Northwest Indiana
GIS Forum
Meeting Notes
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Meeting Location: Indiana University Northwest
Members in Attendance: Heather Acheff, Lake County
Surveyors Office; Joe Alamillo, City of Hammond; Lorraine Bank, City of
Hobart; Martin Brown, Gary Sanitary District; Brad Clinehens, Purdue
Univ. Coop. Extension Service; Roy Evans, Purdue Calumet; Thomas Frank,
East Chicago Waterway District; Kim Holmquist, School City of Hammond;
Betty Kiechle, Lake County Surveyor’s Office; Becky McKinley, Hammond
Sanitary District; Kevin Miller, Indiana Department of Environmental
Management; Cele Morris, IUN/NWI Center for Data and Analysis; George
Olmsted, IUN; Dan Rieden, Lake County Parks Dept.; Alan Rosenwinkel;
Lake County Parks Dept., Jeff Schroerder, IUN student; Craig Shillinglaw;
Ruth Vanderlin, Lake County Parks Dept.; Dwayne Williams, Town of
Chesterton
Local Implementation
Morton and Gavit High Schools in the City of Hammond have received GPS
units and software to be used to create curriculum for a GIS class. The
model may be shared with schools around the state. The City has been awarded
funds and will work with a consultant for preparation of a pre disaster
mitigation plan. Funds have been received to tie the City’s computerized
sewer management system into their GIS.
The Data Center at IUN is completing a social assets mapping project
funded by the campus Center for Cultural Discovery and Learning. Cultural
and arts activities taking place in the cities of Gary and Crown Point were
geocoded.
With the assistance of an intern this summer, Lake County Parks
Department made headway mapping their park sites with ArcGIS 9.1. They are
continuing to do work on their park parcel files as well. Park trail maps
are being updated for greater accuracy. As a result of their work with the
Huck Finn Project, the Department was awarded four GPS units from the
Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana. They have set up some geocaches in
the area.
Lake County is currently in year three of a five year GIS implementation
project. Street centerlines for 911, countywide parcels and hydrology are
layers currently underway. Working closely with the Lake County Surveyor’s
Office, the Lake County Indiana Sheriff’s Department rolled out Orion Map
GIS for their 911 system. The product has been released to the local 911
community. Datasets will be updated regularly.
George Olmsted will offer a geocoding workshop on October 7 at the IUN
GIS lab. Contact the Data Center for more information (219-981-5612). He
also reported that the City of Valparaiso recently held a meeting to kick
off their GIS project.
The City of Hobart has recently installed ArcGIS 9.1 and has made
successful presentations to its Planning Commission. This summer the City
conducted some GPS work for their storm water management program. Site
development and conservation issues are being investigated using GIS.
Due to changes in boundaries for school enrollments in the School City of
Hammond, personnel have been involved in determining the appropriate school
for specific locations when needed. They have also been using GIS to create
buffer zones to determine districts.
The East Chicago Waterway District intends to use GIS in the future for
indicator analysis in their planning efforts.
The Town of Chesterton is using GIS as an economic development tool. They
have been clipping specific areas of the Town from datasets to use as
marketing tools to local developers.
Kevin Miller with IDEM is currently working on the
Grand Calumet Feasibility Study with Army Corps of Engineers related to restoration along
12 miles of the nonfederal portions of the Grand Calumet River and Indiana
Harbor Ship canal. Data is being compiled and categorized in a geodatabase.
Kevin has also been involved in assembling four catalogs of historical
aerial photography compiled by the EPA. The photography covers northern Lake
County from the 1950’s through the 90’s. The method of future accessibility
of this data is presently unknown.
The storm water management system for the City of Gary is presently being
coordinated with the city’s sewer network GIS. Validation of the sewer
network was performed this summer by interns via geodata collection. Major
work is continuing on the city’s wireless network. The emergency services
network will include the “Shot Spotter” system that detects the location of
gunfire.
Roy Evans anticipates that the economic development subcommittee of the NWI GIS Forum will be reconvened this Fall to discuss GIS possibilities
related to transportation, distribution and logistics topics for the
region. A special exhibit will be held at the Welcome Center in Hammond from
Mid September through November showcasing aerial photography of the proposed
Marquette Park Greenway project. Roy is also assisting the City of Whiting
with AutoCad Map issues.
NWI GIS Forum Activities
Online Metadata Tool
The Indiana Geological Survey is in the process of filling a position for
a database administrator that currently affects improvements to the Online
Metadata Tool. Once the position is filled this Fall, updates and additional
work on the website will be continued. Authorization was received to
announce the existence of the Tool in the INGISI newsletter.
2005 Cap Grant
The Northwest Indiana Center for Data & Analysis at the Indiana
University Library, in coordination with the Northwest Indiana GIS Forum,
submitted and was awarded a 2005 CAP Grant for Metadata Outreach and
Training from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to continue
promoting documentation of local datasets regionally. With delivery of the
new 2005 aerial photography slated for late this year, education about data
documentation will be even more important to folks in the area starting
their GIS programs or just needing a refresher on the subject. Cele Morris
will attend a grant kick off workshop at the USGS headquarters in Reston, VA
in mid September.
Training
IDEM has generously agreed to make $2,500 available for ArcGIS training
materials this year for the Forum. Becky anticipates holding one session
before the end of the year and one early next year. Be sure to contact Becky
McKinley to express interest in participating in any upcoming sessions when
they are advertised via our email list.
GIS Day
GIS Day is scheduled for November 16, 2005. IUN has volunteered to be a
site for a half day of festivities. If anyone has any ideas for a half hour
presentation or would like to submit posters contact .
Administration
Meeting notes will be posted to the
Minutes section of the NWI
GIS Forum website as soon as possible after meetings. The
list of members has been dropped from the site. We may want to populate a
new list in the future. It was suggested that members could be furnished
with a fill in form to populate a database. Cele will initiation discussion
with the IUN Webmaster to determine what course of action is appropriate.
ESRI Midwest Regional Users Group Conference
The ESRI Midwest
Regional Users Group
conference will be held this October 5 – 7, 2005, in Bloomington. The
Indiana Geological Survey will co-host this activity.
INGISI/IGIC Report
2005 Orthophotography Project update – All of the aerial photography for
the state was flown this spring. Information related to deliverables can be
found on this INGISI website.
Information regarding photo processing is available on the EarthData Project Tracker website.
Username: indiana1 - Password: hoosier
Other Business
A statewide economic development website is being developed and is
sponsored by the Indiana Department of Commerce with input from economic
development personnel from utilities NIPSCO and Cinergy. Local planning
departments have been contacted to provide available site information. A GIS
component to the site reminiscent of Map Quest is being planned for the
site. It will be up to local entities to add any detail to the site that
they would like. Local planners should be aware of this project. The site is
currently being tested. Becky will forward a URL when it becomes available.
Next Meeting: Thursday, November 10, 2005, Northwest Indiana Regional
Planning Commission, Portage, IN, 9:00 –11:00 am
Some useful links:
Midwest ArcUsers Group Conference
- October 5-7, 2005 – Bloomington, IN
EarthData Project Tracker
Username: indiana1 - Password: hoosier
2005
Orthophotography Project status and announcements (from IGIC)
Online Metadata Tool
POLIS Center Emergency Management Seminars:
http://www.in.gov/dhs/
For HAZUS MH training registration information send an email to:
National Map
Google Earth
|
