GIS Applications - Final Project

Link to my Final Project PowerPoint Presentation:

http://students.uwf.edu/prc7/FINAL_PPP.pptx

Link to my Final Project Slide by Slide Summary:

http://students.uwf.edu/prc7/Final_Summary.pdf

Location Decisions

The three maps above were created for my GIS Applications course.  We were to assist a couple find a home in Alachua County Florida. To assist us we were given the following criteria; close to the University of Florida, and North Florida Regional Medical Center, neighborhoods with a high percentage of home ownership, and neighborhoods where the majority of the population were ages 40 to 49. The first map is a base map of Alachua County. It is for reference showing major roads, cities, and a few other features. The second map depicts four separate views of Alachua county each one showing the different criteria used in selecting a home location. The final map depicts the selection criteria when weighted. The frame on the left shows all criteria equally weighted (25%) the map on the right shows the criteria weighted using 40% for commuting purposes and 10% for homeownership and population 40 - 49 years of age.

GIS for Local Government

I created the above maps for my GIS Applications course. The first map is a screen shot saved as a jpeg file. This was retrieved from the Marion County, Florida property appraiser's website.  The Marion County property appraiser's  website appears to be more robust than many other property appraisers sites I have visited.  The second map is a site map of the same parcel. It includes a table which list surrounding parcels, their size and zoning.  The final map depicts two parcels of land owned by Gulf County Florida. The map shows the general location of the parcels and includes a close view of each parcel this is provided so the county can better decide on which parcel to build a new extension Office.

GIS Applications Participation Assignment

For my GIS Applications course we were given an assignment with two parts the first was to research our local property appraisal services, and answer four questions, which I have done below.  For the second part of the assignment we were task with creating a map depicting assessed property values for the West Ridge Place subdivision located in Escambia county, Florida, and decide if some of these values need to be reviewed.

Question 1.  The web address for the Okaloosa, FL property appraisers mapping site is as follows:

http://www.qpublic.net/okaloosa/search1.html

Question 2. The highest price paid for a property in Okaloosa County for June of 2013 was 2.7 Million Dollars.     The previous selling price appears to be $100.00.

Question 3. The assessed land value for this property is 1,395,313 dollars. Which is lower than the last selling price.

 

 

 

 

 

Question 4. I found it interesting that this property which just sold for 2.7 million dollars shows a previous sale price of $100.00.

 

 

 

Question 5. Most parcels fall in a price range between 24,000 and 27,000 dollars. There are some that list for much less but these are not available for development i.e. retention ponds, sewage lift station, and a conservation easement.  However one parcel (0903101165) list for over 33,000 dollars, it appears to be similar in size and location to the other parcels.  That being said this parcel should be reviewed.

 

 

 

 

Home Land Security Week Two

Above are three maps I created for my GIS Applications course. This is the second week we have worked in the area of Homeland Security. The first map depicts the finish line of the Boston Marathon and all hospitals within a three mile radius. The second map depicts check points at all egress and ingress points 500  feet from the Boston Marathon finish line.  The final map depicts several proposed surveillance points and their line of sight to the finish line it all so shows the ground shaded areas around the finish line at 1430 on 15 April 2013.

Screen Shot for Homeland Security Prepare MEDS Module

This is a screen shot of my seven layer files and BostonData.gdb. This weeks module was to create a Minimum Essential Data Set (MEDS) for use in next weeks module. I am going with the assumption that the better prepared and organized our data is in this week module, the smoother things should go in the follow on module. I guess we will see.

DC Crime Maps

The maps above were created for my GIS Applications course.  This week we have started a three week delve into homeland security and law enforcement.  The first map depicts police station and crime locations along with a graph of total crimes. The second map shows ,once again, police station and crime location along with a proposed location for an additional police sub-station and a graph showing crimes per station.  The final map has four frames three of which show the kernel density of particular crime, Burglary-Homicide-Sex Abuse the fourth shows population density by census block and was added to show the correlation between the number of crimes and population in DC.

GIS Application Participation Article Review

GIS Application Participation Article Review

Title: The Incident Map Symbology Story

Author:  Lt. Chris Rogers

Date created/posted:  4 May 2012

This article discusses the lack of a set of standardized symbols for mapping incidents concerning first responders such as Firefighters, Police, and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s).   The lack of standardization is experienced from the operation centers of large multi-agency incidents down to the individual first responder dealing with a small incident.  This issue is important for several reasons, safety of first responders and victims,  increases the speed in which information can be digested, and resulting in the ability in which important decisions can be made to mitigate potential hazardous situations before ever arriving on the scene of the incident, are to name but a few.  So, with these things in mind during December of 2010 a plan was put together to look at tactical mapping symbology for emergency services on both pre-incident and incident levels.  The focus was to see what was already available and then identify areas where additional work was needed.

