Members in
Attendance:
Lorraine
Bank, Witchwater, Inc.; Eric Blush, Town of Schererville; Kim Holmquist; School City of Hammond; Elizabeth Loudermilk, Indiana American Water; Joy Marburger, National Park Service; Becky McKinley, Hammond
Sanitary District; Cele Morris, IUN/NWI Center for Data &
Analysis;
Dan Niksch, City of Crown Point
Engineering;
George Olmsted, IUN; Scott Sandberg; IUN; Tim Sutherland, IUN; Anthony
Sutphen, National Park Service; Phil Worrall, IGIC; Michael Zabrecky
Local Implementation
Becky is currently involved with the Lake
County Housing Task Force as it keeps track of foreclosures in the county.
Her project involves downloading and geocoding data from the Sheriff's
foreclosure reports. Clusters can then be identified for local decision makers. Based on this data, funding can
be requested from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Neighborhood Stabilization Program to provide emergency assistance to state
and local governments to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that
might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within their
communities. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) provides grants to
every state and certain local communities to purchase foreclosed or
abandoned homes and to rehabilitate, resell, or redevelop these homes in
order to stabilize neighborhoods and stem the decline of house values of
neighboring homes. of and various
housing issues . The City of Hammond
is also in the process of purchasing parcel data from the Lake County
Surveyor's Office.
She will be working on joining County Auditor's data to the parcel data.
The City of Crown Point has just completed a map brochure project.
Identification of city properties previously not billed for its associated storm water fee is
underway. A contractor has been hired to videotape city streets to
create a georeferenced, "street view" type product. It is anticipated
that utility data will be used with this application. New GPS
equipment is to be purchased in the near future.
The Data Center at Indiana University Northwest has been involved
in mapping East Chicago assets with Geminus Corp. The project includes
a sampling of billboard types on I 80-94 between the IL/IN state line and
Porter county as well as along Cline and Indianapolis adjacent to East
Chicago. Anticipated funding via the Lake Michigan Coastal program
will provide funding for the creation of basic GIS educational workshops.
Training is intended to serve persons working on projects in the Lake Michigan
watershed without access to expensive GIS
software. Free GIS software such as Accuglobe, Arc Explorer and Google Maps will be utilized
for training.
Vegetation mapping at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is being
completed and should be available this summer. The data was collected
and cataloged by the USGS and NatureServe.
They will also be mapping restoration sties. Data for the National
Parks can be downloaded freely at the following location:
http://www.nps.gov/gis/data_info/. Obtaining a future GIS
position at the National Lakeshore is of interest if funding can be secured.
School City of Hammond uses GIS in conjunction with a school site program
for redistricting. Databases including student and teacher information such as
demographics and ISTEP scores and grades exist and could be used for
different types of analysis in GIS.
Indiana American Water reports that their engineering department
is responsible for the maintenance of maps for their systems. Sidwell
is under contract to map infrastructure such as pipe length, fittings,
valves and hydrants in their service area. That process is now complete and QC is
proceeding. Customer information will be added in the future.
The goal is to be able to provide service personnel with information on
laptops for work in the field. They look forward to learning more about GIS
through participation in the NWI GIS Forum. A position currently
exists for someone with GIS certification. It will most likely be
available in the northwest district office.
The Public Safety Institute at Calumet College is working on a
proposal to local police chiefs to provide an improved crime mapping system.
A GIS class will most likely be offered at IUN through the School of Public
and Environmental Affairs in the next year.
Town of Schererville has used Map Guide Server in the past and hopes
to reinstitute it in the future. Data is prepared and updated by their
engineering department.
NIRPC is organizing creation of a Multi Hazard Mitigation plan for
Lake and Porter Counties. FEMA requires the report from
municipalities requesting funds for planning purposes. There is a strong GIS
component related with this project. POLIS Center has been contracted
for the GIS work. This should provide a comprehensive view of flooding
in these counties and will hopefully provide some answers on how to
alleviate future flooding problems. All communities in Lake and Porter
County will be involved in meetings.
Training
Becky will be conducting free ArcGIS 9.3 training session
in the future. Training will take place in the GIS lab at IU
Northwest. Contact
Becky
for more information about enrolling in training.
IGIC provides
educational opportunities throughout the year. Check their website
regularly to see what is currently being offiered.
Visit the ESRI
website for any additional free webinars currently available.
Lake Rim GIS Update
The Indiana Geological Survey has updated,
Lake Rim GIS, an interactive
mapping website. Many data layers for Lake, Porter and LaPorte
counties have been updated
and some local data has been added.
Administration
Meeting notes will continue to be posted to
the NWI GIS Forum website as soon as possible after meetings (click on
Minutes).
Please contact with any comments or input on the website.
IGIC Report
Phil Worrall, Executive Director of the Indiana
Geographic Information Council provided the following report on
current IGIC activities.
-
IGIC
has been officially awarded a 2009 FGDC, CAP Grant - IndianaMap Data
Sharing Initiative ($75,000). This is a one
year project to start June 1, 2009. The project will continue the
process of integrating 4 framework datasets (parcel boundaries,
centerlines, jurisdictional boundaries and address points) for inclusion
in the IndianaMap. The process will be documented as a model for
other states.
-
Funding is available for the following projects in
the Lake Michigan watershed from the Indiana Department of Environmental
Management (IDEM).
1.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2009 Great Lakes Initiative
Area Funds – National Hydrology Dataset (NHD)
Maintenance and Updating Program ($200,000) – Phil presented a
map showing the area that would be included in this initiative.
This project will update the scale of an existing 30 year old model from
1:24,000 to 1:2,400.
2.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2010 – 2011 Great Lakes
Initiative Area Funds – Orthophotography & LiDAR ($200,000 each year).
The Indiana Department of Transportation has turned on
its Continuously
Operating Reference Stations (CORS). The system will
improve height measurement accuracy.
52 Indiana counties have agreed to participate in the
IndianaMap
project.
A new committee to IGIC, Indiana GIS Volunteer Corps,
is being formed. The goal is to create a statewide base of
volunteer GIS professionals to call upon in times of disaster.
Additional information about the formation of this service will be
forthcoming.
The IGIC
website has been redesigned. Look for additional changes in the future.
Suggestions are being encouraged. The
IndianaMap
is also under development. It will eventually have its own domain.
Mark your calendars for the following events. The
2010 GIS Conference will be held in Bloomington, IN, February 23 & 24.
The 2009 Local Government GIS Coordinator's Forum will be held on September
25. The location will be announced in the near future.
Next Meeting: Next meeting:
Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 9:00 am - 11:00 am, at Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.
