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Congratulations to all the 2010 IndianaMap Poster Contest winners!

k-12 First Place – “States My Family Has Visited”
Christian Bump
2nd Grade



Colleger First Place – “Improving Geo-location on Wi-Fi Enabled Mobile Devices”
Notre Dame University by:
Stephanie Burke
Ted Reinhold
Paul Turner




To see all the winners, visit http://www.igic.org/awards/posterwin.html

The economic situation has forced many GIS departments to be even more creative with shrinking budgets in the past year. Have you or someone you know been able to rise to the challenge? Have you found found better solutions for less, taken advantage of new technology, or found innovative uses for existing resources? Then it's time you got that pat on the back you deserve!

Nominate yourself or someone you know for the 2010 Excellence in GIS Awards.

Fill out one form, and you could be on your way instant fame. More information and nomination forms are available at www.igic.org/awards/gisaward.html

The deadline for submission is January 29, 2010, so download your form today!

New maps allow for better customer service, City Utilities’ non-residential customer stormwater billing more accurate

Fort Wayne, Ind. – Fort Wayne City Utilities and Public Works Geographic Information Systems Department earned the Indiana Geographic Information Council’s 2008 Excellence in GIS Award for large cities for work the department did to improve maps used by the City’s stormwater utility.

In 2005, the State of Indiana GIS Council received a $6 million grant to produce orthophotographs for the entire State. Orthophotographs are aerial photos that are enhanced to remove distortions such as camera tilt. Orthophotos are adjusted to allow for a consistent measurement scale throughout the entire photo, so the photos can be used as maps and can provide the base for many other informational layers and features in a geographic information system.

The Fort Wayne City Utilities and Public Works GIS Department used these enhanced aerial photographs to update maps used by the City’s stormwater utility to more accurately show the amount of impervious or hard surface areas for each City Utilities’ non-residential customer.

By using the state’s maps, City Utilities saved about $100,000. The GIS department hired four summer interns last year to analyze the state’s orthophotographs and convert them into local maps for individual properties within the City. The hard surface shown on the individual property maps form the basis for the stormwater utility bill that non-residential properties receive.

“The GIS Department was recognized for finding a straightforward and inexpensive way to update our stormwater maps and make them more accurate,” said City Utilities GIS Manager Kevin Holle. “Fort Wayne uses maps to determine stormwater billing for all non-residential properties in Fort Wayne. We had been relying on aerial photos from 1989. We knew that many businesses had added or removed hard surfaces since then, and we needed updated information to make our billing correct, but we didn’t have a lot of money to spend.”

Non-residential properties in the City pay a stormwater utility fee based on the amount of impervious or hard surface on the property – including rooftops, parking lots and sidewalks. The hard surface is measured based on the orthophotograph and is converted into a number of Equivalent Residential Units. The property then pays a bill based on the number of ERUs.

“The completed project resulted in a net increase of $88,000 per year for the Fort Wayne stormwater utility,” said Holle. “It also allows our staff members to be more responsive to the public. The new accurate hard surface boundaries can now be viewed electronically by employees at their desks. More departments will now be able to give citizens accurate information about their stormwater bills, so citizens should not have to be ‘passed around’ from department to department to get an answer.”

The award was presented to Holle and the GIS employees at a ceremony in Indianapolis in late February. “Indiana is recognized as a national leader in supporting the development and use of GIS tools,” Holle said. “So this is a very prestigious award for Fort Wayne to win.”

Each year, IGIC recognizes the best of the best in Indiana's GIS communities. Projects and collaborations like these make Indiana a better place to live. Congratulations to all the winners!

Small Community - City of La Porte "Sidewalk Inventory for American Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance"



Large Community - City of Fort Wayne "Impervious Surface Mapping for the Stormwater Utility Impervious Surface Billing Program"



County - Noble County "GIS Development of Highway Records"



State and Federal Government - Indiana State Land Office "State Land Records Modernization and Property Surplus of $5.6M"



Education and Nonprofit - Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County "Emergency Response to 30-Car Train Derailment"



All award winners and nominees will be featured in IGIC's “GIS in Action” throughout the year. These are one page project summaries that promote the benefits of GIS and the exemplary work of GIS professionals in Indiana.

Each year, students compete for top recognition (and cash prizes!) in the IndianaMap Student Poster Competition, held in conjunction with our annual conference.

College Poster Competition

1ST PLACE – Carrie Hatcher & Julie Crewe, - IUPUI



2ND PLACE – Jing Han, Dr. Qihao Weng - Indiana State University



3RD PLACE – Minjuan Cheng, Dr. Qihao Weng - Indiana State University




K-12 Poster Competition
Here is a great project for GIS parents to work on with their own kids - prizes include time with your kids, their deeper appreciation for what it is you do, and for the top three selected awardees... Target Gift Cards!

1st Place – Alexa Eaton, “Where can you find a Target store in Indiana?”



2nd Place – Kaden Eaton, “Where is each NBA Stadium Located?”

Every year IGIC honors outstanding GIS projects and programs across the state. Know of a project that has made a positive impact? Are you feeling particularly proud of one of your own accomplishments? Projects large and small in all topic areas are eligible. Send in a nomination form - you can spread the word and possibly win an award for yourself! Visit http://www.in.gov/igic/realworld/awards.html for more information or to fill out a nomination form.

Nominations are due January 23, 2008.

Awards will be presented during a ceremony at the 2008 GIS Conference, and winners will receive 2 passes for additional guests to attend the ceremony.

The IndianaMap Contest is held in conjunction with the Indiana GIS Conference, and is a great way to introduce kids and young adults to geography, maps, and geographic information systems (GIS). Poster maps of all kinds can be entered, but the they must be made by the students (either made by hand or computer generated). Prizes will be awarded to the entries that demonstrate the map’s elements (e.g. title, map scale, north arrow, legend), artistic creativity, critical thinking appropriate to grade level, and neatness.

Posters should answer a grade-appropriate question using maps. For example:

• What kinds of trees are in my backyard?
• Where would my family go in an emergency (fire stations, schools, hospitals)?
• Where are my ancestors/relatives from?
• Which countries have the most people under age 21?

PRIZES!
• Target Gift Cards
• GIS Prize Packages
• Featured in the monthly IGIC Newsletter and website


All current Indiana K-12 students are eligible to participate. For more information, visit http://www.in.gov/igic/conference/posterk12.html. Deadline for entry is February 4, 2008.

The annual GIS Poster Contest provides an excellent forum for geography students to present their work to the entire Indiana GIS community.

Posters will be displayed during the 2008 Indiana GIS Conference, and pictures of the winning posters will appear prominently in the IGIC Newsletter. It could open the door to future job opportunities or even cash rewards!

All current undergraduate and graduate students from Indiana universities are eligible to join the poster competition, showing how GIS is used.

Posters must be delivered to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, conference registration desk between 8:00 and 10:00 am on February 19, 2008. The dimensions of the poster should be no larger than 4 x 5 feet. It should contain a title, your name and affiliation, an introduction, methods, results and conclusion.

Prizes!!
1st place - $250.00
2nd place - $150.00
3rd place - $100.00

Send an email to Paul Irwin (irwinp@indiana.edu) by January 15, 2008 if you would like to register your poster for competition at the conference. Provide the following in your email: 1.) Poster Title, 2.) University (including department), and 3.) Contact Information (name, address, city, state, zip, phone and email).

Visit the 2008 Annual Conference pages on the www.igic.org website to see judging criteria and past winners.