December 2005 Newsletter
Letter from IGIC's Executive Director
Dear Colleagues,
As the end of the year approaches, I am spending time reflecting on those things most important to me,
both personally and professionally. What have been my major accomplishments? Where do I want to do
more (or less!)? As I appreciate the past and look toward the future, I am overwhelmed by the camaraderie
of the Indiana GIS community and its (your) capacity to work together to accomplish great things.
In 1997, a grass-roots group came together to provide leadership and direction for statewide GIS.
That effort grew and matured into the Indiana Geographic Information Council. IGIC itself has been
maturing as an organization supported by people like you. So, today I gave myself a New Year's
present - I subscribed as a general member of the Indiana Geographic Information Council. General
membership is new to IGIC starting January of 2006. It is a response to a maturing organization
with a need for a formal membership to elect its Board of Directors. It's a response to support
an organization that supports us all through educational opportunities, networking, and products
like standards and framework data. IGIC is growing (did you know IGIC hired its first staff person
in February?). As a 501(c)(3), IGIC does not have base funding to support operations. All of our
funding has come from grants, contracts and conference revenues. The heavy lifting really comes from
a very large volunteer base of dedicated professionals (IGIC logs over 3000 volunteer hours per year!).
With my membership, I will receive a members-only conference rate, free admission to the GIS Seminar Series,
several professional networking and development opportunities, and much more. Most importantly to me,
I will be helping support an organization that continues to add value to the GIS community in Indiana.
More than I could have anticipated, IGIC and the people who care about it have helped me grow
personally and professional. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with you all.
I hope you will join me in giving yourself a New Year's gift of IGIC membership. Your continued
support is key to IGIC's success. However you celebrate it, happy holidays!
Jill Saligoe-Simmel, PhD
IGIC Executive Director
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IndianaMap - Coming to You!
In 2006, IGIC will be working on several projects to get the
IndianaMap into the hands of people who can really use it. Thanks to an SBC Excelerator grant, we
will be able to put county orthophotography maps in public libraries in all 92 Indiana counties. With a second grant
from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, we plan to target economic development
professionals and community groups. For both projects IGIC will provide the digital maps -
online and on disk - viewing software, and technical training.
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IGIC Board Member Nominations
Translate your dedication and enthusiasm for GIS into action - serve as a Board member of the
Indiana Geographic Information Council. To nominate yourself or someone you think could be a
real asset, visit the IGIC website and fill out a nomination form. Nomination period closes January 20, 2006.
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Call for Abstracts - Deadline Extended
The deadline to submit an abstract for the 2006 Indiana GIS Conference has been extended to
December 15, 2005. Anyone interested in presenting can visit the
conference pages of the IGIC website for more information on how to submit.
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GIS Awards
Every year IGIC seeks to recognize outstanding GIS projects and programs across the state.
Know of a project that has made a positive impact? Are you feeling particularly proud of one
of your own accomplishments? Send in a nomination form - you can spread the word and possibly
win an award for yourself!
Click here
to submit online.
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GIS Response to the Evansville Tornado
At 2:00 a.m., November 6, an F3 tornado crashed through Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in southern
Indiana. Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 24 people lost their lives.
GIS staff from around the state immediately started discussing how they could help the recovery effort,
and offered assistance to the staff at Evansville GIS and in the Warrick County Surveyor's Office.
Woolpert LLP, in Indianapolis reminded people they had aerial orthophotos of Vanderburgh County at their
Dayton, OH office. Woolpert is part of the EarthData team producing the 2005 color aerial photos for
all of Indiana.
Greg Grabner, GIS Project Manager for Evansville created a GIS layer of the tornado path, and
sent it to Woolpert. Their staff immediately began to pull together the photos, and quickly
delivered a photo mosaic of the tiles along the path. Staff at IMAGIS (the Indianapolis GIS
consortium) also assisted in correcting technical issues with the files.
Pinnacle Mapping Technologies, part of the Dewberry team who are contracted to perform
quality assurance and delivery tasks for the aerial photo project, had the Warrick County
photos in their Indianapolis office. Within a day of being contacted, Pinnacle had the photo
tiles of Warrick County posted to their FTP site.
Christina McCullough, the Geospatial Analyst at the Indiana National Guard was also able to provide
Evansville with photos taken by NOAA showing tornado damage.
At the November 17th meeting, the IGIC Board voted to recognize the tornado response effort, and specifically
to provide Woolpert and Pinnacle each with a Certificate of Appreciation for their volunteer spirit
and corporate citizenship.
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Orthophotography Update
At the end of November, EarthData had shipped about 47,000 photo tiles (69% of the state) to Dewberry
for review. The acceptance rate is good - better than 99%. Final deliveries have been made to
Sullivan, Vigo and Clay counties; and we look to be able to deliver all counties by the end of
January. Some of the later photo missions have leaf-on issues, and the State is working with
EarthData to determine where reflights are needed. For information on deliveries, schedules
and where the files will be available, visit IGIC's
orthophotography project pages.
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Shortest Distance to Clean Water
Veolia Water Company Indianapolis is one of the nation's largest water utilities, serving over 260,000
customers in central Indiana. Using paper work orders for hydrant testing, valve testing, and customer
service issues was a cumbersome method of managing operations and collecting data. Veolia turned to a
customized Palm PDA computing system to update and improve their practices.
Many of the field employees had minimal computer experience, but Veolia found a creative way to
overcome that obstacle - field employees were given Palm PDA devices and encouraged to play games
so they would become familiar with the controls and the text writing capabilities. They also
received training, practice data, and a brief "cheat sheet" before being sent into the field.
Since 1999, the PDAs have been used daily by 30-40 service field crews to process over 229,000 work orders.
Employees with minimal computer experience are now Palm-savvy and a valuable part of data input
and collection. As a result, field data accuracy has improved, and redundant, time-consuming
paperwork has been eliminated.
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In Brief
Homeland Security Grant Available
ESRI is accepting applications from rural or smaller first responder agencies (law enforcement,
fire and emergency management) to receive GIS software and training packages. More
information is available at
www.esri.com/grants/nonesri/05048_dhs_cedap.html.
Remote Sensing Conference
Remote Sensing Across the Great Lakes: Observations, Monitoring and Action conference will be
held on April 4 - 6, 2006 at the Clarion Riverside Hotel in Rochester, New York. The Central
New York Region of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the Great
Lakes Commission are collaborating to provide an opportunity to learn about satellite, airborne
and in-situ remote sensing technologies that are being used to study, monitor and manage the Great
Lakes - St. Lawrence River system. The abstract deadline is December 19. For more information,
visit the
conference pages.
New IGIC Website
The IGIC website is new and improved! Information on statewide projects, membership, jobs,
education opportunities, GIS resources and more! Check out our new look at
www.igic.org.
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Free Seminars
Web-Based GIS Tools for Land Management Activities
December 9, 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, Indiana University Northwest, 3400 Broadway, Gary
Save the Dunes Conservation Fund is partnering with Indiana University Northwest to present a training
workshop for the Indiana Coastal Restoration Action Team (ICRAT.) The focus of this training
workshop will be land management techniques using GIS. The Northwest Indiana Center for
Data & Analysis at Indiana University Northwest will conduct the workshop.
Participants should have experience in utilizing ArcView and ArcGIS. Hands on exercises will feature
creating point and polygon shapefiles, downloading aerial photography and census data, and adding
data to a table. The agenda will also include creating metadata for new datasets.
There is no charge for the workshop and the public is invited, but space is limited. Reservations accepted
until full. Please reserve by calling 219-879-3564. Funding for this program was provided in part
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Indiana Department of Natural
Resources, Lake Michigan Coastal Program.
Exploring Statewide GIS Resources - Second session added!
January 17, 9-11:30 am, Indiana State Library, Room 401, Indianapolis
Topics for this seminar will include a review and exploration of the considerable resources that are
available to Indiana GIS users thru the Indiana Geographic Information Council. These resources
include opportunities for networking, education for new as well as experienced GIS users throughout
the state, guidelines that can help GIS users more effectively develop GIS projects within their
communities, and much more. The seminar will also provide an opportunity for participants to share
their thoughts and ideas regarding how IGIC can best support the needs of GIS users across Indiana.
The presenter for this seminar will be Jill Saligoe-Simmel, PhD.
Seating for this seminar is limited. Therefore, it is important that you sign up early by sending your
complete contact information (name, phone number, email, and address) to
polis@iupui.edu or call 317-274-2455.
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