The Value of Fieldwork: CGIS Data Collection and Verification Efforts for MTA

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Jeremy

A few years ago I returned to my alma mater, Shippensburg University, to make a presentation at the Geography and Earth Science Department’s Career Day.  It was a wonderful experience that allowed me to share my professional experiences with a new generation of Geography and Earth Science majors and catch up with professors that I had not seen in several years. During the event’s question and answer session, one question I remember well involved identifying what projects the presenters enjoyed the most.  After taking some time to think, I responded that any project involving fieldwork piques my interest; because fieldwork exposes you to places you may never visit otherwise.

 

A project that epitomizes my position on fieldwork is the ongoing web application development project CGIS has been working on with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA).  Several years ago, CGIS assisted MTA in developing an internal web application that allows MTA employees to monitor various facility assets important to environmental compliance and safety matters at MTA’s Washington Boulevard bus maintenance facility.  Work performed at this site includes routine as well as all major repairs performed on MTA’s fleet of over 700 buses.  The web application involves a mapping component that consumes ArcGIS Server map services that display imagery and various facility assets, which allows users to assess MTA’s environmental compliance efforts.

 

Where Does Fieldwork Come In?

CGIS employees Christina Bell and Missy Valentino doing field work for the MTA project

As part of the data collection team, I visited  MTA’s Washington Boulevard bus maintenance facility in Baltimore City in 2008 and collected and verified locational and attribute data for assets like fire extinguishers, part washers, flammables storage cabinets, eye wash stations, and battery storage sites.  The data collected and verified at the site was ultimately incorporated into MTA’s environmental compliance application.  In 2012, CGIS’ data collection team collected and verified asset data for two additional MTA bus maintenance facilities and is working on incorporating the data into MTA’s mapping application.  CGIS will visit several additional MTA bus facilities this year.

 

When I started my career, I never expected to travel around Baltimore City collecting data at MTA bus maintenance facilities.  However, the fieldwork experience has provided me with a perspective of MTA’s bus system operation that not many get to see.  The size of these facilities and range of work that is performed is truly impressive. Now anytime I see a MTA bus on the streets of Baltimore I cannot help but wonder which MTA bus facility it has visited.

For more information on MTA, visit MTA’s Facebook page.

GIS Day 2012: CGIS Investigates South Sudan and Tanzania with Crossroads Students

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Jeremy Monn

Jeremy Monn

For the past few years the Center for GIS (CGIS) has organized a GIS Day event with schools in the Baltimore metro area.  This year CGIS invited 50 6th graders from The Crossroads School to Towson University’s campus for GIS Day.  CGIS focused the GIS Day event on topics the students were exposed to in their current coursework, which included the book “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park and water well drilling occurring in Tanzania.

Throughout the beginning of this year, the students have been reading the book “A Long Walk to Water”, which chronicles the true-life journey of a group of boys from their home village in South Sudan to refugee camps in neighboring countries.  The book describes some of the major difficulties the boys encountered during their journey, including hostile tribes, groups of unfriendly soldiers, and difficult terrain.  Keeping this book in mind, CGIS created an exercise the students completed which involved using Google Earth to map a route through South Sudan that takes the boys from their home village to a refugee camp.   The students worked in groups of two to map a route of least resistance, which avoided as much as possible the obstacles and difficulties that the boys experienced as described in the book.

The second exercise focused on water well drilling in Tanzania.  In a previous class, students listened to the project manager for the drilling project, Mr. Farajah Ukwonda, spoke to them about the importance of his project in bringing clean water to villages in Tanzania.  At CGIS’ GIS Day event, students used Google Earth to plot the water drilling locations and investigate the areas where the water well drilling will take place.

The students enjoyed their time on Towson University’s campus and getting the chance to work with Google Earth in order to further understand some of the topics they are investigating in their classes.  As for CGIS staff, they are already thinking about their next year’s GIS Day event.   Enjoy Geography Awareness Week everybody!

Closer Look at Jeremy Monn, GIS Specialist

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Bobbie

I work with a lot of interesting and really smart people!  Even after seven years, I’m still blown away at what some of my colleagues can do with technology.  An area I’ve always been particularly fascinated by is GIS. CGIS, or our Center for GIS, includes a dynamic group of staff members who are always working on cutting edge technologies and applying those to real world issues and challenges our government, businesses, non profits, and citizens are facing.  But, what exactly is GIS?  CGIS has a brief answer to that here, but I know it’s still a question that puzzles many of us.

To try and get to the bottom of that question as well as what many of our talented staff members do each day, we’re launching a new video series that will highlight some of our best and brightest.  The first of these segments, features a fellow blogger, Jeremy Monn.  Here, Jeremy gives us his answer to “what is GIS?” and a little insight into what he does every day!

Meet the Team – Mark Helmken

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Sharyn Grove

Sharyn

Mark Helmken, the Center for GIS (CGIS) Director, has an extensive technical background in systems engineering, systems integration, GIS, and GPS and remote sensing technologies. In this video you’ll learn about the mission of CGIS, the types of geospatial solutions CGIS provides to government, non-profit organizations, and entrepreneurs, why GIS is important to citizens, and where he sees the future of GIS heading.

Power outage graph tracks outages caused by the Maryland Derecho

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The Center for GIS (CGIS) has been working with Maryland Emergency Management Agency  (MEMA) to update their mapping and GIS capabilities. While much of our effort of late has been to retool MEMA’s emergency management mapping application, OSPREY, we recently were tasked to develop a publicly accessible chart and map page to show total power outages across the state.  With a quick turnaround needed for a Hurricane tabletop exercise and a requirement to support tablets and other devices, our team came together brilliantly to devise an elegant multi-platform solution. The final revisions and code update was sent to MEMA on Friday June 29th at 6 pm. Four hours later, Maryland was hit with a Derecho, a wide-spread storm with fast moving storms and near hurricane force winds. Over the weekend, our dedicated staff supported MEMA in getting the power outage page up on their website, along with supporting other EOC activities.

Another rewarding outcome of this project and the work that we do in general is the ability to employ students in real world projects. In this case, we were able to engage one of our student employees Brad Smith, a promising developer, to work with the charting JavaScript library. Providing this type of real world experiences is integral to our mission at Towson University. Brad shared the following remarks about the project:

“On the OSPREY project I was introduced to and used multiple API’s with the help of Melanie Bruce.  The project was mostly executed with various forms of JavaScript and provided an excellent out of the classroom experience.  I see mobile technologies like smart phones and tablets as the future medium of choice for all user interaction with the internet, so I really enjoy being able to work on real projects that are geared towards both pc and tablet use.  I hope the power outage chart was of useful for people affected by this weekend’s storm.”

It was truly gratifying to be able to have our work ready just in time to support a large scale event, to play a part in provided relevant information for our fellow Marylanders in a time of need.

power outage map

CGIS Bids Farewell to three Graduating Seniors

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Guest Blogger, David Sides

As we embark on a new academic year next week, I found myself reflecting on the students we bid farewell to this summer.   The three graduating seniors, who all worked as GIS Technicians this past year, came to CGIS from varied backgrounds: James Parmeter has earned his M.S. degree in Environmental Sciences after having previously completed an undergraduate degree at the College of the Adirondacks. Justin Mannion had completed a certificate in GIS at CCBC before transferring to Towson to complete his B.S. degree in Geography and Environmental Planning. Alex Stapleton has earned his degree in Sociology, with a minor in Geography and Environmental Planning.

The goal of the CGIS student experiential education program is to achieve a win-win-win for students, Towson University, and the greater GIS community.

  • The students gain relevant real-world experience in preparation for a successful transition into the workforce. In addition, they acquire a group of professional contacts at CGIS who are willing to share knowledge, advise on potential career paths, review resumes and even conduct mock job interviews.
  • Towson University wins by providing a well-rounded educational experience and helping CGIS to fulfill its mission of involving students in meeting the needs of its clients.
  • The GIS Community, (private sector, government and education), wins by having access to highly qualified Towson graduates who are prepared to make positive contributions putting GIS to work in a variety of settings.

