The State GIS Board had its final meeting for 2009 on Wednesday, and established meeting dates for 2010. The minutes for the past two meetings are being reviewed and edited, and will be posted to the AGIO Web site as soon as they are complete.
The confirmed GISB meeting dates for 2010 are:
March 3rd
June 2nd
September 1st
December 1st
Thanks for a great year!
AGIO
Adrian Clark participated in the Drew County Quorum Court meeting in Monticello, Ark. Tuesday night. The primary topic of discussion was the county’s GIS program. Dr. Robert Kissell, UAM associate professor and State GIS Board member, gave a presentation explaining the basics of GIS technology and how it can benefit the county. Representatives from EFS GeoTechnologies of Monticello were also in attendance to answer questions concerning digital ortho-photography and other GIS-related services. Mr. Bill Horn, OEM /9-11 coordinator, had collaborated with these experts for several months to bring this technical presentation and discussion to the court in support of the county judge’s vision of providing better governance through technology. Mr. Horn described his plan of action by listing three goals: the first is to field-check existing address numbers and road centerline data in order to correct the Arkansas Centerline File and Address Point File. This process is predicted to take around six weeks to complete; the second goal is to contract with Eagle to produce a high-resolution digital base map for the entire county, to be completed early in 2010; the third goal is to pursue the completion of the assessor’s parcel mapping. By leveraging the three previously developed data layers, the resources required to complete the parcel layer will be well within the county’s ability to fund such a project. The court will meet to finalize its 2010 budget next week and has agreed to provide full support of these primary goals.
The AGIO intuitively knows our work with counties has impact, but the user testimony below made our day. Sometimes it’s the small things that make day-to-day struggles worthwhile and put a smile on your face.
“Though this is not as earth-shaking as some of the other stories, I want to relate how the efforts of the NWA Image Group, the counties here, and the AGIO ‘changed my life’ for the better. This weekend I was brush-hogging one of our pastures and had taken my cell phone with me since [my wife] wasn’t feeling good and I wanted her to be able to contact me. Anyway, somehow I didn’t realize that the phone had fallen out of my pocket. When I did I spent an hour searching – no phone. I went back to the house and got my wife’s phone and came back and called my phone – I thought I’d hear it ringing. Nope! Then I remembered that I have a ‘find my phone’ [application] on my phone. I called the house and [my wife] went on the web and entered the proper information. A Google map appeared with the phone’s location – a green dot and a pulsating circle. But it was all WHITE. There are NO roads in my pasture. I said click on the ‘satellite’ tab. Soon she could see everything and said it’s about 20 feet south of the big tree to the west of the pasture. There it was. Without high resolution imagery I STILL wouldn’t have my phone back!”
November 12, 2009
Little Rock, Ark.
The Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO) is pleased to announce a major publication update of the Arkansas Road Centerline File (ACF) data that includes Calhoun and Izard counties. The Centerline File is a GIS data set which contains road names and networks, address range information, and various other components that enable address matching and geocoding. The AGIO has integrated the data from the counties and published it on GeoStor, the state’s GIS clearinghouse. This update is the result of a lot of hard work by the two counties. Both counties had to undertake the conversion from old route and box style addressing to physical addressing, and at the same time create new road centerline data with the new address ranges.
We hope all the users are as proud as we are to see this data published. We would like to personally thank Judge Floyd Nutt, Tony Rinehart and Donna Gates in Calhoun County, and Judge Rayburn Finley, Assessor Tammy Sanders, Tiffany Felton and Doyle Cross in Izard County for their hard work. It took a lot of patience and perseverance to produce this data.
Both county ACF projects were funded by the AGIO under the direction of the State GIS Board. The physical addressing conversion process is being finalized now through the US Postal Service Address Management System Office in Little Rock. Residents in both counties will begin using their new addresses in the coming months, and the centerline files will be ready in advance. The data will be distributed as widely as possible so the new addresses will correspond with the new road names in the centerline files for those counties.
The Arkansas Geographic Information Office has named Pope County Assessor Karen Martin to its list of state leaders in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Martin has lived in Pope County her entire life, and currently resides in the outskirts of Russellville. She began working at the Assessor’s office 25 years ago, and was elected Assessor in 1999. When the counties began using the County Assessors Mapping Program (CAMP) in 2002, Martin said getting started was initially overwhelming. “We didn’t have any mapping for Pope County,” said Martin. “That looked like a big elephant, but we started eating one bite at a time. Now in 2009, we have about 89% of the parcels.”
