GIS in Rhode Island State Government
moderator: John Stachelhaus, RIGIS Coordinator

Rhode Island E-911
Raymond LaBelle - Executive Director, RI-E911
The Rhode Island E911 system is presently involved in an statewide project to identify, geocode, and provide attributes for all buildings, and public gathering places and in Rhode Island.  The project, started in 2001, has already gathered information on over 250,000 points in 20 of the state’s cities and towns.  RI-E911 is currently using this data along with base maps and aerial photography to respond to emergency telephone requests it receives at the Rhode Island’s E911 call center. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2008. 

Rhode Island Department of Transportation
Steve Kut - GIS Manager, RIDOT
The RIDOT is using GIS,GPS web based tools to inventory and monitor physical assets related to the state’s transportation systems.  RIDOT personnel are employing GPS enabled field data collection units to locate and identify features along all highways.  Web based tools are being employed to transfer information to RIDOT headquarters in Providence and maintenance facilities in Warwick for use in transportation and work flow planning.   

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Paul Jordan - GIS Manager, RIDEM
In 2006 RIDEM completed and updated an inventory of conservation lands held by federal, state, municipal and non-government organizations throughout the state.  RIDEM is now involved in maintaining this extensive data set through continued communication with the many government agencies and organizations managing and holding conservation lands.  RIDEM has developed a GIS utility application distributed on DVD media using ESRI ArcReader software for the continued collection of information by participating groups.

Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program
John Stachelhaus - RIGIS Coordinator, RI Department of Administration
The Statewide Planning Program is developing a new land use/land cover data set using a combination of GIS and Remote Sensing tools and methods. When completed later this summer this data set will be used for studying present and future land use throughout the state.

 

Municipal I: Municipal GIS Applications - Utilities
moderator: Thomas P. Grala - Narragansett Bay Commission

Sewer Systems- Integrating GIS with a Computerized Maintenance Management System
Thomas P. Grala, P.E. - Principal Environmental Engineer, Narragansett Bay Commission
The NBC has developed information on the sewers we maintain in a GIS database.  In an effort to comply with CMOM and other regulations we are presently working on integrating our GIS information with our CMMS.  This presentation will discuss our GIS development effort, our integration effort with our Hansen CMMS, and how we hope to use these systems to comply with future requirements.

Roadways- Pavement Condition Surveys
Paul C. Petsching, P.E. - Senior Civil Engineer, Rhode Island Department of Transportation
The RIDOT has implemented a system to monitor and evaluate the condition of roadways.  This session will present information on how this information is captured, quantified, and summarized to rank the condition of various roadway segments. 

Water Systems- Water Distribution Mapping & Scanning, North Attleborough & Uxbridge, MA
Anthony J. Garro - Associate, Beta Group
A water distribution system using a comprehensive GIS program provides a community with the ability to collect, manage, and display geographic information on a townwide basis by utilizing GIS software.  In this session information will be presented on how water distribution systems were compiled for North Attleborough and Uxbridge, MA.  The presentation will include a discussion of GPS data collection, scanning records, and creating a water system network with attributes.  Also discussed will be future applications such as updates to the network and water distribution modeling.

 

Tips & Tricks with ArcGIS Desktop
Carol Baker - GIS Administrator, Town of South Kingstown
Jason Catelli - GIS Analyst, Town of South Kingstown
Mark Scott - Technical Marketing Representative, ESRI
This will be a live ArcGIS session demonstrating various geoprocessing tools and lesser known tips and tricks that will enhance your use of the software. Topics covered will include:
• Editing Topology
• Georeferencing Aerial and Engineering Images
• Displaying and Enhancing Ortho Imagery
• Fixing Broken Data Links
• Matching Shade Transparency in the Legend
• Basic VBA Programming
• Customizing the ArcMap Interface

 

GIS 101
Greg Bonynge - RI Geospatial Extension Specialist, Geospatial Extension Program, University of Rhode Island
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is becoming increasingly common in the workplace. Its unique mapping, spatial analsis, and data management abilities lends itself well to a wide variety of applications. This session will feature a non-technical introduction to GIS technology, demonstrations of real-world applications, and a pair of simple exercises on laptops. Participants will learn about the basic concepts of GIS, and be introducted to the process of downloading and viewing GIS data from RIGIS in order to make simple maps on their own.

