Category Archives: Empire Statewide GIS

Hard Copy Maps Still Rule: NYS Agricultural Districts

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The art form is still alive as counties design and create maps as part of the Agricultural District Certification process

I’ve written about agriculture in New York State before in context of the farming community continuing to evolve with the adoption of geospatial technologies. With farmland covering nearly 20% of the state’s geographic footprint, its easy to see why geospatial tools are so increasingly important in managing the state’s prime agricultural lands.  And one does not need to look far to see the advancements of new geospatial technologies in New York State agriculture, particularly with the recent Systems and Technologies for Remote Sensing Sensing Applications Through Unmanned Aerial Systems (STRATUS) conference May 23-25, 2022 at SUNY ESF in Syracuse. Several papers and even dedicated tracks of papers and presentations focusing on UAV/drone technology in agriculture.

And it’s big business, too. A November 2021 article published by NY Business Agribusiness Column: Economic Impact of Agriculture in New York State stated that “agriculture in New York State contributed $43.6 billion in total industry output, 160,100 jobs and $12.3 billion in gross domestic product across the state economy.” It’s a rather amazing article with many more figures on how agriculture impacts the statewide economy, The article is based on the work and research of Todd Schmidt, an associate professor with the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics Management at Cornell University.

Which makes it all the more interesting in 2022, even with the fledgling agritech applications and the almost complete conversion and automation of our mapping, cartography, and business/financial systems, the certification of agricultural districts in the state still involves the use of an iconic piece of mapping and cartography: The hardcopy map. Yes, while the digital data/products in producing the hardcopy maps are used and repurposed in many useful and productive ways across the state, it is still the hardcopy map which is used as part of the agriculture district certification process by NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets (AgMkts).

Background

Since 1971 , the Agricultural Districts Law, Article 25AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law (AML), as administered through (AgMkts), has reflected state and county level efforts to preserve, protect and encourage the development and improvement of agricultural land for the production of food, fiber and other agricultural products. As districts are created, or modified during renewal, maps are generated, based on tax parcels included in the districts. Each county is responsible for creating maps to meet the requirements of the Agricultural Districts Mapping Program. Supporting AgMkts in this regard is Cornell University’s Institute for Resource Information Sciences (IRIS) has helped facilitate the mapping program since 1977. Its primary responsibility is to support agricultural district mapping efforts by reviewing, distributing, and archiving agricultural district maps, and to provide consultation services. Automation of the statewide district maps began in earnest In 1996 when the entire set of NYS Agricultural District maps in the collection of Cornell IRIS (formally CLEARS) was converted to digital format. This was done by shipping blueprint copies of the maps to the NYS DEC for scanning.

Article 25AA references maps several times in Section 303 as a required deliverable for certification of a district. Specifically the text includes “The district review plan shall include a description of the district, including a map delineating the exterior boundaries of the district which shall conform to tax parcel boundaries”.  Agricultural districts across New York State are reviewed and certified on an eight-year cycle.

The Map

It’s a real treat anymore to show up at a meeting or discussion and be given the chance to review a traditional, well designed hard copy map. Increasingly becoming rarer and rarer. And just think how much less demand there would be for hardcopy maps if it wasn’t for the ubiquitous use and sharing of the PDF file format? For so many years, the 1:24,000 map was one of the most commonly used map design and layouts following in step with the classic U.S. Geological Survey 2000-scale quadrangle grid series. And yes, it just so happens the required base map standard for the agricultural district maps, as outlined in the Agiriculture Districts Program Mapping Checklist prepared by IRIS, is 1:24,000. According to Diane Ayers, who provides staff support to the mapping program, “IRIS recommends either the NYS DOT 7 ½ minute planimetric map series (available in either raster or vector format) as the base map for individual County mapping products.”

The 32-page document consists of written requirements covering topics such as, but not limited to, map content including roads, civil boundaries, and water features, as well as traditional map items such as north arrows, keys and legends, scale bars, and the bounding geographic coordinate grid.  Documentation on the source of base map data, other data layers, year of parcel data, and geographic reference information (datum, projection, etc) is also recommended.   It also includes several pages of examples covering a wide range of other hardcopy cartographic principles including annotation, color selection, and symbology.  Many items which cartographers and map makers have greater flexibility in controlling when using desktop client software vs. web mapping cartographic tools. 

Appendix 1 in the Mapping Checklist document shows examples of how to render the district boundary as the most prominent feature on the map

While counties send all review materials associated with the eight-year review, including tax parcel information, directly to AgMkts, the county produced hardcopy map and shapefiles are sent directly to Ayers.   She reviews the maps for consistency with the mapping checklist and then forwards to AgMkts and uses the shapefiles to maintain a consistent a set of statewide district maps which are available via CUGIR.  The statewide coverage she maintains based on this relationship and data exchange with the counties can be found here.

The 2022 Ontario Agriculture District Map as produced by IRIS. Shapefiles and documentation received from counties enables IRIS to maintain a statewide agricultural district coverage.

Sheri Norton is the GIS Coordinator for Ontario County, located in the Finger Lakes region renown for viticulture and other agricultural products. She has been through three district reviews including a large countywide consolidation in 2021. “Agriculture District mapping is a big effort with partnership between our Planning, Real Property and GIS Program staff”, she says, “but with my previous experience in producing the mapping products for IRIS and becoming more comfortable with ArcGIS Pro, the map series and formal reports are now easily updated for the next review cycles.  The ArcGIS client is all I use.”   Which is quite an accomplishment, as keep in mind many final cartographic products are often “touched up” before final publication with other desktop publishing software such as Adobe Illustrator. The certification also includes generating a list of all tax parcels in the district(s) based on the county assessment roll.

Sheri Norton’s 2021 Ontario County Agriculture District One map designed and produced entirely with desktop GIS software.  This same map was provided to AgMkts as part of the review and certification process

Summary

Hard copy maps are as close to GIS comfort food as we can get.   And here in New York is refreshing to see how this important piece of our cartography past is still being used in a government regulatory program.  Holding its own against all of the advancements – and acceptance of digital web mapping.  Kudos to GIS professionals across the state who are still producing hardcopy maps and helping the product remain relevant as part of the profession.

Agricultural Districts protect and promote the availability of land for farming purposes.  For informative overview of this important Empire State Program review this presentation.

Contact

Diane Ayers
Data Manager and Educator
NYS Agricultural Districts Mapping Program
Cornell IRIS
1015 Bradfield Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
dag10@cornell.edu

Sheri Norton 
GIS Coordinator, GISP
Geographic Information Systems Program
Ontario County Information Technology Department
70 Ontario Street
Canandaigua, NY 14424
Sheri.Norton@ontariocountyny.gov

Jeff Kehoe 
Farmland Protection Specialist
Department of Agriculture and Markets | Division of Land and Water Resources
10B Airline Drive
Albany, New York 12235
jeffrey.kehoe@agriculture.ny.gov

Empire State GIS/Mapping DIYer Phenom: Andy Arthur

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Self-taught hobbyist has a treasure chest of geospatial content on website

One of the benefits of writing about all-things geospatial in Empire State is sometimes I just don’t know what I’ll come across.  Looking for this thing and finding that.   Starting in earnest on an article about a certain GIS channel and a couple days later finding myself having completely jumped the rails and find myself way over there writing about Channel Z.  (Yup, that static in the attic).  Or ending up on a cool or fun website not really knowing how I got there.

Case in point:  Interactive Maps by Andy Arthur.  Empire State mapping DIYer extraordinaire.  Just a hobby.

When I first stumbled onto the site and having spent some time driving around, I realized I needed to find out who was behind it all.  It definitely isn’t the kind and feel of the traditional geospatial website I normally include or reference in my blog, but enough interesting – and yes, quite different – content to dig a little deeper.  And glad I did.  This is not a blog post to focus on a particular topic or concept, but rather just more of a pointer to the URL and let you take away from the website what you want.  

It turns out the person behind all of this is Andy Arthur, who by day, is Deputy Director of Research Services in the NYS Assembly.   “I have no formal GIS training, as things were still pretty primitive back when I was in college (SUNY Plattsburgh)  in the early 2000s especially when it came to web services, online data and open source software” says Arthur, “computers were a lot less powerful back then. I remember vaguely hearing a bit about Remote Sensing when I was involved in the Environmental Science Club in college, but it wasn’t something I ever used.“

Since then and working on his own, Arthur picked up QGIS (and the accompanying PyQGIS developer tools), as he was looking for a way to make his own topographic maps because he wasn’t happy with what was available on  the Internet. He later found out he could FOIL a primative campsite shapefile from NYS DEC and get data from there to help find campsites. “I was pretty good at map and compass stuff from my years in Boy Scouts and always interested in environmental and land use issues”, he says.  Over time, he branched out into other geospatial areas including web services.  More recently He’s been focusing on more automation of processes, using Python and R statistical language to do some map plotting and a lot of Census data gathering and processing. “I like working with R as it is fast and easy to implement code in. I’ve also lately been doing a lot more with Leaflet and web services”.  Along the way he continues to use GeoPandas and Leaflet for map making. (btw as I was putting this blog piece together I found out the creator of Leaflet 11 yeas ago was  Volodymyr Agafonkin, a Ukrainian citizen who at the time was living in Kyiv.)  Content on the site is also made available in KMZ for use in Google Earth.

This is a example of how Arthur processed LIDAR data covering the Rome Sand Dunes west of the City of Rome in Oneida County. The landscape ifs a mosaic of sand dunes rising about 50 feet above low peat bogs which lie between the dunes. Processed LIDAR data renders the dunes very clearly. Arthur created this originally by writing a QGIS plugin that queries a shapefile with the LIDAR Digital Terrain Model Bare-Earthindex, then downloads the geotiffs, and finally joining them together to create the hillshade.The plugin itself is in Python and runs in QGIS, while the lidar download/processing script is in php-cli shell script.

The best place to start navigating the website is to open the table of contents link located in the upper right corner of the landing page. The table of contents page then provides additional links products and visuals Andy has created including aerial photos, charts, interactive maps (recommend starting here), and thematic maps to name just a few.   This page also provides more detail on open source components, some specifics on the use of Python and Pandas, a downloadable CSV file listing of web services (WMS, ArcGIS services, etc) used on the blog, and much more.  It’s worth noting that the website also includes non-GIS/geospatial content.

If you need some additional evidence of how much Arther has picked-up on programming, using open source components, and navigating the geospatial landscape in this space,  check out his tutorial on how to create a  Digital Surface Model GeoTIFF Using National Map Downloader, LiDAR Point Clouds and PDAL.  By example, the DSM image above is from a section of the Albany Pine Bush.  For a larger montage of the Albany Pine Bush digital surface model and samples of his code, click here for downloads.

And of course, the old stand-by hardcopy product. Here, a recently created thematic map of the City of Albany median year of housing construction map. He used the NYS Tax Parcel Centroid Points data aggregated down to the parcel level using R code and created a GeoPackage. Which was then used to create the map in QGIS. Additional layers were added for context.

There are many many more examples of geospatial products, maps, and viewers on the website.  Its a great example of how much can come out of the other end when diving into and applying geospatial tools to one’s own personal interests and way of living. 

When you have a few minutes over lunch or a cup of coffee, take a look at his site.  In communicating with Andy over the course of putting this piece together, he would be open to talking with and assisting non-profit or similar community groups on specific GIS/mapping projects.  His contact information is below. 

Contact:

Andy Arthur
www.andyarthur.org
andy@andyarthur.org

The American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021: Where’s the GeoBeef?

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There's lots of money out there. But few in the GIS community seem to be talking about it

During the waning months of my service with Westchester County last fall, I began to see references and documentation connecting geospatial technology to Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program which was enabled as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed earlier in 2021.  Earmarked monies for each government in New York State.  This was followed by passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.   In general, SLFRF funding is more directed to local governments and IIJA funding being more focused on state government appropriations.  The progams certainly haven’t gone unnoticed by GIS software companies such as ESRI and Cartegraph which have published documentation outlining how specific categories of ARPA funding  can be used to support local government geospatial activities.  Even Autodesk, the AutoCAD giant, has recognized the relevance and importance of these landmark funding programs.

Empire State organizations such as the New York State Association of Towns (NYTOWNS), New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) and the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM) which represent the many levels of local governments across the state are also busy tracking funding allocations and keeping their own scorecards.  For example there is NYCOM’s Municipal ARPA Plans and Programs inventory, NYTOWNS procurement guide, and NYSAC’s county-level breakdown of funding   And there’s more.  The U.S Treasury Department’s Allocation for Metropolitan Cities  or the Brookings Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker.  Your county or municipality may have yet to make the connection to these geospatial opportunities.  

The Brookings ARPA Investment Tracker is one of several sites monitoring the use of grant funds. Erie County’s use of the funding is highlighted here with 92% of the funding being used for infrastructure purposes. Other New York State government interim reports can be found here.

But even with all of this publicly available information, and aggressive marketing by the vendor community, there seems to be a limited amount discussion about how these major federal grant funding programs can be woven into local geospatial initiatives.  And this is unfortunate because its very clear there ARE local activities which are “ARPA eligible” in the areas such infrastructure management, economic development, health and human services delivery, housing, transportation and community revitalization to name only a few.  So who is leading the statewide local government ARPA geospatial discussion?