Martin said that she knew the importance of mapping; however, funds were not allotted towards that service until the CAMP. The CAMP is a joint initiative between the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department and the AGIO that allows county assessors’ offices to create digital map databases of county tax parcels. The data is used on a daily basis to improve efficiencies in the assessor office. Martin said that the CAMP not only gave her office the computer they needed for mapping but the training as well. “I felt that when that came around it was time for us to jump on board, and I’ve never regretted it. That will not only assist our office but it will assist the tax payers, 911, and the state government.” When tornadoes tore through Atkins in February of last year, Martin’s office was able to provide information to the state due to their mapping capabilities. She attributed their success to the AGIO, saying that “without the training provided by them, those services could not have been accomplished.”
According to Martin, it was initially discouraging to see how much work needed to be done when the CAMP was first implemented. “When you look at roughly 33,000 parcels… that’s a big number for one person to look at. And when you’re looking at only getting 30 to 40 done in a day, you feel like you’ll never get it all done.” Now, Pope County has almost 85% of the polygons completed. Martin said that said she started out trying to do the mapping herself, but now keeps at least two employees trained on the program. “Then if I lose someone, I still have someone who knows what’s going on.” One employee works on the program full-time, and the other part-time. Martin said it would really be beneficial for at least two employees to be working on it full-time, but “I know some counties aren’t able to do that.”
Martin said she would like to get to the point where every parcel is platted and able to be maintained. Among the many uses that GIS has to offer the county, state, and beyond, Martin said she thinks it primarily benefits property appraisers because it assists in their field work and evaluation of properties. The main challenge she faces now is “keeping someone at it (mapping) daily… and just not feeling overwhelmed.” However, after seven years since the Camp program began, Pope County and many other counties have accomplished a lot with the limited resources they have been given.
While funding for GIS is not exactly at the point where it needs to be in the state, people like Martin have stressed the importance of this technology and fought for support from legislators. “We’re in here day in and day out evaluating people’s property with the tools we’re given… the better tools we’re given, the better jobs we can do.” The efforts of Martin and others in the GIS community have garnered some funding for GIS, “but not what we were hoping for. Just because it didn’t go my way, doesn’t mean I lost. It’s a seed for thought; it’s a seed I planted, and that’s never a waste.”
The following data has been added or updated throughout the GeoStor System. We appreciate all those willing to coordinate and distribute information via GeoStor- Thank You! Read More
Governor Beebe appointed three individuals to the State Geographic Information Systems Board on Thursday, September 24. Dr. Robert Kissell will remain on the Board for another term; Dr. Jackson Cothren of Fayetteville has replaced Dr. Fred Limp; and Dr. Margaret McMillan has replaced Ms. Phyllis Poche. The terms of GIS Board members are four years, and the newly appointed members’ terms will expire on August 1, 2013, unless they are reappointed by the Governor.
Dr. Kissell is an assistant professor in the School of Forest Resources at the University of Arkansas-Monticello (UAM), and is also a member of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center (ARFC). Through the ARFC, Kissell has used applied geospatial technology for wildlife ecology research. He has over 20 years of experience with GIS, and has been responsible for teaching courses in the Spatial Information Systems Program at UAM.
Dr. Cothren has studied geodetic sciences for over a decade. He was an honors graduate of the United States Air Force Academy in 1989, where he received his B.S. in mathematics. Cothren received his Ph.D. in Geodetic Science and Surveying from Ohio State University in 2004. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences, and the director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (U of A).
Dr. Margaret (Beth) McMillan has been involved in geology for nearly two decades. She received her B.A. with a distinction in geology from Colorado College in 1991, and her Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 2003. She is currently an associate professor and a graduate coordinator in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).
The Arkansas Geographic Information Office anticipates working with these three distinguished individuals. They are each leaders in the Arkansas GIS community, and we look forward to their future accomplishments as members of the State GIS Board.
High resolution orthos for Faulkner County, Pulaski County, Saline County and the City of Van Buren were released last week. These files are large and several have experienced problems downloading them due to the file size. AGIO staff have generated a WMS and ArcGIS map service. Users are welcome to connect to this service in lieu of downloading. Plans are in the works to generate a map cache for this data once a couple more counties are added (no eta at this time).You can visit http://www.geostor.arkansas.gov/G6/files/GeoStor_Tutorial_MS_WMS.pdf to learn how to connect to the ArcGIS map service or WMS.
Posted from http://geostor.blogspot.com/
This update includes a number of additions to the GeoStor Platform. We appreciate all those willing to coordinate and distribute information via GeoStor- Thank You!
Data
Geologic Data – provided by the Arkansas Geological Survey
High Resolution Orthos http://bit.ly/2RdELw
Application
* State Network Status Map http://bit.ly/pDwCt
* State Methamphetamine Statistics Map http://bit.ly/Kgof4
* ADEQ EnviroView (previously announced) http://bit.ly/cHwlA
* Saline County Assessor Viewer (previously announced) http://bit.ly/eatP3
* Crawford County Assessor Viewer (previously announced) http://bit.ly/vsAuv
Updates
* GeoStor Tutorial and Metadata updated with WMS & WFS (url & capabilities): http://bit.ly/3O8WMS
* Ortho Footprint for Files on GeoStor FTP (http://bit.ly/DZAbZ) updated with ortho additions above
net
Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to talk a little bit about my experience at the Little Rock workshop yesterday. First of all, I want to say that it was so nice to meet some of you! I’ve been writing these articles and blurbs to an “invisible” audience, and I’m glad I got to actually see some faces and know who I’m talking to!
I’m pretty new to the GIS community, but I feel like I’ve absorbed so much in the almost two months I’ve been working at the AGIO. While I know little about the technology itself, I’ve learned the gist of what GIS technologies are used for and what the process for gathering all of this data is. What I was not fully aware of, however, is just how much of an impact GIS has on the progression and economic development of our state. Hearing everyone’s comments, experiences, and concerns at the workshop yesterday really enlightened me on this subject. I feel like I’m finally starting to comprehend the bits of knowledge I’ve been gathering, and recognize just how important it is to gather funding to improve and maintain GIS data in Arkansas. I heard people like Faye Tate describe how understaffed their office was when they tried to draw a county map and get parcels together, which greatly delays the process of collecting and compiling data. People like Ms. Tate already have their tasks laid out for them, and collecting/maintaining GIS data is something that has been added on top of the pile. Because of this predicament, it takes much more time and energy to complete this task than it would if an extra person, who is competent of the programs and processes, were hired to do the job. However, many state and county offices are surviving on the limited resources granted to them, which often means that hiring a new employee is out of the question.
Senator Shane Broadway, the guest speaker at yesterday’s workshop, made several valid points as to why it’s important to have data parcels completed both accurately and in a timely fashion. In his words, “You have to respond to requests right now. Not tomorrow, right now. GIS provides an economic return that outweighs the cost…Without GIS data we (Saline County) would not have been able to respond to a $200M proposal.” People who are seeking to establish their businesses or attractions in Arkansas aren’t going to wait a few years for the counties to finish collecting or updating data. That’s why it’s so important for the members of the GIS community to come up with solutions to the funding issue. If state and county offices can gather more funding for GIS development and maintenance, then new employees could be hired to ensure that the data is accurate, up-to-date, and easily distributed. This would provide a greater chance for Arkansas to reach its full potential, and receive economical stimulus (the way it’s supposed to happen.)
If you haven’t signed up for a workshop yet, there are still three more coming up and I highly recommend anyone who can attend to do so. Even if you’re like me and you don’t feel like you could contribute very much to the workshop, it’s really valuable to sit and listen. Several people from all sectors showed up yesterday, but if more people from the academia sector could participate it could enrich the discussions in the upcoming workshops so much more. Senator Jimmy Jeffress will be the guest speaker at the Monticello workshop on August 31; State Representative Stephanie Mallone will speak at the Fort Smith workshop on September 1; and State Representative Steve Harrelson will speak at the workshop in Hope on September 2. I’m sure our guest speakers will shed as much of a practical perspective on the subject as Senator Broadway did yesterday, and Mr. Chadwell did in Jonesboro Monday.
Again, it was so good to see so many of you yesterday and I hope you found the meeting to be as productive and enlightening as I did! Let’s make the next three just as powerful.
-Rachel E. Hood- Staff Writer
Arkansas Geographic Information Office – Putting Arkansas on the Map
AGIO Blog