Peer-Reviewed Articles
1257 Geographic Information Technology Institutionalization
in the Nation's States and Localities
Lisa Warnecke
Abstract
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A leading challenge for the nation's state and local governments
in the 21st century will be to effectuate and institutionalize
coordinated approaches to geographic information
technology (GIT) including remote sensing, geographic information
systems, and use of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
GIT promise, and growing and converging adoption. demands
inter organizational cooperation within and among governments
to best serve the public. While GIT largely began with
the federal government, public policy and data needs have
appropriately shifted focus to the nation's states, and particularly
local governments. This paper reviews known conditions
in the notion's states and localities, including the incidence
of GIT and GI/GIT authorizing direction, coordination groups,
and offices. Government-wide GI/GIT roles, responsibilities,
and activities also are described, including known state GI/GIT
assistance for localities. The paper concludes with recommended
national policy and institutional issues warranting
investigation by governing leaders and GIT professionals in
the 21st century.
1269 GIS and GPS - The Backbone of Vermont’s Statewide E911
Implementation
Bruce Westcott
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In 1988 the Vermont General Assembly created a statewide
geographic information system; five years later it authorized
statewide implementation of Enhanced 911 services. By 1998
E-911 was a reality in Vermont's rural communities. E-911 had
been brought about by combining a high-quality statewide
digital road base with local political savvy and volunteer energy,
and a technical plan based around GISand GPS. This paper will
provide an overview of the key policy, technology. and implementation
decisions which led the Vermont E-911 Board to use
the state's spatial data infrastructure in building an enhanced
911 system, partnering with 256 local governments. The author
will conclude with comments on the relevance of the Vermont
experience to other jurisdictions. Bruce Westcott
(bspatial@together.net) was the Executive Director (1990-98)
of the Vermont Center for Geographic Information, Inc.(VCGI)
( http://geo-vt.uvm.edu ). He currently provides consultation to
a variety of public and private organizations on issues related
to spatial data policy and development.
1277 Entrenchment of GIS Technology for Enterprise Solutions
in Maryland’s State and Local Government
Timothy W. Foresman, Samuel P. Walker, Christopher T. Daniel, Douglas
Adams, Vicki Defries, and Lamere Hennessee
Abstract
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Beginning in 1974, the State of Maryland created spatial
databases under the MAGI (Maryland's Automated Geographic
Information) system. Since that early GIS, other state and local
agencies have begun GISs covering a range of applications
from critical lands inventories to cadastral mapping. In 1992,
state agencies, local agencies, universities, and businesses
began a series of GIS coordination activities, resulting in the
formation of the Maryland Local Geographic Information
Committee and the Maryland State Government Geographic
Information Coordinating Committee. GIS activities and system
installations can be found in 22 counties plus Baltimore
City, and most state agencies. Maryland's decision makers rely
on a variety of GIS reports and products to conduct business
and to communicate complex issues more effectively. This
paper presents the status of Maryland's GIS applications for
local and state decision making.
1287 Integrating Geodata Infrastructure from the Ground Up
Francis J. Harvey, Barbara P. Buttenfield, and Susan Carson Lambert
Abstract
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The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) requires
vertical integration . Multiple levels of government produce
geodata at multiple levels of resolution, multiple levels of
attribution, differing update cycles, and differing levels of cost.
The chronology of developments in data production and
application shows the success of varying roles of local, regional,
state, and national environments to provide data to their
immediate constituents. The same chronology shows the lack
of success in integrating geographic information between
government levels. This lack of vertical integration forms a
major impediment to a fully robust NSDI.This paper concludes
by presenting a proposal for vertical integration, currently
under discussion in Kentucky, to serve as a model for other
state and local stakeholders to consider.
