Northwest Indiana
GIS Forum
Meeting Notes
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Meeting Location: Indiana University Northwest
Members in
Attendance:
Rex Burton; Jacob Carringer, Lake County Parks; Conni Clay,
Save the Dunes Council; John Dashiell, FHLBI; Kim
Holmquist, School City of Hammond;
Betty Keichle, Lake County Surveyor's Office; Shannan Lefever, NIRPC;
Morton Marcus; Becky McKinley, Hammond Sanitary District; Kathy
Mohlke, DLZ;
Cele Morris, IUN/NWI Center for Data &
Analysis; Richard
Morrisroe, City of East Chicago; Jennifer Nebe, Save the Dunes
Conservation Fund; Dan Niksch, City of Crown Point
Engineering;
George Olmsted; Dan Rieden, Lake County Parks; Alan Resetar,
The Field Museum; Lauren Rhein, NIRPC; Diane Thalmann, NIRPC
Local Implementation
Hammond
Sanitary District - Becky McKinley
has been busy training
her new assistant. Recent flooding episodes in Hammond have been
mapped. Flood data accumulated over the last ten years is being
analyzed to determine priority service areas in the City. Negotiations
are underway between city departments to purchase parcel data from Lake
County. Parcel data will be used to reconcile municipal zoning and to
focus project work down to the parcel level.
It is expected that the School of Public
and Environmental Affairs at
IU
Northwest will offer a GIS class in the spring. The Data Center is
focusing on metadata activities to be reported on later in the meeting.
The City of Crown Point has completed a second update to their zoning map.
Brochures have been created for the Parks Department. Data collection
for new development within the city continues. The Police Department
is using new subdivision maps. Maps have been created locating sex
offenders in the city to determine distance from public child care
facilities.
The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) is
working on several projects using GIS. The 20-30 Safety Compliance
report will use state automobile accident data to determine locations of high concentrations of
accidents. They are also responsible for creating a
comprehensive land use plan for the region. Regional municipalities
are currently being assisted by NIRPC personnel during the land use data
collection period. The project will help to indicate
inconsistencies at municipal boundaries.
Lake County is in year 5 of its GIS
project. The section corner location project is complete.
Hydrologic data is being gathered. Work continues, in different
degrees, on the seven, state recommended, GIS base layers. The first five
years of the County GIS project have been geared towards data creation.
Implementation is the next stage. Future funding for GIS is always an
issue.
The City of East Chicago plans to
build on existing GIS data and will participate in the Lake Rim GIS update
project.
Meeting visitor, Morton Marcus,
suggested that the NWI GIS Forum become more visible to the general public by
inviting the press to our meetings. He also stressed the
importance of showing local government officials the value of GIS through
demonstrations of the technology.
Conni Clay of Save the Dunes Council
added that public perception is a powerful tool that can be used to promote
GIS in the region. The Council uses GIS to identify properties that
might be added to National Lakeshore. Save the Dunes Conservation
Fund, Water Quality Program is refining maps with new data for wetlands
and land use. They have also been using GPS equipment to collect data
for maps.
Lake County Parks has had the help
of two interns this summer. They have collected water quality
information in areas that are environmentally sensitive. Hand written
records describing prescribed burns in natural areas have been digitized.
A successful presentation showcasing GIS was offered to administration this
summer. Funding for upgrades to current GIS Software is a concern.
Work is presently being done in AutoCAD. Annotation problems occur
when converting to GIS. It was suggested that specific tools may be
available to help with that problem. Since many county parks are
crossed by power lines, it would be helpful to gain access to data
held by utility companies. Geocaching has become a popular activity
for the public. With the support of Lake County Parks, geocachers have
set up a site at Buckley Homestead in Lowell with a historical twist.
The NIPSCO, Economic Development
Department realizes the usefulness of GIS and wishes to convey its importance to public
officials. GIS can be used as a tool by local economic development
organizations as they strive to bring new people and businesses to Northwest
Indiana.
