Sarasota County Water Core Service GIS has employed ESRI’s ArcServer to report base flood elevations and to visualize parcel flood zone status. Prior to ArcServer, county staff relied on a combination of Avenue scripts and paper maps for base flood elevation reporting and FEMA flood zone determinations. In the application, the user enters a Parcel Identification Number and 3 feature classes are automatically queried for the required base information. An ESRI sample control, GridResults, returns query results in a user-friendly, tabular format. This control contains built in functions for selecting and zooming to records, eliminating the need to code those functions separately. All custom coding is done in VB.NET. Lastly, the application is lightweight, reducing the number of software installations and license requirements county-wide.
Gwinnett County covers an area of 438 square miles and is located in the Atlanta Metro Area with a population of over 750,000. With the size of Gwinnett County and the growth we continue to experience, we have a vast water and sewer infrastructure to manage and maintain. Since the implementation of GIS at Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources we have realized savings in a variety of areas. This presentation will provide a brief summation of our existing water and sewer infrastructure and a detailed description of what and where we have experienced a savings over previous methods. We will discuss savings associated with our maintenance crews, customer service and financial benefits by comparing our previous methods versus our current GIS methods.
Hydrological Simulation Program—FORTRAN (HSPF) is a U.S. EPA program for simulation of watershed hydrology and water quality for both conventional and toxic organic pollutants. St. Johns River Water Management District engineers use this model extensively to simulate hydrologic and water-quality processes. Existing HSPF visualization tools require some understanding of model input and output, which may be difficult for those not familiar with the model. To enable District staff and management to identify modeled areas, and extract and visualize targeted data from model binary files, two tools were developed. The first is an HSPF registration tool, which copies model input and output files to a central repository and registers their contents against an Arc Hydro geodatabase. The second tool is an ArcMap HSPF visualization tool, which works in tandem with the registration tool. Users can select parameter hierarchies and combinations, and then view result data (time series) in a graph or export the results to a text file.
A recent initiative to expand water use per capita reporting requirements throughout the Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) has intensified the debate over which factors exert the greatest influence on this water use efficiency measure. Per capita water use is the average number of gallons per day used by a utility divided by the population served. Per capita water use is used by the District and public supply utilities to estimate the level of water use efficiency for each utility.
The above mentioned study is being expanded to add additional utilities and years of data. The process for calculating net irrigation requirements (NIR) for these 45 water use service areas was very inefficient in the first phase of the study, requiring the use of 3 different software platforms. Moreover, if the water use service area mapped changes, the whole process had to start from scratch. There is clearly a need for a faster and better way of calculating available water capacity and net irrigation requirements for all water use areas in the District.
The presentation will focus on model mechanics using ESRI's ArcGIS ModelBuilder, includingcustom Python scripting. The model output demonstrates the estimation of soil available water capacity and net irrigation requirement for all the service areas using GIS. These estimates will advance the discussion of the effect of soils and weather on per capita water use. More specifically, this model may assist in the forecasting and analysis of water use Districtwide.
Effective enterprise address management is imperative for all local governments. This presentation will help you to understand the many local government disciplines affected by addressing and the need for managed processes that assure accuracy. The Addresser provides all of the tools to standardize and streamline the addressing process. Utilitizing your business rules assures compliance of point addressing, block-range addressing, and the capture of common routing attributes. The Addresser compliments the full range of ESRI technologies including personal and enterprise geodatabases as well as ArcGIS Server.
GIS and CAMA integration is a lot more than simply establishing spatial joins from CAMA tables to parcel polygons. GIS and CAMA integration is about enforcing business rules at the point of data capture, eliminating duplicate data entry, and ensuring real-time notification of parcel changes between GIS and CAMA. These goals need to be met through a solution that is transparent to the users, and is executed without adding tasks to the inherently complex land records workflow.
For this to happen, GIS and CAMA vendors need to work together effectively. Our industry is littered with failed attempts by vendors to prove expertise in all aspects of land records management. Domain expertise needs to be respected, and integration at both the database and application tiers needs to be established.
