David Fletcher: GIS

4-H and GIS

Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:04:52 GMT

Raylene Ireland has announced that Utah will be the first State in the nation to provide both unemployment insurance and child support payments via an electronic payment card. The card is supported through a contract with Affiliated Computer Services.

4-H clubs in Utah now offer GIS programs. The programs are supported with grants from ESRI. The also receive support from Utah State University and Utah's Automated Geographic Reference Center. I was a member of a 4-H entomology program growing up, but they didn't offer anything like this. Sounds like a great addition.

GIS Expo in Salt Lake City

Tue, 23 Nov 2004 14:59:38 GMT

The Grand Canyon webcam is one of many great webcams operated by the Dept. of the Interior. The site also offers a nice summary of current conditions in one of my favorite national parks.

The Southwest Alliance is a group of people in the area surrounding Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah that have joined together to influence state and local government decisions. UTOPIA has begun construction of their fiber network in Orem. Service is supposed to be available in the first half of 2005. Orem is one of a number of Utah cities who use Petfinder to list animals at their animal shelter. It looks like a great way to add another egov service to a cities website since Petfinder offers their service free which allows users to search for pets by zipcode (proximity). The Mountainland Association of Governments has a trailfinder GIS application that maps out the growing number of trails in the area.

Virginia has always been pretty good at egov and the cities in the Hampton Roads area seem to be among the leaders. They are implementing a variety of new cost-saving, service-enhancing initiatives.

Here is California's Strategic IT Plan which was released this month by CIO Clark Kelso. The CIO will appoint a Director of e-Services that will focus on the implementation of five key projects that will be selected in specific areas by March of 2005. The e-Services Director will support business-driven initiatives similar to what we did here with the Deputy CIO over eGovernment. By March 2005, the CIO will create a cross-agency workgroup similar to Utah's eGovernment Product Management Council and will appoint a Geospatial Information Officer (GIO). I think that we already have that in Dennis Goreham, the manager of Utah's Automated Geographic Reference Center. By the way, speakers at the GIS Expo scheduled for December 9th in Salt Lake City will include experts from AGRC. You can register online with ESRI.

The Dept. of Interior operates a couple of portal sites that I was previously unaware of; the National Business Center, which is involved in a variety of egov initiatives and the PMB web portal.

GeoINT

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:43:17 GMT

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (formerly NIMA) produces a periodical called Pathfinder. The latest issue has an article on geoint. Geospatial intelligence has involved significantly since the days when I was developing and implementing applications for the Microfix in the eighties, but it's still very powerful.

The Heritage Foundation is producing some interesting stuff on Homeland Security-related technologies.

Illinois Atlas

Thu, 27 May 2004 13:55:57 GMT

Illinois Atlas is an excellent resource for maps of that state. The maps each portray an important story and are very consistent and high quality in their presentation. Categories are very clear and understandable. This resource appears to be heavily supported by Northern Illinois University's Center for Government Studies, an excellent example of cooperation between higher education and government.

The state of New Hampshire has made some significant improvements to their portal since I last looked. They have added new services, changed the look to something more 21st century, made it more dynamic. At the same time, if you look at the arc, it is clearly not very smooth, the state seal graphic is quite unclear, the menu system is somewhat slow in responding. In spite of those issues it is a major step forward from where they were previously.

Governor, Officials Sign Utah Digital Spatial Data Sharing and Integration Project MOU

Wed, 26 May 2004 15:11:26 GMT

Tuesday, Gov. Olene Walker and representatives from several state and federal agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) providing a mechanism to cooperatively create and share impartial and credible digital spatial data.

"This next-generation technology allows us to literally see our state with a new perspective and make decisions based on a different perception," Walker said. "From economic development to land use decisions, geographic information systems (GIS) technology will benefit Utah in a variety of ways, enabling us to work smarter as a state."

Digital spatial data, the information that forms the foundation of GIS technology, contains the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features and boundaries on the earth. This data allows governmental and private sector entities to build maps and other resources for use in decision making, analysis of current issues and democratic governance.

Signers of the MOU recognized that federal, state and local agencies and organizations need and use similar geographic data. This agreement will help decrease the duplicated development of the same data and will generate standardized data.

The governor made reference to one use of GIS technology when she spoke of the 2000 tornado that hit downtown Salt Lake City. Following the unexpected event, the technology was used to produce photos of the affected areas, enabling responding agencies and other organizations to more effectively visualize the damage and form response plans.