 

Municipal II: Municipal GIS Applications – Planning and Assessing
moderator: Maria Giarusso - City of Cranston

Visualizing Assessors Revaluation Data
Carol Baker - GIS Administrator, Town of South Kingstown
The Town of South Kingstown is currently undergoing a full revaluation.  Linking the new revaluation data from the Town’s VISION CAMA system to the Town’s parcel maps in the GIS allowed the Town Assessor to visualize the new values on a town-wide basis.  This presentation will review how this information was made available to the Assessor through both desktop access and hardcopy map production. This approach has proven invaluable for the Assessor in reviewing the values and in providing information to the public.

West Warwick: Where We Are & Where We’re Going
Kathryn Willis - Town of West Warwick
In order to comply with RIPDES II, West Warwick built on its existing GIS capabilities instead of hiring outside consultants.  Townwide comprehensive stormwater mapping was managed in phases with Town employees conducting most of the work.  As this project reaches completion, the Town is developing an enterprise GIS in order to meet GASB 34 requirements.  This presentation will discuss how we built a stormwater basemap and how this will be used in implementing our new GIS server.

Integrating GIS and Document Management in Cranston
Maria Giarrusso - City of Cranston
The City of Cranston has a robust collection of GIS data such as Parcels, Road Centerlines, Sanitary and Storm Systems.  Cranston is also developing a Document Management System which contains drawings, documents and index data that often relate to the feature data in our GIS environment.    Marrying these systems together results in improved efficiency and expanded functionality of our GIS.  Cranston’s custom ArcIMS website incorporates the required hyperlinking functionality for users to be able to access related documents through the map interface.  See a demonstration of this very useful tool in a variety of applications.

 

Internet Applications
moderator: Chris Galagan - Applied Science Associates

The Integration of GIS and Internet Resources
Kelly Knee - Applied Science Associates
A number of Internet technologies have emerged that support the distribution of spatial data to the desktop.  Web services, data format standards and data exchange protocols provide the tools for bringing together a wide spectrum of information within a rich visualization environment.  This presentation will highlight some examples of these technologies applied to a range of current issues including: analysis of the impacts of sea level rise; search and rescue modeling; oil spill modeling; tactical decision aids for first responders and war fighters; real-time access to meteorological and oceanographic data.

Municipal Internet Mapping Application for Town Staff
Jason Catelli, GIS Analyst, Town of South Kingstown
This presentation will feature a live demonstration of the internet mapping application the Town has developed to make the Town's extensive GIS database available to Town Staff with little or no GIS expertise. Available in-house on the Town's Intranet using Internet Explorer, the user-friendly interface allows access to data including parcels, zoning, utility, openspace, voting districts, and aerial photographs. The spatial data layer allows linkage to the assessors, building permit, sales and ISDS databases. Public Service department staff have access to water and sewer as-builts, sewer cards and photographs of stormwater structures. Many departments are using this interface including Planning, Town Manager, Town Clerk, Tax Assessor, Building Official, Finance and Public Services. A version of this interface will soon be available to the public on-line.

Introducing Rhode Island's Changing Landscape (aka Trials and Tribulations with ESRI ArcGIS Server)
Marisa Thompson - Graduate Research Assistant, Environmental Data Center, University of Rhode Island
With the support of the URI Laboratory for Terrestrial Remote Sensing and the URI Geospatial Extension Program, a new website, Rhode Island’s Changing Landscape, is being built using the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) Connecticut's Changing Landscape website as a model.  This new website utilizes state-of-the-art technologies, including ESRI ArcGIS Server functions.  The land cover data used for the site were derived from Landsat satellite images dating from October 1972, October 1985, and October 1999.  On its release to the public, this website will lend itself extremely well to visualizing historical land cover change throughout the State in support of a wide variety of interests.

 

Natural Resource Applications
moderator: Paul Jordan - GIS Manager, RI Department of Environmental Management

The MapCoast Partnership: An exercise in data integration
Mike Bradley, Environmental Data Center, University of Rhode Island
The MapCoast Partnership is a consortium of University of Rhode Island scientists and State and federal agencies, all dedicated to mapping and describing shallow-subtidal habitats and subaqueous soils. The partnership consists of scientists who study many different aspects of the shallow-subtidal environment (including soils, geology, and benthic habitats) and as a result, a wide array of data formats and products are produced. This talk will discuss these data products and their integration using primarily ESRI ArcIMS technology.

