Integrating custom mapping and structure preplanning with gis for emergency responders

Accurate information can mean the difference between life and death for emergency responders and the people they serve. At the Harrisonburg Fire Department, laptops with customized databases for street maps and building preplans are one source of information for first responders. Another available resource is a Geographic Information System for the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. However, ESRI’s ArcGIS® software is far from user-friendly in a mobile atmosphere. The objective of this research is to develop new software that integrates the ArcGIS® tool suite with custom street map files and structure preplan databases into a single application on a mobile platform for first responders that allows them to take advantage of the benefits of GIS. This new software is specifically designed for use on laptops or tablets where a touch screen is the primary input device, thus no keyboard or mouse is necessary to use the system. The software development cycle begins with a needs assessment and requirements analysis conducted with users at the HFD, and continues with system design, testing, deployment, and maintenance. The solution implements many resources into one software package, featuring GIS maps with searchable address and street layers, the ability to import and search files such as building floor plans, documents, hazardous materials instructions (etc), and identify and display structure preplans with fire apparatus assignments, property owner contact information, sprinkler system connections, and much more. Integrating these tools into one robust application literally puts vital information at the fingertips of emergency services personnel by making GIS more accessible, and helps them respond more effectively and quickly to emergency calls while improving incident management

The case of Ferbritas Cadastre Information System

The processes of mobilization of land for infrastructures of public and private domain are developed according to proper legal frameworks and systematically confronted with the impoverished national situation as regards the cadastral identification and regularization, which leads to big inefficiencies, sometimes with very negative impact to the overall effectiveness. This project report describes Ferbritas Cadastre Information System (FBSIC) project and tools, which in conjunction with other applications, allow managing the entire life-cycle of Land Acquisition and Cadastre, including support to field activities with the integration of information collected in the field, the development of multi-criteria analysis information, monitoring all information in the exploration stage, and the automated generation of outputs. The benefits are evident at the level of operational efficiency, including tools that enable process integration and standardization of procedures, facilitate analysis and quality control and maximize performance in the acquisition, maintenance and management of registration information and expropriation (expropriation projects). Therefore, the implemented system achieves levels of robustness, comprehensiveness, openness, scalability and reliability suitable for a structural platform. The resultant solution, FBSIC, is a fit-for-purpose cadastre information system rooted in the field of railway infrastructures. FBSIC integrating nature of allows: to accomplish present needs and scale to meet future services; to collect, maintain, manage and share all information in one common platform, and transform it into knowledge; to relate with other platforms; to increase accuracy and productivity of business processes related with land property management

Design and development of a prototype mobile geographic information system for real-time collection and storage of traffic accident data

Today, Swedish police authorities nationwide collect data of traffic accidents. The information is stored in a national database managed by the Swedish Transport Agency and is an important resource in the process of analysing and improving road safety. Literature studies in this thesis, together with earlier work by the author have suggested that the data collection process is in need of an update: a digital tool for such data collection is necessary. Problems with varying quality of data and long submission times of reports have been attributed to the current method, which involves a paper form. A digital method including a handheld device is expected to improve data quality and shorten overall submission times. The aim of the thesis has thus been to design and develop a mobile GIS system for collection and management of traffic accident information for police authorities. The project has utilized mainly open source tools. The result is a system containing an Android application for data collection, a database server with a database for storage, an application server/web server to host a software server (map server), and a web server that handles requests and hosts a web service for viewing and retrieving data. The created system can collect all of the information that the currently used analogue method does as well as new media such as GPS coordinates, photographs and audio. The functionality of the web service demonstrates that data is collected and stored in suitable formats in a database schema that is flexible enough to facilitate a wide range of queries relevant to the field of road safety.The thesis describes the design and development of an Android mobile application for collecting and reporting information about traffic accidents. Additional components such as servers and a web service with a map are also included. Together with the mobile application they form a system for reporting, storage and analysis of information about traffic accidents. The tools and components that have been chosen are mainly open source, which means that they are accessible and free for everyone to use and create their own system. Swedish police authorities nationwide are currently collecting data of traffic accidents. The information, which is stored in a national database managed by the Swedish Transport Agency, is an important resource in the process of analysing and improving road safety. The data collection by the police has, since the beginning been intended to be conducted in the field on a hand held device, however this is not the case. Consequently the national database consists of information that has been collected by filling out paper forms that are later digitized. Varying data quality and long overall submission times have been noted as problems that can be attributed to this analogue step of the reporting process. It has been suggested that the data collection process is in need of an update: a new digital tool is necessary. The Android application, which is the main contribution, is intended as a suggestion to a digital replacement of the paper form. The functionality of the application is based on the requirements of the current paper form used by police. The created system can collect all of the information that the currently used analogue method does as well as new media such as GPS coordinates, photographs and audio. The functionality of the web service demonstrates that data is collected and stored in suitable formats in a database schema that is flexible enough to facilitate a wide range of queries relevant to the field of road safety