"This MOU is just another example of the good that comes when agencies work together," Walker said. "I am confident today’s agreement will help move this technology forward, making it an even greater benefit to our communities."

Other agencies listed on the MOU and providing signatories are as follows:

Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Forest Service
National Park Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Census Bureau
National Geodetic Survey
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Utah State University Extension
U.S. Department of Transportation
Utah Association of Conservation Districts
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Baltimore's Innovative Use of GIS

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:53:37 GMT

The U.S. Airforce is now requiring that all office supply purchases be made through online vendors.

Dickenson County, Virginia is creating an electronic village. The village will also provide space for citizen forums and businesses who want more online exposure.

Baltimore offers a couple of very nice, GIS-supported websites that help citizens identify what the city is doing in capital improvements, fighting crime, and art and culture.

Location-Based Services

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:33:38 GMT

According to the PSI Group, "If there is a single Web-enabled function that defines the leading edge of egovernment implementation, it is the presence of online GIS applications." The effective use of GIS is key to being able to provide location-based services. In a recent meeting of our wireless citizen portal team, we discussed location-based services as one of the key components for a wireless portal. In the future, the wireless government portal will recognize the location of the user and respond with relevant services and information. This will include voice, data, video, etc. depending on the needs and requirements of the user. PSI's recently published whitepaper gives many examples of how GIS is being used creatively by local government.

I recently wrote about Provo City's online parking ticket appeals service. Charles Kaylor of the PSI Group responds:

My organization, the Public Sphere Information Group maintains the Municipality eGovernment Assessment Project (www.psigroup.biz/megap), which tracks 75 some odd performance dimensions that relate for the most part to specific online services and features (some odder than others as it turns out). One of them is contesting parking tickets.

So here's some data from our second wave of observations of all cities over 100K (conducted in 2001 -- Wave 3 will be released soon, I'll keep you posted):

-- 3 other cities with interactive parking ticket referees: Charlotte, NC; Cambridge, MA and Stamford, CT
-- 9 cities make a "contest your ticket" form available for download (Berkeley, CA; Des Moines,IA; Escondido, CA; Modesto, CA; New York, NY; Raleigh, NC; Riverside, CA; San Jose, CA; and Winston-Salem, NC)
-- Another 25 provide contact information or some other information about parking ticket contestation.

That's a total of 37 cities out of 239 offering this feature (a distinct minority to be sure -- 15.4%)

I really only consider the first to be a real e-government online service and unique from providing a form or information. That could just as easily be provided, and often is, when the ticket is received.

Local eGovernment

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 15:57:44 GMT

Provo City has a new online service that I haven't seen elsewhere. You can contend a parking ticket online. I would like to see the breakdown of how many online appeals are upheld. As mentioned elsewhere, iProvo is moving ahead.

We need to offer some assistance to Juab County on their website. Take a look, for example, at the page for the Juab County Attorney. These ovals are pretty ugly. And someone needs to tell Emery County that it's no longer 2002. However, their link to "2002 meetings" actually takes you to a 2003 meeting schedule. eGovernment is not a one time event. You can't put up a website and forget about it. Other small counties like Tooele and Kane have developed very nice websites although they don't have much in the way of online services.

Weber County's GeoGizmo application is an incredibly robust GIS application that tells you everything about a given piece of property, including tax history for the past ten years. It even gives you a specific breakout of what your property taxes paid for. For example, after clicking on a particular property, I received this breakout of what their $570 in property tax paid for:

Taxing Entity Name	Tax Rate	Amount
GENERAL FUND	0.00188	$66.55
G O BOND FUND	0.000406	$14.37
LIBRARY	0.000562	$19.89
OGDEN CITY SCHOOL DISTR	0.007284	$257.85
MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTR	0.000111	$3.93
WEBER BASIN WATER - GENERAL	0.000196	$6.94
WEBER BASIN WATER - OGDEN	0.000282	$9.98
CENTRAL WEBER SEWER DISTR	0.000574	$20.32
OGDEN CITY	0.004061	$143.76
WEBER / MORGAN HEALTH	0.000187	$6.62
PARAMEDIC FUND	0.000234	$8.28
STATE ASSESS & COLLECT / MULTI	0.000181	$6.41
ASSESS & COLLECT / COUNTY	0.000159	$5.63
Totals	0.016117	$570.54

New services presented at Utah Product Management Council

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 23:20:05 GMT

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt used some themes discussed with the Western Information Technology Council in August in his first speech at the EPA. I just noticed that complete notes from the three day WITC meetings are online, including for the Governor Leavitt's presentation with Jim Souby. There is some very good information here on topics like e-authentication, enterprise architecture, and of course egovernment.