Estuarine Monitoring and Assessment: The integral role of GIS
Jeffrey W. Hollister, Atlantic Ecology Division, U.S. EPA
Over the last decade or so, geographic information systems (GIS) have become an indispensable tool for many aspects of estuarine monitoring and assessment efforts.  Specifically, the US EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and National Coastal Assessment (NCA) have taken advantage of these tools. In this presentation I’ll discuss past applications (e.g., sampling, quality assurance, spatial analysis, and communication) and present current efforts that use GIS to develop probabilistic survey designs, to model estuarine condition, and to develop methods linking landscapes to estuaries.

Survey of Eelgrass Habitat in Eastern Long Island Sound
Andrew McLachlan, Senior GIS Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The shallow waters of Eastern Long Island Sound were surveyed for eelgrass (Zostera marina) in 2002 and 2006 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.  Polygons of potential eelgrass beds, a type of submerged aquatic vegetation providing important habitat for fin and shellfish, were delineated from aerial photography taken specifically for this work.  These delineations were combined with digital nautical navigation charts to produce work maps to field check the information using a boat, GPS and underwater camera equipment.  This presentation will cover the steps and tools used to develop and process these data, as well as an overview of the results including change in eelgrass distribution between the two surveys. 

 

GPS 101
Shane Bradt, NH Geospatial Extension Specialist, Geospatial Technologies Training Center, University of New Hampshire
Global Positioning System technology is becoming increasingly integrated not only into GIS applications, but also into our everyday lives! Join us for a non-technical presentation that introduces basic GPS concepts, a look at example applications, and of course, a chance to head outside and try out a GPS unit.

 

Municipal III: Open Forum
moderator: TBD
This hour-long session will be committed to an open forum of common issues facing municipal employees who use GIS in Rhode Island. The discussion will be guided simply based on the questions posed to the group by conference attendees. Bring your questions!

 

Tips & Tricks with Google Earth
Roland Duhaime, Research Associate, Environmental Data Center, University of Rhode Island
Joel Stocker, Extension Educator, Center for Land Use Education and Research, University of Connecticut
Google Earth is fun, easy-to-use software that helps bridge the gap between GIS analysts and the interested public. 3D models within Google Earth open the doors to exciting visualization possibilities. Visual Basic programming can be used to connect Google Earth to your GIS. This session will introduce methods of creating & introduce 3D models into Google Earth, and offer participants a chance for an elusive glimpse into the underworld of using Visual Basic to expand the capabilities of Google Earth.

 

Real World Science in the Classroom: The Narragansett Bay Coyote Study
Numi Mitchell, PhD, Lead Scientist and Project Director, Narragansett Bay Coyote Study
Lyn Malone, Director of Education, Narragansett Bay Coyote Study
The Narragansett Bay Coyote Study is a scientific and educational project created by The Conservation Agency in Jamestown, RI. In the study, coyotes on Conanicut and Aquidneck Islands have been fitted with GPS collars making it possible to track them in near real time. Scientists and students from area schools can then use GIS and an online map gallery to map, explores, and analyze data collected from the collars. By analyzing the spatial patterns of coyote activities, we can learn about coyote home ranges and territories, diet, population density, den sites, and habitats. The goal of the project is to provide authorities with the data they need to make informed management decisions. This presentation will provide an overview of the scientific and educational components of this project.

 

Making the Most of the Rhode Island Digital Atlas and Rhode Island's Geodata Gateway
Greg Bonynge - RI Geospatial Extension Specialist, Geospatial Extension Program, University of Rhode Island
Two new Internet resources will be made available soon: Rhode Island's Geodata Gateway, and a modernized Rhode Island Digital Atlas. Learn how to make the most of these upcoming resources by both using the websites themselves, and accessing their underlying data & mapping services directly from common desktop GIS software.

 

Conference sessions will take place in both Watkins Laboratory/Corless Auditorium (Building #27 on this campus map) and the Coastal Institute (building #6).