James, Justin and Alex were initially hired to work together as a team, performing wireless broadband verification testing for the MD Broadband Mapping Initiative. The field work involved navigating to over 1,000 test sites and recording speed tests on nine devices. Test locations were established by creating a 4 square mile grid over Maryland and geocoding the grid centroids to the nearest address. In Baltimore City, grid cell size was reduced to 2 square kilometers to help identify local variations in service. The results of this work can be seen at www.mdbroadbandmap.org and navigating to the Speed Test results section of the Broadband Map.

Alex, Justin, and James recording speed tests on mobile devices

With the field work wrapped up at the end of last summer, the students settled into the office and began contributing to a variety of other CGIS projects. In addition to processing the wireless verification data they collected, they all contributed greatly in helping to build a database of Maryland Community Anchor Institutions, also in support of the Broadband Mapping initiative. Justin turned his attention to a CGIS-sponsored internship, performing outreach to County GIS Coordinators, promoting and expanding the documentation of Maryland GIS data for the RAMONA GIS Inventory. Justin also created custom maps for the Maryland Humanities Council, and worked with James to perform demographic analysis and produce maps for the Back River Restoration Committee. James also produced an updated set of off-campus shuttle route maps for Towson University. Alex became involved with a variety of tasks supporting Maryland’s MD iMap resource, including developing and posting map service descriptions and testing services and applications during the MD iMap migration to AGS v10. An interest in web-mapping technologies led Alex to complete an independent study on this topic. He was able to consult with CGIS programming staff to gain valuable insight and advice for this work.

We congratulate James, Justin and Alex for earning their degrees, thank them for a job well done here at CGIS, and wish them all much success as they begin this next phase of their lives.

David Sides is a Project Manager for the Center for GIS at Towson University.

A GIS-Blogger’s Summer Reading

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Jeremy Monn

Jeremy Monn

One of my favorite but most neglected hobbies is reading.  Throughout the year I add books to my personal library.  However, during the fall and spring semesters I teach part-time in addition with my full-time job which leaves very little time for reading.  When summer arrives my personal library is flush with unread books (for an interesting read on the topic of personal libraries check out The New Yorker article titled “The Paradise of the Library“) and there are almost too many to choose from for my summer reading list.  This summer I read a few mapping-related books and articles that readers of this blog may find interesting.

You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost in the Mall by Colin Ellard is a book I bought last year (at a very cool bookstore in Corolla, NC) and finally got around to reading this summer.  Ellard focuses on how various organisms employ mental maps for navigation purposes.  He introduces the reader to various experiments involving single-celled organisms, ants, and humans to illustrate how different organisms form and use mental maps in different ways.  He also puts forth connections between a human’s mental map and their views on their environment and their role in it.  I enjoyed the book and felt it was an easy read.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel is a book I came across while purusing Canaday’s Book Barn, a 200-year-old barn just outside my hometown that is now a bookstore.  Sobel concisely describes John Harrison’s pursuit of engineering a sea-worthy chronometer that would solve the “longitude problem” that vexed sea navigators.   Not only does Sobel highlight the political and economic impetus behind finding a solution to the “longitude problem” but she also highlights the contentious debate between those favoring a mechanical or astronomical based solution.  If that is not enough to make you want to read the book then maybe the chapter on some of the more off-the-wall solutions would interest you, like the solution that involves a wounded dog and a magical healing powder.

Finally, while I favor reading a book that I hold in my hands I am not above reading digital books or articles.  Hence, this summer I have been glued to my laptop in the evenings reading Frank Jacobs’ articles in the New York Time’s Borderlines series.  Any map lover will thoroughly enjoy Jacobs’ thorough analysis of the world’s political boundaries.  Do you know where Transnistria is? Have you ever heard of the Google Maps war?  Do you know what a condominium  boundary is?  There is plenty to learn by reading the Borderline series.   However, I will warn you that you may be compelled to purchase books Jacobs references which happened to me when he referenced Arc of the Medicine Line: Mapping the World’s Longest Undefended Border Across the Western Plains by Tony Rees.