Diving a little deeper, I took out attempting to survey the statewide local government geospatial community on the ARPA and IIJA programs by issuing a simple survey via the NYS GIS listserv, as well as having a link put on the NYS GIS Assocation’s website (thank you, Association webmasters).  Perhaps I would have gotten a better response to the survey offering links to both of the funding programs, but instead, wanted to capture the respondent’s immediate understanding/awareness of the programs when opening the survey.  Providing links to the programs would have defeated the purpose of the survey.   And I made it clear the survey was only for New York State local government users and/or their contractors.    That takes a lot of potential respondents off the table via the listserv and with local government representation in the Association hovering around less than 25% of the total membership, I wasn’t sure what the response would be.  Though not included in the images below, I emailed a handful of former county colleagues separately ahead of the online survey which resulted in very similar results.

The results can hardly be considered a statistically representative sample of the statewide local government GIS user community.  I received only 20 responses of which 18 provided usable data.   As such, I would submit the following pie charts can be considered illustrative or reflectiveof the current overall awareness, if not understanding, of the current ARPA funding programs.  While only a third of the respondents indicated they were even aware of the ARPA program (first pie chart),  there was barely any understanding of the funding as it relates to geospatial (second pie chart) and only one of the respondents indicated he/she had been involved in any discussions regarding the use of ARPA funding (third pie chart) in their organization.   Though to some degree many GIS practitioners across the state often hold down technical positions in department-line staff positions which are normally far removed from the grant funds discussions being held in much higher administrative offices.

Unfortunately, as historically been the case, the top level NYS government associations noted above have rarely made GIS/geospatial a visible and outward facing part of their agenda.  Even today, Its hard to find anything really meaningful for the local government GIS community when using keyword searchs such as  “GIS, geospatial, or mapping” on any of their websites.  And its highly doubtful there will be, or can be, any real meaningful advocacy through any state program offices as this political or elected official outreach framework doesn’t even exist on behalf of local government GIS programs.    As the next generation of local government GIS/geospatial programs evolve, particularly in the urban environments where the focus will be more on the public infrastructure, utilities, sustainability and climate change impacts, large scale and high resolution mapping and surveying – the collective internet of things (IoT) – discussions and geospatial strategies with most state government offices in this space will  become more distant.    Geospatial programs for different levels of government in New York State evolving in completely different directions.   Albeit for sure New York City is on a different level when is comes to infrastructure and underground mapping, but it’s Underground Infrastructure Project concept does represent an important direction of the next generation of local government GIS programs in urban areas across the state.  It’s just a matter of degree.

The list below, from an ESRI publication and is available on numerous websites, highlights the local government programs in play.  No, not necessarily direct funding to your GIS office, but does serve as a roadmap of who GIS practioners should be talking with at the local level.  EcoDev, public health, infrastructure and public works, and cooperative efforts with utilities.  And then find out who is administering your government’s ARPA funding.    You can be assured someone or some agency has dibs on the funding.  And apparently the GIS programs are only visible in the rearview mirrow. 

The four major ARPA funding program areas include:

1.  Support public health expenditures, by, for example, funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral healthcare, and certain public health and safety staff
2.  Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including economic harms to workers, households, small businesses, impacted industries, and the public sector
3.  Replace lost public sector revenue, using this funding to provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue experienced due to the pandemic

4.  Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, making necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, support vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and to expand access to broadband internet

Within these overall categories, recipients have broad flexibility to decide how best to use this funding to meet the needs of their communities

While actually securing funding is much easier said than done, often requiring great grant and proposal writing skills as well as involving many individual offices and agendas in the organization.  But the almost complete lack of even a discussion by the statewide local government GIS/geospatial community to date seems amiss.

There are so few funding opportunities such as these 2021 federal grant programs to take advantage of.  These are generational programs.  Right now the onus of finding representation and advocacy for local government GIS funding in the federal grants arena falls squarely on local government GIS leaders and their representatives.  As well as local GIS practitioners.

Right now, though, the silence is deafening.

Mapping a New Economy for Equality and Sustainability

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New York City nonprofit uses GIS to help support cooperative and community-led development projects as well as advocacy campaigns

Introduction

Nonprofits are one of my favorite areas to cover in the geospatial space.  More than not their geospatial efforts operating on a shoestring budget, relying mostly on filtering through open data portals and mashing everything together to create visual products with open source software or via discounted vendor supported nonprofit software licensing agreements. Its not uncommon to find the person(s) doing spatial analysis and map making having been self-taught.  A lot gets done with a little.

One such organization is the New Economy Project (NEP) located in New York City.  NEP works with community groups to build a new economy that works for all, based on principles of cooperation, democracy, equity, racial justice, and ecological sustainability.  Their focused campaigns are carried out in concert with community, labor, civil rights and social justice groups on initiatives such as:

  • Public Bank NYC, a municipal public bank campaign rooted in economic and racial justice. Through public banking, NYC can divest from Wall Street banks, reinvest public deposits to support equitable and cooperative development.  
  • Advancing Community Land Trusts, through co-leadership of the NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) and one-on-one work with community groups seeking to organize community land trusts. 
  • Advancing NYS Community Equity Agenda, calling for transformation of the fundamentally unjust social, political and economic systems. The Equity Agenda puts racial and economic justice front and center and addresses long-standing inequities that play out at neighborhood and regional levels. 
  • Growing NYC’s Cooperative Economy through coalition-building and policy change that supports and brings together community land trusts; worker, housing, financial and food co-ops; and other models of cooperative, community-led development.

GIS and Mapping

Behind all of the mapping at the New Economy Project is Ben Hagen who currently serves as Senior Research and Communications Associate.  “As much of our work focuses financial services, a considerable amount of our data comes from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)” Ben notes, “and more specifically from the Summary of Deposits section.”   Ben does all of his mapping and data analysis with ArcMap having learned the craft as part of his graduate work in Urban Planning at New York University.  Other data sources frequently used by NEP include the U.S.Census Bureau, New York State Department of Financial Services,  New York State Office of Court Administration, and NYC OpenData. 

NEP uses use ESRI’s World Geocoding Service to support most of its address mapping though in the past had also used the city’s LION file. In addition to ArcGIS, the main other data-related software NEP uses is open source software R for cleaning data, especially when preparinfor for mapping. Hagen likes R software because it runs on text-based code and is great for replicating processes with minimal opportunities for introducing errors, as well as for easily sharing with others for a second look at methodology.  

Samples of NEP mapping products include (click image for map download).

