Planning Process Enhancements Through Internet Mapping

Text: An enterprise GIS solution is a single organizational approach to sharing, using and managing spatial information by integrating business processes as well as data and people across departments of an organization. There can be many challenges in bringing this approach from the ongoing design phase through to implementation. This presentation describes the City of Vancouver's experience and focuses on how an enterprise GIS architecture was chosen and built as well as why and how a core set of spatial data was migrated to an open database management system. We also describe how a set of web GIS business applications (such as Van Map and ENGIS Web) are effectively deployed and integrated with other enterprise systems (such as Community Web Pages, Community Services Web Portal, Voting Place Lookup System and the City's Tax System). The City's enterprise GIS architecture has been built and expanded in a view of supporting corporate needs for mapping, spatial analysis, and data management. Benefits of this enterprise GIS solution will be discussed. Application demonstrations will help show the benefits of the enterprise GIS approach at the City. This presentation will be of interest to all audiences from local governments and others interested in pursuing an enterprise approach to GIS in that they will learn about Vancouver's experience, success factors, lessons learned, challenges, and benefits. 00001925 Application U.S. Geological Survey's Hurricane Katrina Unified Search and Rescue Operations James Johnston and Steve Hartley, USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA Abstract Text: The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) in Lafayette, La., provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Incident Support Team (IST) with geospatial technology to assist in the Hurricane Katrina search and rescue efforts. In conjunction with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), USGS-NWRC provided geospatial data and mapping support to the following entities: FEMA, U.S. Coast Guard, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Army National Guard, New Orleans Fire Department, and numerous State and local US&R teams. The NWRC developed a GIS that was updated daily and produced detailed street maps for teams that conducted ground searches for Hurricane Katrina victims. The GIS included the following layers: search and rescue divisions depicting the intensity of searches conducted (hasty, primary, secondary); open roads and boat access points; and prioritized 911 call locations. 00001927 Application A Practical Approach to Routing and Network Analysis Bob DenOuden and Warren Roe, Lane Council of Governments, Eugene, OR Abstract Text: Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) has been working with a consortium of local public safety agencies in Lane County, Oregon since 2003 to provide GIS support, including maintenance of highly accurate and current street centerline data, for countywide emergency response operations. In another role, LCOG functions as the region's metropolitan planning organization (MPO) providing transportation planning services including travel demand modeling. By combining our detailed and constantly improving street data with output from the region's travel demand model, and using ESRI's latest Network Analyst extension for ArcGIS 9.1, we developed a practical and powerful capability to analyze routing and site accessibility scenarios that incorporate elements of the output from the travel demand model. Key steps in the development of these capabilities included the establishment of a multi-agency spatial road database with a consistent attribute set, investment in data quality assurance to eliminate connectivity and topology errors, experience developing linkages between the travel model and regional GIS data, and integration of model output to inform travel cost variables within Network Analyst. This presentation will provide an overview of the development of this process as well as details on its application in a hospital site selection analysis project. 00001928 Application Digital Region and E-Government Information Sharing Platform Lei Wang, York University Abstract Text: The construction of Digital Region and Digital City is an important component of Digital Earth. "Digital Fujian", informationalized Fujian, is a systems engineering project that integrates the digitalized and standardized information from government ministry for E-government in Fujian Province, China. Digital Fujian adopts the theory, technology, and strategy of Digital Earth. By utilizing and integrating distributed information resources, this system can supply various kinds of information sharing, information service, and application for scientific and effective government management and decision-making support. In order to implement Digital Fujian, the reconstruction, and exploitation of existing information resource is the base for information sharing and service among government ministries. E-government information sharing platform is required to standardize the information reconstruction, implement information sharing among ministries, and avoid the repetition of information construction. The construction of E-government information sharing platform, which, includes the research and development of information sharing management methods as well as standards and technologies; the construction of information sharing software and hardware system; the development of government Office Automation system; the reconstruction database of standardization, networking and spatialization; the reconstruction and integrating of existing application system etc al. This paper will introduce the objective, architecture and key technologies of Digital Fujian and the design and implementation of E-Government Information Sharing Platform. This Platform is made up of six sub-systems, including platform management system, metadata management and data dictionary system, database management system, data management system, data integration and analysis system and data presentation system, the components of each sub-system, it's function and system implementation process are introduced. The digital region development direction in the future is discussed at last. 00001933 Application Transit Data Visualization Thomas Kimpel, Portland State University Center for Urban Studies, Portland, OR Abstract Text: The basic theme of the presentation concerns a project related to the visualization of bus performance measures using a geographic information system and other graphical techniques for improving decision making capabilities within transit agencies. TriMet, the regional transit provider in the