addition, components of the broadband grant application process and map challenge process needed to include geospatial components. Geospatial data also was key to creating a system of record for broadband grant projects, broadband availability and other related information for broadband grant lifecycle to multiple stakeholders. Maps and the underlying data become the basis for eligibility determinations used for funding decisions.

Technology Implemented

ArcGIS Pro (analysis, publishing, data engineering, notebooks/Python);
ArcGIS Enterprise (SQL Server Data storage,Google BigQuery connection, REST Services, geocoding, geoprocessing services);
ArcGIS Online for Organizations (hosted feature layers and view, map tiles, WebApp Builder, Dashboards, Open Data Hubsite);
Survey123 Connect + integrated Ookla Speed Test

Development Team Biography

Matt Behrens - Chief Information Officer
Jessica Turba - Broadband Program Manager
Awna Kotchian - Grants Contracting
Bryan Dreiling - Special Projects
Jeff Berckes - Digital Equity Consultant
Brad Horn - Broadband Counsel
Gloria Van Rees - Communications
Joe Drahos - GIS Specialist
Patrick Wilke-Brown - Geospatial Coordinator