Poster Abstracts
Abstracts are listed alphabetically by the first listed author’s last
name.
Developing Metadata Explorer Tools at
Xiaobo Cui,
Assistant GIS Manager,
Information Technology,
To more effective share and disseminate
metadata over the internet, Westchester County is working with both ESRI and
FGDC in building browser tools which can search and harvest the county’s
metadata records. Initial work has resulted
in the development of a Metadata Explorer service which can be launched from
the county’s GIS website at
http://giswww.westchestergov.com/metadataexplorer. This service allows users to search and
browse metadata by generic parameters or specific themes. The Westchester County Metadata Explorer
service is also integrated with the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) portal at
http://www.geodata.gov. Future design
and development of the Metadata Explorer service is intended to include
functions for local governments to post metadata records directly to the
county’s metadata repository which can be harvested from the GOS portal.
This poster will present an overview of
the Westchester County GIS Metadata Explorer and GOS development strategy. In addition to providing an overview of
required hardware and software components at the county level, strategies to
include smaller units of governments, not-for-profits, and other organizations
will also be discussed. Once fully implemented,
A MULTIPLE SCALE APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE BIOLOGICAL
INTEGRITY OF RHODE ISLAND STREAMS
Sara da Silva, Environmental
Scientist, Nelson, Pope & Voorhis,
LLC,
Land use and geomorphology within
watersheds affect the biological, physical, and chemical conditions in streams
at multiple scales. This study assessed how well indices of biological
integrity relate to landscape variables and explored which spatial scales are
most useful for assessment of
Updating USGS DEMS Using High Accuracy Elevation Points
Nathen Harp, GIS
Analyst, NYSDOH,
Accuracy of digital elevation models
(DEM) is under critical investigation for errors and uncertainties.
Often, it is impossible to acquire higher
accuracy information to reduce the amount of error and uncertainty over large
geographic areas.
While highly accurate (horizontal and
vertical accuracy of +/- 0.6 m), the data spacing is too sparse (75 - 200 m) to
support production of a complete terrain model for other purposes. This
research focuses on methods to identify and update specific areas of the USGS
DEM using the sparse network of NYDOP data. In addition, understanding the
spatial and statistical nature of erroneous high and low values will identify
anomalies in the original USGS DEM.
Municipal Government GIS Development in
Ana Hiraldo, GIS Specialist III,
Information Technology,
Cynthia Louie, Staff Assistant (GIS),
Information Technology,
As part of a project to protect and
preserve the Hudson River Estuary, Westchester County Department of Planning
has received funding from the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) to produce a watershed conservation plan for Croton Bay
which covers five municipalities in the county.
Use of GIS in Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Modeling of
Sumant Mallavaram, Environmental Engineer, Lawler, Matusky & Skelly
Engineers,
Guy Apicella, Lawler, Matusky and Skelly Engineers LLP
GIS serves as a powerful analytical and
visualization tool in water resources modeling and assessment. As part of New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s
in-kind services for the
Tracking Rare Wood Turtles with GIS and GPS in
Deborah Parker, GIS Specialist,
Information Technology,
GIS staff worked with Park
Superintendent Beth Herr to launch desktop GIS at
Ward Pound Ridge Reservation,
installing Arc View3.2 software and establishing a link to base map data on the
County’s fiber optical network. Staff
also scanned and geo-referenced a mid-1980s mylar drawing of the park that shows trails,
geographic features and identifies park structures.
This effort was initiated to support
the reservation’s ongoing mission to monitor and protect a resident population
of rare and endangered wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta). Fitted
with radio transmitters, the turtles can be tracked with a special antenna and
receiver.
During the turtle’s active season, from
late February until late November, parks naturalists note time, weather
conditions, habitat, and details of feeding, mating and nesting behaviors,
while also capturing the turtles' geographical location with a hand-held GPS
unit. With the radio transmitters, GPS,
and GIS/IT support, park staff are able to observe and
monitor turtle movement - even under the ice in a swollen winter river.
GIS staff convert
the GPS-acquired coordinates of the turtle sightings which can then be draped
on top of the county’s color orthophotography. Over a period of years, these observations
will establish the turtles' habits and the limits and extent of their
territory, helping Parks staff protect each season's crop of eggs, and ensure
the continued presence of this threatened species in
Design of the Indian Point Emergency GIS (IPEG) Application
Ariane Porter,
Software Architect,
Information Technology,
Designed using ESRI’s
ArcEngine technology and written in Java, IPEG is
designed to provide robust spatial analysis tools and other core GIS
functionality in a user-friendly environment.
The IPEG application includes spatial analysis functions such as
buffering point and polygon features, plume modeling and other ad-hoc
queries. A report is generated following
each query which will contain a screen capture of the map and list of all data
layers involved in the query.
It is intended for the application to
be integrated with other state and local government GIS applications which are
being built associated with the Indian Point emergency response and evacuation
plans.
An OASIS in
Steven
Romalewski, NYPIRG’s Community Mapping Assistance Project, sromalewski@nypirg.org
Christina Spielman, NYPIRG’s Community
Mapping Assistance Project, cspielman@nypirg.org
The Open Accessible Space Information System (OASIS) for
the
The first product of this collaborative is a website (www.oasisnyc.net) for the
The OASIS website helps people see and understand their
neighborhood by visualizing spatial patterns.
It makes valuable information available to average citizens,
neighborhood planning groups, and others who cannot afford expensive mapping
tools and/or who do not have access to the complex pool of government and
private sources of data. OASIS partners
are also actively creating new data where other sources are inadequate or do
not exist -- especially at community scales.
Integrating Traffic Signal Management Systems with
Geographic
Information Systems
Kevin Roseman, Traffic Engineer,
Cynthia Louie,
Integrating
Resolution of .5ft) with real time data
from QuicNet4 produces an extremely precise ITS. Adding the GIS datasets introduces features
that aren’t available through bitmap displays such as labeling, panning and
zooming. Other features include layer
visibility based on zoom level and retrieving traffic signal information
(intersection name, alarm, etc.) by placing cursor over traffic signal point.
County-wide Accident Mapping and Analysis
Marybeth Vargha, GIS Coordinator,
Otsego County Stop DWI/Traffic Safety,
GIS Office, and
Governor’s Committee for Traffic
Safety, has created a GIS database of accidents reported within the county from
1998 to 2003. There are many lessons
learned about how to map the records, how the data can be used and what are the shortcomings of these methods for use in analysis. This poster will show illustrations of the
methodology, samples of applications and results of some more specific analysis
– including locations of accidents by cause/injuries/time of day/etc, changes
in types of accidents along high development corridors, ambulance response and
transport to emergency facilities, and models for improving DWI/speed
enforcement.
Customized Data Clipping Tool for ArcMap
8.3 with Visual Basic
Tong Zhou, Software Architect,
Information Technology,
With GIS applications and use expanding
throughout county government, users are increasingly showing interests in data
clipping functionality. Although the out-of-the-box clip function with ArcMap and the ArcToolbox is
available, it is sometimes difficult to learn for users with no GIS background
and often does not meet individual user requirements.
To solve these problems, a customized
data clipping tool was developed. It was developed in the ArcObjects
development environment with Visual Basic as the programming language. It can
be easily distributed and deployed to workstations as a dll
file. The customized application includes many features including:
· Allowing the user to select interested polygons
in a polygon layer as the clipping boundary (and/or extending the boundary by specifying a
distance).
· An
easy-to-browse file structure which adds or removes
data to be clipped.
· It will define the spatial reference, which is
required for clipping, on the fly if the data has no spatial reference defined.
· It
allows clipping many layers at a time and will filter out the result layers
with no record.
· It
allows users to select the fields they want to include in the result layers
· Incorporates
an error checking mechanism to ensure the process runs smoothly.