Happy reading!

Power outage graph tracks outages caused by the Maryland Derecho

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Michael Bentivegna

Michael Bentivegna

The Center for GIS (CGIS) has been working with Maryland Emergency Management Agency  (MEMA) to update their mapping and GIS capabilities. While much of our effort of late has been to retool MEMA’s emergency management mapping application, OSPREY, we recently were tasked to develop a publicly accessible chart and map page to show total power outages across the state.  With a quick turnaround needed for a Hurricane tabletop exercise and a requirement to support tablets and other devices, our team came together brilliantly to devise an elegant multi-platform solution. The final revisions and code update was sent to MEMA on Friday June 29th at 6 pm. Four hours later, Maryland was hit with a Derecho, a wide-spread storm with fast moving storms and near hurricane force winds. Over the weekend, our dedicated staff supported MEMA in getting the power outage page up on their website, along with supporting other EOC activities.

Another rewarding outcome of this project and the work that we do in general is the ability to employ students in real world projects. In this case, we were able to engage one of our student employees Brad Smith, a promising developer, to work with the charting JavaScript library. Providing this type of real world experiences is integral to our mission at Towson University. Brad shared the following remarks about the project:

“On the OSPREY project I was introduced to and used multiple API’s with the help of Melanie Bruce.  The project was mostly executed with various forms of JavaScript and provided an excellent out of the classroom experience.  I see mobile technologies like smart phones and tablets as the future medium of choice for all user interaction with the internet, so I really enjoy being able to work on real projects that are geared towards both pc and tablet use.  I hope the power outage chart was of useful for people affected by this weekend’s storm.”

It was truly gratifying to be able to have our work ready just in time to support a large scale event, to play a part in provided relevant information for our fellow Marylanders in a time of need.

Labeling Strategies for Cached Map Services in ArcGIS Server 10

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Jeremy Monn

Jeremy Monn

Making sure labels display properly in a cached map service is not always an easy task.  During the caching process, labels are sometimes duplicated or the labels are incomplete.  These issues tend to occur along cache tile boundaries.  While ArcGIS Server 10’s compact cache reduces how often this problem occurs by storing tiles in bundles, the problem can still arise along the bundle boundaries.  So, how can you avoid incomplete or duplicated labels in a cached map service?

ESRI does a good job describing a useful workflow if you have the time to work with annotation.  The workflow involves using two tools new to ArcGIS 10: the Map Server Cache Tiling Scheme to Polygons tool and the Tiled Labels to Annotation tool.  The product of this workflow is annotation for each layer of your map service at each scale of your map service.  Once this annotation is created, you are can edit the annotation as you see fit before caching the service.

If you are not interested in creating annotation, you can still label your features using the default or Maplex labeling engines while making sure your labels are not placed on top of the cache bundle boundaries.  To do this, use the workflow presented below.

1) Create a feature class that represents the cache bundle boundaries using the Map Server Cache Tiling Scheme to Polygons tool.

2) From the feature class created in step 1, use the Tile_Scale field to select and export to a new feature class all features tied to a given scale.  In other words, if your cache has 5 scales         then you will be creating 5 new feature classes, each representing the cache bundle      boundaries at a different scale.

3) Add the feature classes you created in step 2 as layers to your service’s MXD.  Make sure to symbolize the layers in such a way that the features do not show up when the cache is created.

3A) Set each cache boundary layer’s scale dependency to the cache scale it is   associated with.

3B) Set each cache boundary layer’s feature weight to high by accessing the Placement Properties window from the Labels tab of the layer’s properties window.

4) Cache your map service.
While this workflow may provide labels of the same feature relatively close together along cache bundle boundaries, incomplete labels will not occur.  Additionally, it is important to know that using the default or Maplex labeling engines to place labels will slow down the caching process.  Therefore, if you have the time and budget to thoroughly work with annotation, it is probably best to work with annotation.

