NRGS Geospatial Blog

Don’t miss the Georgia URISA March 2010 Luncheon, scheduled on Tuesday, March 9th from 11:30-1:30PM.  This event is hosted by the City of Woodstock GIS Division, and will held in the Woodstock Community Center, located at 108 Arnold Mill Road, Woodstock, GA, 30188.

Topic: A Small City’s ROI Story
Speakers: Tim Poe and Emily Norton

Description:

The City of Woodstock GIS Division consists of two regular, full-time employees and a small budget. Until recently, many of the city’s spatial datasets were incomplete and inaccurate, and were scattered among hundreds of folders on CDs and several different hard drives. The GIS Division purchased the Small Government Enterprise License Agreement (SGELA) at the beginning of the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The city hired five interns skilled in GIS to collect new data and improve existing data, and implemented web maps to allow users to interact directly with their data. As a result of the intern hires, the GIS Division discovered an estimated $263,000 in annual stormwater utility fees the city had failed to assess and approximately $760,000 in annual property taxes that were not billed. By implementing ArcGIS Server web mapping applications, the GIS Division gave end users the ability directly edit and view their own data on demand, eliminating systemic bottlenecks and extensive data duplication common under the old system and greatly reducing demand for time-consuming and costly creation and printing of paper maps.

Speaker Bios:

Tim Poe
GIS Manager
City of Woodstock
tpoe@woodstockga.gov

Tim Poe is the GIS manager for the City of Woodstock and a member of the advisory board at Kennesaw State University’s Geography & Anthropology Department.

Emily Norton
GIS Analyst
City of Woodstock
enorton@woodstockga.gov

Emily Norton graduated with a B.S. in Geographic Information Science from Kennesaw State University in 2008. She currently works as GIS Analyst for the City of Woodstock.

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Randal Hale GA URISA, Training, URISA GA URISA, Training, URISA

So the march continues with regards to OSM. In my spare time I’m working on my neighborhood. It’s amazing how much I don’t know and I make maps/GIS “stuff” for a living.  I’ve been trying to think of ways to get people involved and it finally hit after a recent presentation up at the NETGIS meeting. Drag the stupid kids into it. Literally. I think kids are more illiterate about geography now than they ever have been.

Up until now editing in OSM has been a bit of a chore – actually it’s a big chore and I find myself struggling to make a decent explanation of editing tools and techniques. So I started using Mapzen. The nicest thing about mapzen is that it simplifies the editing environment. It’s still in beta – but it’s making progress by leaps and bounds. The toolbar looks like this:

Pick what you want and then add it – It’s all visual. If you want to get fancy you can dig into the wiki and get even more detailed. So for now,  here’s what I’ve done compared to the Google:

So in reality I think getting students involved in this would be a good thing. Know your neighborhood. Get the teachers involved. Get the students  involved. Get the parents involved. Build a decent map.

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Randal Hale Google, Open Street Map, Training, education education, Google, Open Street Map, Training

I’m a fan of TED talks. If you haven’t been to the website I highly suggest you go and check it out. It’s a great lunch break if you’re stuck at your desk or just need a break. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The talks I like are tech centric. Typically all talks are done in under 10 minutes.  I guess for all my list of things I want to do – I would love to do a TED talk. Plus it would force me to shut up in 10 minutes. I tend to ramble on papers at User group meetings and during ArcGIS class.

Anyway – I saw this one from a talk last year:

So with all of the heartburn over healthcare these days – this one should make you sit back and think. How many times have you been to a doctor and they’ve wanted to know your life history with respect to your geographic location?  How many physicians or people in the medical field are “spatially aware”?  Anyway – Something to ponder on a Tuesday.

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Randal Hale ArcGIS Desktop

So I’ve got another Desktop II Class scheduled For April 28-30, 2010. Price will be $1175. The last class went off almost without a hitch (except for lack of internet – I’m working on that one).  One added enhancement to the class will be graduation ceremony at Champy’s Fried Chicken. Fried Chicken will not make you better with ESRI software – but it will make you better able to cope with all the problems that will arise. Check the main page for any information about the class or any changes. As always – we’ll be down at the Business Development Center in Chattanooga and within walking distance of good food and free parking. The first one to sign up gets a free lunch each day of the class.

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Randal Hale ArcGIS Desktop, Training ArcGIS Desktop, Training

So as you know – or maybe you don’t – I’m the education chair for Georgia URISA.  Part of what I do is reach out to other GIS groups and get  involved with the community- and put on workshops. So for the first one I’m going with an Open Source Theme.

The workshop is an URISA certified workshop and I’m getting Carl Anderson and Sara Yurman to come in and present. I’m hoping to present also so I can get certified to teach this course.  The title of the workshop is An Overview of Open Source GIS Software. I got a small preview of this topic last year when Sara and Carl presented for a luncheon – it was excellent. The Date is March 24th, 2010

We’re going back to Dahlonega for this one because essentially….uh…..  I like Dahlonega (and I’ll be working on the OSM of this area before the meeting) and I got to pick. The price is $60 bucks for members and $80 for non members. Food is on your own as is lodging if you chose to stay. The goal of these workshops is to keep it cheap and easy. You also get 8 professional education credits you can use towards getting or maintaining a GISP.  Go to the GA URISA website and get registered. Come join us for the fun – it’s a great venue and a good time should be had by all.