(Left Image): Bank branches are not distributed and made accessible evenly across the city.  This map depict the relative absence of bank branches in  the Bronx, and the resulting concentration of high-cost alternatives such as check cashers and pawn shops. This is a series of maps that NEP updates every year covering most (if not all) of the city’s neighborhoods.  (Right Image): NEP creates maps showing the concentration of residential foreclosure risk in NYC communities of color. This uses data from the NYS Dept. of Financial Services, based on notices that mortgage servicers are required to send to delinquent borrowers 90 days before initiating a foreclosure action. While not all of these notices result in an eventual foreclosure, it provides a good indication of where the risk of home foreclosure is highest in the city.

(Left Image): Using data from the NYS Office of Court Administration, this NEP map highlights the concentration of debt collection lawsuits in communities of color and is included in this report prepared for AARP New York.  For additional maps, graphics and YouTube videos on this project visit this web page.  (Right Image):  Another map showing the relative absence of bank branches in NYC’s communities of color. Looking at this annually, one can see changes as gentrifying neighborhoods gain branches, but the overall pattern is a long-standing and remarkably stable one. There are actually six zip codes in the city, ranging in population from about 20,000 to 94,000 and all in communities of color, that have no bank branches at all.

Other examples of NEP research and mapping products can be viewed here.

Summary:

“The concept of “place” has always been at the core of how we approach our work” notes Hagen.  “In NYC, people feel very connected to their neighborhoods, and are acutely aware of how much the communities they call home shape their day-to-day lives. There’s no better way than maps to relate to people’s experience of their physical environment, and to help contextualize those environments within the larger, systemic frameworks that we are so often fighting to change.

Clearly, GIS is both an important business and commuication tool for NEP.

Contact:

Ben Hagen
Senior Research and Communications Associate
New Economy Project
121 W. 27th Street #804 | NY, NY 10001
212.680.5100, ext. 221 | neweconomynyc.org

 

 

 

 

 

Campus Planning and Geospatial Technologies at UAlbany

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GIS used in many areas alongside engineering and architectural applications

College and university campuses are the home for a vast amount of geospatial data covering both the natural and built environments.  Whereas at the beginning of geospatial era there was a clear and defined digital divide – GIS vs. CAD –  today these technologies have evolved to be used and managed together almost seamlessly.  In this space since the early 2000’s we’ve seen the evolution of the Building Information Model (BIM) in along with drone, GPS, and laser scanning technologies serving as a means to capture and generate additional types of geospatial data both indoor and outdoor.  GIS concepts are also important elements integrated into Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) solutions.

Built around the geospatial framework which also includes standards for both data collection and data management, GIS applications in campus settings are leveraged by both GIS specialists and engineers alike.  Common program areas include covering areas such as master plan support, space programming, work order management, asset management, emergency management, real estate and portfolio management, environmental and regulatory compliance, and site selection studies among others.

While traditional GIS and engineering software applications such as ArcGIS and AutoCAD support much of the outdoor mapping, facility managers increasingly use a more indoor specific software programs such as Revit, Autodesk BIM 360 Ops, Cartegraph, and ESRI’s relatively new entry into this space ArcGIS Indoors, among others.   In reality, automated systems at large facilities involve a combination of the programs noted above and often also integrate other monitoring and SCADA systems.   If you are new to GIS and geospatial applications to the campus setting, here is a good overview presentation.

Campus Planning at UAlbany

Many of these geospatial-related disciplines intersect directly – and indirectly-  in the Office of Campus Planning at UAlbany which is charged with the overall planning of physical space on campus (indoor and outdoor), capital and operating funding, and supporting the strategic plan of the University.   The office currently has a team of eight which includes Jessie Pellerin who serves as GIS and Signage and Wayfinding Manager.

Jessie is involved with several elements of GIS data collection and cartographic products associated with the UAlbany facilities for the uptown, downtown, and Alumni Quad campuses – including the production of hardcopy maps which are still an important communications and outreach component for visitors and students new to campus.   Nearly all of her day-to-day work is done with ArcGIS Pro.  Field data collection is normally supported with Collector for ArcGIS on an iPad and for offline viewing.

Jessie produces all of the UAlbany maps using just ArcGIS Pro without the use or addition of any desktop publishing software

With regard to above and underground features on, the 500-acre uptown camps, she helps manage a GIS database which includes 122 emergency blue light phone locations, 16.5 miles of storm sewer pipes and 760 catch basin, 6.4 miles of sanitary sewer pipes, 1500 light poles and 12 miles of roads among dozens of other features. Jessie also oversees individual data collection projects conducted by vendors such as the campus wide light poles and irrigation system.   She serves as the ArcGIS Online Administrator for the Office supporting and maintaining several customized viewers for 50 staff across campus in specific work program areas.

One of internal AGOL viewers Ms. Pellerin supports focuses on the locations of accessibility features on the Uptown and Downtown Campus. Pop-ups include more information for each feature. Data was developed from a campus-wide accessibility study.

Another viewer shows the location of the exterior wayfinding and regulatory signage and banners on campus. With over 500 exterior wayfinding signs, 750 regulatory signs, and 550 banners, GIS has been essential in keeping track of sign content and condition for aiding in preventative maintenance, site planning, and branding initiatives. Both of the above viewers were built with Web App Builder.

An example of how space planning is supported using GIS at UAlbany. This graphic shows a 3D visualization of assignable space on the Downtown Campus

As part of supporting the university’s COVID-19 response, Jessie assisted with others by using combining mapped sewer line and manhole data with the occupancy count of each of the residential dorms, to determine the optimal locations for the waste water testing sites in 2020. There ended up being six manholes selected (out of the 282 on campus). Maps were shared with other stakeholders in the project.    

“As it relates to campus settings, GIS use is growing and being used more often in buildings and facilities planning by campus staff” notes Stu Rich, Director, Buildings and Infrastructure at Cartegraph.  Initially, as outdoor GIS concepts and technology were beginning to be applied to the indoor environments, cost was often a barrier to get started in building BIM and interior models for many organizations.  “Those barriers are beginning to change” Rich further adds, “While precision indoor mapping will always require higher-end instrumentation, recent products such as MagicPlan and IndoorVu, as well as falling software prices, are making interior mapping and data capture more affordable for large facilities management programs.   All of these products and technologies are now broadly used in facilities management and integrated with GIS applications.”

Recognizing the importance and growth of using digital data both in-house and with the numerous engineering companies performing work on campus, both the Office of Campus Planning and the Office of Architecture, Engineering, & Construction Management (AECM) have developed digital data standards for BIM, GIS, and AutoCAD.

Summary

Large campus facilities such as SUNY Albany bring together the intersection of several geospatial technologies.  Individually each seemingly used or applied for one specific purpose (and often at varying levels of spatial accuracy) but when mashed together in a just web viewer, provide easy access to a wide range of authoritative digital content for decision-makers. Sure signs of the growing maturity and acceptance of geospatial technologies.