The technical approach featured in this session is to focus on loosely coupled systems that communicate in the applications tier when they need to, while constantly sharing data in the database tier. GIS and CAMA systems are integrated at the user level through workflow management interfaces, which handle real time integration in the background, while allowing mappers to work within comfortable GIS workflows and appraisal users to work within comfortable CAMA workflows. This approach allows both the GIS and CAMA vendor the freedom to enhance their systems independently while minimizing the risk of impacting the overall land records workflow. It also serves to avoid the pitfall of one “all encompassing” GIS/CAMA product that often ends up playing to the lowest common denominator to maintain a “single system” architecture. We’ll show how this technical solution is relatively easy to implement, and how this shared knowledge can result in the best solution for the assessment office.
Geographic Information Services, Inc. (GISi) has developed repeatable, custom ArcGIS Server solutions that automate some of the more common tasks on local government GIS Departments’ plates. GISi also recently signed the paperwork with another ESRI Business Partner to resell and implement their off-the-shelf ArcGIS Server Mobile software. Come spend 30 minutes with us learning more about these repeatable solutions.
The ArcGIS Server Map Book application automates the entire map book generation process removing the GIS Department from the paper production process. Users select the layers they would like to see in the map book and can choose to print the entire map book, or a selected set to a network printer or a PDF document.
The ArcGIS Server Data Download application streamlines the entire data request and production process. Users can download data by layer, map extent, or selected set and have the choice of downloading in different data formats:
The ArcGIS Server Public Viewer application extends the ESRI out-of-the-box map template with easy to use query tools and incorporates a tabbed view concept making it easy to toggle between different views based on different departments.
Introducing 3-GIS LLC.’s ArcGIS Server Mobile solution (Express Server and Field Express Chameleon) that is revolutionizing the field data collection process.
This presentation illustrates the possible uses of GIS and CMMS in an overall city or county environment. GIS combined with work order management can be a very powerful tool and the approach presented in this paper illustrates the long-term benefits of an on-going GIS-centric work order maintenance management program.
The paper also addresses a city or county’s need to have a Work Management System with full GIS integrations. Not only for the everyday benefits of cost savings and better management, but also for disaster repair and recovery situations and reporting to FEMA or other agencies quickly and accurately.
Imagine viewing your datasets in an interactive 3D environment. Recently, the Florida Department of Transportation, District-4 (FDOT-4) did just that; they conducted a public workshop presenting the existing and proposed project conditions of the Central Broward Transit Corridor in a 3D virtual environment. The technology used to achieve this is called Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation. What is VR Simulation and how can it be used with GIS applications?
This session will walk GIS planners and designers through a case study on how VR Simulation was used by FDOT-4. The presentation focuses on how GIS assets such as aerial imagery can use VR Simulation to create interactive 3D virtual reality databases and how they can be incorporated into Internet based environments similar to Google Earth etc. The presentation will address the pros and cons of VR Simulation as well as typical production schedules and costs.
VR Simulation can be used as a key TOOL when striving for a creative approach to GIS Planning and Design issues. It can help save time, money and consensus on projects.
Paratransit services have increasingly become more automated over the years; the introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) employed as a spatial analytical tool in the delivery of Paratransit services has led to improved efficiency and fleet management in space and time.
GIS was introduced at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Paratransit division to address a variety of issues which required precise location analysis and the spatial extent of service areas. The advanced geoprocessing tools within a geographic context were utilized to solve the spatial demands such as geocoding services, wait time for travelers, actual run time between stops, time transfers, origin/destination information, ADA ride eligibility, among other applications.
GIS Modeling facilitated the optimization of street datasets for network analysis. As the growth of network datasets was experienced it was transformed into rich attribute models representing cost impedances, connectivity rules, intricate network datasets enabling sophisticated analysis.
Furthermore GIS datasets utilized in Paratransit applications enhanced the integration of diverse datasets creating a platform for future development of GIS oriented web-enabled fleet management services.
GIS is being utilized in Valdosta, GA to explore the where, why and how of vehicle, pedestrian and bike crashes. the outcome has helped to reinforce a strategy to create a one-way pair of streets traversing the city.