Administrator Leavitt is rolling out a 500-day plan with a 5000 day horizon - a lot like his 1,000 day plan in Utah that had a 10,000 day horizon. "More. Better. Faster. Newer. That’s the tune you will hear from me." That's what we're hearing from Gov. Walker in Utah as well. Since she moved offices, the pace has been frenetic.

The December meeting of the Utah Product Management Council was this morning. AGRC presented a new GIS-related service that will allow users to make a SOAP-based request to the SGID and will return a map with specific information. UII presented an overview of their development of a web-services based payment gateway that will allow all state agencies to quickly implement any kind of new payment-based online transaction service. XML will be returned to the agency once the transaction has been processed through the payment gateway that will facilitate agency-level reconciliation. This has been an excellent year for e-government in Utah with the introduction of a new state portal and business portal, winning Best-of-the-Web, the One-Stop Business Registration, proliferation of RSS feeds and news services, and the rollout of UWIN and Utah Cares. The Council is now charged with matching and bettering that in 2004.

AGRC's presentation
Bert wrote this about Utah's GIS internet strategy for ESRI
NSGIC's Utah profile
The Utah Division of Water Rights has developed a nice set of both static and interactive maps

An article on Utah Cares appeared in Federal Computer Week.

Productivity growth as announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the third quarter is amazing. 9.4 annual growth for the nonfarm business sector is phenomenal. That should result in more business expansion. We need to see that same kind of increased productivity in government.

Firemaps

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:07:10 GMT

I woke up yesterday morning to the smell of smoke in the air and left home wondering where the fire was. USDA has posted some excellent maps of current fire activity, most of which, obviously, is in California. The fire I smelled was the 1500 acre "Cherry Creek" fire east of Springville, probably 25 miles away. The Large Incident fire map developed by the Remote Sensing Applications Center gives a quick overview of fires throughout the country. Check out this MODIS map for detail of what is happening in California. What is wrong at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection? The state is burning and there is no news about what is happening. Fire data only extends through September. This graphic from the LA Times tells a lot. Interesting that all the data sources are federal.

RS2004 a remote sensing applications conference will be held in Salt Lake City on April 5-9, 2004. Abstracts are due on January 12, 2004.

By the way, the filibuster is over. Expect Governor Leavitt to be confirmed by the Senate this morning at 8:30 am Mountain time. He already is putting plans in place and has some creative ideas that he will introduce to the agency.

Statewide Zoning Layer Needed

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:43:33 GMT

Kory Holdaway, chair of the Public Utilities and Technology committee of the Utah legislature wants a statewide GIS zoning layer (he's also the chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission for Taylorsville City - here's their zoning map). It makes sense, especially if we want to day any kind of statewide or regional planning. We also need a layer that identifies key regional facilities and infrastructure such as mass transit. Currently, this data is not part of the 180 data layers in the State Geographic Information Database supported by AGRC. This may sound like a lot, but I think that it barely scratches the surface of the potential uses for GIS in the state. Maybe GISAC needs to add zoning to their priority data layers. AGRC supports websites for the following organizations:

Utah Aerial Photography and Orthoimagery Consortium
Geographic Information Systems Advisory Council (GISAC)
Quality Growth Efficiency Tools (QGET) - it looks like some local zoning data was once available through QGET
G5 (Five County GIS Group)
Geospatial Service and Technology Center
Canyon Country Partnership

In his Masters Thesis, A Spatio-Temporal Data Model for Zoning delivered in 2001, Phillip Uhl presents a case for maintaining spatial data for historical purposes in addition to providing a tool for future planning efforts. Here's another important role for State Archives if they are able to step up and fill it - in cooperation with AGRC.

Jackson County, Oregon, (Medford) is an area that really seems to understand GIS and its potential within government. Check out their site at www.smartmap.org

The Southwest Users Group, a consortium of GIS professionals meets on Oct. 25-27 in Jackson Hole.

New PDF collaboration tool

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 19:55:31 GMT

Infodata has released a new product aimed at government markets. Called Content Assembly and Publishing Solution for the Government and Intelligence Communities, the product integrates with content management tools to collaborate in the production of PDF documents.

In the latest newsletter from the Office of Intergovernmental Solutions, Martha Dorris asks, "Can governments afford not to collaborate?" There is also an article on the National Integrated Land System (NILS) which is "the first step toward an E-government solution for a common, parcel-based Geographic Information System (GIS) that shares land record information among federal, state, and local governments, as well as with the private sector." Geocommunicator provides a portal for many of these services.

Feds Launch Geodata

Wed, 02 Jul 2003 14:35:36 GMT

The GeoSpatial One Stop launched yesterday under the URL geodata.gov. Take a look at the national map. Selected feature sets change automatically as you drill down to more detail.

We have had a similar site up for several years called maps.utah.gov. Atlas.utah.gov is a dynamic, interactive map service. Quite a few new maps have been added to this resource, including the SGID interactive map.

Rob Salzman mentions the Oregon Coastal Atlas, a product produced by the Oregon Coastal Management Program.

Oil and Gas Assessments

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 19:47:23 GMT

The USGS has developed a very robust, interactive map utility for identifying features from its oil and gas assessments. One which would be of current interest is the assessment data for the Book Cliffs region of Utah which is in the Uinta-Piceance Basin. BLM has approved oil and gas surveys in the Book Cliffs which are being performed by Veritas, but is being challenged by environmental groups.

News and Notes

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 19:56:15 GMT

CIO Magazine takes a look at the E-Government Act of 2002.

FEMA establishes an interagency geospatial team.

Yesterday was the official live date for Utah's new SAP-based payroll system.

The GAO released a report today on best practices in the area of IT training and posted a report on the efforts of the financial sector to address cyber threats. GAO's analysis of DoD's efforts to implement an enterprise IT architecture is also of interest.

Slate criticizes the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace

Red Herring closes its doors.

The board which drafted the national cybersecurity strategy and the position of White House special adviser on cybersecurity (formerly Richard Clarke) were officially dissolved yesterday.

Intel releases its "Most Unwired Cities" ranking based on cities and regions with the greatest wireless Internet accessibility. Most of the top 10 are in the West, but Salt Lake City only comes in at 40th. We're working on that.

Homeland Security and GIS

Tue, 25 Feb 2003 20:55:29 GMT

An article in GovExec, Mapping a More Secure Future, emphasizes the importance of GIS in support of homeland security efforts. It is certainly a valuable tool in the area of incident management and eTeam has made a good start towards integrating GIS into homeland security. Here's a few ideas about how GIS can be used to address specific homeland security issues

Risk Assessment
- Identify and evaluate potential hazards, risks, and probabilities.
  - This may relate to infrastructure protection by graphically identifying potential targets and vulnerabilities in ways that facilitate planning and preparedness.
- Determine mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery needs.
Mitigation of Risk and Vulnerability
- Mitigate risk by planning and deploying resources in ways that reduce the risk. GIS helps you recognize vulnerabilities and preposition relevant resources
Preparedness
- Compile federal/state resource inventories.
  - A GIS enabled database is used in eTeam to quickly respond to emergencies with necessary resources
- Install early warning and detection systems - Biosensor and detection systems
- Perform training and mobilization exercises.
- Predetermine emergency response forces.
- Stockpile vital food and medical supplies.
Response
- Support of search and rescue, emergency shelter, medical care, mass feeding.
- Maps that identify affected areas to prevent further injury, looting, or other problems.
- Damage Assessment.
Recovery
- Following two separate tornato incidents, AGRC mapped the path and damage to provide visual information to FEMA and insurance companies

Utah State University is working on a number of key technologies such as sensor networks and antiviral research for homeland security. Here's a summary of some of their research and activities.

Marginally related: An interesting presentation by NASA discussing the use of nano-scale inputs for the remote detection of complex geobiological systems.

Incident Management System Update

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:53:39 GMT

Just got back from a demonstration of eTeam that is being given to emergency management people in the state. eTeam's leadership role in creating a standards body known as the Emergency XML (EM-XML) Consortium is encouraging to me. We need integration between our incident management system and other critical information generating systems like dispatch systems, etc. Roland Squire, the HS project manager is asking the right questions. We need to make sure that someone from the AGRC is involved in providing GIS support to the eTeam implementation group.

e911, Homeland Security, Wireless, and Smart Mobs

Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:43:37 GMT

David Stephenson argues that it is time to turn homeland security over to "smart mobs,"

It's time for the resources that individuals have already invested in to become a cornerstone of Homeland Security strategy and services. As Steve Proctor, executive director of the Utah Communications Agency Network (UCAN), said to Federal Computer Week, "My cellular phone has more functionality and costs a lot less than our radio systems."

