57. UrSMS Poster A0 TP 20Aug2012
Urban Service Monitoring System UrSMS
Authors: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar1, Gopalakrishna Bhat1, Anup Karanth1
TARU Leading Edge, Gandhinagar, )ndia
Asian Cities Climate Change
Resilience Network
Background:
System Description:
Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in )ndia. With the increase in the municipal jurisdiction area and
development/improvement of the local/regional economy base, more people are attracted to the city, which
also claims as zero unemployment city . The population increase for the decade of 99 for the city
has been recorded as more than %.
The Urban Services Monitoring System UrSMS is designed on an efficient platform. The system has two main
interfaces:
The mobile interface for sending and receiving structured data via SMS
PC interface with )nternet Mapping Service for visualizing the information as charts, reports and maps.
Population Growth:
Surat Municipal
Corporation
TARU Leading Edge
Monitoring System
The key difference between this system and other existing system is the use of structured form based
interface for ease in data collection and also facilitate the data storage, sorting and analysis.
System components:
Water supply complaint system
Door to Door – Solid waste collection complaint system
Drainage & Sewerage complaints system
Water distribution quality monitoring system
(ealth monitoring system
Mobile No.
Registration
)mplementation
Growth of City area:
1986
2004
2006
The complaint systems were implemented in one ward. The training for using the system was provided to the
municipal corporation officers and the necessary software uploaded to citizens sample population living in
that area.
)n case of the monitoring system, the training was provided to the municipal corporation officers and the
necessary software's were provided to them to be distributed to all stakeholders at their discretion.
Both the systems were tested for an initial period of six months. During this period improvements to the
interface, functionality and reporting mechanisms were improved based on the user inputs. Additional
reports were also designed to incorporate the reporting mechanism of the departments.
Outcomes:
This increase in population has led to:
)ncrease in demand on efficient urban infrastructure and services
Needs of improving the monitoring and the complaint system
Requirement of adopting the Urban Service Level Benchmarking SLB on basic services for evaluating
the performance of infrastructure projects funded under various National programmes
SMC’s initiatives:
. )ntroduction of m - Governance Concept
. Target to introduce a mobile and internet based monitoring and complaints sys tem, with following
objectives.
to reduce paperwork and increase efficiency of the services.
to increase capacity of SMC in monitoring and management of ur ban services in near real time.
to provide better services to people.
to enhance capacity in developing strategies and build resilience to current and future risks
Current System:
The current monitoring system is mainly based on surveys carried out manually.
The information collected within these surveys are based on paper based questionnaires/format. This
process of information collection, storage and analysis is cumbersome and time consuming.
The current system hinders the possibility of near real-time decision making due to bottlenecks within
collection, data entry, validation, and information dissemination.
SMC has initiated the complaints registration by introducing phone based and )nternet based complaints
systems. (owever, the system can be further improved significantly by introducing structured mobile based
system which uses SMS. This process can reduce the extra human resources required for data entry and
quality check of redressal process which could be utilized for monitoring the performance of the system.
ACCCRN )ntervention:
As a part of ACCCRN )nitiatives, TARU conceptualized & proposed to aid in establishing a Short Message
Service SMS enabled Urban Services Monitoring System – UrSMS.
The main objective of the UrSMS is to elevate the existing complaint & monitoring system to a much
advanced as well as involving people-participation.
The main feature of the system is designed
To enable SMC officials to view the map, data and relevant statistics on near real time basis.
To enable decision makers to evaluate the performance and bottlenecks at various levels to take timely
action.
The complaint system in spite of its ease and usability did not prove to be of success. Since the system was
implemented in only one ward there were problems in integration within the business as usual scenario. The
municipal officers generally handle more than one ward at any given time due to shortage in staff an average
of staff catering to ,
citizens . This scenario compelled them in following two different systems one
using UrSMS which was comfortable but not usable beyond one ward remaining wards still followed the
paper based system . Further, the zonal reports on a weekly basis is also usually hand written and in spite of
the digitization of information due to UrSMS the officers usually duplicated the efforts by manually creating
the reports in order to include the figures from all wards within the zone.
The water distribution and health monitoring system has been a success. The water distribution monitoring
system is currently functional within three out of the four distribution stations. The system is expected to be
implemented within all stations within this year. The health monitoring system is currently collecting
information from around 4 hospitals, urban health centers, private hospitals and private clinics. The total
number of inpatient and outpatient cases currently monitored exceeds over
,
and increasing at the
rater of ,
every month. The number of leptospirosis a bacterial infection that occurs when people are
exposed to certain environments which was increasing over the last one decade due to uncontrolled
migration within the city has decreased in the city for the first time due the introduction of this monitoring
mechanism. Due to the UrSMS the health department is able to track the outbreak of the infection and is able
to take the required control measures.
Ways forward :
This pilot project aims towards improving the monitoring and grievance redressal system of Municipal
services, which can also be used as an emergency two way monitoring system during flood emergencies like
floods. TARU is currently advocating the municipality to use the complaint redressal system across all zones
and wards to reduce the problem of redundancy. On the other hand the success of health and water
monitoring system within Surat has encouraged other partner cities e.g. )ndore towards adapting the system.
Database of
(ospitals
)PD Data Entry
Daily, Weekly,
Monthly
Report
Report
Zone wise
details
(ealth System
Register your
mobile number.
Can query
for specific date
and disease
Do not change
the mobile no.
Enter the no. of
cases.
Send your complaint
by pressing the Send
button.