First, a group comprised of first responders with GIS experience from all across North America and belonging to several agencies including the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Science and Technology First Responders, and the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) was formed, to start some initial planning.   From this initial planning some things became apparent:

·         Incidents are complex, dynamic, and hard to map

·         Information concerning an incident can be collected before, during, and after the incident

·         Although most public safety agencies use a standard National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) approach to handling an incident, the nuances of the incident change between agencies

With all of this in mind the group set some goals, which included ideas like not re-inventing the wheel, keeping the symbols flexible and scalable, and trying to consider all hazards possible for the responder.   Before the group was to actually meet face to face, the leaders of the group, Lt Chris Rogers and Rebecca Harned assigned some homework. They were to research and identify any existing standard symbols and lessons learned and they were  given a mapping scenario to complete. The scenario was of a small structure fire and they were to create a map depicting hazards on the incident, features to help mitigate an incident, and the location of command functions.  Finally, in March of 2011, the group met in person in Seattle, Washington and for three days discussed their research and mapping projects.  

   At the conclusion of the meeting, the group decided that to improve Incident map symbology the following is required:

·         The need for guidelines not standards

·         Symbols should be broken into different categories (such as pre-incident, hazard, and incident command symbols)

·         The shape of the symbol should be defined by the category

·         Symbols must be able to be hand drawn. (For use in the field on paper maps)

·         Symbols cannot require a lot of training to understand

·         Symbols must be useable in routine business of a safety agency

While this list is by no means complete, it is a good starting point.  This subject is dynamic and will need to be refined over time. I do believe the goals of the project were met; however, one of the biggest problems is getting everyone onboard; some think change is a bad thing. Also getting this material out to the end users will take time and technology.  As more and more first responders buy into these guidelines, become more comfortable with the system, and see the results the system will grow exponentially and this will benefit all concerned.

Hurricanes

The maps depicted above were created for the third and final installment of Natural Hazards in my GIS Applications course.  Using data provided I created one map showing the path and intensity of Hurricane Sandy, the other map depicts a damage assessment I conducted using pre and post storm aerial photography. I do not consider these maps some of my better work, however this module was without a doubt the most time consuming, frustrating exercise to date! (I mean that in a good way!) While working through this module anything that could have gone wrong did.   Then to top it off when I went in to ArcMap to export my maps all the data I had created for my geodatabases was gone, and the data in the TOC was display with the dreaded red exclamation point! After hours of trouble shooting I said UNCLE and started over.  This time things went much smoother, the result of keeping good notes I would like to think.  Looking back, although frustrating, I probably learned more during this module than most others.

Tsunami Lab Part 3 Model

This is a screen shot of the model I created for Part 3 of the Tsunami lab.  I find using model builder for this type of task much easier than running each tool individually. With model builder being visual you can easily track what you are doing, and see the logical progression toward your final output.

Part 3 Tsunami Lab

This map was created using actual data from the tsunami that struck Japan in March of 2011.  By depicting the areas affected by the tsunami more accurate evacuation zones can be determined which in turn could save literally thousands of lives in the future.

Japan Tsunami Lab

This is a map I created for Module 3 of my GIS Applications course. We are continuing with the theme of Natural Hazards.  This week we worked with data from the tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March 2011.  The highlight's were creating a Geodatabase and populating it with feature classes and feature data sets. We also determined several evacuation zones using the multi-ring buffer tool in ArcGIS.

Areas of possible Inudation in the Event of Volcanic activity at Mt. Hood Oregon.

This map started out as two 30m digital elevation raster which were combined into a single raster. Then using several tools within the ArcMap,  Hydrology tool set we were able to determine the most likely paths of debris flow. Very neat stuff!

Possible areas of inudation in the event of a volcanic eruption of Mt. Hood Oregon.

This is a map of possible hazard areas is the event of a volcanic eruption of Mount Hood. The map depicts schools and populated areas located within a .5 mile buffer zone of predicted lahar flows.  The predicted lahar flows were determined using elevation rasters and Hydrology tools within AcrMap.

GIS Applications for Environmental Management

I am interested in the GIS application for Environmental Management, or more specifically Wildlife habitat management. This application would fall under the Natural Resources Industry.  The problems that can be addressed with this application are aiding in the determination of the amount, location, and varying degrees of habitat productivity, and how all these factors affect the population of the species involved.  Using the data provided from these applications managers can make decisions that will positively affect species population in the future. GIS is used in many ways in this application, from mapping habitat boundaries retrieved from GPS units to tracking an individual animal’s movement with the use of remote sensing, to name just a few. I am interested in this application because I enjoy the outdoors and all the plants and animals found there.  Earth has a limited number of resources and we need to be good stewards of these resources.   As a grandfather, I also believe we owe future generations the same or better opportunities to experience these things that we now enjoy.  I would like to learn more about remote sensing to better determine habitat ranges of certain species.  Animals behave more naturally when they have little or no interaction with humans, so I believe remote sensing is the best way to observe without influencing behavior.   

Photo Source: http://www.fws.gov/lafayette/images/GIS_LA_Black_Bear_Habitat.jpg