GPS World

Tag: GIS technology

  • States ‘less than halfway’ in implementing GIS in elections

    United States’ election directors are interested, but “less than halfway,” in terms of implementing GIS to strengthen the nation’s electoral system

    The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) has released its findings from its first survey of state election directors, seeking to determine the current status of the implementation of GIS in elections.

    A number of states have championed the use of this technology in recent years to strengthen the accuracy and reliability of their electoral systems. NSGIC’s Geo-Enabled Elections project was created to assist states and other election authorities in this process.

    According to the new Election Director Report, state election directors indicate knowledge and interest in GIS technology. However, the report’s findings also suggest that most states have a long way to go to fully utilize geospatial information in elections.

    Do you have access to GIS maps and shapefiles for each of your voting districts from a government source? (Image: NSGIC)
    Do you have access to GIS maps and shapefiles for each of your voting districts from a government source? (Image: NSGIC)

    Five out of six election directors interviewed stated that they are familiar with GIS and have access to a GIS expert. However, fewer than one in three could say with confidence that their voter registration system is capable of supporting GIS data.

    Moreover, when asked to assess their state’s degree of progress towards full integration of geospatial data in elections, the answer was four, on average, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 represented full GIS integration.

    “We’re very encouraged by the interest and enthusiasm we’ve encountered among election directors,” said Molly Schar, NSGIC executive director. “Few state election offices in the United States are fully GIS integrated. However, election directors, on the whole, are motivated to deploy the technology to increase accuracy and gain efficiencies in their election data management processes.”

    Why does using geospatial data offer a critical advantage to electoral systems? In short, it ensures that the right ballot is given to the right voter so that voters’ voices are heard in the right electoral contests. Recently, some well-publicized errors in voter placement have undermined the reliability of election results and may have hurt voter confidence.

    Additionally, replacing cumbersome voter lists and verbal definitions of voting districts with technology that allows election officials to view voters as pinpoints on a map — and voting district boundaries as geometrical shapes that surround those pinpoints — offers some very concrete advantages.

    The verification that voters have, in fact, been placed into the right voting district becomes much easier, as does quality control — both as part of a periodic review and after significant changes, such as the modification of voting district boundaries.

    Currently, many states use GIS technology for other matters, such as emergency response systems, land use, or utility management, and often have a Geographic Information Officer (GIO) within state government. Part of the Geo-Enabled Elections project’s mission is to promote a stronger dialogue between GIOs and election directors in state government.

    The project’s next steps for furthering the use of GIS in elections include six case studies from states already using GIS in elections, as well as five state-wide pilot studies among states working to expand their GIS integration, with the goal of delivering a set of best practices to support states wishing to start the process towards full GIS integration.

    The Geo-Enabled Elections project, phase one, runs from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2019, with the aim to help strengthen electoral systems by supporting states in the adoption of GIS. Concretely, this means encouraging state governments to replace non-spatial ‘address file’ systems with election precinct and voter data in a GIS format, leveraging that format’s inherent visual and analytical advantages.

  • Laser rangefinder speeds up faltering survey project

    Photo: Laser Technology
    Photo: Laser Technology

    A survey consulting firm accustomed to using drones to capture data in the field recently found that data gathering was taking too long, and after just one day, the field manager knew the project wasn’t going to meet budget.

    “Some of the areas were more congested than we originally planned, and we had to consider other tools to do it better and faster,” said Mike George of Downtown Design Services Inc. (DDSI).

    The company turned to an laser rangefinder and got the job back on track.

    To learn more about the exact processes involved in Integrating a professional measurement and mapping laser to your GIS toolbox, both saving time and enabling collection of additional attribute data attend GPS World’s free webinar on Thursday, Aug. 16: LaserGIS: Your Gateway to Collect More GIS Data in Less Time.

    George used the Laser Technology TruPulse 360 rangefinder as a first walk-around to obtain site data for the company’s drone, identifying the peak above ground level, establishing ground control points, and setting the pre-programmed grid for the flight. The laser rangefinder significantly sped up the process without sacrificing any measurement accuracy.