Mobile Geographic Information Systems

This Chapter introduces the concept of Mobile Geographical Information Systems (Mobile GIS) as an evolution of conventional GIS to being available on wireless mobile devices such as smart phones. The evolution of the technology and its applications are charted in this Chapter. The main elements of Mobile GIS are then discussed. This focuses on: GIS servers; wireless mobile telecommunication networks; wireless mobile devices; location-awareness technology; and gateway services. This is followed by a discussion of the main features in terms of the services and usage of Mobile GIS: mobility; real-time connectivity; location-awareness; broadened usage. Mobile GIS are an important facilitating technology for Location-Based Services (LBS). A range of applications of Mobile GIS for smart phones are described. The Chapter closes with a discussion of the prospects and challenges for Mobile GIS. Challenges derive from four broad areas: limitations that derive from the technologies being used; areas of GIScience that still need to be adequately researched; users; and business models for a sustainable presence

Seafloor characterization using airborne hyperspectral co-registration procedures independent from attitude and positioning sensors

The advance of remote-sensing technology and data-storage capabilities has progressed in the last decade to commercial multi-sensor data collection. There is a constant need to characterize, quantify and monitor the coastal areas for habitat research and coastal management. In this paper, we present work on seafloor characterization that uses hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The HSI data allows the operator to extend seafloor characterization from multibeam backscatter towards land and thus creates a seamless ocean-to-land characterization of the littoral zone

LEVERAGING GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ENHANCE DALLAS FIRE DEPARTMENT PROGRAMS AND DATA ANALYSIS

This research incorporates and enhances the use of geospatial intelligence, also known as a geographic information system (GIS), within the Dallas Fire Department bureaus, programs, and data analysis. Traditionally, fire departments have primarily leveraged GIS for its cartography (map) functions to produce large area wall maps of the city and first-up response areas, and for creating map books kept in fire apparatus units. While cartography is a useful tool for visualizing broad information, incorporating other aspects of GIS into additional areas of the department will provide heightened situational awareness and can become a primary tool used for decision support and resource allocation. Through practical quantitative measures, such as travel time measurements and calculating coverage area dimensions, this research specifically examines how GISs can provide data modeling, tracking, predictive analysis, and visualizations. This type of analysis can then be used for policy development and decision support in areas such as the resource allocation of fire apparatus and fire station placement. In addition, this research analyzes how GIS can be incorporated into strategic planning and budget analysis.Civilian, Dallas Fire DepartmentApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Proceedings of the 3rd Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium OGRS 2014

The third Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium (OGRS) was held in Helsinki, Finland, on 10 to 13 June 2014. The symposium was hosted and organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering, in partnership with the OGRS Community, on the Espoo campus of Aalto University. These proceedings contain the 20 papers presented at the symposium. OGRS is a meeting dedicated to exchanging ideas in and results from the development and use of open source geospatial software in both research and education.  The symposium offers several opportunities for discussing, learning, and presenting results, principles, methods and practices while supporting a primary theme: how to carry out research and educate academic students using, contributing to, and launching open source geospatial initiatives. Participating in open source initiatives can potentially boost innovation as a value creating process requiring joint collaborations between academia, foundations, associations, developer communities and industry. Additionally, open source software can improve the efficiency and impact of university education by introducing open and freely usable tools and research results to students, and encouraging them to get involved in projects. This may eventually lead to new community projects and businesses. The symposium contributes to the validation of the open source model in research and education in geoinformatics

A workflow for geocoding South African addresses

There are many industries that have long been utilizing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis. In many parts of the world, it has gained less popularity because of inaccurate geocoding methods and a lack of data standardization. Commercial services can also be expensive and as such, smaller businesses have been reluctant to make a financial commitment to spatial analytics. This thesis discusses the challenges specific to South Africa as well as the challenges inherent in bad address data. The main goal of this research is to highlight the potential error rates of geocoded user-captured address data and to provide a workflow that can be followed to reduce the error rate without intensive manual data cleansing. We developed a six step workflow and software package to prepare address data for spatial analysis and determine the potential error rate. We used three methods of geocoding: a gazetteer postal code file, a free web API and an international commercial product. To protect the privacy of the clients and the businesses, addresses were aggregated with precision to a postcode or suburb centroid. Geocoding results were analysed before and after each step. Two businesses were analysed, a mid-large scale business with a large structured client address database and a small private business with a 20 year old unstructured client address database. The companies are from two completely different industries, the larger being in the financial industry and the smaller company an independent magazine in publishing

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio