Open Registration for Spring classes at AB Tech

Several GIS classes are being offered at AB Tech this spring and open registration is now! Classed begin Monday, January 14th, 2008.

GIS 111 - Introduction to GIS is being offered in 4 sections.

• GIS111 YD1 - Meets M/W from 10 - 11:20. This class is a hybrid format meaning students will have 1 hour of online work per week in addition to outside time spent on homework assignments.
• GIS111 LD1 - Meets M/W from 2:10-4:00pm. Late start class. Class begins January 23rd.
• GIS 111 O1 - Online section. If you know you like online learning this one is for you. If you don't know if you like it or not ... a couple words of advice - it is MORE WORK than taking a traditional seated class, but it is more flexible.
  
• GIS 111 WN1 - Meets Thursday nights 6:00pm -9:50pm. Web supplement accompanies course.
  

GIS 121 - Georeferencing and Mapping - one section

• GIS 121 D1 - (prerequisite - GIS 111 or equivalent) - Meets M/W from 8:00am-9:50am.

GIS 215 - GIS Data Models - one section

• GIS 215 N1 - (prerequisite - GIS 111 or equivalent) - Meets Tuesday nights from 6:00pm - 9:50pm
  

If you have any questions or would like to sign up for one or more of these classes, contact Pete Kennedy at 828.254.1921 x289 or email pkennedy(at)abtech.edu.

You can learn more about the GIS Certificate and ABTech by following

Buncombe County Preliminary FEMA Map Review

I thought I would post this for anyone who is interested in the process of the floodplain mapping.

From the Asheville-Citizen Times (http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771128023)

New Buncombe County flood insurance rate maps available for public review

by staff reports

published November 28, 2007 9:59 am

Raleigh – Three meetings are scheduled in Buncombe County for residents and the business community to review and ask questions about preliminary copies of newly updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps developed for the French Broad River Basin.

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The meetings are:

• Black Mountain - Tuesday, December 11th. Maps will be on display beginning at 6:00 p.m.; a presentation on the material will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Black Mountain Public Safety Building, 106 Montreat Road, in Black Mountain.

• Enka - Wednesday, December 12th. Maps will be on display beginning at 12:30 p.m.; a presentation on the material will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the A-B Tech Enka Campus, in the Haynes Building, Room 200, 1459 Sand Hill Road in Enka.

• Asheville - Thursday, December 13th. The maps will be on display beginning at 6:00 p.m.; a presentation on the material will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Asheville Public Works Building, large conference room (Room A109), 161 S. Charlotte Street, in Asheville.

Digital versions of the three Buncombe County preliminary maps are currently available for public review by contacting your local planning department or searching the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping website at www.ncfloodmaps.com.

County and municipal officials will be on hand at each of the three sites to help residents locate particular properties on the maps and determine their level of flood risk. Representatives from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program and North Carolina Floodplain Management will make short presentations on the map production process, features of the new maps, how they can be used to reduce future losses due to flooding, and their connection with flood insurance and floodplain management. Attendees may also see a demonstration of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Information System. Following the presentation, state and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives will be available to answer questions about the mapping process, flood insurance coverage, and floodplain management topics.

The three meetings provide an opportunity for residents to see the results of the advanced digital technology used to create the new flood maps. Black Mountain residents should go to the presentation in Black Mountain, Asheville residents to the Asheville meeting and county residents to the Enka meeting

WNC GIS Gathering this week!

When: Thursday, Dec. 29th - 5:00pm - until
Where: Asheville Pizza Company - Downtown on Coxe Ave.

Come visit and see what's going on with the world of GIS

Madison County GIS Day POSTPONED

The Madison County GIS Day WILL NOT BE HELD THIS SATURDAY (DEC. 1). It will be rescheduled for sometime in January. Check back for details.

Other GIS Day events

If you haven't seen all the great GIS Day events going on in the mountains, Greg Dobson did a great job of summarizing them all on http://mrgac.blogspot.com. Check it out - see you Friday!

GIS Day schedule of events

For Friday, November 9th - hosted by AB Tech with tons of great participants.