DLZ is collecting locations of section corners for a
project in Newton County. They are also collecting data for the
military.
NWI GIS Forum Activities
Training
IDEM continues to support GIS
training in Northwest Indiana by donating training materials for two ArcGIS
9.2 sessions this year. Free, 2 day, certified ArcGIS 9.2 training session conducted by Becky McKinley in the IUN GIS lab
are expected to be scheduled for this fall. IUN is in the process of
upgrading the GIS lab to ArcGIS 9.2 and the Vista operating system.
Once the lab build is complete, training sessions will be
advertised via the NWI GIS Forum listserv. Contact
for information.
Visit the ESRI
website for any additional free webinars currently available.
CAP Grant Status/Activity
Cele reported that the 2005 CAP (Cooperative Agreements
Program) funding period will terminate August 31, 2007. Much of the
funding was spent last summer providing metadata presentations around
the state during the 2005 Statewide aerial photography rollout.
She will complete the final report as part of that funding. The Data
Center received 2007 Federal Geographic Data Committee CAP funding to
continue metadata outreach and training activities. Cele attended a
kickoff meeting in Denver in mid May to present the project. Funded
activities will include continued basic metadata training and outreach,
metadata assistance to data providers to the Lake Rim upgrade project, and
engagement of those familiar with data documentation through possible
"metadata retreats". An Introduction to Metadata, full day workshop is
currently being assembled for this fall and will be advertised through the
NWI GIS Forum listserv in the near future.
Lake Rim GIS Update
Funding has been
secured to update the Indiana Geological Survey interactive mapping website,
Lake Rim GIS.
A meeting was held at Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission
offices in May to present the plan and request feedback from interested
parties. During May, an online survey was available requesting
information related to website usage, user demographics, and preferences.
72 respondents participated in varying degrees. Some of the results of
the survey follow:
-
Based on the results of the survey, it is apparent
that website users are interested in the inclusion of up-to-date
orthophotos, parcels and regional layers outside Indiana such as Cook/Dupage
counties in Illinois and Berrien county in Michigan.
-
Many of the suggestions related to upgraded
function of the website can be achieved by moving to a viewer similar to
the
Indiana GIS Atlas.
-
Test of a beta site is underway.
-
IGS is updating regional layers they have in
possession as well as incorporating local data acquired from Kevin
Miller.
-
Static web pages supporting the site are being
designed.
-
New functionality may include some pre-defined maps
and zoom to pre-selected areas.
Administration
Meeting notes will continue to be posted to
the NWI GIS Forum website as soon as possible after meetings (click on
Minutes).
Resource links were recently checked and updated/removed where necessary.
Please contact with any comments or input on the website.
Due to changes in Indiana Geological Survey hardware
and software, the Online Metadata Tool is not currently functional.
The IGS advises that they hope to be able to upgrade the Tool to provide a
more user friendly interface by the end of summer.
IGIC Report
IGIC now provides
Presenter Kits via its
website. Each kid contains a Powerpoint presentation and includes
notes on a variety of basic GIS topics. Thanks to a grant from
IndianaView, IGIC has developed a
series of materials that anyone can download and use to understand and
explain the power of GIS.
The IGIC Education Committee has arranged a number of
interesting seminars and
online webinars through the year on a variety of subjects. All are
free to IGIC members. A small fee is charged to nonmembers.
Other Business
The Northwestern Regional Planning Commission will host
training session for the US Census Bureau, LUCA (Local Update Census
Address) program. Sessions will be held on September 25 and October 23
at NIRPC headquarters in Portage. Contact Lauren Rhein for more
information.
Forward any comments or suggestions, including
presentation topics or possible demonstrations for the 2008 Indiana State
GIS conference to
GIS Manager, Dept. of Public Works, South
Bend.
Next Meeting: The next meeting
- in October - to be announced , at Northwestern Indiana Regional
Planning Commission
|