1293 Deriving Current Land-Use Information for Metropolitan
Transportation Planning through Integration of Remotely Sensed Data
and GIS
Lloyd Coulter, Douglass Stow, Bruce Kiracofe, Chris Langevin, Dongmei
Chen, Scott Daeschner, Daen Service, and John Kaiser
Abstract
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Transportation planners and metropolitan planning
organizations require up-to-date land-use information to
allocate transportation resources and to forecast the location
and type of growth within metropolitan areas and associated
increases in transportation volumes. For rapidly changing
areas, extant geographic databases may not contain current
land-use information. Other layers in the GIS database have
potential for aiding image-based procedures for updating
land-use layers. Results from the first of two case studies
suggest that land-use change detection using high spatial
resolution imagery is useful for detecting individual change
features, but that automatic delineation of these features
yields imprecise boundaries, such that interactive delineation
is likely to be required. Results from the second case study
indicate that many GIS data layers maintained by metropolitan
planning organizations provide useful information for
determining current land use when combined with interactive
identification of land-use category from high resolution
image data.
1301 The Role of States as Key Stakeholders in the National
Spatial Data Infrastructure: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Sheryl G. Oliver
Abstract
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States as Stakeholders in the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure
The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is a considerable endeavor, bringing together, perhaps unknowingly, thousands of individuals and organizations. If the reader uses and spells the word spa(c)tial with the appropriate, yet underused,
variant (t), it is likely that he/she, to some degree, participates in building part of the NSDI. The concept behind a national infrastructure of geospatial data is visionary. Its process is complex and non-ordered, requiring the best in technology, standards, human resources, and policies to meet all the logistics surrounding geospatial data. The NSDI is one of those large initiatives that cannot be developed in a vacuum. Therefore, the confluence of disparate groups sharing a strong and common goal must also share in responsibility, commitment, benefits, and ownership (National Academy of Sciences, 1994). This is ever so daring, in a process that, by its own definition, has no end. Aware of the risks involved, many organizations have proudly taken this peculiar pledge to call themselves stakeholders in the NSDI.1303 Application of Multi-Temporal Landsat 5 TM Imagery for
Wetland Identification
Ross S. Lunetta and Mary E. Balogh
Abstract
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Multi-temporal Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery was
evaluated for the identification and monitoring of potential
jurisdictional wetlands located in the states of Maryland and
Delaware. A wetland map prepared from single-date TM
imagery was compared to a hybrid map developed using two
dates of imagery. The basic approach was to identify landcover
vegetation types using spring leaf-on imagery, and
identify the location and extent of the seasonally saturated
soil conditions and areas exhibiting wetland hydrology using
spring leaf-off imagery. The accuracy of the wetland maps
produced from both single- and multiple-date TM imagery were
assessed using reference data derived from aerial photographic
interpretations and field observation data. Subsequent
to the merging of wetland forest and shrub categories, the
overall accuracy of the wetland map produced from two dates
of imagery was 88 percent compared to the 69 percent result
from single-date imagery. A Kappa Test Z statistic of 5.8
indicated a significant increase in accuracy was achieved
using multiple-date TM images. Wetland maps developed from
multi-temporal Landsat TM imagery may potentially provide
a valuable tool to supplement existing National Wetland
Inventory maps for identifying the location and extent of
wetlands in northern temperate regions of the United States.
1311 Remote Sensing and GIS at Farm Property Level: Demography
and Deforestation in the Brazillian Amazon
Stephen D. McCraken, Eduardo S. Brondizio, Donald Nelson, Emilio F. Moran,
Andrea D. Siqueira, and Carlos Rodriguez-Pedraza
Abstract
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Analysis of remotely sensed data at the level of individual farm
properties provides additional insights to those derived from
a landscape approach. Property-level analysis was carried out
by overlaying a property boundary grid in a GIS. Data were
derived from aerial photographs for 1970 and 1978 and
Landsat Thematic Mapper images for 1985,1988, and 1991.
The study area contains approximately 3,800 properties, but
this paper is based on a subset of 398 properties in the
Brazilian Amazon. Analysis at the property level found patterns
of land-cover classes that reflect differences in farming
strategies of households. Data analysis at the household level
was useful in explaining apparent mature forest to advanced
secondary succession degradation in three years, not readily
apparent from landscape analysis of remotely sensed data.
The change was due to property-specific selective logging and
the spread of fire from pastures into the adjacent forest.
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