Check the schedule of events here!

GIS DAY 2007 - Celebration of all things GIS in and around Asheville

Start planning now to come see what's going with GIS in and around Asheville on Friday, November 9th. The event is being held at the AB Tech Asheville campus and promises to be exciting. Thanks to all the sponsors and demonstrators who are making this happen. They include:

• Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College – GIS Certificate Program
• Buncombe County - GIS Department
• City of Asheville – GIS Department
• ESRI - Scott Wolter (Charlotte Office)
• FGDC / GeoMaxim – Linda Wayne
• NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
• Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)
• Resource Data Inc. - Neil Thomas
• UNC Asheville - National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC)

We'll have presentations of all the latest internet-based GIS applications from the City and County, the NC CGIA will be on hand talking about state level GIS coordination, Linda Wayne from GeoMaxim and FGDC will be talking standards and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and cross-organizational geospatial collaboration, ESRI will be represented by Scott Wolter, Neil Thomas will be here showing some of his exciting work at Resource Data Inc., NEMAC will be here with the GeoDome and RENCI emergency response van and much much more.

WHEN? Friday, November 9th, 2007. 9:00am - 2:00pm

WHERE? AB TECH Asheville Campus - Balsam Building

WHAT? Open House event with lots of demonstrations. Come drop in or stay all day!

More information - see http://gis.esri.com/gisday/detail.cfm?id=9093

Monthly GIS Gathering

Did anyone see last week Gmaps became easily embeddable into your website or blog? With our monthly meeting coming up this Thursday (thanks Leo and Neil for keeping those email announcements coming) I thought I'd put a little map here in case people don't know where the Asheville Brewing Company is (not the one on Merrimon Ave.) Come join us to talk about what's going on in the world of GIS or anything else that comes to mind!


View Larger Map

The GeoWeb and Geospatial Standards or Huh, What's That?

Here at the City of Asheville we've focused a lot of energy on enhancing our online GIS offerings.

Several months back I ran across across some information for the GeoWeb conference that occurred last week. I decided to skip my usual trip to the ESRI conference this year and instead learn a little bit more about the GeoWeb. This concept of a GeoWeb means a lot of different things to a lot of different folks. I think the focus of the conference is best summed up as the convergence of geospatial information, emerging web technologies, and standards. The conference was amazing. Keep an eye on their web page for the proceedings to be posted.

I'd like to share some of this experience with our local/regional GIS community...

Being in a small venue with only 150-200 people and hearing folks like Jack Dangermond (owner ESRI), Vincent Cerf (co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet), Michael Jones (CTO Google Earth), and Vincent Tao (director Microsoft Virtual Earth) was pretty cool. To hear Vincent Cerf and Jack Dangermond politely debate points and to be able to watch Michael Jones' facial expressions at the same is a great opportunity for insight on the industry!

The breathtaking pace of standards based innovation is what made the most lasting impression on me. Anybody here know what GML, WMS, WFS, WFS-T, WCS are? Your organization may have a WMS service that feeds NCOneMap but I challenge you to see if it is up and running... More than half of the services listed in NCOneMap catalog appear to be inaccessible. I'll use my own organization to make my point. Until this morning the WMS service that we thought was feeding NCOneMap was down and has probably been down for over a year. Unfortunately, standards have not been on the forefront of our ESRI-biased minds. I'm determined to change that. Important efforts like NCOneMap and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure rely on standards. Check out the Open Geospatial Consortium for loads of good info on standards that should be important to us.

Speaking of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, SDI is about become an acronym that we should all be familiar with. GIS finally meets IT in the mainstream.

Bunches of great opensource geospatial tools out there these days... my staff grimaces at the prospect but I have a vision of creating a separate opensource/standards-based application stack to handle our web mapping needs. Take a look at OSGeo for the latest happenings in that realm.