On the Map: 7 questions with Julia Fischer

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Ashley

For the past 10 years I have been working in the GIS field and have met some interesting, talented, intelligent, and motivating GIS colleagues.  Hopefully this blog series will share with you some exciting tidbits of information from each person who has touched my career in some way.

I am heavily involved in the MD iMap technical committee, in which Julia is a Co-Chair.  She does a tremendous job in organizing and presenting the materials, running the meetings, and bringing new and exciting ideas to the table.  She is a detail-oriented, prepared, smart and fun person to be around!

  Quick Facts about Julia Fischer

When I asked Julie about what she loves most about her job, she replied, “the opportunity to come to work each day and use GIS to help make someone else’s job a little easier, their workflow a little smoother, and help the GIS industry discreetly take over the world.”  I personally couldn’t agree more!  Here are some fun facts about Julie before we delve into the hard questions!

Favorite hobby
I’m a decent tap dancer.  I’ve danced since I was very young and it’s a great stress reliever.

Favorite GIS book
Any Esri Map Book.  I have a real love for cartography, so those map books are like books of art to me.

1. What professional organizations are you active in?
I am currently a member of the Executive Committee of MSGIC and a Co-Chair of the MD iMap Technical Committee.  I hope to continue to learn about new opportunities to get involved with in the future.

2. How has GIS changed since you first started your career?
When I first started my career people didn’t know what GIS stood for.  I would repeat the same phrases at each new introduction explaining what GIS was.  Now, GIS is everywhere.  I have conversations with my nieces and they know about GIS and have classes in middle school on the subject.  It’s great to share the experiences of using GIS with the next generation.

3. Where do you see GIS going in the future?
Well, since GIS is going to take over the world, I see everyone using GIS, everywhere, all of the time, whether they know it or not.  We’re sneaky like that.

4. Where do you see the job market going in terms of opportunities in GIS?
Since GIS is being used in more industries than ever before, you would think that the number of jobs would increase, but GIS has also become very accessible to everyone, even beginners, through the internet and mobile devices.  My hope is that the middle and upper market of GIS will grow, providing GIS professionals with more jobs in the real meat of the technology, analysis and advanced implementation.

5. How did you get interested in the field of Geography/GIS?
I transferred to a local college at the last minute and needed one more class to fill a full-time schedule.  I picked up a Geography class and haven’t looked back.  I discovered that I could major in Geography and thought what’s better than to major in something that I also enjoy.  I consider myself very blessed from those turn of events.

6. Did/do you have a mentor?  Who?
Not officially, but I look up to Kenny Miller.  I admire his perseverance, enthusiasm and dedication to the field of GIS.  He has worked tirelessly to pave the way for the future of GIS and for that I thank him.  He offers much to learn from and I hope I do.

I also want to recognize Doug Adams.  He gave me my first internship in GIS and patiently and diligently showed me the ropes.  He has always been a strong voice challenging others to never settle for what is, always strive for something better, in the career that you build, the work that you complete and the life that you lead.

7. What is one piece of advice you would give to a newbie in the field?
Network as much as possible.  I know this isn’t new advice, but by getting out to conferences and meetings, I have learned so much from colleagues in the field.  I have also come to find that there are many wonderful people in the field who have easily become great friends.

This concludes this series of On the Map  interviews.  It has been an awesome experience to interview five of the most influential people in GIS in Maryland, at least in my opinion.  Stay tuned for another series of interviews coming to your inbox next Spring. If you missed any of the other interviews check them out here:

Jim Cannistra, Director of Data Planning Services for the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP)

Barney Krucoff, Maryland’s State Geographic Information officer at the Maryland Department of Information Technology

Kenny Miller, Maryland’s Deputy State Geographic Information Officer at the Maryland Department of Information Technology

Michael Scott, Professor and Graduate Program Director, MS in GIS Management, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Salisbury University