Update: Local GIS Tidbits

An update on the The city of Longview, WA tree mapping. “The Longview City Council decided Thursday to reject a $10,000 state grant for mapping Longview’s urban forest with satellite imagery, saying the city’s grant matching funds would be better spent battling the aphid problem.”

- TDN.com

—- original post 7/22/10—-

McKinney, Texas has four city council districts and needs to update them based on the 2010 census. Who’ll do that work? The same firm that did it ten years ago: a law firm.

According to a timeline presented during the council presentation, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP will begin collecting and developing Geographic Information System (GIS) data later this year in anticipation of the deadline for the release of census data: April 1, 2011.

I had no idea law firms did that sort of work.

- Star Local News

Chesterfield County, Virginia won the Digital Counties Survey 2010 a “competition” put together by the Center for Digital Government, the National Association of Counties, Government Technology magazine and the Digital Communities program, Among the tools cited that helped capture the award:

  * Citizen GIS, a new online-mapping and aerial-photography feature available on the county’s website that is making county geographic information more readily available to the public.

- Village News Online

The city of Longview, WA plans to find out the details of its tree cover using high-resolution satellite imagery. “By creating an aerial map of Longview’s urban forest, which includes trees on private property, the city can evaluate where it needs to plant more trees to achieve or maintain a goal of a 30 percent canopy. In future years, the map can be used as a baseline for comparison.”

The project will cost about $21,400, part of which will come from a $10,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forestry Program.

- TDN.com

Even the smallest of public transportation “agencies” can get GPS tracking. The wholly volunteer run Astoria Oregon trolley now has its own GPS-enabled phone and a system in place to broadcast its location to the Chamber of Commerce website. Rides are still $1 per person or $2 per day.

- Daily Astorian

Education Tidbits

Northwestern State University’s (Louisiana) Cultural Resource Office received a $41,000 grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to conduct an archaeological survey of Deloach’s Bluff Battlefield in Rapides Parish. The goal is to locate subsurface resources and to determine the geographic extent of the battlefield using GIS/GPS work, LiDAR and remote sensing methods such as magnetometer and soil resistivity surveys and archaeological testing.

- Town Talk

Professors in Gainesville State College’s Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis (Florida) are teaching local elementary, middle and high school teachers about the software and equipment they can use to help students in environmental science, technology and business classes. “I teach them the technology toolbelt, and the students create research projects, such as a Web page or movie,”Gary Martin, a middle school teacher said. “GIS is another one of those tools. It’s an emerging technology, and we’re trying to give the students a skill that is transferable to the job field.”

Why do teachers think it’s an emerging technology? It’s not emerging; it’s here!

- Gainesville Times

An OSU team has been working with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkley for about three years on a project to create a nav system without GPS. Supported by a $1.2 million grant from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, the project which no demands the user carry $20,000 worth of equipment is working. In tests at a mall it located better than a $8,000 GPS used for comparison.

How does it work? The two cameras attached to Skopljak’s chest map his path, and a tool on his boot measures speed and walking angles. The data they create is sent to a computer he carries in a small backpack and sent to a digital map on his wrist.

The system’s maps are more accurate than GPS’ because the equipment is closer together, said Rongxing Li, an OSU researcher and professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science.

- The Columbus Dispatch

George Mason University’s Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science graduated its first cohort of students from its Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence program. USGIF President Keith J. Masback presented 22 students certificates on behalf of George Mason University’s Geospatial Intelligence Certificate Program, accredited through USGIF.

- press release

Google Research Awards identifies and supports full-time faculty pursuing research in areas of mutual interest. From a record number of submissions, come 75 awards across 18 different areas—a total of more than $4 million. Among the geo ones:

Jeremy Cooperstock, McGill University. A Spatialized Audio Map System for Mobile Blind Users (Geo/maps): A mobile audio system that provides location-based information, primarily for use by the blind and visually impaired communities.

Other granted in geo, but no detail on their projects:

Hartwig Hochmair, University of Florida Alexei Pozdnoukhov, National University of Ireland Maynooth Long Quan, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Jan van Aardt, Rochester Institute of Technology

- Google Blog

Google Academic Research Awards: Geo

Google Research Awards identifies and supports full-time faculty pursuing research in areas of mutual interest. From a record number of submissions, come 75 awards across 18 different areas—a total of more than $4 million. Among the geo ones:

Jeremy Cooperstock, McGill University. A Spatialized Audio Map System for Mobile Blind Users (Geo/maps): A mobile audio system that provides location-based information, primarily for use by the blind and visually impaired communities.

Other granted in geo, but no detail on their projects:

Hartwig Hochmair, University of Florida Alexei Pozdnoukhov, National University of Ireland Maynooth Long Quan, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Jan van Aardt, Rochester Institute of Technology

- Google Blog