I'll get off my soapbox in a moment but I'd like to draw your attention to a sweet little free download from the Carbon Project : Gaia 3. This application will allow you to pull in map services (standards based) from just about anywhere you please and overlay them on the fly (one big downside: no re-projection). You can pull in Google Earth KML files, Microsoft Virtual Earth imagery, Yahoo! transparent roads, local goverment data, federal data, etc. It's a real quick and easy way to mash-up content from just about anywhere. Just think what might be possible if all of us in our local/regional GIS community implemented OGC standards and could quickly mash-up up our data on the fly... large-scale disaster response is what first comes to my mind but the possibilities are truly limitless. Download Gaia and an example file that I've posted here and check it out.

If ya can't tell, I'm pretty excited about some things that I've learned recently!

The WNCGIS Gathering July 26, 2007

The WNCGIS July Gathering took place at the Asheville Brewing Company on Coxe Ave in downtown Asheville. We had a robust turnout and more interesting conversations than I could keep track of. We had a few new people join in the fun, including the esteemed Eric Ringler (from Polaris Maps) and Sherry Ingram (who recently started an Environmental Consulting Company). We also got the news that Danitza Earl has a new job with a Land Trust. She might make a blog post soon about the details. In other news, the URISA and GITA conference is coming up in Charlotte on September 5th. It sounds like it will be a packed conference; Neil Thomas and I should be presenting some of our work there.

New GIS Certificate underway at AB Tech

Interested in how you can use GIS to better do your job or just wondering what all the buzz is about? Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College is now offering a 4-course certificate in GIS. The current course offerings can be seen below.

GIS 111 - Introduction to GIS
GIS 121 - Georeferencing and Mapping
GIS 215 - GIS Data Models
and one of the following other courses:
CIS 110 - Computer concepts
CIS 115 - Introduction to Programming and logic or
DBA 110 - Database Concepts

AB Tech is taking a unique approach to teaching Geospatial Technology by offering classes in the Computer Information Technology Department. This approach will allow GIS, GPS and other related technologies to be taught in the broader context of information systems while capitalizing on existing programs and certificates already at the college in Web Technologies, Database Technologies, and Interactive Multimedia. This certificate provides a strong foundation in Geospatial Technologies with more classes planned in the Database, Web and Multimedia programs.

Come take GIS from ESRI Authorized Instructors and Trimble Certified Trainers at AB Tech!

See the fall schedule of GIS classes below -

For more information.... see our blog below

AB Tech GIS Blog

or you could always call, email or stop by with any questions!

pkennedy (at) abtech.edu

828.254.1921 x289

Hawth's Tools

So this is probably not new and exciting to everyone else, but I recently ran across the Hawth's Analysis Tool Set available at http://www.spatialecology.com/. This is an extremely useful set of tools for anyone doing any type of ecology work with ArcMap as it expands Arc's functionality in this area.

So far the features that I have found most useful and the biggest time savers are the ability to generate random points and the ability to create evenly spaced grid shapefiles. It also has other features which I have yet to exploit including animal movement simulation.

Perhaps the most attractive part of this tool is that it is completely free and it easily installs and integrates with the Arc products. Please don't let me limited review deter you, this is definitely something worth checking out.

JAVA / GIS Contract job

Hi all,

I had someone inquire about a good JAVA programmer with some GIS experience for a 3 month contract job. I thought I would post it here to see if there is any interest. Please pass along to anyone you can think of that may be able to do this kind of work. This is the kind of work that would be great to keep in our local pool of talent without having to outsource.

Java Programmer With GIS Experience

Lab Escape is looking for an experienced Java programmer with GIS experience to add geographic mapping capabilities into our visual analysis software. Experience with GeoTools is a plus. This is a contract position for 3 months. Development firms with relevant experience may apply. If interested, please contact Trevor Lohrbeer at resumes@labescape.com.

The May 30th WNCGIS Gathering

The May Gathering at Dirty Jacks in downtown Asheville was another fun time for everyone in our GIS community. We got a chance to look at the maps for the Map Contest, and everyone put in a vote for their favorite. Although all the maps were very nice, I'm pleased to announce that the ever-industrious Josh O'Conner had the most votes. He won a coveted Malaprops Gift Certificate. To the left you can see him proudly displaying his prize.

A Big "Thank You" goes out to everyone who participated in the Map Contest. We hope that we will continue to get support and entries for the contest, so that we can select a winner or two bi-monthly. As you may recall, having a theme of some kind for each contest cycle was one idea, so if anyone would like to see a particular theme for the next contest, let us know.

CommunityViz

I thought I would post some information on the CommunityViz software package and some of its more useful features. The package functions as an extension for the ArcGIS products. It allows for the creation of dynamic data that allows for scenarios to be created in a sort of "What if?" analysis.

I have just been toying with it a little over a week and I intend to use to construct some data correlating Hemlock die back with stream temperature increases. The program seems to be primarily designed to use in community planning operations but can be extended for more ecological centered uses.

In order to learn the basics of the program I began toying around with average parcel slope data in Buncombe county. I then set a dynamic threshold on allowable slope percentage within the parcels (so that it would be easy to understand the volume of parcels that would be affected by various limitations on development in sloped areas). The first map is set with a maximum allowable slope of somewhere around 20% (yes, low, I know). Using the slider bar with the variable constructed in CommunityViz, the map can be updated dynamically to show what would happen should an ordinance be proposed that barred development on in parcels with slopes that are greater than 45%.



In order to understand how CommunityViz could perform with weighing two variables within a single map I constructed a similar analysis that factored in parcel slope and distance to a city. Say in case a developer was looking for a location to build a retirement community and wanted to select land that wouldn't be too steep, thus deterring older occupants; at the same time this developer would want to build within reasonable proximity to the cities of Flat Rock or Hendersonville because of their notoriety among retirees. The first map shows both factors with equal weight. The second shows what would occur if the developer became less concerned with parcel slope but really wanted to cash in on people heading toward Flat Rock or Hendersonville.




One last feature worth noting is the seamless integration with the Google Earth platform. Following the analysis of the Buncombe County slopes, I exported the data to Google Earth so that it could be made accessible to a wider user base (this is with the data with maximum slope set at 20%).



Clicking on the thumbnails will yield better pictures and I will post more as I play with the program more.

Pix from the April 26th WNC GIS Beer Meeting

Our meeting on April 26th was a lot of fun, and we chose a random winner for the Trivia Contest. Gene was the lucky winner and he was presented with a brand-new copy of the acclaimed book The Ghost Map. Here you can see Gene (with Jason) to his left) joyfully opening the book's wrapping. The other photo of the whole group captured most of the people who turned out at the Asheville Brewing Company. Thanks to everyone who joined us!

Focus Group Needed

So as a continuation of my first post... I am in need of some assistance on the Campus Mapping project I am working on. After having it reviewed by members of the UNCA campus community, I realize that it is in need of review by people that aren't as emotionally attached to certain aspects of the campus or particular viewing perspective. If anyone could do me a huge favor and take a look at the map and give me their feedback I would greatly appreciate it. I am open to any suggestions at all. This particular map is a print map for first time visitors to the campus and maybe a tool to some of the students who may not be familiar with more obscure buildings.

Here's the link. The map images are on the left and you can click on them to enlarge them to print-size.

Thanks.
My e-mail is JoshDOTOConnerATgmailDOTcom (substitute appropriate symbols for bold text)

Reader survey: open source tools

Hi folks,

I'm interested in hearing about what, if any, open source GIS tools are being used by members of the WNC GIS group. It was clear at the NCGIS conference in March that there is a vibrant open source GIS community in the state -- is the same true for our group? If you are using open source tools, please post a reply comment to this posting and let us know what you are using and why.

Neil may think this is a blatant 11th hour attempt to boost my chances for today's book drawing (and okay, so maybe it is), but I really would like to know more about any open source efforts out there....

UNCA Campus Mapping Project

Hi, I'm Josh O'Conner a student of UNCA/NEMAC and Haywood Community College. I just wanted to make a quick post about the Campus Mapping Project at UNCA being conducted by the UNCA Transportation Department and NEMAC.

The original maps used by the campus were incorrectly oriented and weren't spatially accurate. The intent behind the project was to be able to offer maps that were spatially accurate as well as providing the framework for GIS data that could benefit the UNCA transportation department. The hope was to be able to provide a GIS solution that would not only produce the map needed currently, but would allow the transportation department to be able to generate maps independently for specific needs.

The map was created using existing data available in CAD formats and then digitizing missing information from the 2002 orthographic photos. Due to the evolution of the campus from 2002 to present additional orthos were integrated by georeferencing some of the Google Earth imagery. The framework of the map is very near completion and ideally we will be able to offer the map to UNCA faculty and staff through the ArcReader software. The ArcReader application will include certain attribute information useful to the campus staff. Other plans for the map include web applications for visitors and a possible overlay for Google Earth.

WNCGIS Map Trivia Contest Rules!

If you read the Blog regularly, or if you contribute to the Blog, you have a pretty darn good chance of becoming one of the monthly “Wieners.”
Here is the way this near-random drawing/competition works.
1) A “Did you know?” Map Trivia question is presented on the Blog early in the month.
2) You should
a. Check the Map Trivia question on the Blog
b. Assess the question,
c. Review the reference info if you have time and
d. Submit your guess or answer to wncgis@gmail.com.
Trivia Contest Entries
1) If your answer to the question IS CLOSE, your name is entered into the drawing (single entry). “IS CLOSE” is defined as anyone who submits any answer. This ain’t rocket science.
2) If your answer is “EXACT” (the same answer as we have) you get two entries into the drawing. Sometimes there may not be an exact answer so if you are hovering around the same answer we have, that answer is EXACT, This is the judge’s call. This ain’t rocket science.

Blog entries.
3) If you also contribute a MEANINGFUL blog entry, you receive an additional entry in the drawing for each posting
4) To qualify you have to be on the email list. Those people on the review team are excluded.
Only first guesses count.

If you submit several guesses, only the first guess will count. You have to use the email address that we have on the mailing list.

At the end of the month at the WNCGIS gathering someone in the crowd will select a “wiener.”

So at this moment David Abernathy is in the lead with his single Blog posting. Actually he will have to make a guess at the Map Trivia Question before he becomes a contestant.

The Map Trivia Contest Prize: a book from Malaprops Bookstore

If Abernathy wins this month he will get a copy of the book, The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson ($26.95 value). This book is donated by Malaprops Bookstore. These folks are great! I like Abernathy a lot, but I would hate for him to win the prize from just one blog entry.
Statistical chances are pretty good.
At this point Abernathy has a great chance of winning the first book. He has no competition. However, there are over 60 people on the email list. Abernathy’s worst nightmare is that everyone on the list submits an answer and a blog entry. But the reality is that for this first month, the chances may be more like 1:10 or 1:25.

Contest Entries
Send your answers to The Map Trivia question to wncgis@gmail.com. I will collect your responses to the Map Trivia Contest question. And remember
If you are close you get 1 entry.
If you are exact, you get 2 entries.
If you post a Blog entry we will pull your name from the Blog.
If you show up at the WNCGIS Meeting Thursday, April 26th, then you get one additional entry.

GoogleMaps implements MyMaps

The social computing and GIS revolution continue to racing foward today with Google releasing a new 'My Maps' tab on Google Maps. This new feature allows users to easily create and share geo-specific content using their mapping API. Over the past 2 years, thousands of mash-ups have been created using Google Maps and now it has become even easier. There are tools for creating point, line and polygons on your map as well as saving to a URL, KML, emailing and printing. Of course your maps can be made public or private. Go give it a try!

http://maps.google.com

Warren Wilson receives grant for GIS project in Panama

Warren Wilson College and an environmental conservation organization in Panama have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Panamanian Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion (SENACYT). The grant will be used by the college and the organization Conservation through Research, Education and Action (CREA) to research and implement ageographic information system (GIS) and wireless sensor network on the 1,000-acre Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Panama. The reserve is part of the largest contiguous rainforest in Central America.

