The city of Niterói, with an area of 129.3 km² and a population of some 500,000 inhabitants, is the former capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Before the GIS integration project, Niterói struggled to coordinate across departments and envision a long-term plan for the city. The city was confronted with an anachronistic administrative structure with more than 40 different protocol systems and 10 different payroll systems. The development of the geoinfomation management system SIGeo was part of a series of programs implemented by the city to improve and modernize administration and management systems across the local government.

Niterói’s new geoinformation management system SIGeo was conceived in 2014 and rolled out in 2016, following the enactment of the National Policy for Civil Defense and Protection (PNPDEC), which authorized the creation of monitoring and information systems for disasters. This national policy was itself created following a series of landslides and disasters that affected several cities in Brazil between 2008 and 2011, including Niterói in 2010.

The first phase of the project, which took place in 2014 and 2015, involved the acquisition of orthophotos and laser profiling, which would become the basis on which all the city’s georeferenced information and systems could be compiled. This data was made available free of charge for the first time by a city in Brazil through the website of the Department of Urban Planning. The development was carried out by Imagem, one of the country’s leading companies specializing in GIS, and financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Starting in 2016, the actual SIGeo platform was launched, integrating the city’s Multipurpose Technical Register (CTM) with a mobile application that allows city staff to carry out updates directly from the field, upload pictures of buildings and plots of land, and immediately verify the city’s database to facilitate monitoring, assessment, and updating processes. Georeferenced data previously managed separately by the individual departments of the city (Finance, Urbanism and Mobility, Civil Defense, etc.) has been integrated into one instrument. New systems were also developed in order to monitor the risk of forest fires, flood-prone areas, and landslides, including forecasting and simulation tools to facilitate decision-making of mitigation and prevention measures.

Following this second phase, the city has continued to develop new features and tools, facilitating the monitoring of traffic and mobility in the city, the water quality of its beaches,  and the green areas of the city, with most of this data accessible to citizens through its open platform. 

Development of the system continues to this day, including systematizing of the geoinformation developed and used by the different departments in the city and adding new features to facilitate the management processes. Currently, the platform provides information about different services, projects, land use, and businesses, as well as open access to the geoinformation and orthophotos of the city.

The system is considered to be part of a strategic investment made by the city. As Mayor Rodrigo Neves explains, “SIGeo is part of a strategy that we have structured since 2013 so that Niterói could not only survive but also thrive following the worst crisis in the history of the country and Rio de Janeiro with gradual and consistent progress. It is particularly important that we understand that being a smart city is not just about developing technology. Above all, it is about involving society, reducing social and territorial inequalities, generating opportunities for young people, and ensuring that there is a more active and participatory citizenry so that society can appropriate these tools and contribute to the building of a smart city.”

The implementation of the platform, developed with the company Imagem Geosistemas e Comércio Ltda, represented an investment of R$ 5 million, which was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under its Urban Development and Social Inclusion Program for Niterói.

The first phase involved the participation of the following departments:

• Finance
• Urbanism and Mobility
• Civil Defense
• Water Resources and Sustainability
• Conservation and Public Services

The rollout of the new GIS system required the training and availability of human resources from different working areas. The geoscience technical sectors of the city, together with the IT team, offered specific courses on multiuser geographic databases, integration, and other functionalities. In addition, general technicians from the city government offer periodic courses on the Civitas platform (SIG-Web) for improving work with the system on an ongoing basis.

The system has provided open access to the city government’s geoinformation and fostered closer coordination among the various departments. It has simplified plot-mapping processes and enabled monitoring of data regarding urban mobility and water quality, among other key indicators. The system also facilitates the simulation of flooding patterns and the monitoring of forest fire risk as well as having other uses directly related to risk management and resilience.

SIGeo has been essential for the creation of the city’s risk monitoring center, allowing for the simulation of floods, landslides, and fire risks, which facilitates decision-making. It has also been key to the implementation of the city’s sustainable mobility plan, with real-time tracking of bus circulation and traffic in the city. The city has also engaged unemployed youth by teaching them GIS technology so they could take on reforestation, environmental education, and sanitation activities.

Providing open access to the information has also brought benefits to entrepreneurs and citizens, providing them easy access to information about services, facilities, and economic activities in the city, land-use regulations, and basic GIS data for the development of new applications.

In public administration, as in private companies, organizational and management changes are always difficult to implement. Many employees are used to working in the same way for years, using the same systems, protocols, and processes, and there is always resistance to new systems. This is particularly true when they are perceived as periodic changes coming with each new elected leadership.

Niterói managed to overcome this barrier by starting the project with those departments that already worked with spatial analysis and had employees familiar with geoinformation systems. After this first stage, the project moved forward with institutional support through promulgation of a municipal decree that defined roles and responsibilities. The visible results help to break down barriers and resistance from some departments, and today, SIGeo has become a reliable system with the proactive participation of many secretariats.

Guaranteeing the system’s credibility and reliability as it expands will be a key challenge in the future. There are unlimited possibilities when it comes to the territory’s statistical analysis and geoprocessing techniques. However, the city will need continuous quality control, reliable basic data, and infrastructure monitoring to make sure the system continues to work.

SIGeo is part of a city-wide program to improve its administration and define a vision for the future. By combining disparate information from all city departments and gathering input from citizens, the city was able to have a clearer picture of the issues facing it and track the implementation of solutions and goals to confront these problems.

Providing open access to the database information has also been beneficial for economic development, allowing citizens and the private sector to benefit from it and stimulating transparency and engagement with the government.

An appointed officer took a key executive role, coordinating the work of focal points in different departments and agencies in the city.

The project has already attracted the interest from other cities in Brazil. SIGeo was recognized as the best municipal geoinformation management initiative in the country, receiving the MundoGEO#Connect 2017 Prize in the category of Municipal Management. In 2018, the city engaged in an exchange of policies and experiences with the city of Salvador. Other cities from Latin America have also come to learn about the project.  

- UCLG Peer Learning Note #26: Climate Resilience and Urban Development