16/10
Clark County, Indiana received a County Achievement Award at the 2011 Annual Association of Indiana Counties Conference in Fort Wayne, IN.
For more information click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qasN-2jf9bs&feature=player_embedded
For more information click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qasN-2jf9bs&feature=player_embedded
05/04
South Bend's GIS department has a feature story in the Spring 2011 ArcNEWS
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Story
Deb Kuehn, the GIS Manager for the City of South Bend is a long time member and current Board Member of IGIC!
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Story
Deb Kuehn, the GIS Manager for the City of South Bend is a long time member and current Board Member of IGIC!
21/05
Contributed by Christina McCullough, Geospatial Analyst, Joint Forces Headquarters of Indiana, Joint Operations Center
The extent and impact of the BP's Oil Rig disaster is difficult to comprehend. All levels of government, the media and the public are frustrated by the lack of information and transparency. It is understandably difficult for one single entity to track and report on such a geographically far reaching disaster. ESRI has stood up an interactive GIS web-map site to help track the spill and document its impact on the Gulf Coast environment. This mash-up integrates Official federal and state data; News Media RSS feeds from Reuters, CNN, New York Times and others; Social Media (crowd-sourced) posts from YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, as well as other Crowd-Sourced Shared Content that can be input directly onto this site. The Shared Content layer is very interesting and simple, yet powerful.
The extent and impact of the BP's Oil Rig disaster is difficult to comprehend. All levels of government, the media and the public are frustrated by the lack of information and transparency. It is understandably difficult for one single entity to track and report on such a geographically far reaching disaster. ESRI has stood up an interactive GIS web-map site to help track the spill and document its impact on the Gulf Coast environment. This mash-up integrates Official federal and state data; News Media RSS feeds from Reuters, CNN, New York Times and others; Social Media (crowd-sourced) posts from YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, as well as other Crowd-Sourced Shared Content that can be input directly onto this site. The Shared Content layer is very interesting and simple, yet powerful.
To open up the interactive map click on this link: http://mapapps.esri.com/disasters/oil-spill/gulf-2010/index.html
30/04
Contributed by: Leane Welsh, GIS and Information Systems Analyst, Informatics, The City of Westfield
The City of Westfield made the cover story of ESRI's Telcom Connections (GIS for Telecommunications) Spring 2010 newsletter. To read the full story click here: http://www.esri.com/library/newsletters/telecom/telecom_connections_spring10.pdf
The City of Westfield made the cover story of ESRI's Telcom Connections (GIS for Telecommunications) Spring 2010 newsletter. To read the full story click here: http://www.esri.com/library/newsletters/telecom/telecom_connections_spring10.pdf
03/02
The Secretary of State’s office will make the application available to all state agencies and the Indiana General Assembly
Indianapolis, January 11, 2010– Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced today that his office launched an upgraded version of Indiana’s online legislator search application. Hoosiers can now use the application to more easily search for and contact their elected officials at the state and federal levels through geographic information system technology. The application is available on the Secretary of State’s web site, as well as other state of Indiana sites.
“My office continually looks for ways that we can use technology to make government more accessible,” Secretary Rokita said. “Over the past few years, we have been able to harness geographic information system technology for economic development, natural resources and disaster recovery. We were able to use that same technology to empower voters and taxpayers to easily connect with their elected representatives.”
The upgrade to the online legislator search application provides a more intuitive user interface and more accurate search results. Hoosiers can either enter their address or point and click on a map of the state to search for their elected officials. Previously, search results were based on zip code. The upgrade provides search results based on a specific address or a pinpoint location on the map. This eliminates the confusion of finding a legislator when more than one legislator in the same chamber serves the same zip code.
The upgrade provides search results that include all state and federal elected officials, including contact information for each legislator. The previous version produced results for one chamber at a time and required users to open a new window for contact information. The upgrade provides Hoosiers with a more easily accessible way to contact their elected officials.
Indianapolis, January 11, 2010– Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced today that his office launched an upgraded version of Indiana’s online legislator search application. Hoosiers can now use the application to more easily search for and contact their elected officials at the state and federal levels through geographic information system technology. The application is available on the Secretary of State’s web site, as well as other state of Indiana sites.
“My office continually looks for ways that we can use technology to make government more accessible,” Secretary Rokita said. “Over the past few years, we have been able to harness geographic information system technology for economic development, natural resources and disaster recovery. We were able to use that same technology to empower voters and taxpayers to easily connect with their elected representatives.”
The upgrade to the online legislator search application provides a more intuitive user interface and more accurate search results. Hoosiers can either enter their address or point and click on a map of the state to search for their elected officials. Previously, search results were based on zip code. The upgrade provides search results based on a specific address or a pinpoint location on the map. This eliminates the confusion of finding a legislator when more than one legislator in the same chamber serves the same zip code.
The upgrade provides search results that include all state and federal elected officials, including contact information for each legislator. The previous version produced results for one chamber at a time and required users to open a new window for contact information. The upgrade provides Hoosiers with a more easily accessible way to contact their elected officials.
The new application will be available to all state agencies and the Indiana General Assembly at no cost. The application was developed by 39 Degrees North, based in Bloomington, Indiana. The application is available HERE.
15/12
Story submitted by: Jim Stout, IMAGIS Program Manager
“What drew the attention of the governmental agencies like a beacon was the national reputation of Kevin Mickey….”
When you’re overwhelmed by flooding or storm damage and you want to mitigate the damage through better planning, who do you call? If you are the State of Indiana and facing pressure from the federal government to implement disaster mitigation planning, you call The Polis Center at IUPUI.... To read the full story click here.
19/10
Quick Look, Quick Response
When ten inches of rain fell on saturated Indiana soils, it flowed into streams already swollen from a wetter than normal spring. The heavy rainfall resulted in severe flooding, causing three deaths, evacuation of thousands of residents, and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to residences, businesses, infrastructure and agricultural lands. In all, 39 Indiana counties were declared Federal disaster areas. To make informed decisions, timely flood data were needed by Federal, State and local agencies.
Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering, Geomatics Engineering produced flood maps and a Google Earth application for Indiana using Landsat satellite images. The images were acquired during the height of the flooding period and made available courtesy of the US Geological Survey (USGS). Once the areas of water were identified, basic information was layered over the images, including topographic elevation, city and county boundaries, roads and hydrography. Stream gauge data from USGS was used to determine water depth, and compared with normal levels found in Landsat images from earlier in the year.
When ten inches of rain fell on saturated Indiana soils, it flowed into streams already swollen from a wetter than normal spring. The heavy rainfall resulted in severe flooding, causing three deaths, evacuation of thousands of residents, and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to residences, businesses, infrastructure and agricultural lands. In all, 39 Indiana counties were declared Federal disaster areas. To make informed decisions, timely flood data were needed by Federal, State and local agencies.
Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering, Geomatics Engineering produced flood maps and a Google Earth application for Indiana using Landsat satellite images. The images were acquired during the height of the flooding period and made available courtesy of the US Geological Survey (USGS). Once the areas of water were identified, basic information was layered over the images, including topographic elevation, city and county boundaries, roads and hydrography. Stream gauge data from USGS was used to determine water depth, and compared with normal levels found in Landsat images from earlier in the year.
The information was published to Google Earth and as static maps. This information was made available to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and other emergency management officials who were coordinating the disaster response and recovery efforts.
Results
These data layers, Landsat images, high-resolution aerial images and most importantly, flood inundation areas, provided a quick-look flood damage estimate for emergency managers from all levels of government. Having pdf files of the inundation maps and a Google Earth application gave users, many of whom did not have a GIS background, a choice between a static map of the state and a user-defined area of interest. Access to user-friendly quick-look flood inundation data provided officials with vital information to mitigate, respond and recover from this and other flood disasters.
The Purdue School of Civil Engineering, Geomatics Engineering were the winner of IGIC's 2009 Excellence in GIS Award in the Education & Nonprofit category for this project.
Results
These data layers, Landsat images, high-resolution aerial images and most importantly, flood inundation areas, provided a quick-look flood damage estimate for emergency managers from all levels of government. Having pdf files of the inundation maps and a Google Earth application gave users, many of whom did not have a GIS background, a choice between a static map of the state and a user-defined area of interest. Access to user-friendly quick-look flood inundation data provided officials with vital information to mitigate, respond and recover from this and other flood disasters.
The Purdue School of Civil Engineering, Geomatics Engineering were the winner of IGIC's 2009 Excellence in GIS Award in the Education & Nonprofit category for this project.
Click here to view the interactive Google Earth Map and the Static Map produced.
15/08
IGIC board member Anna Radue, Indiana University UITS, attended the ESRI International User's Conference in San Diego, CA last month. When she came back she shared with me the following two presentations from the keynote and plenary sessions:
(1) Maryland's Governor Martin O’Malley presented on the State's themes - “One Maryland, One Map”, and “State of Maryland – Leading the Way to Transparent Government Using GIS”. The Governor gave a very informative presentation at the opening regarding using GIS to manage government.
(2) Hernando DeSoto, an international economist who has pioneered the development of cadastral systems in the developing world. He argues that parcel boundaries are the foundation for the market economy – “something which sticks out to organize everything else”.
Anna told me that these presentation were of specific interest to her because they made her step back and reflect on what we are doing here in Indiana.
I feel these presentation both mirror and reinforce Indiana's statewide efforts in the development of the IndianaMap and our current data sharing initiative with local government. But they can also challenge us to do more!