"I'm excited about the project because it focuses on both sustainability and cross-cultural education," said Geography Professor David Abernathy,who coauthored the grant application with Michael Roy, CREA executive director. Abernathy anticipates "some type of student exchange so that WWC students can work in Panama and hopefully a Panamanian student can workand/or study at Warren Wilson."

Abernathy said another focal point of the project will be the use of "green computing" techniques. The computing equipment not only will be designed to minimize power consumption, but also will be operated by solar power.The creation of a GIS and wireless sensor network database in Cocobolo Nature Reserve is a vital part of CREA's intent to help meet the sustainable development goals of Panama. CREA intends to utilize the reserve as the testing center for a system that would combine the following: traditional knowledge system of local farmers and landholders; research on sustainable agriculture and natural resource protection from higher education institutions and non-governmental organizations; and the latest technology for collecting, analyzing and disseminating environmental data in the form of a comprehensive system for managing and distributing geographic and environmental data.

Map Design Survey - North American Cartographic Information Society

How good are you at designing maps? How much about designing maps did you learn on your own? Did you have classes in map design? How about graphic design in general? With geospatial technologies and mapping in general creeping in to the hands of just about everyone, are maps getting better or worse?

These are the kinds of questions the North American Cartographic Information Society are trying to answer with their Map Design Survey.

Take 5 minutes to complete the survey and help our profession grow!

I stumbled onto this survey while browsing one of my favorite sites...

http://www.shadedrelief.com

Announcing the WNC GIS Map Contest

Some of us involved with the monthly WNC GIS meetings have been brainstorming an idea for a contest that we hope will allow a variety of people to show off their personal projects, showcase their mapping talent, and raise awareness about important issues in the WNC area. This email is intended to provide the information needed to get you, your students, or colleagues engaged in the contest. If possible, I intend to follow-up soon with a phone call to see what you think.

Purpose and Process

The idea is for people to submit an original map product to the WNC GIS Users Group for review. A panel of map experts (your peers) will review the submissions. Initially the odds of winning are probably pretty darn good because our mailing list is not very long. In order to become eligible you must be on the WNC-GIS’s mailing list (email me, Leo Klausmann, at leklausm@yahoo.com to join). The larger goal is to develop a WNC-GIS Map Calendar for 2008. The map will be sold through any sponsors we can muster and online. Any income generated from the sales will pay for the production of the calendars and feed back into contest prizes.

The first submissions will be due May 10^th, 2007. A winner will be selected during the May WNC GIS Beer Session (most likely occurring on May 24th). That will give you almost 2 months to get something together. By letting everyone get a chance to look at the various maps that were submitted, hopefully further ideas will be sparked and friendly feedback will be exchanged. Assuming the interest in the contest is there, one approach would be to move to a bi-monthly contest with a rotating volunteer "review board" of perhaps five people.

The Shiny Prizes

Every contest cycle (that is, maybe every two months) two winners will be selected, and they shall win a twenty dollar gift certificate to Malaprops Bookstore, the ego-boosting honor of seeing their map printed in the calendar, as well as a copy of the calendar.

Map Themes

Map themes will evolve around the interests of the review panel but currently there are a few guidlines.

· Some essential and dominant theme or aspect of the map ought to have a regional focus. You can include a larger map area of for example, the Southern Appalachian Region or all of North Carolina.

· How many times have you generated a map whose natural patterns are simply beautiful? Aerial photo patterns, elevation model patterns, soils patterns can be beautiful. If you’d like to, why not abstract them a step further to discover their full artistic potential.

· Cartoon maps or spoof maps are great. Subtle or not so subtle sarcastic maps are fine. Map puns are fine. Any kind of map humor is great. We certainly will accept conventional WNC map themes, but creativity and local/regional themes will help make you a winner.

· The eventual goal of compiling our best maps into a calendar to sold to the general public means that by submitting your map to the contest, you release copyright limitations.

For the first contest cycle, a theme (such as environmental issues, historical perspectives, urban characterization, etc) will not be specifically defined so as not to limit what people can submit. If after the maps are reviewed at the May Beer Session meeting, we all want to decide on a theme for next time, then that theme will be announced.

