NG9-1-1 systems allow emergency number services to quickly receive and load geolocated data via mobile and digital devices such as phones, medical devices, car computers, and building alarms. We have been deeply involved in this work helping several counties and PSAPs to review and transition their 9-1-1 data into the NENA Standard for NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model. We also assist our clients in coordinating data alignment with surrounding emergency jurisdictions in effort to establish a statewide network thereby increasing resiliency to call overloading and disaster outages.
Now in accordance with the NG9-1-1 Roadmap, The State 9-1-1 Administrator’s Office is requiring pre-existing street and address databases -- Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) & Automatic Location Information (ALI) – be synchronized with NG9-1-1 GIS data submitted to the state database. This is a requirement but is not included in the state's loading tool; by the way there's grant money (APPLY HERE) for that.
“Discrepancies between the GIS, the MSAG, and the ALI data can cause call routing and dispatching problems. Inaccuracies in the databases could lead to a delayed or improper response.”
It is therefore essential these older datasets be compared and synchronized with the new. Of course, no dataset is a perfect representation of reality, errors or missing information can exist in either database. That is precisely why comparing these sources helps to identify the holes in these important datasets which avoids misallocation of critical time and workforce resources.
Our team of experienced data analysts stand ready to compare these datasets with each other, determine inconsistencies, and produce a report with clear recommendations for corrections.
The review process requires:
Establishing cross comparable fields within each database.
Basic spelling errors
Outdated street type abbreviations
Pre-911 rural route addressing must be identified and readdressed.
NENA Information Document for Synchronizing Geographic, Information System databases with MSAG & ALI, NENA 71-501, Version 1, May 26, 2009
A single full address field is created using the updated data in each database.
Point data and Line data review methodology differs at this stage.
MSAG (line) data comparison involves addressing field range comparisons
NENA Information Document for Synchronizing Geographic, Information System databases with MSAG & ALI, NENA 71-501, Version 1, May 26, 2009
ALI (point) database is compared via geocoding
NENA Information Document for Synchronizing Geographic, Information System databases with MSAG & ALI, NENA 71-501, Version 1, May 26, 2009
While the NG9-1-1 GIS is assumed to be the most accurate on the whole reverse comparison is also performed to assure that additional data represented in the legacy datasets are fully represented in the GIS database.
Common inconsistencies between databases include:
Different road naming conventions
Inaccurate address ranges
Improper MSAG Community designations
Improper Postal Community designations
Incomplete or missing records
Let our experienced employees compare your datasets and provide you the information you need to synchronize this data and meet the state’s requirements, while you and your staff continue to do the life-saving work that you do day in and day out. While this synchronization project is required, it is not included in the state data loading tool. But there is grant funding available: https://isp.illinois.gov/Statewide911Division/GrantForms.
Contact us today for a quote as you consider future grant opportunities.