See you there.

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Randal Hale GA URISA, Training, URISA Forestry, GA URISA, Training, URISA

If you live in the southeast, you should have noticed by now that it has been raining – a lot. Which for me isn’t that big of a deal.

Well – I had my first map delivery in the rain the other day and it turned into a big deal. They couldn’t get wet….and it was on a Sunday. So alot of stores that I could have went  to get a map tube were closed. I had had a fairly long conversation previous to this day with people about Map Tubes. You have them at art stores, you can order them online, some of the A&E blueprint firms here in town sell them (actually now that I think about it – they may not be in business anymore). If I bought one I really wanted a cool looking Indiana Jones Leather Map tube with an optional bull whip.

What to do?

I’ve had a love hate relationship with plumbing. I live in an old house and have had my fair share of plumbing problems. I have plumbed water lines, septic sewer lines, dug in poo, and stood in water because of plumbing. I’ve used pvc to keep water in….why not out. So for right at $15.00 dollars I have a map tube with a screw on lid.  I didn’t glue it – there are still come things I need to do like put foam in both end caps to keep the edges of my maps from getting folded. Other than that……not too shabby. The maps were delivered and never got wet.

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Randal Hale Cartography, Rambling Cartography, Rambling

So last Friday – I was scheduled to go to Kingsport, TN and give a NetGIS Presentation. It snowed….and now it’s back on for Friday Feb, 12, 2010. I’ll be rolling out on OSM demo and hopefully covering MapZen.

So please come on over. Any questions please contact David Light (dlight@eastman.com).

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Randal Hale Open Street Map NetGIS, Open Street Map

One of my volunteer projects is having a party – the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Student Environmental Alliance collaborates “with island agencies to teach children about their connection with nature and to empower them to be leaders in the protection and restoration of their local environment, particularly the coral reef.”

I got a call a few months back – they had collected GPS points and were placing them on a map – I helped out and stuck them on a map, made a quick database,  and turned them into a KML. They travel back and forth to the Caribbean and work with schools in and around the Chattanooga area.

Anyway – there’s a beach party and they need people there to help raise funds for some new computers and equipment. My plan is to go – but if you notice this is the same day as my Kingsport Trip.

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Randal Hale Uncategorized

Ladies and gentlemen there is a NetGIS meeting in Kingsport TN this Friday. Hopefully the new and improved website for those guys will be out.

I will be boring the attendees with an Open Streetmap Presentation. David will be rolling out the Arc Jr., the Eastman Chemical Mobile GIS Truck.

If you want to show up please email David Light (dlight@eastman.com), the NetGIS President.

Location

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Randal Hale Uncategorized

So I talked about the effort from OSM in Haiti.

When I worked on it the other night – and I should be working on it now – the goal of the volunteers is to capture as much info as possible on everything. Buildings were tagged as collapsed and refugee camps were polygoned off.

Here is the result so far.

It was also just reported that the national GIS director for Haiti, Gina Porcena Meneus,  died in the quake.

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Randal Hale Open Street Map Open Street Map

For those who haven’t seen it except on Television you can now view the the Geoeye imagery in Google Earth.

Click here for the KML

Click Here for More info

As more imagery is made available it will be updated – so save the KML.

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Randal Hale Google Google, imagery

You can now route yourself around the quake damage in Haiti using Open Street Map.

http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/osm-haiti/

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Randal Hale Open Street Map Open Street Map

The risk I run in working the way I do is that I become insulated.

I have spoken at length about Open Street Map. Tonight they are mapping Haiti and I am joining them online. Geoeye that I spoke about in the previosu blog post has now made their imagery available to everyone who wants/needs to use it. So I’m putting 16 years of remote sensing experience to work – and this time for something truly worthwhile. Hopefully everythin I do will be correct……

Link: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti#Who.27s_Helping

Link: http://www.opengeodata.org/2010/01/14/haiti-openstreetmap-response/

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Randal Hale Open Street Map Open Street Map

So by now you’ve heard of the earthquake in Haiti. I know little of Haiti. I do remember several times in the past at church hearing tales of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Anyone that was around in the mid 80’s  got to see the “Boat People” from Haiti streaming into Miami. Since this blog is about all things Geospatial – or at least attempts to be a look at things in that arena I present Satellite Images of Haiti – Post and Pre Earthquake.

Pre Earthquake:

Post:

The Pre-Earthquake imagery comes from Digital Globe courtesy of Google Earth. The Post imagery is courtesy of Geoeye. The interesting thing is how available this data is – Google Earth and a Twitter update and here I sit. The word on several fronts is that Geoeye will have this imagery available in Google Earth shortly. If for no other reason than this is why Google Earth is revolutionary. An almost instant update – Imagery for the masses.  The dots you see in the street are people – the white dots appear to be either tents or bodies.