How do you Submit your Map?

Export your map to a PDF file (very easy to do in ESRI products) and set your DPI to about 300. The filesize of maps varies widely, often because complex rasters or photo material can take up lots of disk space. If your map turns out to be about 10MB or less, then just email it to me, Leo Klausmann, at leklausm@yahoo.com. We want the submitted maps to be of high resolution so that we may easily scale them to fit our calendar, so if your map filesize turns out to be larger, just contact me and we’ll work out a way to transfer it, perhaps by CD-ROM. We hope to bring printed versions of the all the maps to the May Beer Session for all to see. Do keep in mind that people have a range of skill levels and experience, so the maps don’t have to be cartographically perfect.

A Final Word

The organization of this Map Contest so far has been the result of a few brainstorming sessions. The contest is likely to evolve as more people become interested. If you have any ideas on how we could organize it differently, we are more than open to suggestions.

shapefile to Google Earth and other useful tools

Thought everyone might be interested in this blog, which has a useful collection of utilities for file conversion and data manipulation.

mapAsheville API

This post is just a quick demonstration of the mapAsheville - API. Actually, it's our first test of using the API in an existing webpage outside of our own domain... seems to work OK after some trial and error on my part.

As you can see below, we've developed the ability to embed a functional mapAsheville service into an existing webpage. We've got some formative ideas about how this may be able to benefit the community at large and we're already realizng some internal operational benefits from this 'mashup' approach to handing web services.

We've got a long ways to go but I'm excited that it actually works on this blog! Props to Dave Michelson for all of his past and ongoing work on this project!

Give it a try... zooom in, pan around and ID a parcel.

More to come later explaining the mapAsheville efforts...

Impressions from the NC GIS Conference

This was the first time I've attended a GIS conference and I got a lot out of it. The presentation on the cadastral development index that Neil Thomas and I worked on was well-received, and most of the other presentations I saw were quite interesting. I'll tell you about some of my favorite presentations and new products at the conference.

Nancy von Meyer had an entertaining and informative presentation on the status of electronic cadastral data across the country and the many different ways it can be used. Ken Taylor's presentation on Community Wildfire Protection Plans for NC was very interesting. I was impressed that they are doing so much work in mapping and modeling wildfire risks, but it highlighted a thorny issue in that type of environmental modeling: acquiring accurate and up-to-date data on environmental variables (like forest cover, fuel loading, land development change, etc) across a vast geographic distance is usually impossible, so even a well-planned program is only useful in the real world when there is some degree of certainty about data integrity. Another interesting presentation by Paul Smith described the use of GPS backpacks attached to the first Bald Eagles hatched in captivity in NC, which send hourly signals during the birds' migration. The data can be used with Google Earth and has great potential as an educational tool.

Conferences can be the perfect venue to showcase new technology, and we saw a few amazing new products. Microsoft's virtual earth has come a long way (maps.live.com) as a demonstration using the improved 3-D plug-in showed. Unlike Google Earth, once you download the plug-in, the maps run in your browser, which is a little more convenient than launching a separate program. Most of buildings in big cities have been modeled and skinned in 3-D, and look much better than Google's. It seems that you need to use an SDK to modify the Microsoft virtual earth, which might be harder than using Google, but you may want to check it out. The most impressive new technology I saw was from a company called Ztechnology, which has launched a new line of completely 3-D printers. The medium used is a special type of plaster powder, which hardens and changes color when sprayed with special inks. The printer can make stunningly colorful objects of many different shapes and sizes. Shoes, detailed 3-D topographic maps, cityscapes, and human heads were only a few of the possibilities I saw. The printers cost between thirty and sixty thousand dollars, so I may get cold stares if I put it on my Christmas list, but for an organization that already spends many thousands on 3-D data processing or product design, its probably a worthwhile investment.

Neil and I could only stay for the first day of the conference, so if any other people would like post their own impressions or comments, please contact Pete Kennedy at kennedy.pete@gmail.com.