This presentation will demonstrate how crash and moving violation data is gathered and analyzed for this South Georgia community. The analysis of both intersection and mid-block collisions help reveal some of the secret causes of traffic collisions. Everything from land uses and commercial redevelopment to sidewalk conditions are examined for thier potential to contribute to a crash. The relationship of non-crash producing ticketed violations to crash locations is another revealing peice in the puzzle of car crashes.
This presentation will also demonstrate a modified ArcScene 3d animation that is easily shared to help generate better understanding for such a radical change in traffic flow.
Development of spatial analysis tools has increasingly assisted decision making in all facets of transportation planning. In this example, the ArcGIS suite of software was used in the development of preliminary corridors for the US 17 Corridor Study in North Carolina’s coastal region based on a least-cost model utilizing two constraining layers: natural environment and human features. The least-cost GIS model determines the alternative path that will have the least overall impact, combined with the shortest physical distance, from select project terminii. A least-cost path was calculated and secondary or multiple paths (corridors) were interpolated from the resultant output. These paths served as the basis and guide for determining the least constrained area for a new location roadway and which potential alternatives should be studied further.
Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater 11:00 a.m.–noon, Ballroom 2
Stormwater runoff is an important component of the Hydrologic Cycle. But the increase of impervious surfaces such as the buildings, roads, parking lots etc reduce the infiltration of runoff into the ground and creates many problems such as flooding, cause I&I problems that result in increased loading on the wastewater treatment plants, and can also cause major damage of the infrastructure such as roads and property. Local governments and municipalities regularly deal with these issues usually after any storm or any flooding event or a Hurricane. If the storm water runoff is properly managed, it helps the people and the local governments in many ways. One of the proper management of storm water can be implemented by using ArcGIS. An ArcGIS-based data inventory not only helps monitor existing storm water management practices but also guides planning officials in analyzing the vulnerable areas, retrofitting existing facilities, and identifying potential locations for implementing new storm water best management practices (BMPs).
The Pinellas Park is a city located in central Pinellas County in the State of Florida. The District is divided into five drainage basins with a primary channel system draining each basin for conveyance of stormwater runoff.
The District staff conducts monthly maintenance work in some areas in each drainage basin. The monthly maintenance work done by all equipment is recorded by hand each month and entered electronically into a Central Database System using ArcGIS. Once this data inventory is created, these data sets can be used in various storm water management applications. The ArcGIS database created is serving as a guide for the District for planning and implementation of proposed drainage improvements within the District’s boundaries and documents the maintenance work conducted for several years. By performing the drainage improvements, the conveyance capacity of stormwater increases in the channels and reduce local flooding in case of any storm or a hurricane. The database when combined with other ArcGIS data layers like FEMA maps, wetlands, impervious surfaces, contours, landuse, trenches, infiltration galleries becomes a valuable source and play an important role in stormwater management by reducing the impervious surfaces and decreasing runoff. Thus this methodology adopted using ArcGIS is helping in preserving the natural drainage pattern.
The advent of Katrina and other storms throughout the United States have caused greater scrutiny for our nation’s dams and levees. Will they hold back surging tides, extreme rainfall and wind driven waves from future storms? This paper shows how the Jacksonville District Corps of Engineers, (CESAJ) uses ARCGIS to deal with one of these deadly elements – the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) event. CESAJ uses a computer program, HMR52, to estimate PMP for a given watershed. HMR52 computes the storm area and size, representing them as concentric elliptical rings and develops rainfall intensity for each ring. These rings are “referenced” with a storm center, axial orientation and basin boundaries. Through python scripting, ARCGIS will: 1) geo-reference the storm center with real coordinates, 2) compute basin boundaries, 3) sub-areally “clip” the elliptical rings to the basin boundary, and 4) create a grid of this PMP rainfall ready for hydrologic model input.
State and Local Government 11:00 a.m.–noon, Daytona Room
As internal applications become dependent on the address data provided by GIS, Charlotte County faced a variety of issues including legacy application instability, data integrity, as well as inefficiencies in data maintenance. By developing and implementing a customized address and street data model, Charlotte County was able to overcome these issues while keeping the maintenance of the data quick and easy. This presentation will explain the data model in detail as well as demonstrate the application used to maintain and validate the data.