Contact:

Ms. Jessie L. Pellerin
GIS and Signage and Wayfinding Manager
Office of Campus Planning
University at Albany, State University of New York
jpellerin@albany.edu

Developing and Applying the Geographic Aggregation Tool (GAT) at NYS Department of Health

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“R”-based software application is used by public health researchers and data analysts

While often much of the Empire State GIS software discussion evolves around the use of the ESRI platform, there continues to be a steady dose and discussion of alternative geospatial client and web-based products. For example, staff at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) use ArcGIS, but also other GIS programs including MapInfo, Map Marker, SatScan, and QGIS, as well as statistical programs like SAS, SPSS and Tableau for research and surveillance projects.

Supported by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), staff from the NYSDOH Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Program – also known as “Tracking” – has leveraged the free and open-source software program “R” to develop and maintain the Geographic Aggregation Tool (GAT).  R has grown primarily out of the statistics and data analysis space which is very popular and used extensively in public health research.

GAT is currently maintained by Abigail Stamm at NYSDOH who supports a GAT webpage on GitHub containing an extensive listing of documentation, developer tools, metadata, tutorials and more.  According to Stamm, EPHT staff like using R for a couple of reasons including:

  • R is free,  easily accessible to the public, and enables staff to share the GAT package with agencies that do not have an ArcGIS license or the training and resources to use any of the other geographical software. (Legacy versions of GAT, including a SAS version, are archived on GitHub.)
  • The GAT package automates everything.  This is particularly valuable especially if users include scripting options which bypass the Graphic User Interface (series of pop-up windows) and reduces likelihood of mistakes and makes recording and reproducing workflows and updating much easier.

GAT documentation and content on GitHub.

At its core, GAT aggregates, or dissolves, geographic areas (most commonly used is census tract geography) based on numeric values for each area, such as case or population numbers, as well as other demographic values such as median income.  Health researchers often want subject data at a higher granularity than the county-level, which can conceal or mask variation, especially in counties with a mix of urban and rural populations.  Also, showing data at town level won’t work because many rural towns have very small populations.  Areas with small populations are likely to have few cases, resulting in unstable rates and also putting confidentiality of cases at risk.

To overcome these limitations NYSDOH developed GAT to join neighboring geographic areas together until a user defined population and/or number of cases is reached to support the statistical analysis desired. This allows local health departments and others to use rates to identify hot spots for targeted interventions. GAT can also be used to produce maps at varying geographic resolutions required by the user.

How GAT Works

GAT requests user inputs through a series of dialogs, including menus, checkboxes, and text boxes, so no programming knowledge is necessary.  GAT reads in a polygon shapefile which must contain, at minimum, a character variable that uniquely identifies areas and a numeric variable to sum for aggregation.  A series of dialog boxes allows the user to select:

  1. A variable to uniquely identify areas
  2. One or two aggregation variables
  3. Optionally, a variable of areas within which merging will be preferred (ex. county)
  4. The value (sum) to which the selected aggregation variable(s) should be aggregated
  5. The preferred aggregation method: closest geographic or population-weighted centroid, least value, or ratio of two values

Depending on the specifics of the data and the type of analysis of interest to the user, GAT offers four types of aggregation methods:

  1. Closest geographic centroid
  2. Closest population – weighted centroid
  3. Neighbor with the lowest count
  4. Most similar neighbor

Applying different rules or criteria to the different GAT aggregation results produce contrasting results. These are samples of the GAT aggregation tool when applied to total population numbers in towns in Hamilton and Fulton (NY) Counties. Sample code for producing these maps can be accessed here.

GAT produces two shapefiles, an aggregated file and a crosswalk. GAT also produces a PDF of maps and a log of the entire process, including user settings, any warnings, and a brief data dictionary. (The PDF and log provide much more information than being shown in this article).   These files are designed to help evaluate and report aggregation results and standardize user process.  NYSDOH staff developed GAT to standardize and automate how to aggregate New York’s 4900 census tracts.

Using the different aggregation methods may affect the values of resulting aggregated areas in different ways. For example, it was found when testing GAT that in cases where a small corner of a census tract contained most of its population, aggregating by geographic versus population weighted centroid could provide very different results. Also, when developing aggregated areas for the Tracking portal, it was recognized the portal would be displaying disease rates.  NYSDOH staff felt the most suitable aggregation method for these population-based measures would be to aggregate to the closest population weighted centroid.  To check for areas with smaller populations and unusually large numbers of cases, users have the option to aggregate by case count rather than population (or in addition to population).

While access to health data and resolution of data varies across the NYSDOH (point/address, census tract, zip code, or municipal level), staff in the Tracking program receive hospitalization and emergency room visit data at point level (resident address) from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS). Staff geocode these datasets using multiple programs including MapMarker, SAM in ArcGIS, and NYCGBAT and assign the encompassing census tract to the point data. Methods to assign to tract based on zip code or town and to impute tracts for records that cannot be geocoded due to incomplete address have also been developed.

 Other Applications of GAT

Public Use in New York State

 Working towards NYSDOH’s goal of making sub-county data more accessible, NYS EPHT is developing a platform which will display environmental health outcomes and exposures in an interactive mapping application.  The current EPHT data portal displays county-level indicators but EPHT staff are redesigning it to include subcounty data using the sub-county aggregated areas created by GAT.  This will assist local agencies with targeting interventions while maintaining privacy and confidentiality.

Tracking is also working with Health Data NY (HDNY) to display the sub-county data. The HDNY platform will serve as a data repository displaying data for environmental health outcomes including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and myocardial infarction (MI; heart attacks), since these are the health outcomes local agencies are most interested in when planning extreme weather-related mitigation and resource allocation. The data will be available for public download along with the shapefile and a brief description of how the shapefile was developed.

The CDC is also using GAT to develop sub-county areas for various health outcome indicators having piloted it for data from other EPHT grantee states for health outcomes including asthma, MI, and COPD.

Sampling Design

 GAT is also being used in the development and selection of sampling areas as part of Biomonitoring NY, a statewide biomonitoring project.  In the first year of sampling this effort has focused on the sampling of households on Long Island. To this end, the group aggregated 2010 census block groups within census tracts so that each aggregated area had at least 440 households. In the next step, remaining tracts that were too small to meet the household minimum were aggregated to neighboring tracts. After completing the final aggregation, study staff randomly selected 25 aggregated areas and mailed postcards and invitation packets soliciting participants in households in the block groups within the selected aggregated areas.  Read more about the project.

Biomonitoring is a way of measuring the amount of environmental chemicals found in the human body. It is an important part of New York statewide epidemiological research that seeks to determine levels of chemical exposure in the human body and help better understand whether chemical exposures are associated with health effects in humans.

Informing Policy

In 2019, NYS passed the nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA; aka “Climate Act”) to empower New York residents to fight climate change at home, at work, and in their communities.  NYSDOH, along with several other state agencies, is providing support and assisting in the implementation of the Climate Act. One effort includes identifying disadvantaged communities (DAC) that could benefit from mitigation efforts and allocation of investments. GAT was used to create sub-county areas for several climate-impacted health indicators that will be analyzed with multiple other variables to define DACs.

Learn More About GAT

A variety of documentation is available on the use and development of GAT.  Slides (pdf) from a 2020 and National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) presentation by NYSDOH staff are available here including a YouTube video.  GAT slides and a video from the 2021 useR Conference are also available.   Most recently staff presented at the 2021 Place and Health Conference in November which included epidemiologists, health geographers, social and behavioral scientists, statisticians, data scientists, and public health professionals from all levels of government.

GAT poster that was presented at the 2021 Place and Health Conference (download here). A lightning talk is also available.

Contact:

Abigail Stamm, Research Scientist
Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology
New York State Department of Health
abigail.stamm@health.ny.gov

GAT was written in R-2.9.2 under Windows XP and was revised and converted to a package in R-3.4.3 under Windows 10 using RStudio-1.4.1103 and devtools-2.3.2. The latest version of GAT was compiled in R-3.6.1 and runs in R-3.5.3 through R-4.1.1.

https://github.com/ajstamm/gatpkg

NYC H2O: Advocating Cleaner Water through StoryMaps

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NYC-based nonprofit has developed extensive portfolio of educational products for all ages and settings

StoryMaps are such a great communication tool.  Turning geographic and location-based features and concepts into an easy-to-understand medium for the much broader audience which help identify key community resources, assets and experiences that can inform planning and policy-making.  By combining narrative text and other multimedia content with Geographic Information System (GIS) maps and data, story maps serve as an effective means of helping residents and developers visualize and understand projects with greater clarity.  Increasingly becoming an art form unto itself.  Broadly and increasingly used across the geospatial spectrum from the industry-leading ESRI StoryMaps platform  to say the least of the versions being offered by others in the geospatial space including Google Earth, CARTO, or Tableau. 

I’m sure its not the first time Story Map subject matter has found its way to be included in a more technical oriented conference, but I was nonetheless interested, if not surprised, to see a presentation by NYC H2O at the recent the September 9th New York City Watershed Science and Technical Conference.   A conference historically the home for geospatial-based technical and scientific presentations by engineers, biologists, and others in the water science disciplines, NYC H2O’s presentation was entitled “Engaging an Urban Population With Water Engineering Utilizing a Virtual GIS Platform in the Pandemic Era”.

Having received its nonprofit 501(c)(3) designation in May, 2012, such work is not new to NYC H2O as it has built a niche in the environmental education space using the Story Map platform as its primary teaching and outreach tool. Story Maps augment and support their mission to “inspire and educate New Yorkers of all ages to learn about, enjoy and protect their city’s local water ecology.  Since 2009, NYC H2O has offered over 120 educational programs focused on NYC’s water system and ecology to a combined audience of 4,000 people.  Their StoryMaps often incorporate  digitized historic maps, photographs, videos, and social narratives to tell the story of water‐related  infrastructure.

A couple of NYC H20’s StoryMaps in the water sciences and environmental space include:

Water Systems Overview

I’ve often heard the New York City aqueduct system referred to as the “eight wonder of the world”.   Maybe not as sexy and visible as the Great Pyramid but an incredible engineering marvel nonetheless.  Conceived, designed and built in another era to support the drinking water lifeline of the city. 

NYC receives 90% of its water from the Delaware and Catskill Watersheds. Aqueducts (red line work) transports the fresh water from a series of reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains over 100-miles from the city.

Fitting that the first StoryMap posted by NYC H2O on their “Hub” website is entitled  Water Systems Overview outlining and showing the many geographies of the system which originates in the Catskills Region.  An interactive StoryMap highlighting the major aqueduct systems (Catskill and Delaware – named for the watersheds where the water is collected), as well as the individual reservoirs both upstate and those in the city.  Household water consumption stats are also included in the StoryMap as well as several interactive learning activities as illustrated in the application toolbar below.  Included in the Site Specific Lessons is a StoryMap just for High Bridge and the Jerome Park Reservoir.

Sewer System and Stormwater Management

This StoryMap, focusing on the relationship between storm water and sanitary sewage, and its overall impact on water quality in the metropolitan region has lots more maps and associated data.

Beginning in 1850, NYC laid 70 miles of sewers, or underground pipes that carried away wastewater.   Today the city has over 7,400 miles of sewer pipes. These pipes move wastewater with the help of 95 pumping stations to 14 sewage treatment plants located in all five boroughs.  Each day, NYC wastewater treatment plants process, or “clean”, a total of 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater.   Produceing about 1,400 tons, or 60 truckloads, of biosolids!

The city maintains 14 sewage treatment plants covering the five boroughs. Treated sewage effluent is discharged into the Hudson and East Rivers and Long Island Sound.

About 60% of New York City’s sewer system is a combined sewer system. This means that one single pipe carries both stormwater runoff AND sewage from city buildings.  During heavy rainstorms, combined sewers systems receive more stormwater runoff and sewage. Wastewater Treatment plants have a capacity, or a limit, to how much water they can clean. When there is more water than the capacity, a mix of stormwater and untreated sewage empties directly into the City’s surrounding waterways. These wet weather events are called combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

The presence of combined sewers are still very prevalent in the metropolitan region with the majority emptying into the East River and the east side of the Hudson River.

Also central to the long term management of clean water – are government regulated programs entitled Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) programs.  In populated areas many neighborhoods, including in New York city, as well as industrial areas along coasts, have deployed MS4 programs.  A MS4 has one set of pipes that transports sewage to sewage treatment plants and another set of pipes that transports stormwater directly to local waterways.   Unfortunately, many pollutants (like oil, trash, pet waste, pesticides, and fertilizers from lawns) are washed into this system when it rains. MS4 helps solve one problem (CSOs and sewage in the local waterways) but causes a similar, although smaller, problem since trash and pollution can still enter the local waterways when it rains.

Currently, only about 40% of the NYC footprint is covered by an MS4.

As it relates to the collection of data for the purposes of monitoring citywide water quality, this StoryMap also includes interesting map displays of both fecal coliform (1985-2017) and dissolved oxygen (1909-2017) testing.

Summary:

It’s nice to see as part of such advocacy efforts the use of open data sets and geographic content as made available by government agencies and data portals.  Much of which is included in many of the 21 StoryMaps listed on the NYC H2O HUB.