The power of those devices could become even greater with the proper federal regulations. If the FCC would stop giving extensions to wireless carriers and force them to start providing e911 services, which would allow precisely locating a given cell phone, it would be possible to customize evacuation plans based on your specific location at all times, as well as alerting you to, for example, a biohazard plume heading your way.

Representative Brad Dees is sponsoring Management, Enhancement, and Funding of the 911 System, a bill that will support what David is calling for. The funding proposal includes $0.01 per phone call to support the integration of GIS systems to be able to determine where a cell call is placed from which will create many new opportunities.

Geospatial Acronyms

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:32:53 GMT

If you're interested in geospatial activity, interoperability standards, GIS, and related technologies, as well as homeland security, here are some acronyms to be aware of:

NIMA
ECHUM
UCDM
NSGI
NSGI (standards and interoperability)
ITSI
DIGEST (Digital Geographic Information Exchange Standard)

More Tech News

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 01:00:53 GMT

The New York Times reports that crime is soaring in cyberspace.

The Utah Attorney General is defending Utah's new internet predator law.

Bill Gates is seeking cures for the world's ailments.

Simon Moores discusses information security in the eGov Monitor.

The recent Senate funding package includes $728,000 for the Intermountain Region Digital Image Archive and Processing Center at Utah State University and $291,300 for a wilderness mapping initiative. According to Senator Bennett:

Currently no centralized Geologic Information System (GIS) database of wilderness inventories for the USFS or BLM exists. This program would involve the compilation, analysis and integration of GIS related information into a user-friendly package that could be accessed by public and private entities for the purposes of land use planning. The state of Utah will receive the funds from the BLM and distribute them to the appropriate counties in the state.

Interactive Map / Interactive Democracy

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 19:36:54 GMT

The Provo City Council and School Board have worked with BYU to create a great interactive application that allows citizens to provide input in the creation of school board and council district boundaries. The application uses Adobe's SVG viewer. Users can create their own district alignment proposals for the Council, the School Board or both by creating their own simple map of the city. Once a map has been created that works on a proportionate population basis, the proposal can be submitted to the Council and entered into the official record, "the same as if you commented in a council meeting."

EnviroMapper

Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:51:48 GMT

EPA continues to impress with their EnviroMapper application. You can access a map by zip code or address that has all of the associated water dischargers, superfund sites, hazardous waste sites, toxic releases, air emissions, and BRS generators for the given area. It is very dynamic with the ability to drill down to various point-source data. Here's a nice online poster of drinking water protection. Here is their strategic plan for homeland security which focuses on actions to (1) understand and utilize the best scientific information and technologies for water security; (2) support assessment of utilities’ vulnerabilities to possible attack; (3) take action to improve security; and (4) respond effectively and efficiently in the event that an incident occurs.

Phil Windley discusses sensornets on his weblog, something I've been interested in for several years. A lot of the data he's talking about is already available in realtime on the internet. For example, here is realtime streamflow data for Utah maintained by USGS. Near real-time seismic data is maintained by the University of Utah here. Now, as far as it being available in some readily usable or combinable format such as XML, I don't know. Some data was removed in September 2001 in the interest of national security.

Geotags

Mon, 20 Jan 2003 20:39:22 GMT

I finally added geotags to my site today. Looks like D. Mitchell's Random Thoughts blog is about the closest weblog around that's using geotags (other than Windley). Looking through his prior posts, I found this great blogging tool resource.

Carbon County GIS

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 19:47:55 GMT

Carbon County (UT) is doing some good things with GIS and online maps. You can look at gas wells, zoning areas, and more. With some of the interactive maps, you automatically convert to aerial photography at higher resolution and can pull up address specific information. Online querying is also available. Not bad for a county with less than 20,000 people.

Live webcam of CEU campus in Price, Utah

Geospatial Interoperability

Fri, 27 Dec 2002 21:14:13 GMT

The Geospatial Interoperability Reference Model (GIRM) is now available online. The goal is to facilitate and promote the use of georeferenced information from multiple sources over the Internet which would require interoperability among the software systems that provide geospatial data, maps, services, and user applications. The standard is promoted by the OpenGIS Consortium.

I also just ran across Bob Raskin's useful guide on using Web Mapping Server (WMS) protocols for distributing data products to display maps on the web.