The city surveying department of the city of Graz uses FME to automatically process processes behind digital forms.

In an interesting contribution at the “axmann live” event on May 16, 2024, Sonja Ritter from the city of Graz – city survey reported on the individual use of the FME platform for an automated order and inspection process. She gave clear examples of how FME is already simplifying city administration on a daily basis and which processes are still being developed. In the near future, the city administration's digital offering could be supported by testing processes for natural inventory measurements and building measurements.

Make ordering processes more efficient

After the ordering and customer service of the city surveying office already proudly refers to online application forms that are processed semi-automatically using FME (ordering service for geodata and house number boards), an online application was also able to be created in a cooperation project with the Department for Green Spaces and Waters. Form for tree felling in the city area is supported.

The digital query of building site suitability, which must be given during the course of a construction process, is also supported by automation - in cooperation with city planning - and in the near future there could be new digital forms for the surveying department for checking natural inventory measurements and building measurements.

All of the examples are about automating repetitive processes in order to increase efficiency in the municipality on the one hand and, on the other hand, to relieve the burden on service points in the administration and speed up the delivery and delivery processes.

Obtain geodata online

Using the example of natural resources, Sonja Ritter explains the data workflow of queries via online forms: After the customer narrows down the desired area on a map, they receive initial cost information. After selecting the data sets and formats and previewing the data, the requested data sets are automatically exported. The end customer can choose from a wide range of products between 3D buildings with different levels of detail, terrain data, natural features, surface models or orthophoto mosaics.  

For this purpose, unique export routines were created in FME Form and FME Flow and the substeps were created as form workbenches. For more flexible input options, the query process has been extended to HTML/Javascript forms.

Query building site suitability

The city of Graz has also implemented an FME-based solution to provide information on the suitability of a building site in accordance with Section 5 Stmk BauG for building construction: building applicants can obtain information about the suitability of a property as a building site using an online input mask using the property number. Here too, an FME process runs in the background to automate data retrieval. The result is a simple HTML-page.

This not only simplifies administration, but citizen service is also improved through such query options.

The city survey office is convinced:

“With FME we can improve services for internal city departments, companies and also for citizens through automation and digitalization. Specifically, this can speed up the submission and delivery processes of geodata. This is accompanied by comprehensible and transparent documentation of the entire process chain. This once again underlines the increase in efficiency through digitalization in the city of Graz.”