“StoryMaps allowed us to keep students engaged in learning about their local water issues throughout the challenges of the pandemic. The tool has been so popular with schools that this year we launched a curriculum introducing GIS and StoryMaps to several environmental science and environmental justice in high school classrooms”, notes Kevin Barrett who guides NYC H2O’s mapping instruction.

With regard to the September 9th New York City Watershed Science and Technical Conference, Stalin Espinal, School Program Manager for NYC H2O adds “The conference gave us the opportunity to share our work and programs to a community of our peers. We were delighted to have received such enthusiasm and interest in our work with GIS and StoryMaps.  Even resulting in a new StoryMap collaboration in partnership with the Watershed Agriculture Council (WAC) which works with local farms on and around the upstate New York City watershed to promote Best-Practices and make improvements that help protect the water quality of our drinking water.”

Contact:

Kevin Barnett
GIS Education/Project Manager
kevin@nych2o.org
www.nych2o.org

LAMP: The Authoritative Liquor License Mapping Application for New York State

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Its not too often one bumps into New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) GIS staff along the geospatial trail across the Empire State, but over there on the sidelines, agency staff continue to maintain an admirable web mapping application entitled  New York State Liquor Authority Mapping Project (LAMP).  I was able to catch up with William Cowley, Public Information Officer for the State Liquor Authority (SLA), to find out more about the 2021 release of LAMP.

Current LAMP Application

With the current version of the application finalized in March of this year, LAMP features an impressive tool kit to explore the vast statewide SLA database containing locational data on active, pending, and inactive permit data for beer, wine, and liquor establishments.  The data can be filtered even more specifically to show those locations which are categorized by:

  • On Premise Liquor
  • On Premise Wine
  • On Premise Beer
  • Off Premise Liquor
  • Off Premise Wine
  • Off Premise Beer
  • There are also permits for manufacturing and wholesale

In addition to serving as a great public information outreach tool, the application also serves as a useful utility and reference tool for applicants seeking a liquor license anywhere in the state.  The user online HELP documentation is excellent and available for download as well.

A 750-foot default search around 148 Martine Ave. in White Plains identifies 23 locations with active NYS liquor licenses, two pending, and 21 former or inactive licenses. Icons are colored coded to match active, pending, or inactive licenses keyed to the Legend box in the lower right-hand corner of the viewing screen (which can be expanded on the live online version).

Nearing almost ten years old, LAMP was originally launched in February 2012.  SLA staff assisted in the original development and launch of LAMP with consultant support from Fountains Spatial.  The 2021 LAMP update was completed with the assistance from Troy-based Cogent Technologies.  The viewing application is built on top of a customized version of ArcGIS Online (AGOL) and utilizes a SQL database to store SLA master data.  Updated daily, the application contains approximately 54,000 active and pending licenses.  The database is built on top of the application process which starts here.  The site makes use of the New York State Geocoding Service with the Google geocoding service as a backup.  LAMP is hosted by New York State Office for Information Technology Services.

Mapping Tools

The viewer includes an impressive user toolbox with several functions being AGOL defaults (i.e. scale dependency of map features, identify tools, .  Others have been customized to provide increased functionality and use of the data.  While changing base maps, scale dependency rendering of data, searching by address or user placed pin, or exporting search results to a CVS file are standard AGOL fare, LAMP offers some cool extended functions including, but not limited to:

    • Query results displayed as a new layer in map legend
    • Customized symbology for all feature types
    • A “measuring” tool which creates both a list of the closet (8) licensed facilities as well as within the 200’ and 500’ regulatory buffer areas (see below). A sample of a proximity report can be downloaded here.
    • An uber robust printing tool with advanced functions to create hardcopy maps
    • Easily include and attribute table view – below the main map window – of a particular layer

There are many other functions well documented and available in the application as well.

Image above highlights customized features in the LAMP application including expanded printing functions and creating new layers which are shown in the layer legend.

While the permitting process does not require the use of LAMP,  most applicants find it useful to identify prior licenses at their chosen location.  The locations of Public/Private Schools and Places of Worship are also included in the application because under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, SLA may not issue full liquor licenses (for bars/restaurants or for liquor stores) if the location is within 200-feet of a school or place of worship.  There is also a “500-foot law” which the agency must consider if there are already three or more active liquor licenses within 500 feet of the proposed location.

Integration with SLAM

In an interesting use and application of the SLA database, reference is made to BetaNYC’s SLAM viewer.  Used by community boards when reviewing liquor license applications and sidewalk cafe applications, the public facing tool aggregates information about active liquor licenses, sidewalk cafe licenses, 311 complaints about bars/restaurants/clubs, and restaurant health inspections in NYC onto a single map.   Statewide liquor licensing data can be downloaded from Open Data NY here.

SLAM effectively integrates numerous open data datasets including those from New York City and SLA. Users can zoom to particular addresses and click on relevant features to collect information that may be needed to review a license application. The tool is rendered through Carto – a Web mapping service

Contact:

William Crowley
Public Information Officer
New York State Liquor Authority
William.Crowley@sla.ny.gov

Hub2Hub: Sharing and Promoting the Geospatial Message

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Publishing spatial data content has proven to be great outreach in terms of providing transparency and exposure for many government GIS programs – including here at Westchester County.  Increasingly much easier for geospatial organizations to do courtesy of powerful server technology allowing these same agencies to easily spin together data services based on common thematic features such as environmental, planimetric, business, demographics, cultural, parcels, and aerial photography to name only a few.  Though the data service environment is better understood and leveraged by a specific user community knowing what type of spatial content to look for, there remains even a larger community of geospatial users which navigate data portals to download just individual data sets.  Looking for that individual shapefile, KML, or .dwg file for their own individual project.

And even with all of this good geospatial content available, many publishing organizations – particularly government – struggle with building educational outreach programs for the larger GIS user community.  Tailored programs for users in community and advocacy groups, nonprofits, and even the business sector instructing how to effectively use and leverage our data.  Government GIS programs often do not have the resources or the business model to deliver these types of services outside of their organization.

Enter the emerging roll of “service” Hubs which specialize in leveraging government open data  in ways government programs normally cannot offer. Some are nonprofit in nature or affiliated with academic institutions.  Others, like OpenHub based in the lower Hudson Valley, is a for-profit venture.  The common theme among them is a window offering a wide range of engaging programs increasingly based on government data sets featuring hackathons, workshops and training programs,  application tools, and offering  business tech “round table-type” discussions.  While open source software such as OpenStreetMap, QGIS, Python, and R are commonly used to support their missions (and thus, the easy and affordable entry point for new users), one can see the use of ArcGIS Online and CARTO being offered as well.  Effectively expanding the use and understanding of geospatial concepts and bringing technology to the people.