Zone & Ward
The UrSMS has two components
Services Monitoring System and
Complaint System
Design by: Tejas Patel
Authors: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar1, Gopalakrishna Bhat1, Anup Karanth1
TARU Leading Edge, Gandhinagar, )ndia
Asian Cities Climate Change
Resilience Network
Background:
System Description:
Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in )ndia. With the increase in the municipal jurisdiction area and
development/improvement of the local/regional economy base, more people are attracted to the city, which
also claims as zero unemployment city . The population increase for the decade of 99 for the city
has been recorded as more than %.
The Urban Services Monitoring System UrSMS is designed on an efficient platform. The system has two main
interfaces:
The mobile interface for sending and receiving structured data via SMS
PC interface with )nternet Mapping Service for visualizing the information as charts, reports and maps.
Population Growth:
Surat Municipal
Corporation
TARU Leading Edge
Monitoring System
The key difference between this system and other existing system is the use of structured form based
interface for ease in data collection and also facilitate the data storage, sorting and analysis.
System components:
Water supply complaint system
Door to Door – Solid waste collection complaint system
Drainage & Sewerage complaints system
Water distribution quality monitoring system
(ealth monitoring system
Mobile No.
Registration
)mplementation
Growth of City area:
1986
2004
2006
The complaint systems were implemented in one ward. The training for using the system was provided to the
municipal corporation officers and the necessary software uploaded to citizens sample population living in
that area.
)n case of the monitoring system, the training was provided to the municipal corporation officers and the
necessary software's were provided to them to be distributed to all stakeholders at their discretion.
Both the systems were tested for an initial period of six months. During this period improvements to the
interface, functionality and reporting mechanisms were improved based on the user inputs. Additional
reports were also designed to incorporate the reporting mechanism of the departments.
Outcomes:
This increase in population has led to:
)ncrease in demand on efficient urban infrastructure and services
Needs of improving the monitoring and the complaint system
Requirement of adopting the Urban Service Level Benchmarking SLB on basic services for evaluating
the performance of infrastructure projects funded under various National programmes
SMC’s initiatives:
. )ntroduction of m - Governance Concept
. Target to introduce a mobile and internet based monitoring and complaints sys tem, with following
objectives.
to reduce paperwork and increase efficiency of the services.
to increase capacity of SMC in monitoring and management of ur ban services in near real time.
to provide better services to people.
to enhance capacity in developing strategies and build resilience to current and future risks
Current System:
The current monitoring system is mainly based on surveys carried out manually.
The information collected within these surveys are based on paper based questionnaires/format. This
process of information collection, storage and analysis is cumbersome and time consuming.
The current system hinders the possibility of near real-time decision making due to bottlenecks within
collection, data entry, validation, and information dissemination.
SMC has initiated the complaints registration by introducing phone based and )nternet based complaints
systems. (owever, the system can be further improved significantly by introducing structured mobile based
system which uses SMS. This process can reduce the extra human resources required for data entry and
quality check of redressal process which could be utilized for monitoring the performance of the system.
ACCCRN )ntervention:
As a part of ACCCRN )nitiatives, TARU conceptualized & proposed to aid in establishing a Short Message
Service SMS enabled Urban Services Monitoring System – UrSMS.
The main objective of the UrSMS is to elevate the existing complaint & monitoring system to a much
advanced as well as involving people-participation.
The main feature of the system is designed
To enable SMC officials to view the map, data and relevant statistics on near real time basis.
To enable decision makers to evaluate the performance and bottlenecks at various levels to take timely
action.
The complaint system in spite of its ease and usability did not prove to be of success. Since the system was
implemented in only one ward there were problems in integration within the business as usual scenario. The
municipal officers generally handle more than one ward at any given time due to shortage in staff an average
of staff catering to ,
citizens . This scenario compelled them in following two different systems one
using UrSMS which was comfortable but not usable beyond one ward remaining wards still followed the
paper based system . Further, the zonal reports on a weekly basis is also usually hand written and in spite of
the digitization of information due to UrSMS the officers usually duplicated the efforts by manually creating
the reports in order to include the figures from all wards within the zone.
The water distribution and health monitoring system has been a success. The water distribution monitoring
system is currently functional within three out of the four distribution stations. The system is expected to be
implemented within all stations within this year. The health monitoring system is currently collecting
information from around 4 hospitals, urban health centers, private hospitals and private clinics. The total
number of inpatient and outpatient cases currently monitored exceeds over
,
and increasing at the
rater of ,
every month. The number of leptospirosis a bacterial infection that occurs when people are
exposed to certain environments which was increasing over the last one decade due to uncontrolled
migration within the city has decreased in the city for the first time due the introduction of this monitoring
mechanism. Due to the UrSMS the health department is able to track the outbreak of the infection and is able
to take the required control measures.
Ways forward :
This pilot project aims towards improving the monitoring and grievance redressal system of Municipal
services, which can also be used as an emergency two way monitoring system during flood emergencies like
floods. TARU is currently advocating the municipality to use the complaint redressal system across all zones
and wards to reduce the problem of redundancy. On the other hand the success of health and water
monitoring system within Surat has encouraged other partner cities e.g. )ndore towards adapting the system.
Database of
(ospitals
)PD Data Entry
Daily, Weekly,
Monthly
Report
Report
Zone wise
details
(ealth System
Register your
mobile number.
Can query
for specific date
and disease
Do not change
the mobile no.
Enter the no. of
cases.
Send your complaint
by pressing the Send
button.
Zone & Ward
The UrSMS has two components
Services Monitoring System and
Complaint System
Design by: Tejas Patel