Eufuala, a town of 13,300 in southeastern Alabama, developed a 2020 Vision Plan based on the principles of sustainability. To implement the Vision Plan, GIS was utilized to inventory the city’s urban and natural infrastructure and model the development suitability of the city’s 48,000 acres. Spatial Analyst and Model Builder were used to develop a raster-based weighted overlay suitability model. Utility values were assigned to conducive and restrictive factors associated with development and conservation and processed in the model. The final model output was a multiple-utility assignment surface depicting development suitability in Eufaula. The results of the suitability analysis were used to develop a SmartCode-based sector plan to promote conservation, urban infill, and development patterns that are compact, walkable and mixed use. The entire project was developed with community involvement and process and results modification occurred during public meetings.
Generally in probation offices, the agent with the lowest case count would receive the next one. The end result was that the agents found themselves running from one end of the jurisdiction to the other spending inordinate amounts of time traveling rather than in contact with the offender.
In South Carolina, a project has been implemented that could result in a 50% saving in travel time and travel cost. With the aid of technology, single agent supervision zones were developed using an algorithm based travel arteries, offender location, and contact requirements. In case of staff turnover, zones have been designed to allow for the shifting of caseloads without having to reconfigure zones. Expected outcomes include not only the cost savings but that agents will become more familiar with their neighborhoods that will encourage better interface with local social and law enforcement resources.
We address the problem of reducing fatal crashes by identifying segments on Alabama's highways that that could most benefit from increased law enforcement. We begin by setting the stage with a series of questions we need to address when creating a system aimed at this problem. We then describe our background and progress toward this goal at CRDL, the University of Alabama's CARE Research and Development Laboratory. Unlike most works that identify hot-spots using only historic crash data, we are also able to incorporate citation data. We look for road segments where citations are under or over represented when compared to crashes. We also consider measuring the influence of citations on crashes in an attempt to find the areas were future citations will be the most effective.
State and Local Government 1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m., Daytona Room
In 2005, the Florida Legislature adopted Chapter 2005-98, Laws of Florida, codified in Sections 163 and 1013 of the Florida Statutes. Within these sections, the State addresses public school concurrency requirements. Concurrency management requires that school districts establish the mechanisms for coordinating the development, adoption, and amendment of each local government's public school facilities and requires that school districts define the geographic application of school concurrency to evaluate and monitor school concurrency requirements in accordance with the school board.
This presentation will discuss the concurrency model MDCPS developed using ArcGIS Server 9.2. As a result of Server 9.2, all cities within the County submit applications that log construction projects impacting school seat capacity. The system generates the number of education seats required and manages the reservation and mitigation processes. We will discuss the return on investment resulting from automation of a process using Server 9.2 that was otherwise accomplished manually.
As a Local Government Agency, St. JohnsCounty’s GIS Division is experienced in providing Enterprise Solutions. Earlier applications built with ESRI software and our GIS Data Library produced successful projects, creating further interest in GIS. To continue the success required redeveloping department roles and staff focus within the expanding Enterprise GIS.
The St. Johns County GIS Division transformed their services to become a stronger resource center better suited towards application development, GIS Data management, and empowering GIS users. Staff improved application development and deployed solutions built with ArcGIS Server Advanced. The GIS Data Library was re-designed fully within ArcGIS Server’s Enterprise level. We foster departmental solutions that integrate into the countyGIS, including broader GIS use, hosting user data and maps, advanced analysis, and sophisticated solutions including Asset Management, Development Review, Addressing, Transportation and Stormwater Modeling.
This presentation will discuss the methodology and results of our latest Enterprise GIS Services.
System Implementation for GIS 3:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m., Ballroom 2
To build upon the success of the Public Map Viewer, the City of Marietta identified two of their most commonly requested and time consuming tasks:
Create copies of their data (by layer, by area, by selection)
Produce map books
The City asked GISi to develop ArcGIS Server solutions that streamline both of these workflows. Working closely with the City, GISi developed a data download and map book ArcGIS Server applications.