Third Party “Hubs”

I’ve referenced and written before on the great work of BetaNYC serving in this space.  Particularly with regard to extending content of NYC OpenData  through their numerous programs including the flagship NYC School of Data conference.  While New York City does an incredible job in promoting and maintaining city government’s open data catalog itself, BetaNYC extends the effort by building an entire framework of putting the data into the hands of residents on the streets.

This BetaNYC viewing applications enables user to navigate the numerous political, administrative, and operational districts across New York City

Early in this space in the metro NYC area was the work of Steve Romalewski who started providing mapping services to the nonprofit sector as part of the Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) which at the time was affiliated with New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).  Since 2006 he has been affiliated with the CUNY Mapping Service as part of the Center for Urban Research, Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY).

The Long Island Index was an early and very visible project that the CUNY Mapping helped create.  Another effort affiliated with the Center is the NYC Labor Market Information Service uses federal business and labor data sets.  Be sure to check out their Career Maps infographics and reports.  Similar academic efforts in the city exist at the Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI) at Pratt Institute and the Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University.

Though originally developed at CMAP, the CUNY Mapping Service now hosts OASIS which is one of the most comprehensive mapping and viewing application covering the New York City footprint. Dozens of government generated datasets are made available in the viewer.

While the OpenHub is only beginning to jump into the geospatial space, its Founder Yulia Ovchinnikova will be highlighting the Westchester County GeoHub as part of the 2021 HV TechFest Conference as an example of open government and open-source data sharing to promote building communities. OpenHub will also be using content from the county’s GeoHub as part of a course project during a current online Data Analytics Bootcamp.  As regional technology and economic development is an important focus to OpenHub’s mission and purpose, our discussion started by focusing on a new web map being published which highlights the emerging BioSciences Ecosystem community in Westchester County.  The County is home to the largest biosciences cluster in New York State, boasting 8,000 jobs and 20 percent of the State’s total biosciences employment. The cluster comprises academic institutes doing basic research, R&D and clinical stage startups, large manufacturers and supply chain participants. OpenHub offers a mixture of both free and fee-based online programs including coding clubs, meetups, programming, and specific events for small businesses and startups. OpenHub is an open ecosystem resource center committed to building a tech-sector in the Hudson Valley and beyond

Government open data and economic development. BioScience business location X,Ys are available for download via ArcGIS Online.

MANY organizations leverage government generated geospatial data to support their own business needs and/or to champion a host of civic needs and issues.  In just one area, such as environmental justice (EJ), a Google search located a document published by the SeaGrant program at SUNY Stony Brook which identifies the numerous individual agencies (largely government and nonprofit) engaged in providing “Environmental Justice Mapping Tools for New York State Communities”.   Child care, social services, public safety, public transportation, sustainability, climate change, and civic issues only scratch the surface of the spaces where advocacy groups are involved in using government geospatial content for the larger public good.

Summary

What differentiates the groups itemized above are that they are more full service, a la carte organizations offering a wider range of products and services.  Staffing and resources to turn government data content into meaningful deliverables such as workshops (online and in-person), hackathon-type events, community events,  training courses, and even bringing the data to civic leaders and administrators in ways which is simply not possible by government publishing agencies.  Such outreach is often very targeted making the data more meaningful and ending up in the hands of those who understand its content the most.  Viewing and using the data at the “micro” as opposed to the “macro” or a larger geographic footprint.  Local is better.

While technically not all “hubs” in name, these groups continue to illustrate the growing benefit of how organizations are adding value and exposure to the government data assets.  In many scenarios, building partnerships with these types of service organizations can be of great value to government publishing agencies.

 

Cash Savings: Affordable Geospatial Bachelor Degrees in New York State

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While putting together my last article (GeoSpatial Student Spotlight), I came across a related article that’s worth a quick mention.  In the same academic space, it is an article by the online site Affordable Schools which is essentially a clearinghouse of sorts, inventorying and ranking schools  on a wide range of academic programs and professional fields on three core metrics:   Cost (affordability), class size (student-to-faculty ratio) and student success (graduation rate).  The report is entitled: “30 Best Affordable Geographic Information Science and Cartography Degree Programs (Bachelor’s) 2020”.

Albeit not in the same conversation as the more esteemed college ranking reports by Forbes, U.S. News and Word Report, or Niche, the Affordable Schools evaluation approach is relatively simple in how data is collected/evaluated and from what sources.  And yes, the bottom line focusing on affordability.  Best yet, it paints an outstanding picture of affordable traditional geographic information science/system (GIS) bachelor degrees in New York State when compared against the field across the United States.  Interesting results with four New York State schools in the top thirty with three in the top ten.  All are SUNY schools which speaks volumes to the affordability of higher education opportunities in this space across the Empire State.

Points for ranking the schools and their affiliated geographic information science/system programs were allocated in the following manner:

Those schools in New York State identified in the “30 Best Affordable Geographic Information Science and Cartography Degree Programs” (2020) include:

#30      Farmingdale State College
Farmingdale, NY 11735
Points:  6
#6        SUNY Cortland
Cortland, NY  13045
Points:  7
#3        University of Buffalo
Buffalo, NY  14260
Points:  8
#2        SUNY College at Potsdam
Potsdam, NY  13676
Points:  8

Potsdam and Buffalo ending up with the same point total but Potsdam most likely getting the slight higher ranking due to a slightly lower in-state tuition fee and Buffalo having a much higher out-of-state tuition price tag.  While University of Buffalo has been a mainstay on the Empire State higher education geographic information science/system stage for over three decades – the Farmingdale, Cortland and Potsdam programs are of more recent development. The University of Buffalo is one of the three original universities associated with the The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) formed in 1988.

Again, the caveat here is that this is 2020 data and for traditional, on-campus bachelor degree programs – which almost seems like an oxymoron in July 2021.  So while there may be some resemblance to a “return to campus” in the years ahead, the COVID pandemic has most probably changed the delivery of higher education classes and programs to some extent for good.  And with it, creating more educational opportunities, all levels,  in the online environment.  For 2020 affordable online bachelor geospatial programs, there is the OnlineU website though only with ten schools identified and none within New York State.  Though the good news with online opportunities is that there is a growing acceptance and presence across the Empire State in certificate programs and perhaps even the availability of an online Associate Degree in the future.  Such discussion will be the subject of a future eSpatiallyNewYork blog post.

Of course the programs itemized above are not the only schools in the state which offer bachelor programs in geography information science/systems, geography, and  related technologies. Four-year, masters and PhD programs are available at universities in the New York City as well as other SUNY campuses which can be identified by using the SUNY “Find Your Major” search widget here.

Spread the news.