Thanks to ESRI, we can view many of the presentations from the 2009 UC at the following link: http://www.esri.com/events/uc/agenda/plenary.html
Direct links to the two presentations Anna recommended are below:
Governor Martin O’Malley's Presentation
Hernando DeSoto’s Presentation
(1) Maryland's Governor Martin O’Malley presented on the State's themes - “One Maryland, One Map”, and “State of Maryland – Leading the Way to Transparent Government Using GIS”. The Governor gave a very informative presentation at the opening regarding using GIS to manage government.
(2) Hernando DeSoto, an international economist who has pioneered the development of cadastral systems in the developing world. He argues that parcel boundaries are the foundation for the market economy – “something which sticks out to organize everything else”.
Anna told me that these presentation were of specific interest to her because they made her step back and reflect on what we are doing here in Indiana.
I feel these presentation both mirror and reinforce Indiana's statewide efforts in the development of the IndianaMap and our current data sharing initiative with local government. But they can also challenge us to do more!
Thanks to ESRI, we can view many of the presentations from the 2009 UC at the following link: http://www.esri.com/events/uc/agenda/plenary.html
Direct links to the two presentations Anna recommended are below:
Governor Martin O’Malley's Presentation
Hernando DeSoto’s Presentation
07/08
In the Summer 2009 issue of ArcUser Magazine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN is highlighted for teaching students how to use off-the-shelf GIS data and software to support their classes in soil science. Purdue University professor Darrell G Schultz and assistant professor Phillip R. Owens use IndianaMap data available from the Indiana Geological Survey and the Indiana Spatial Data Portal at UITS to access orthophotography, digital elevation model, soils, and others data to teach their students. The full story can be viewed at http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0609/purduedirt.html .
13/07
The Summer 2009 Issue of the GIS Certification Institute newsletter (GISC-Eye) featured stories from GISP members from around the country discussing sharing geospatial data. The following is Kevin's contribution entitled: Sharing Data is Good for Business, Taxpayers and Ratepayers, and the Local Economy
The most recent payback for the City of Fort Wayne and the GIS Department was sharing our 2008 Orthophotography with Indiana University, Bloomington (IU) and their University Information
Technology Services department.
We gave them all of our orthophotos in .TIFF and .SID formats, and in return they processed those photos and sent us a new ECW format for free. The software to convert our photos to .ECW costs about $5,000; we didn’t have to pay for new software! The .ECW format also generates an orthophoto on your screen much faster than anything we’ve seen before.
IU also now hosts our orthophotos on their website, where they manage a portal for the public to download files themselves. Once again, the City saves time and money by not having the overhead of managing a website for that purpose, not having to hire programming services, nor having the cumbersome timeconsuming process of billing and accounting. Not to mention the fact that citizens have already paid for these orthophotos with their taxes and utility fees, so this way we aren’t “doubledipping.”
The second most recent payback from sharing the orthophotos was by receiving a local private electric utility company’s service area boundaries so we could then add them to our map as an overlay with our public water and sewer assets. This gives us the visual ability now to identify where the electric utility may have buried power lines in areas where our utility crews are going to dig. This is a benefit toward worker safety. So not only are we saving money, we are possibly saving lives.
The City’s GIS Department obtained a grant from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency in conjunction with the USGS, which valued $23,000 and the City kicked in $60,000. All total, with the savings of not purchasing new software for the .ECWs, not having to manage web portals for downloads and the tedious billing process, and the worker safety net by having other utility service areas on our maps, the payback is priceless for us.
The most recent payback for the City of Fort Wayne and the GIS Department was sharing our 2008 Orthophotography with Indiana University, Bloomington (IU) and their University Information
Technology Services department.
We gave them all of our orthophotos in .TIFF and .SID formats, and in return they processed those photos and sent us a new ECW format for free. The software to convert our photos to .ECW costs about $5,000; we didn’t have to pay for new software! The .ECW format also generates an orthophoto on your screen much faster than anything we’ve seen before.
IU also now hosts our orthophotos on their website, where they manage a portal for the public to download files themselves. Once again, the City saves time and money by not having the overhead of managing a website for that purpose, not having to hire programming services, nor having the cumbersome timeconsuming process of billing and accounting. Not to mention the fact that citizens have already paid for these orthophotos with their taxes and utility fees, so this way we aren’t “doubledipping.”
The second most recent payback from sharing the orthophotos was by receiving a local private electric utility company’s service area boundaries so we could then add them to our map as an overlay with our public water and sewer assets. This gives us the visual ability now to identify where the electric utility may have buried power lines in areas where our utility crews are going to dig. This is a benefit toward worker safety. So not only are we saving money, we are possibly saving lives.
The City’s GIS Department obtained a grant from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency in conjunction with the USGS, which valued $23,000 and the City kicked in $60,000. All total, with the savings of not purchasing new software for the .ECWs, not having to manage web portals for downloads and the tedious billing process, and the worker safety net by having other utility service areas on our maps, the payback is priceless for us.