About the WNC GIS Users Group

WNC GIS Users Group is a gathering of GIS professionals and people with related interests to share ideas and experiences in a casual setting for the benefit of the GIS professional and the larger public interest. The users group is not a marketing venue for private business.


The WNC GIS Blog Site is designed to support the larger WNC GIS community, whether they attend the meetings or not. It is a place to exchange ideas, share and request technical information, present links to special projects and programs, share job and internship opportunities, and link other local WNC GIS groups to the larger WNC GIS community, all within Western NC. The Blog will evolve with demand.


If you would like to become a contributor to this blog please contact Pete Kennedy.

NC GIS Conference this week

We'll all be there! Lot's of exciting talks and sessions.

http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/ncgis2007

We'll have Haywood Community College's very own Andy Tait giving a presentation as part of the 'G. Herbert Stout Award' student presentations. His presentation is entitled:

Resource Assessment: Ecologically Sound Development in Western North Carolina with Regard to Slope Stability, Soil Conditions, Watershed Integrity, and Other Factors.

These student presentations will go on all day Friday. Yours truly will be moderating the sessions.

Don't forget to check out the conference program before you go to get an idea of what sessions you may want to attend - and we hope you'll spend some time around the HCC booth helping to promote our programs!

Pete

NC GIS 2007 - Extra hotel room at conference rate

I overbooked hotel rooms for the conference and have one extra at the Benton Convention Center for the $99.00 + tax conference rate. If you know anyone that would like to use it, let me know ASAP! I need to cancel no later than Saturday evening! The block of conference rooms have been sold out so if anyone missed out I'll be glad to transfer this room to you.

kennedy.pete(at)gmail.com

Check out the conference agenda and other info here ==>
http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/Default.aspx?alias=www.cgia.state.nc.us/ncgis2007

beer + gis = good

the next gathering is this week...

The first revival event of the GIS Beer Sessions collected a group of about 15 folks last month. We fought for tables and chairs but for the most part people found a seat. We will be shifting the venue to Jack of the Wood (JOW), the old stomping grounds.

The whole purpose of this is to visit with everyone so make a point to change tables, introduce yourself to new faces and enjoy.

GIS BEER FEBRUARY SESSION


DATE: Thursday, February 22nd
TIME: 5:15pm to about 6:30-7:00pm or whenever you leave.
PLACE: Jack of the Woods (JOW)
West Side of the Pub.
SNACKS: by Resource Data
BuyYourOwnBeer & Diners


Please invite your GIS friends but send us their email address so we can put them on the list. Send email addresses to Leo Klausmann at leklausm@yahoo.com

Always Drink Responsibly, Walk to the Pub, Take the Bus Home.

Great Volunteer Opportunity - Mapping Haiti Salt Ponds

Haiti Salt Ponds - image courtesy of google earth

VOLUNTEERS: Some of you will remember Demeter Russafov, he was the GIS analyst for Alan Lange in NC Community Development a few years back. He is now in Haiti with AMURT (http://amurt.net/haiti/index.html). His associate, Ewan Bloomfield is initiating a GIS/GPS study to help redevelop salt ponds in Haiti. I am trying to get some GPS coordinates of the region in Haiti so we can locate the areas on Google Earth. Anyway they need paying volunteers (buy your own plane ticket) to help map out the salt ponds and related infrastructure and resources. Hopefully we will get more details about this opportunity on the WNC GIS Blog soon.

from Ewan:

At the moment we do not have funds to pay for flights to Haiti, but we can cover all transportation, accomodation and food costs while here. I am not surethat we can promise more than that at this time, but I can vouch that the experience here is very worthwhile for anyone brave enough!!!

Ewan

PS I hope that we will be able to get the info from the Ministry by next week.

Welcome to the WNC GIS blog

NEW WNC GIS BLOG: I am hoping that by the time the email reminder goes out (a day or so before the beer session) we will have a BLOG on the web. Pete Kennedy (Haywood Community College-GIS) is our Western North Carolina GIS Blog Master. We hope to have the blog up and running in the next few days. I do not know how any of this works but if you have any questions ask Pete .