The data download application is open to the Internet and will streamline the entire data request and production process. Users will be able to download by layer, map extent, or selection and have the choice of downloading in 3 different formats:
File-level Geodatabase
Shapefile
DXF (for CAD users)
Once the data has been downloaded and packaged on the City’s ftp server an email will be sent to the user notifying them their requested data is ready for download.
The map book application is available via the Intranet and automates the entire map book generation process removing the GIS Department from the paper production process. In this application, users can select which layers they would like to see in the map book. They also have the choice to print the entire map book, or a selected set to a network printer or a PDF document. The City usually produces these map books in two different sizes, both of which will be options for the users.
Staying consistent with the theme from the first project, Marietta GIS Department has realized an immediate return on their investment by leveraging the power of ArcGIS Server to automate repeatable workflows and commonly requested tasks and all the while empowering their user community with meaningful geospatial tools.
In 1999, Wake County, NC and the City of Raleigh GIS units developed a general viewing and analysis interface for using MapObjects. The interface was very popular and used by nearly 200 staff from the two agencies. Over the last year, the interface has been rewritten in ArcEngine. This presentation describes the application methodology employed, the techniques used for assessing the migration and/or enhancement of features, the strategy used for soliciting user input and buy-in, and the application training and support plan.
There are several ways to implement a multi-purpose GIS system, depending on the goals and objectives of the people who will use the information. However, many government jurisdictions have implemented GIS without understanding all the issues to properly implement an Enterpirse GIS to serve future as well as current needs.
There is a greater demand today for better quality and accuracy for digital maps than ever before. This presentation will take the audience through the issues and steps needed to build a highly accurate geodetically controlled land records base map for an Enterprise GIS and integration with the Hansen Asset Management System for Citrus County, FL. Issues to be explored will be the request for vendor qualifications (RFQ), the selection process, the enterprise goals and objects to be achieved, the system and data development and integration process, maintenance and training, selected applications, and the foundation for an enterprise GIS that all departments can use.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) has published ArcView and ArcInfo for over five hundred users across the WAN and via the Internet through Citrix. The Citrix GIS users have access to the enterprise GIS databases, licensed extensions and customized tools. The users are able to print to a variety of networked color printers and plotters. Having the application available via Citrix relieves the desktop support group from having to maintain local installs of ArcGIS on over five hundred PCs.
Citrix was originally implemented for ArcGIS and has become a broad range Enterprise tool with over ninety applications for seven hundred and fifty users. There are currently nineteen production Presentation Servers, a Web Interface server with Secure Gateway, a three server test farm and a dedicated GIS file server for user data storage.
Cadastral and Land Records 3:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m., Ballroom 3
During their migration to ESRI's Geodatabase, the Charlotte County FL will be renumbering all real properties within the county with a geographic permanent parcel numbering system. This presentation will cover general types of parcel numbering systems, highlighting geographic parcel numbers, as well as rules for managing unique parcel numbers, special numbers like condos, railroads and leaseholds and how to track parcel genealogy. It will also cover the county's approach to design and implementation of their new parcel numbering system. A description of "How It Works" will be included.
Since 1986 the Planning Division of the Department of Land Development has used computer technology for Zoning. In 1989 it was the first group in Jefferson County, Alabama to embrace GIS technology by creating a GIS zoning project for the county. The department has continuously strived to improve their business processes by using GIS. Zoning GIS Systems, the latest iteration, has been developed “in-house ” to serve current Zoning maps, replace an existing inefficient coverage and AML based system , integrate business and spatial zoning data and improve case management.
The first phase of the Zoning GIS System was implemented in 2005, the second phase in 2007. System utilizes ESRI GIS technology (ArcSDE, ArcObjects) and implemented as ArcGIS Desktop extension.
This paper will describe planning, “in-house” development and implementation of the Zoning System, including spatial data design, coverage to Geodatabase conversion, GIS and business systems integration, business process changes and system benefits.
