Department of Transportation

Highlights of the 2002 AGIC Conference

Presentations

• Mountain Climbing – What is the message behind a slide presentation documenting the training and preparation of a group of dedicated mountain climbers and their attack on a peak in Afghanistan for GIS professionals? That it doesn’t matter if your planning on scaling a mountain or developing a comprehensive GIS, the quality of the teamwork involved is going to determine the success of the endeavor.
• Mapping the Grand Canyon – A demonstration of what can happen when surveying and GIS technologies are used together on a project. The highlight of the presentation was a digital three-dimensional fly through of Grand Canyon showing its topology above and below the Colorado River.
• GIS and the 9/11 attack on New York City – The story of how GIS personal from across the country worked around the clock producing the maps needed for the rescue and clean up efforts. These maps were used by the White House, New York City Police and Fire Departments, the Port Authority and various other agencies.
• Homeland Security – A reminder of the vital roll GIS has to play in this new area of national defense and an update on the ongoing efforts in Washington DC to raise awareness of GIS. One of the challenges given to us was "What data sets do we need to develop and maintain to ensure the safety of our communities in a time of crisis?"

Workshops

• Building a GeoDatabase – A GeoDatabase adds to the intelligence to all of those points and lines we place on our maps every day. This technical workshop explored the use of ArcSDE 8x and ArcGIS Desktop in database creation, allowing multi-use editing, and developing data models.
• Orthophotos and Satellite Imagery - This session provided and overview of the imagery that is now available, the history behind that imagery, and a preview of new imagery that’s on the way. The more technical issues such as extracting vector data, storage requirements and file compression were also covered.
• Cartography – Once the GeoDatabase is created, the reference layers have been added, and everything fits nicely on the Orthophotos, it’s time to consult the draftsperson inside all of us. Here we learned how important the use of layout; colors, text, visual hierarchy, and reference elements are in making the desired statement with our maps.
• Federal Programs – Maintaining nationwide USGS and TIGER maps may seem unrealistic and low on our list of priorities but it does show that what we accomplish on a local level also makes a valuable contribution to national projects.
• Yavapai County and the City of Peoria – This was a chance to see how other governmental agencies approach solving their GIS problems. It was reassuring to learn that we all have the same difficulties creating and maintaining metadata, rectifying parcels, and accurately locating street centerlines. Discovering how similar our experiences were provided opportunities for both learning from others and sharing our own experiences.

Group Discussion

• A New Organization? – Can GIS Professionals and Professional Surveyors coexist peacefully and productively in the same organization? Evidently yes. After voicing concerns that the unique responsibilities and qualifications of both professions would be respected, both sides expressed a desire for an organization that would promote the best that both disciplines have to offer.

Benefits from Attending the Conference

• Expanding our horizons, finding old friends and making new ones, experiencing a larger sense of community, coming across the solution to one of your problems or better yet helping someone else find the answer to theirs, and having that "Now I Get It!" experience.