2005 Abstracts

Considerations and Implementation of a Typical County WebGIS

With the rising cost of desktop software, web based GIS has become a popular and cost effective method for reaching end users. Many factors should be considered in planning and implementing a GIS. Using practical examples from counties in Wisconsin, this presentation will cover many of the issues that shape the development of a web based GIS application.

Central GIS Data Repository Project

There is a need for local governments to rely on technology to share GIS data across governmental boundaries at multiple governmental levels. The Central GIS Data Respository Project proposes an innovative GIS data sharing initiative to facilitate storage, access, retrieval, and redistribution of GIS data among local governments, as well as to state and federal government agencies as needed. The primary use of the GIS data would be in the event of an emergency, natural disaster, or human-caused disaster and would be available for use by local EMA personnel and local PSAP centers equipped for computer-aided dispatch.

Traditional Photogrammetry & Lidar Can Work Together

Western Air Maps combined traditional photogrammetry and LIDAR technology as a solution to challenging target terrain during their first LIDAR project. Under contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers-Kansas City District (KCD), WAM used LIDAR scanning and conventional aerial photogrammetry to develop an accurate topographic and planimetric picture of a 4,600 acre training facility at the Fort Riley Army Base in Kansas. It was the first LIDAR project for KCD as well, and required aerial acquisition during July, with full leaf-on vegetation, to meet the planning and design schedule With a planned expansion of Fort Riley’s Digital Multi-Purpose Training Range (DMPTR) and Multi-Purpose Range Complex (MPRC), KCD required new topographic and planimetric data meeting the design accuracy requirement of 1’ contours and line-of-sight visualization for range targeting systems. The facilities train Fort Riley’s 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) as well as Army and National Guard Units. The DMPTR and MPRC offer units uninterrupted weeks during the year to train. Dense July foliage could not be removed via a controlled burn because of the facility’s constant training schedule. Photo acquisition had to be planned so it would not interrupt the training schedule. Team members had to stay within marked safety zones while conducting set-up survey ground work, as the site contained unexploded ordinance. The range also contained a natural feature unique to the area; some of the last tallgrass prairie in the country. According to researchers at Kansas State University, the tallgrass canopy reaches over 2.5 meters in height. It is very dense, and team members expressed concern that it would produce false ground data. To compensate for the prairie, WAM designed a QA/QC program with 188 surveyed ground check points. WAM subcontracted with LandAir Mapping, Inc. to complete LIDAR data acquisition. LIDAR systems can scan through dense foliage for terrain elevation, and can be used any time of day. Little activity occurred on the training range during the night, so LIDAR data acquisition was conducted then. WAM performed a 100% QC verification internally using TerraScan software for the “bald earth” surface model LandAir produced. Statistically 90% of elevation differences between LIDAR shots and ground control points were less than 6”, a RMSE of 0.238’ for the entire dataset, complying iwht the VMAS standard for 1’ contour mapping. By isolating the 10% outliers, the RMSE drops to 0.228 feet; meeting NSSDA standards, which indicates a very good overall topographic accuracy of the dataset. Fort Riley served as a training ground for WAM’s second LIDAR project; mapping 640,000 acres in Michigan for the USACE-Detroit District. The Fort Riley project proved that traditional photogrammetry can work effectively with LIDAR data to produce solutions in dense, diverse environments.

The National Map - The Nation's Map of the Future

The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is defined as the technologies, policies, standards, and people necessary to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic community. The components necessary to help promote and develop the NSDI are The National Map, Geospatial One-Stop, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The National Map is being developed by the USGS to address the ever-evolving need for basic integrated geospatial data and maps, the Geospatial One Stop is the mechanism for data discovery and access, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee functions to provide coordination for policy and data standards. The National Map, which is just one component of the USGS’ National Geospatial Programs Office, is designed to be a continually maintained and integrated database of basic spatial data that is current, accurate, and consistent. Creating and maintaining The National Map will be accomplished through partnerships and business arrangements with other organizations and agencies. This presentation will focus on the leadership role of the USGS in building the NSDI, the continuing evolution of The National Map, and current partnerships in Iowa.

Investigating applications from ethnically diverse to Central College: Using GIS To Shape Recruiting Strategies

Central College is a small liberal arts college located in Pella, IA. Given that Iowa=s population is 93.4% white, attempting to sustain a diverse campus community - at a time when there is an increased need throughout the US to enhance acceptance and understanding to adequately address increasingly complex issues- is a challenge. As one of its strategic goals, Central College has committed itself to increasing its diversity population. In addition to question of how to attract such a population to a small midwestern campus, the issues of where how and to find such a population becomes crucial. In this paper, we examine past diversity trends of inquires, applications and enrollment to Central College through the creation of a GIS database. We map the current distribution of ethnic diversity throughout the Midwest’s counties (including MN, MO, MI, ND, SD, KA, IL, WI) based on zip code areas, as well as the number of inquires over time from these areas, the applications these inquires yielded and the actual enrollment realized. By examining the past patterns in application and visualizing it in context with the target base, we hope to help direct recruiting strategies for the admissions office.

Incorporating GPS and GIS Technology into your Classroom Curriculum

No matter what subject matter you teach, GPS and GIS Technology can be incorporated into your curriculum in some way, shape or form. Discover the potential scope and power of GIS and GPS in your curriculum. With our world becoming ever digital, see how to create, organize and analyze data sets, utilized critical thinking for analysis, see maps as numbers and numbers as maps. In this session we will discuss the potential for incorporating these technologies into your curriculum. One will see how this technology can be an interdisciplinary approach in your school. We will look at some low cost options for incorporating these technologies into your curriculum. The intended audience for this session is K – 12 grade instructors.

Mapping Principles: Making Your Map Look Good!

Why do some maps look so professional while others just don't communicate well? This presentation will explore the basic principles of good map design and provide some tips on how to ensure that your map will be understood correctly. Text placement, map components, color, and design considerations are just a few of the areas that will be explored.

US Route 30-Lincoln Highway GIS Database Development

The goal of this research project, funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation, was the development of a management plan for the US Route 30-Lincoln Highway corridor through the state of Iowa. As the first east/west transcontinental highway in the United States, the Lincoln Highway was a model for progressive highway development when first assembled and constructed in the early 1900s. The resources of the corridor hold opportunity for development of interpretive programs and heritage tourism initiatives. GIS was a component of the project’s development. The GIS database developed for the project, as a product for the Iowa DOT, included collection of existing corridor data from a variety of sources, and a mapping of corridor resources through field work, observation, and the use of GPS devices. The Iowa DOT database was queried to identify segments that retained historic road design characteristics. The final product was a GIS database that included both quantitative data and analysis and qualitative data and analysis. This presentation will describe the process of the development of the GIS database, and demonstrate the final product.

Forestry Uses of GIS

Jeremy Cochran, District Forester will present what the distric foresters of the Iowa DNR are using GIS for their landowner programs within their districts. Brent Olson, Iowa DNR Area Forester, of the Loess Hills State Forest will present materials on what the State Forest have used GIS on the forests over the last 12 years

Addressing And Utilizing E911 GIS In Harrison County

This presentation will demonstrate how Harrison County integrated their GIS layers into the E911 Communication Center mapping system. The GIS Department works closely with the E911 Coordinator to combine the network road centerline data and the geocoded address layer with supplemental GIS information. This information is used by the E911 Dispatchers during routine emergency calls. Specifics about data editing and proper addressing techniques will be discussed.

Customizing Arcmap To Make GIS Users' Job Easier

Demon on using ArcObjects to create tools for Finding a parcel, finding a property owner and moving layers in TOC. Some detailed information are given on how to create such tools from scratch in ArcMap using ArcObjects

Automate Lesa Processing In Story County Through Arcobject Programming

LESA (Land Evaluation and Site Assessment) is becoming more and more important in Story County. it is of a routine today to have a LESA in Story County for any new development on land that involves converting agricultural land into different use for the sake of agricultural resources protection. An LEAS processing is needed on every quarter section that requires a long time and many procedures to do manually in ArcGIS. To save time, we developed some tools that will automatically do the whole thing with one click: buffer a selected quarter section, select all parcels in buffer, join the selected parcels with needed attritues in SDE, export the joined parcels to a shapefile, added the shapefile back to ArcMap, calculate the CSR and other agricultural values and create a summary table, add the summary table to layout window for print and export the summary table with the designed format to Excel for documenting.

Parcel Data Models

The purpose of this panel discussion is to give the audience an overview of what is involved in developing an enterprise GIS parcel database. Three separate counties will demonstrate how they created their parcel data models and control maintenance in a multi-editor environment. Significant time will be allocated for open discussion and questions.

Using GIS for Utility Locates

Case Study: Hamilton Southeastern Utilities (HSE) Recently HSE implemented a remote access base station system through the Internet. The system is a wireless data broadcast network for highly accurate, real-time GPS applications that uses a nationwide digital wireless coverage from multiple rovers to a single base station or a network of multiple base stations. The utility has combined the base station system with their GIS, a multi-level website and a utility locate application within their GIS to significantly reduce effort and costs Currently the utility estimates an annual savings of $280,000 for the utility locate application alone and a 25% reduction in the number of work orders processed annually. Through the integration of survey and GIS, HSE has developed an enterprise system providing solutions across multiple disciplines. This presentation will discuss the HSE case study as well as defining the need to do utility locates and it will talk about the processes of applications built in ArcMap. Although this case study is in Indiana, this process and end result can work for any municipal government or private utility company.

The Address Point Layer: An Inhouse Approach

There are many county departments who benefit from a complete address layer. E911 benefits from such a layer to be able to pin point an address for emergency response teams. Census requests statistics of how many homes there are in the county. Many offices have databases which tie to an address. It became apparent that an address point layer would be an invaluable dataset. Though Jasper county is largely rural with a total of less than 20000 homes, the task of obtaining GPS locations for every house was overwhelming considering that this would be accomplished by Jasper County employees. We also wanted to be able to tie into the Assessor's Tax parcel database and E911's address database. All addresses are logged on one or the other of these databases (at least in theory). With these considerations, this seemed to be the most sensable approach: 1.) Extract the parcels which had a locational address and create centroid points for each of those parcels. 2.) Using aerial photography, move those points to the driveway. 3.) Compare this dataset with the E911 database and geocode the addresses from the e911 database which did not match the parcel dataset. 4.) Move those points to the driveway. 5.) Those points for which we could not find a sensable placement, we field checked and obtained a GPS location. After the initial thrust of building an address layer the challenge is to maintain that layer. This is accomplished through communication with the other offices as well as the incorporated communities within the county

The Road to Success with Field GPS

The Water Resources Section of the Office of Location & Environment of the Iowa Department of Transportation uses GPS in the field for collecting wetland boundaries, individual plant locations and verifying plan accuracy. This presentation will discuss and demonstrate the hardware and software used by this section.

Accessing USDA Geodata

The US Department of Agriculture provides free access to various natural resource-related GIS datasets. This presentation will explore several on-line sites for accessing soils data, imagery, and other geodata developed by the USDA-NRCS, FSA, and other agencies. Methods of accessing the data via the web and through GIS connections will be presented.

Turning the Corner: Evolution of the I-Sites On-Line GIS Interface

I-Sites is an interactive on-line database and Geographic Information System (GIS) for archaeological research in Iowa, developed by the GIS department at the University of Iowa-Office of the State Archaeologist in collaboration with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, the GIS facility at Iowa State University, and University of Missouri's Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems. I-Sites was introduced to the professional community as well as the public in May of 2003. The goal of I-Sites is to make archaeological data available to all those who need or have an interest in the data in formats that are accessible with no software other than a Web browser. I-Sites disseminates information about Iowa archaeology to the public and professionals, and is among the most widely used applications of its type in North America. I will discuss its development from initial planning to the present on-line resource. Changes for the future will respond to user feedback and reflect the needs of archaeologists as well as developers and government agencies. Over the past two years, changes and additions have been made to the interface to reflect the requests of users and the needs of professional archaeologists. In the future, I-Sites will offer more tiered access options and continued improvements to aid conservation and management efforts across the state for developers and government agencies. After two years of use, our feedback has given I-Sites renewed goals and different directions to focus on in the further development of this on-line interface.

Beyond Arcgis 9.1

ESRI's Research and Development team has been working on ArcGIS version 9.2 for over a year and "Dakota" for almost as long. This presentation will highlight the functionality to expect in future releases of ArcGIS.

Seven Deadly Sins

Set on Gilligan's Island this session is designed to demonstrate the common connection between the guest of Gilligan's Island, GIS and the Seven Deadly Sins. This session is geared toward those that are considering, just starting, or building a GIS, but will also be enjoyable for those long time users. This is a lighter more entertaining introduction to the most important obstacles in building GIS projects. You'll learn what the Seven Deadly Sins in GIS are, why they appear, and how to avoid or overcome them. Actual GIS projects will be discussed to demonstrate some of these factors and how they were dealt with