If you play with Google Earth and take a look at Port-Au-Prince you will see the extreme housing density of the city. It’s amazing. It’s scary. If 1/8 or the houses collapsed that I saw on Google Earth and I can easily understand the earlier reports that had 100,000 are dead/missing.

It also makes me wonder. If the infrastructure is as bad as has been hinted at – how relevant is GIS in this situation. You have nothing to start from – you won’t have time to do it right just because of the scale of destruction. Think about it – Where do you start with GIS to make a difference in a catastrophic situation? Something to think about.  Here’s some imagery – great – I don’t have electricity or a decent vector/building layer with which to work.

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Randal Hale Google, health Google, health

One of the fun things about owning your own business besides the taxes, never ending hours, and the constant drive to please the customers are the projects.

I’ve mentioned it before, but if you’re new here, I will work for free. Sometimes. The work has to intrigue me and add something to life in general. In between paying gigs it’s fun to put a massive amount of software to good use to people who many or many not have access to it. Plus it can be just plain old fun.

Anyway back in the fall of 2009 I receive a phone call from Berry College. Being on the board for GA URISA is great for networking. I had a North Georgia Meeting there last year and some of the staff had attended. Anyway,  Dr Chris Mowry called and had a problem with a project and needed help – could I send or help him find an intern. Berry College isn’t that far down the road and it’s actually a very nice drive. So about a week later there I sat on the campus of Berry College.

The project – Coyotes. For those of you who aren’t from here – we’ve got coyotes. Lots of Coyotes. They came into the area two different ways: people brought them here and migration – or I guess I should really call it a transition. I should really call it a biological term of some sort – but I’m not a biologist. The Coyotes fill a niche in the greater scheme of things since the wolves are no longer out and about. I don’ remember them being here in the 80’s and early 90’s. Now if you have a friend that hunts deer the story will at one point contain the phrase “I shot a coyote”.  I”ve seen them on the side of the road. I”ve seen them hit. I”ve heard them howling at night and last year I had one within a half mile of my house in downtown Chattanooga.

In 2006, Dr. Mowry caught and collared 8 coyotes. The plan was to go out and triangulate their position. You’ve  seen it – go out and hold up an antennae and  take a bearing and a GPS location.  Travel a bit and take another reading. From that you can triangulate the position….and I’ve incredibly oversimplified this since I’ve gotten the chance to do this once. So over three years worth of data collection you were able to generate this map:

They had collected the locations into a spreadsheet with  a lot of other information. The problem is what could you do with that pile of data. Here is what I did:

• First – clean up the spreadsheet.
• Second – fix the date field(s).
• Third – pull it all together.
• Finally – pull it into a geodatabase with subtypes and domains.

Then what? Here’s where the fun occurs. It was and continues to be my contention that this company’s strength lies in GIS. Give us a problem, describe it, and we’ll get the answer. That’s what we did and are still doing in this case. The ability to talk/reason through a problem is an art. The ability to translate from GIS to Biology is beyond art. I developed Home Ranges, I developed Core Areas.  We’re now in a search to find imagery and more data to adequately describe the landscape and start making some decisions on their environment.  Now – I wasn’t particularly happy with how I went through some of this. There was alot of back and forth on the abilities of ArcGIS and the general lack of information out on the Internet on developing some of this data. Plus a lot of contradictory information on what needed to be done.  Also – it really pointed out how powerful Python is to fixing problems and how much more I need to spend working with it. It really highlighted a segment of my past life with Open Source Software – people need to be more open. If you provide free software – make it truly free. Provide the source code.

Home Ranges are nothing more than a Minimum Convex Polygons. Core areas are a statistical (more or less) representation of the area the animal inhabits the big break seems to be at 50% and 95%. So it’s like a statistical “Hot Spot” analysis – and not the “Hot Spot” functionality you get with Spatial Analyst. That drove me to use a program call Animal Space Use. This highlighted the disconnect between the GIS community and everyone else. In order to get the output from Animal Space Use I used a process developed by the Georgia Coastal Ecosytem LTER. They had developed a process that involved Excel and VBA scripts from within ArcGIS.  People who aren’t GIS people develop answers to problems good or bad – work must continue. The answer works until the new version of ArcGIS comes out. Then a new answer gets rolled out and the vicious cycle continues. I really think that the bridge between Animal Space Use and  the solution from Georgia Coastal Ecosystem either lies in .net or python. Python would probably be more stable. I’m currently thinking about seeing how much of it I can replicate in python to see what could be accomplished. Setting this up as a model would make life much much better.

Oh yeah – the point of all this – Coyotes actually inhabit an important niche. At least I think. As long as I can continue to provide GIS support and not filter through Coyote scat I’ll be quite happy.

Anyway – the coyote fun Continues. Curious? Contact Dr. Mowry at cmowry@berry.edu .

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Randal Hale ArcGIS Desktop, Conservation, GA URISA, Python ArcGIS Desktop, Conservation, GA URISA, Python, Spatial Analysis