MawisGeoportal - From Mayor to Mayor

The most rigorous and practical tester of our Mawis applications is the owner of the company – at the same time a non-elected mayor of a municipality in the Beroun region. It is from his experience with the day-to-day operations of a municipality that cannot afford to employ a GIS specialist that the design and development of MawisGeoportal is based.

1) Clarity

Municipal authorities need a simple tool that even people without a technical background can understand. The Tetín Geoportal is used to keep a clear record of assets, shows clearly where things are located, and makes it easy to share information with engineers, external companies or officials.

Anyone who opens the system – the mayor, deputy mayor, technical services or a representative of a construction company – must quickly find what they need. For example, if there is gas, sewer or other “surprises” under the planned excavation.

2) Completeness and timeliness

Prior to the current mayor, the documentation of the municipality was disorganized. Some of it was on CDs from suppliers, some on computer disks in the office, others in paper folders in a cupboard somewhere. It was difficult to find out which version was valid and where the necessary documents were.

After a change in the leadership of the municipality, a major change came: all documentation was consolidated in one place, accessible to all who need it. Tetín started working with QGIS and entrusted the data management to our GIS department. This model is ideal for municipalities that do not have their own GIS specialist. The advantage is that the documentation is always up-to-date, clear and easily accessible.

3) Ease of sharing

The next step was to replace the QGIS desktop system with a modern cloud-based solution – MawisGeoportal. This eliminated the need to manually distribute updates to individual computers. All data is stored centrally and is instantly accessible to all authorised users.

This means that sharing information is now a matter of one link. The mayor no longer has to send emails with screenshots – instead, he or she sends a link to a live app that instantly shows the other party the map section or specific record they need in full detail.

This facilitates cooperation in network management, passporting, land registration and other parts of municipal property.

4) Accuracy

A clear visualization of all data in one place showed errors in the documentation. In the past, these errors would have remained hidden, with no effective checking possible in a system of paper maps or scattered files on CDs.

As soon as the municipality started working with GIS tools, a list of minor discrepancies emerged, which our team either corrected straight away or suggested surveying using precise geodetic methods. As a result, it is now clear how well and accurately the individual data was obtained.

Switching to MawisGeoportal has made the whole process even easier. There is no need to distribute patches – once a change is made, it is immediately reflected to all users. And it doesn’t matter where they are – the current data is also available to our GIS team, who manage it remotely.

5) Construction savings

It is essential for every municipality to have an accurate and up-to-date technical map. Thanks to this, Tetín has significantly reduced the cost of construction work. The planners, who obtained good documentation, did not have to measure the whole area again – they just had to add a few points.

This significantly reduced the design time and at the same time reduced the cost of construction preparation. A quality technical map quickly pays for itself – not only for major investments, but also for minor repairs and modifications to utilities.

6) Accurate green space records

Managing public green spaces is an annual expense for the municipality. By accurately surveying the areas, the extent of mowing or maintenance can be accurately invoiced. This avoids inflated statements of work.

We know from practice an example of a city (can’t name it), where by measuring the greenery they found that the contractor invoiced about a third more area than actually exists. The impetus for this move was, among other things, the new Volvo of the manager of the company in charge of maintenance. Accurate record-keeping not only helps to control costs but also to protect public finances.