One of the FGDC Cadastral Data Subcommittee's stated objectives is to facilitate the production and publication of parcel data for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. This presentation provides an overview of the Cadastral Subcommittee’s perspective on the role and levels of stewardship for a state organization to host and provide parcel data from the many parcel producers in the state, a description of the benefits that the Assessor’s and local governments receive in return for sharing this data and on-going work of the Subcommittee with Federal and State agencies, NSGIC and local governments to deploy an implementation strategy.
Every GIS data set that reflects interests in real estate or regulatory elements in the State of Florida is governed by the location of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). Without an accurate PLSS layer, all attempts at developing accuracy in these or other dependent GIS layers are futile. SWFWMD has contracted with Panda Consulting to develop a geodatabase design for the PLSS that provides for a unified approach to mapping the PLSS while allowing the locations to be maintained and made more accurate as better data is collected by District, State, County and local Professional Land Surveyors and Mappers. The PLSS design allows the SWFWMD mapping staff to continue using the existing PLSS data while the survey staff updates the accuracy of these mapped features. The design incorporates the ability to maintain and update information about the adjustments made to these features. Several Counties within the SWFWMD jurisdictional boundaries are undertaking PLSS densification projects. This new, more accurate information will be converted and incorporated into the PLSS geodatabase. The design provides a manageable balance between data collection and metadata requirements without imposing an onerous process on those parties responsible for update and maintenance.
The development of large enterprise geodatabases for several Florida government agencies has increased the demand for data handling tools to perform data migration, version upgrades, format conversions, and data linking among different data platforms. These processes consume network and data processing and storage resources resulting in system congestion during typical office hours. Photo Science, Inc. developed tools for the South Florida Water Management District and District 7 of the Florida Department of Transportation to migrate, convert and store large amounts of geospatial data in their respective enterprise geodatabases. This was made possible by implementing console applications, using ArcObjects 9.2 and the .Net 2.0 Framework. These applications can batch process massive amounts of data during non-business hours with no human interaction by relying on a task scheduler and preset configuration variables. Several helpful features are built into the tools; e.g. portability, stored connection parameters, activity logs and e-mail summary reports. Source datasets include ESRI Feature Classes and CADD files.
The deployment of ArcGIS Server in local government is revolutionizing how data is collected, analyzed and distributed between departments and to the public. This presentation is a case study of our progress in rolling out ArcGIS Server at Nassau County and how we are leveraging ArcGIS Mobile to facilitate rapid data collection for both the Building and Utilities Departments. We will discuss our geodatabase design for mobile deployment, authoring maps for mobile deployment, designing the mobile application, deploying the mobile map service and technology used to keep data synchronized between the office and field. We will also touch briefly on future projects for Tracking (AVL), Routing and Permitting with ArcGIS Server.
As one of the winners of the ESRI and Stratus Technologies ArcGIS Server Demonstration Project Grant Program, the GIS Division for St. Johns County, FL has adopted ArcGIS Server and begun to extend the out-of-the-box capabilities to suit the needs of the organization as ArcIMS sites are phased out for new viewers powered by VB.NET. This presentation will explore the functionality that has been accomplished through development of back-office components as web services and VB.NET custom tasks and web controls for end users.
Custom tasks were built to perform search operations such as searching for an individual road, address, parcel, or finding all road intersections along a selected road. A custom drilldown tool was also developed that displays information specific to a x,y point or a parcel polygon. These tasks utilized web services and incorporated custom JavaScript along with AJAX to provide a rich user interface. Tasks were deployed as DLLs to be added to Visual Studio 2005 for web developers to use when developing GIS Viewers.
Custom web controls were built to replicate other capabilities of the existing ArcIMS sites such as spatial bookmarks and predefined map scales. Traditionally this information has been hardcoded in the page as lists, but with ArcGIS Server the solution has been to store the lists in XML files and build a custom web control that can simply be dragged and dropped on the web page.
The presentation will focus on case studies of state and local governments utilizing ArcGIS Mobile and ArcGIS Server to seamlessly maintain and extend their enterprise geodatabase (ArcSDE) instances into the field. The presentation will demonstrate how agencies / governments can realize true benefits and return on investment (ROI) through leveraging reusable web service components and utilizing the full functionality of their existing geodatabases. The advantages of using an ArcGIS Mobile solution over ArcPad for an enterprise solution will be discussed.