Portland, OR, area has been a leader in bus transit performance monitoring using data collected via automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter technologies. A vast amount of information is collected and archived for off-line analysis of transit operations. This information is summarized on regular bases in the form of bus transit performance reports which help inform agency personnel about the status of various parts of the transit system across numerous spatial and temporal dimensions. To date, most of the data presented in performance reports are in tabular format. With the exception of sorting performance measures by either best and worst case examples, a large amount of useful information is simply not utilized due to the sheer volume of information presented. While the performance reports generated at TriMet have been highly successful in identifying scheduling and operational issues, a disjuncture exists with respect to the ability to convey important findings to key decision makers and, in particular, management personnel. The proposed project has two principal objectives: 1) to develop visualization methods that serve to reduce the quantity and enhance the quality of information presented in transit service performance reports and 2) to develop effective techniques for identifying and communicating important findings to management personnel and other decision makers. The intended audience for the presentation consists of both data analysts and managers. The subject matter of the presentation is timely given the increased volumes of data that agencies are confronted with. 00001934 Application Building a Web-Based GIS Economic Development Tool for Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC Todd Wilson, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, NC Abstract Text: For many years, Mecklenburg County's GIS program has been recognized for it's delivery of GIS services through the use of the Internet which is utilized by the Citizens of Mecklenburg County and the rest of the web community. Mecklenburg County's POLARIS System is the County's premiere GIS property information and parcel mapping Internet application with an estimated 75,000 visitors per month. POLARIS is heavily used by the land development community and internally by the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Governments. The Charlotte Chamber has taken notice of how effective Mecklenburg County's GIS program is currently providing land-based GIS information to the web community and saw from it the potential on expanding GIS information further and providing new online tools to further promote business relocation endeavors to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Charlotte Chamber's Research and Development Division approached Mecklenburg County GIS to pitch the concept of partnering on a GIS project. The project partnership was presented to the Mecklenburg County's County Manager's Office and approved overwhelmingly. It aligned perfectly with the Growth Management & Environment aspect of the County's Balance Scorecard in regards to increased economic growth and job opportunities. The Charlotte Chamber is the lead economic development organization for Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte. They provide professional assistance and quality economic information about the Charlotte area to enable companies to make informed decisions to relocate here. Many new companies have been attracted to Charlotte because of the efforts of the Chamber. Charlotte has more headquartered Fortune 500 companies than all but five other United States cities two of these eight companies have relocated to Charlotte in recent years. In the past 10 years alone, 8,928 new firms have opened in Charlotte creating 77,327 new jobs and investing $7.4 billion in new facilities. This growth is good for the economy and good for the citizens who live here. These new investments add to the tax base of Mecklenburg County and result in more income for Mecklenburg County, offsetting the need to raise property taxes. The prime focus of this GIS project will be to provide businesses from local and nationwide communities with geographic analysis tools inside an Internet browser for quality site selection, area analysis, and decisionmaking. The goal is provide prospective businesses with more and better information than is typically available on current GIS land-based applications. While not the primary focus of the application, local businesses, contractors, and developers will also use this application for their own business development research. This presentation will give an overview of the development of the system and a look at the end product. 00001936 Data Oblique Imagery Real World Applications & Uses Art Kalinski, Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta, GA Abstract Text: ARC has been a pioneer in the use of oblique imagery. Through a pilot project, ARC received a USGS / NGA Homeland Security grant to purchase region-wide ortho and oblique imagery (over 3,000 square miles). As a result, the Atlanta Region is the first major metropolitan region in the nation to enhance Homeland Security by combining its updated street data with high-resolution oblique imagery for emergency response, 9-1-1 Call Centers, and Mutual Aid support. The seemingly small improvement of imagery taken at an oblique angle has had a disproportionate effect on GIS use in the Region. The easy-to-use imagery and software is significantly increasing the number of GIS users in the Region with a corresponding increase in demand for comprehensive and up-to-date GIS data. One ARC County started with 32 GIS users and jumped to 420 users in 14 months. Since ARC had experience with oblique imagery and GIS, it was able to help the recovery effort in New Orleans by printing imagery overlaid with GIS data and GPS reference grids for first responder field use immediately after the hurricane. ARC and local governments in the Atlanta Region now use oblique imagery for emergency and routine tasks. This presentation will review specific real world applications of oblique imagery including: 4 alarm midtown Atlanta apartment fire support; NASCAR Atlanta Motor Speedway security support; Arc’s Portable Emergency GIS; Georgia DOT/ARC road characteristic (RC) data collection project; City of Atlanta & Clayton County 2006 Homeless Census, ArcIMS/Oblique Imagery integration and GeoPDF uses for distribution and as a collaboration tool between local government agencies for disaster preparedness. 00001938 Application Adolescent conduct problems in the Portland, OR: A Geo-spatial Perspective Erich Seamon, Erich Seamon & Associates Maria Gartstein, Washington State University Dept of Psychology, Pullman, WA