Tuesday, September 5. 2006

A Bit on GIS in New Orleans Post-Katrina

Computerworld looks at IT in New Orleans and notes that GIS is key in the rebuilding efforts.

In addition, the city has been working to aggregate data from building permits, crime reports and other documents and display it on maps through the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology. The IT team is also expanding the functionality of self-service kiosks for city residents, to automate processes such as applying for building permits.

The GIS data, which can be accessed from a Web-based user interface, lets city officials easily see where reconstruction activity is the strongest, based on factors such as the number of building permits being issued, Kurt said. He added that workers can also view information about the number of calls for city services, such as requests for street maintenance -- which gives them an indication of where people are living.

Now the city wants to add property and sales tax data as well as information about nuisance-property complaints to the GIS tool, according to [an IT manager who was named the city's chief technology officer two months ago Mark] Kurt. "Being in technology, it's certainly not my job to plan how the city rebuilds," he said. But, he added, the data-mapping work should help New Orleans officials make decisions on key issues, "from what schools you decide to open to where you put police officers."

Monday, August 28. 2006

Katrina One Year Later: Maps Please!

As the media gears up for the sad anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I went looking for maps - maps of where those who fled went, maps of rebuilding, maybe last year/this year aerial imagery...

So far, I've found just last year's maps. But, I've found some neat ways to illustrate change: how about looking at the phone book? Or talking to Claritas (MSNBC, but no maps!)? I hope we'll see more maps this week.

Wednesday, August 9. 2006

Podcast: The State of Digital Street Mapping

Joe Francica spoke with representatives of Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ at the ESRI User Conference. In this podcast, we consider the state of the market and what the future may hold. This ten minute podcast was recorded on August 9.

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The State of Digital Street Mapping

Monday, June 19. 2006

FEMA IT Misuse Blamed in Fraudulent Payments

FCW.com reports on FEMA's use of IT for allocating funds after Katrina. While some IT checks helped weed fraud, others didn't quite work out. Case in point, alas, GIS.

The agency’s poor use of IT included over-reliance in some cases and failure to use it at all in others. In one instance that GAO documented, FEMA relied on geospatial mapping to support a claim of $4,706 in rental assistance to undercover GAO inspectors who listed their address as a vacant lot. In that case, FEMA could have sent someone to the site to verify the authenticity of the claim, GAO concluded.

I supposed this is simply a reminder that technology in and of itself is not good or bad, but can be used well or misused. FEMA condemned this and other errors and has stated its new system will prevent them in the future.

Tuesday, May 2. 2006

Lack of National Grid Support and Katrina

GovExec.com has an article that basically places much of the blame for locating challenges during Katrina on the failure of agencies to adopt the National Grid. The article describes the grid this way:

The National Grid is a mapping system based on coordinates provided by satellite imagery.

Sort of, I guess. The home page of the grid, above, does not have a definition (why?) but Wikipedia does:

The United States National Grid, officially known as the United States National Grid for Spatial Addressing (USNG), is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in United States, different from using latitude or longitude. It is similar in design to the national grid reference systems used throughout other nations. The USNG was developed by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and is administered by the Federal Geographic Data Committee.

The big push is that its designed to work with GPS data directly (no converting).

A FEMA press sectretary is quoted in the aticle as noting that FEMA does use the Grid but did not since the responders in the southeast do not use it, but instead use adresses and latitude/longitude. There is some use of the Grid, but other FEMA reps explain its use on a wide scale is still down the road.

- via reader Duane

Monday, March 20. 2006

Katrina Insurance Fraud Caught via Satellite Imagery

A couple in New Orleans was arrested and charged with insurance fraud when satellite images revealed the damage to their house occurred after Katrina. The tip off to insurance investigators? The damage didn't look like other damage, but looked man-made. That inspired a look at imagery at eventually the charge of fraud.

The article in the Times-Picayune does not say whose imagery was used but a statement referring to "patches of rooftop as small as 2 square feet" makes me think its DigitalGlobe imagery. The intersting piece of information from a geospatial business perspetive is that while insurance investigators can look at imagery before and after Katrina from many sources for free on the Internet (courtesy of the commercial satellite companies and government agencies) they must purchase hard copy prints to be used in court as evidence. So, there is some payback for the "good will" of the commercial players. Of course investigators need to look at the savings in terms of the cost to determine if such prosecutions will continue.