Integration of CAMA data with geospatial data is now commonplace for many government agencies. Assessment offices are demanding spatially enabled assessment analysis and data maintenance tools for their day-to-day operations.
St. Lucie County has developed a set of interactive real time tools designed to assist appraisers and assessment analysts. Sales ratio, time series and comparable sales analysis are key tools that have been created using .net and VBA. Oblique imagery has added a new dimension to desktop analysis and has been incorporated into the tool box.
In this presentation the Assessment Tool Box will be examined. You will be presented with a discussion of the technical development along with a demonstration of each of the tools as used in the ArcGIS environment.
Cobb County, Georgia embarked on a program to bring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into its information systems inventory in 1999 to better manage geospatial information and enhance decision making. From the humble beginnings of a small staff and a couple of file servers, Cobb County GIS now encompasses multiple database and application servers, and separate development and production environments, and dozens of geodatabases . Using both desktop clients and Web applications, GIS provides data and mapping services to thousands of users in County departments and the public at large. With support of the County Manager, the investment of capital from the Board of Commissioners, and the advancement of technology, Cobb County GIS is poised to develop more sophisticated applications using ArcGIS Server and seamlessly integrate GIS with other major business applications within the County.
Daily, our local governments are charged with delivering vital services to their citizens. They, of course, take these tasks seriously and require the best information available in order to make the best decisions. The Valdosta-Lowndes-Regional (VALOR) Geographic Information System (GIS) is a means in which our local governments and their departments create, manage, and share geographic information about our community which results in more accurate and timely decision making. Access to geographic information is a click away on many desktops around the Valdosta and Lowndes governmental offices, however real world budgets often create challenges for some departments, or even rural governments as a whole. This presentation describes methods for allowing these decision makers access to the same geographic data within a real world budget.
The State of Alabama’s Office of Water Resources is a division within the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. OWR utilizes GIS applications on a statewide scale for a number of purposes. This study focuses on how OWR uses GIS techniques to maintain and enhance the quality of life of the communities in Alabama. Our Floodplain Management Branch uses GIS applications to update the states’ flood maps and to initiate a state-wide safe dams program. In addition to this, OWR maintains an aerial imagery program for quality data collections to help assist in natural disaster preparedness. With GIS, OWR is able to help create and maintain disaster resistant communities.
Topic Areas:
GIS and Water Management
State Government
Environmental Management 8:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m., St. John's Room
The National Interagency Fuels Technology Team (NIFTT) and the LANDFIRE Project developed a suite of ArcGIS tools that, coupled with LANDFIRE products and/or local data, can support fire and fuels planning for any landscape across the United States. The tool suite includes the Fire Behavior Assessment Tool (FBAT), FRCC Mapping Tool, Multi-scale Resource Integration Tool (MRIT), LANDFIRE Data Access Tool (LFDDAT), and Area Change Tool (ACT), and is publically available free via the web. The presentation will briefly describe the purpose of each tool, explain the data requirements, and show example outputs for an actual landscape.
A recent inventory estimates that 60% of Earth’s coral reefs are at risk and that bleaching already has damaged 90% of living reefs. Regionally, the occurrence of coral bleaching will be the highest in the Caribbean over the course of the next 30-50 years. The objective of this research is to demonstrate that GIS is an efficient instrument for conducting surveys and inventories of coral reefs in order to assess those ecosystems at higher risk and develop mitigation strategies. Efficient monitoring requires the assessment of various coastal data baselines and the evaluation of subsequent alterations in spatial patterns. Relevant aspects include changes in coastal land use, wetlands, and shoreline configuration. As this study demonstrates, GIS plays an integral role in defending coral reefs from climate change and other threats while providing the collective tool to integrate multifaceted data and transform them into a meaningful medium for informed decision-making.