    “As the project went along and we started processing data,” George added, “we realized that the drone didn’t capture everything, and that some data wasn’t as high-quality as we had hoped.” Many of the smaller trees in the area were difficult for the drone camera to pick up. “We needed to know they were there. We could shoot them using the LTI laser, mark them in the field notes, and have the drafters add them in later when creating the plats for review.”

    After the drone mission, the field team used the laser to quickly survey the remaining landscape. With the appropriate heights and widths, DDSI could use the missing line routine with the built-in compass as well as the height routine to get the additional measurements they needed.

    “The laser rangefinder was a huge time-saver because some of these sites had up to 100 trees, and trying to identify some of these smaller ones from the drone imagery proved very tough.”

    The company also saved time from not having to make a second trip to each site. “You don’t know what you’re going to get until you get back to the office. It often takes four to six hours to process the drone imagery. But after processing and analyzing data for this project, we didn’t have to go back and fill in the gaps, because we knew we had what we needed.”

    After surveying only 1.5 sites on the first day, switching to a laser rangefinder brought the team up to four sites a day, and the project was completed on time and on budget. DDSI also delivered comprehensive, high-quality documentation to its client, an architectural and engineering firm.

    “When we turned our imagery over to the A&E team, they had high-resolution ortho-imagery instead of only the typical black-and-white deliverables,” George said. “The team found that invaluable.”

    Register for GPS World’s free Aug. 16 webinar, titled “LaserGIS®: Your Gateway to Collect More GIS Data in Less Time,” here.

  • Esri book details Native American perspective on GIS

    esri-tribal-GIS-bookA new book from Esri, “Tribal GIS: Supporting Native American Decision-Making,” tells the stories of how Native American tribes use geographic information system (GIS) technology to help manage and govern their sovereign nations.

    According to Esri, the book, in its second edition, details how dozens of tribal governments have used GIS for a number of projects, including conserving and protecting the environment, monitoring and managing infrastructure and natural resources, preserving history and culture, studying health issues and planning how to use ancestral lands. Tribes have also used GIS to conduct road inventories, manage and protect archaeological sites, plan economic development projects, and analyze and visualize health data.

    “GIS has become a common platform for problem solving by helping tribes organize and analyze data, as well as collaborate and communicate on countless issues,” said Esri President Jack Dangermond in the book’s foreword.

    The book also contains a chapter on new applications of GIS, which describes how tribal governments are taking advantage of the latest geospatial technology, including Web GIS, 3D GIS, Esri Story Maps apps and ready-to-use field data collection apps.

    Most of the stories are told by the Chickasaw Nation, the Navajo Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

  • Esri releases second book on GIS technology

    esri-the-arcGIS-book-second-editionEsri released a new book, “The ArcGIS Book: 10 Big Ideas about Applying The Science of Where,” as well as a companion website.

    According to Esri, the book provides mapmakers with the know-how and hands-on experience to practice “The Science of Where.” In addition, the accompanying website offers information and interactive education resources needed to use web-based geographic information system (GIS) technology to create maps, work with apps, create and use authoritative data, conduct spatial analysis and more.

    The book is available in print, as an interactive PDF and online. It explains how to use Esri’s ArcGIS platform to manage and analyze data and then visualize and share that information in maps to gain location-based insight, the company said. The book’s chapters cover web mapping, ready-to-use apps, story maps, 3-D GIS, spatial analysis, imagery and the Internet of Things, as well as curated content from Esri’s Living Atlas of the World.

    In addition, the online and PDF versions of The ArcGIS Book are interactive with 10 Learn ArcGIS lessons and links to 250 online maps and apps from Esri and the worldwide ArcGIS community. According to Esri, it also includes a variety of electronic learning resources, including software downloads, videos, case studies, story maps, e-books, open data sites, the Living Atlas of the World and more.

    “It’s a multimedia experience,” said Christian Harder, the writer at Esri who co-edited the book with Clint Brown, Esri director of product engineering. “Every graphic and image in the electronic versions of the book comes to life in the interactive versions. This makes it an excellent starting point for people to learn about GIS or communicate to their friends and colleagues what GIS is all about.”