Girl Scout Teaches Geography and other Education GIS News

Danielle Feoranzo, a student at Westwood Regional High School in the Township of Washington, recently earned her Girl Scout Gold Award by painting a map of the United States on the playground at the Jessie F. George Elementary School. 

I've read lots of stories about maps being painted on playgrounds. What I like about this one is explained by the school pricipal:

"She facilitated a lesson for our fourth grade students that focused on the United States. Using the map, the students were able to move about the country while showcasing the content knowledge. It was a great experience for our students and a gift from Danielle that will last for many years to come."

- NorthJersey.com

A Clarkson University research team, led by Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering Professors Pier Marzocca, Suresh Dhaniyala and Lin Tian, is readying its unmanned aerial vehicle, the Clarkson RAVEN (Research Aerial Vehicle for Experimental Needs), to acquire wind turbulence data.

- press release

The University of Redlands is pleased to announce the third cohort of faculty LENS (LEarNing Spatially) Fellows. Led by Dr. Diana Sinton, director of Spatial Curriculum and Research, LENS is a campus-wide initiative that promotes spatial literacy as a foundational component in curriculum, programs, and research. In the coming year, the LENS Fellows will work on curricular ideas around the theme of “Mapping Communities.”

The four university faculty members from different departments will participate in a summer institute on campus.

- press release

Fort Lee plans to become the first school system in the nation to use the MapEverywhere software, which provides detailed campus floor plans to emergency responders via a smart phone application that does not rely on Internet or Wi-Fi connections, officials said.

Maps of each school and information about explosive chemicals and potentially dangerous electrical wirings will be available on an application that police and other authorized personnel can upload during a hostage, fire or other crisis.

I don't like the idea that it must be downloaded WHEN an incident is found. Cost: $495/month.

- NorthJersey.com

Some advice from Brian Timoney to stduents:

NJ Hospital Mortality Rates and other Health GIS News

The New Jersey Department of Health rated 72 major hospitals across the state according to the number of deaths per 100 patients for pneumonia, stroke, heart attack, and heart failure. That data was used to create the Google Map.

- NJ Spotlight

An independent study conducted by mapping analytics firm PetersonGIS shows that locations with the highest obesity rates contain the fewest farmers’ markets.

...Please note that correlation is not the same as causation.

The static, low resolution map makes local exploration challenging. 

- GIS Lounge

Health 2.0 announced today that it launched its first Health 2.0 Developers World Cup in which teams of developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs worldwide will compete in code-a-thons to build applications and tools that improve healthcare. The winners from each coding competition will face-off in San Francisco at the 6th Annual Fall Health 2.0 Conference for the Developers World Cup title. All finalists will receive free passes to the conference and a travel stipend. The winning team will receive a $10,000 cash prize, the opportunity to showcase their winning product on the main stage of the conference, and international visibility as world champions.

- details

Stewart County, TN's Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention is anxious to put in place a program already up and running in neighboring Houston County:

The point of the mapping system for a coalition is to plot hot spot locations on a map and supply them to anyone who asks for them as well as giving them to police officers and county commissioners.

Hot spot locations are ones that they police have been called out to anywhere in the county that may be an undesirable location for juveniles to be in.

The Stewart County data will come from a new 911 system. I wonder if this program will get the same backlash as the recent Microsoft patent aiming to keep people out of bad neigbhorhoods?

- The Leaf Chronicle

Connecticut Municipalities Meet to Explore GIS Sharing after Storm Challenge and other Government GIS News

Here in New England, there was a daiy count after a freak October snow storm of how many people were still without power. The last folks to get the lights on were in Connecticut. And, that event was after the August topical storm Irene beat up the same area. The governor convened a panel Nov 30 to learn how the local communities and power company could work together better in the future. At the heart of the discussions: GIS, lack of data sharing, and communication issues. The article is another reminder that it's people, not tech, that make cooperation possible.

- CT News Junkie

In Montclair, NJ, the issue is debris pickup for the October storm. One councilman was frustrated by a map.

On Thursday, the Department of Community Services provided a Montclair street map which shows the areas where post-October 29 storm debris has been collected as of November 28.

You can download the map by going here.

But at least one Township Councilor, Cary Africk, expressed dismay over the publishing of a map showing where the collection of debris has already happened.

"If a homeowner wants to tell if his street has been cleared, couldn't he just look out the window?" Africk asked. "Wouldn't a homeowner, staring at huge piles of debris in front of his house, want to know WHEN his street is going to be cleared?

The complexity of pickup (the amount, the full size trees that need to be cut with power tools by city workers, etc.) make predictions impossible. Officials do promise that all debris will be collected. Perhaps in this instance, no map would have been better than any map?

- Montclair Patch

The Easton, CT Town Clerk is wary of a group with a grant to put the town's information online for free.

But Town Clerk Derek Buckley disputes this. In a letter to [First Selectman] Herrmann on the application [ for a $6 million grant with the Greater Bridgeport Regional Council to cover the cost of upgrading GIS systems and making it available online for six towns, including Easton], Buckley says that if the system were to be available to the public, for free, it could cost the town thousands of dollars. “Easton derives revenue of about $13,000 annually from sales of copies of maps and land records. Work is in progress to more than double that soon. That would be lost if the GIS makes them available for free,” Buckley wrote.

The town had already collected $50,000 for a GIS upgrade that if used would not put the data online.

- The Daily Easton

Mapping New Jersey Mines and other Government GIS News

The New Jersey Geological Survey has started a three-year project to map all the mines and all of their features still under the homes and business in Morris County and th northern part of the state. It's funded with a $267,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant and $90,000 of state money.

The resulting database, to be created with the help of global positioning systems, is expected to help State Police and first responders in case of emergencies such as mine collapses [and to take some proactive actions with federal funds].

- Daily Record

Stockton, California port officials approved $4.5 million in port security and safety improvements, including a new mapping information-and-alert system and a new emergency-response center. A big chunk of the funding, $1.9 million, goes to LA-based NorthSouth GIS, a firm with which I'm not familiar. The funds for the GIS come from the Dept. of Homeland Securty and state bonds.

- Recordnet.net

Horry County won the 2011 J. Mitchell Graham Memorial Award at the 44th Annual Conference of the South Carolina Association of Counties (SCAC).

Horry County won the competition’s top award for its Cemetery Project that seeks to locate, inventory, photograph, map and preserve an estimated 450 historic cemeteries in the county’s unincorporated areas — approximately one for every 2.5 square miles.  Using cutting-edge technology, including Ground Penetrating Radar and GIS mapping units, the project is the most comprehensive and pioneering endeavor of its kind in the nation. 

- SC Now