Determining cumulative impact assessments within the Estero Bay Watershed, Florida has historically been based on individual, often subjective review. This study constructed a model using ArcGIS 9.2 ModelBuilder and Spatial Analyst tools to quantify the five mandated measures of wetland function when assessing cumulative impacts. Utilizing existing definitions for measures of wetland function provided by the Basis of Review (BOR) for Environmental Resource Permitting, a model was created that consisted of 5 sub-models, one for each measure. Each sub-model considered specific positive and negative impacts to wetlands and were weighted accordingly on a cumulative scale of 0 to 100. The final model provided a score for each wetland within the watershed. The model results can be used to identify where cumulative impacts are expected to occur.
Watershed boundaries can be delineated at multiple scales due to the existence of a watershed hierarchy, defined as large watersheds made up of smaller subwatersheds. When using GIS (Geographic Information System) software to delineate watersheds, it is not always apparent which watershed boundaries are appropriate, particularly in the absence of a drainage network. This study explored different scales of watershed delineation using high resolution (1 m2 cell size) LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) maps. Traditional watershed delineation techniques were used to analyze terrain altered by mining, which contained small depressional surface water features. The results show that there is not an optimal watershed scale, but rather each water feature has its own boundaries that may change with water level. Conclusions indicate that a method needs to be developed that allows delineation of watershed boundaries that adequately model the hydrology of surface water features in flat or altered terrain.
Disaster Management and Emergency Response 8:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m., Ballroom 3
The Sarasota County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) uses an automated routine to transform tabular work order data relating to emergency incidents into valuable GIS information. A custom UI control allows GIS personnel working in the EOC to automatically geocode new incidents, reclassify the data and display the information while retaining the ability to edit data as necessary. By coding all the steps in the process in VBA in the project itself, the tool allows for consistency between users, control of the display and is a large time saver. The tool not only adds new requests to the GIS data, it also updates the status of existing requests. The current workflow plans for updating the work order data every 15 minutes, and having all procedures in one tool allows for the entire process to be run every time the base data is refreshed.
Tallahassee-Leon County GIS , TLC GIS, a partnership program between the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Leon County Property Appraiser’s office in Florida, recently rolled out the first phase of an ArcGIS Server-based incident management system known as the Emergency Operations Center Incident Mapper (EOC Incident Mapper). Released as part of a phased rollout, the system compliments existing communication networks in organizing, analyzing, and displaying GIS information in an easy to understand “big picture” format. It supplies electronic display of disaster activities in real time and, once in full deployment, will support all phases of the disaster management cycle including preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Tallahassee-Leon County GIS , TLC GIS, a partnership program between the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Leon County Property Appraiser’s office in Florida, recently rolled out the first phase of an ArcGIS Server-based incident management system known as the Emergency Operations Center Incident Mapper (EOC Incident Mapper). Released as part of a phased rollout, the system compliments existing communication networks in organizing, analyzing, and displaying GIS information in an easy to understand “big picture” format. It supplies electronic display of disaster activities in real time and, once in full deployment, will support all phases of the disaster management cycle including preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery.
With the increase in hurricane and tornado activity in Florida, damage assessment has become critical for county response and FEMA reimbursement. Amy Hoyt, GIS Manager for LeeCounty, has driven the development of an ArcPAD application for collection of damage assessment and human service needs after a catastrophic event that will be used cooperatively by the County and the Cities. This session will cover the initial application design, deployment to the Cities, real world beta testing, lessons learned, and the final re-design, including initial assessment to support State SERT requirements.
Karyn Tareen, will demonstrate the next generation of the application, written for ArcGIS Server Mobile. If you have ArcGIS Server, this is the way to get the 'state' of your community back to the office ASAP.
Hillsborough County, FL maintains a “Critical Facilities Inventory” (CFI) to assist the County's Emergency Operations Center. The CFI is a listing of public and private facilities that are required to be in operational condition to ensure a “sense of normalcy” following a catastrophic event such as a major hurricane. Examples of such facilities include fire stations, hospitals, and schools. This presentation describes the significant cooperative efforts that were required to conceptualize, design, populate, and ultimately maintain such a database. We will discuss the process of defining a critical facility, show the details of the database design we created, and demonstrate some of the higher level GIS capabilities that make this database useful.
Wednesday
Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater
