Author Archives: sam.weargis@gmail.com

2018 Westchester GIS User Group Meeting

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Westchester County GIS has been fortunate to build a broad and diverse community of GIS users and followers over the past two plus decades which is embodied at the our annual GIS User Group Meeting each May.  Similar to many first generation GIS government programs which were created in the late 1980s/early 1990s, most of the first decade worth of geospatial programs and applications Westchester County GIS developed were government focused.  But as geospatial technology grew at warp speed in industry and business and combining the development and availability of a high accuracy countywide Westchester County digital base map,  the visibility of the program quickly expanded.  Interest from public safety, nonprofit, academic and civic groups soon followed.   And not to minimize the importance of the continued political support the program has maintained over the past two decades at both the county and municipal level.   Illustrative of this year’s May 17th meeting held at Purchase College, nearly 170 representatives from  government, industry and business, utilities, academia, nonprofits,  community groups, and the military convened for the sharing of presentations, geospatial solutions, and best practices to move the countywide and regional geospatial agenda forward.

2018 Agenda

In years past there had always been an effort to keep the presentations and agenda diverse – a little bit of everything.   While this has generally served us well over the years, this was the first year we had a specific theme:  GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability.   This was in response to recent work our GIS program had completed in context of investigating potential impacts of projected sea level rise on county-owned assets as well as administrative changes in the Westchester County Executive  office as a result of the November 2017 elections.  In the process of bringing these two issues together and including the Office of Sustainability at Purchase College, we were able to add Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Purchase College President Thomas Schwarz to our agenda.  Both mentioned and acknowledged the importance and relevance of technology and geospatial in supporting the regional sustainability agenda.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer talking with 2018 User Group meeting attendees. He made reference to the use of geospatial technologies in confronting Climate Change issues.

2018 Speakers

Working with the theme of GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability, we were able to include two well recognized state government speakers in Mark Lowery, Climate Change Analyst with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Amanda Stevens, Project Manager with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Environmental Research Program.  With the County’s work in this space increasingly including nonprofit groups, representatives from both  Abundant Efficiency and the Westchester Community Foundation were also on the agenda.  In the mix were talks by SUEZ North American (water utility) and BetaNYC – an open data advocacy organization based in New York Ctiy.   Additionally, we continued to feature our ongoing relationship with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a noon presentation by Lieutenant Colonel Jared Ware.  Our afternoon session of Lightning Talks and panel discussion featured Sustainable Westchester and representatives from five local governments.

In the morning session, Amanda Stevens provides an overview on NYSERDA’s work and research efforts in the area of climate change – which includes programs in the Lower Hudson River region

Bringing it Together

Admittedly there is always a little luck in hosting conferences such as this and it only takes a day of bad weather for attendance to bottom out (been there).  Of course, nothing beats an agenda based on current and cutting-edge geospatial topics backed with recognized speakers, but there are a couple other factors worth noting that seem to help make all of this work for us, including the following:

All Things Local:    For all the benefits and advantages of the larger shows, localizing the day’s content and message for local/regional like-minded individuals goes a long way.  Geospatial business needs and problems – and often the solutions – are conceptually very similar.  Familiar faces with familiar issues.  The organic approach.

Affordability:   Offering such events at a discount, like free as in our model, makes the event more attractive to more people.   However,  if its free, it is easy to not show.  Nothing paid nothing lost. And we have the historical numbers to show as such.  Over the past six-seven years we’ve seen a 25%-30% no show rate from the actual number of pre-conference registration numbers.    That said, we’ve learned to factor this variable in the printing of conference materials and sizing break refreshments and lunch.  We’ve also learned over the years that other groups and professional societies we’ve tried to partner with in hosting the show may be hesitant to collaborate because they (other organizations) do not want to send a message to their memberships that meetings, and certainly ones that offer Professional Development Units (PDU), are available for free. The bottom line for us is that we continue to make the show free based on vendor fees and affordable food services from the venue location.  And besides, there is no capacity to collect money online and/or to deal with bank accounts.  What little money management needs we have are handled graciously through the college.  Getting pass the bouncer at the door for free works for us.

Vendor Interaction:  I can’t say enough about how important this is.  We put a lot effort into making sure our sponsors have ample time for interaction with the attendees. Information gathered by attendees in the exhibitor area only adds to the overall value of their day.  Food and refreshments are close by so everything (and everybody) is in reaching distance of the vendors.  We also have vendor “Vendor Bingo Card” game that encourages attendees to visit each vendor table to qualify for a prize drawing.  Pretty nice incentive as this year the prize was a vendor donated iPad.   All sponsoring vendors are entitled to 5-minute “Vendor Spotlight” presentation over the course of the day.  Without vendor support the day doesn’t happen so we make it worth their while.


Everything is nearby at the Westchester GIS User Group Meeting. Vendors, refreshments, and the main auditorium are all intertwined and close. Making the experience interactive and personal on many levels. It’s a win-win for everyone in attendance. Who are those folks in pink?

The Venue:   For the past seven years, Purchase College has graciously made their facilities available to us to host the show.  Prior to that we bounced around the County at other locations, but given our relationship with the faculty in the Environmental Studies Program this became a logical spot. Centrally located in mid-Westchester.  Easy access.

A naturally lighted vendor area, albeit small, adds to the personal “feel” of the show.  One of the main reasons we originally went to Purchase during the third week in May was that the Student Union cafeteria was still open we could make lunch “on your own”.  Avoiding all the overhead and cost of providing lunch.  We’ve since been able to work with campus caterers to provide us with an affordable lunch menu which is vendor sponsored.   This “grab lunch and go” format enables users to eat where and how they want –  attending special lunch time presentations, continued discussions with vendors, or simply going outside to eat on the campus plaza.  The entire agenda is plenary format held in a cathedral style 150-seat auditorium.    We once tried a concurrent sessions format but it just didn’t work and feel right so we went back to the basics.  Post-meeting training sessions have proven to be hit or miss.  Just seems that just come 3PM after a long day of presentations, networking, and interacting with vendors, most folks are running to the exits.  Or the no-host reception down the street.

One of the ironies – and downsides – of having the show on a college campus in mid-to-late May is that spring semester is already over and students have fled campus, though  there is normally a handful attending looking for summer or full-time work and passing out resumes.    But we clearly do not have the college student attendance that is seen at comparable conferences such as GIS-SIG.

Engage the Professions:  We make a significant outreach to the “aligned” professions including engineering, public works, surveying, police and fire departments, government administrators, the planning community and increasingly nonprofits.  I wish there was an easier entry point into the 41 school districts here in Westchester County – and particularly their uber large budget bus transportation systems – but we’ve never been able to find it.     We  focus our efforts to reach the professions with individuals and technical staff that use geospatial technology.  Day-to-day work flows that has geospatial intertwined –  but is not the only focus of their business day.  Truth be told, there simply aren’t a lot of individuals locally who only do GIS work during the course of their business day.  The carrot that we offer across the board – and the common denominator – is the geospatial content we publish from our program via our data warehouse or map services.

Summary

Declining government budgets and  travel restrictions positions the Annual Westchester GIS User Group meeting as the primarily, if not only, major GIS event many of our government attendees get to each year.   It enables us to craft a geospatial message in context of local needs and applications as illustrated in this year’s theme “GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability”.  And keeping in mind the importance of their support, the event provides a great framework for industry and business to showcase their product and services.  And none of it possible without the support of the great folks at Purchase College.

Cognizant of the many differences and capabilities within the regional GIS communities,  it is often difficult to host such events on a reoccurring basis.  Perhaps some of the elements of our event can be used in helping build capacity for creating similar events for other regional GIS user communities across the Empire State.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geospatial Public Health Research in the Empire State

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It was at the 2015 NYS GeoCon Conference in Albany that I saw only a portion of Dr. Tabassum Insaf’s presentation entitled “Lessons Learned in Small Area Spatial Analyses of Health Outcomes” which started an interest in the state of applied GIS/geospatial activity in medicine and health care across the Empire State.  Having yet to approach the topic as part of eSpatiallyNewYork and finding an almost complete absence of health sciences content at the exact same state GIS conference this past fall in Lake Placid, I decided to circle back to Dr. Insaf to see if I could begin to scratch the surface on the use of geospatial in the NYS  health sciences research communities.

The Albany Connection

After initiating my correspondence with Dr. Insaf, the use of geospatial technologies in academic health care research across the Empire State became apparent..  Given the presence of NYS Dept. of Health in Albany, research in this space at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health is an obvious location.  Further review of the subject matter identified similar research programs at other academic institutions including Columbia University, New York University, and CUNY.

Like several other New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Research Scientists, Dr. Insaf holds an appointment at the School of Public Health.  At NYSDOH, Dr. Insaf is the Acting Research Director at the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology.  Her research interests are in understanding the role of environmental, social and behavioral factors in health disparities. Her work encompasses longitudinal and multilevel data analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and spatial epidemiologic methods.

With regard to the shortage of health sciences presentations at New York State GIS conferences, Dr. Insaf suggests the issue may be threefold:  (1) While the use of geospatial technology is common in their work, results in this space are often not presented or used as maps or other visual aids. (2)  Health data is often confidential and locations cannot  be published, and  (3) there may be more due to a lack of awareness in the health community that there may be interest and audience for this type of work in the GIS community.

Illustrative research efforts of Dr. Insaf include:

Social Determinants of Health for Low Birth Weight (LBW)

This research utilizes a variety of NYS public health records with the intent of better understanding and identifying potential social determinants of low birth rates focusing on data from selected census tracts in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Westchester/Long Island.   Applying geoprocessing tools and analysis, research findings suggest that census tract-area proportions of LBW was highest in areas with larger Hispanic or Black populations and high smoking preferences.  Spatial Regression analysis was used to  predict prevalence of LBW based on these major social determinants to identify areas of high risk of LBW.

Predicted rates (%) for low birth weight prevalence based on a spatial error model that incorporates social determinants as race/ethnicity, prenatal care, smoking prevalence and maternal education.

It’s worth noting that her work in this space included collaborating work with Tom Talbot, now retired, who was an early champion of GIS technology in NYSDOH.

Health Impacts from Increased Temperatures Due to Climate Change

More recently Dr. Insaf has been working with several state agencies (bringing together New York State Department of Health, Florida Department of Health and New York City Department of Health) to develop indicators of localized climate trends, review and develop public health relevant heat warning messaging and develop local assessments of vulnerability to extreme heat for specific communities using remote sensing data from NASA satellites.

The team has worked with multiple stakeholders and collaborators including the CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, State Climatologists, National Weather Service offices, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Emergency Preparedness and local county health departments to develop climate information relevant to their mandates and jurisdictions.  Researchers  spatially linked satellite derived modeled data for air temperatures and heat index at a 12KM resolution with geocoded health outcome datasets (Hospitalization and Emergency Department visits for heat stress, renal disease and cardiovascular disease).  The team then estimates the risk of adverse health outcome for each 5-degree change in temperature and have also developed heat health profiles combining heat, health and vulnerability indicators for each county. The county profiles will be available soon as downloadable pdfs at the NYS Department of Health Climate, Weather and Health website.

The initial assessment of Climate in NYS that was the springboard for this more recent work is published here.  In an analysis of the U.S. Historical and Climatology network dataset for the 60 year period of 1948-2008 it was found that the most representative extreme weather indicators in NYS for warm weather are growing season length and warm nights. The most representative indicators during cold weather are a decline in cool days and ice days.  Most other temperature indicators are also consistent with the warming trend.    The precipitation indicators in the study report all point towards increasingly wet conditions over time.  The most representative indicators were total precipitation and the simple daily index.  Data also suggests the Great Lakes, Northern Plateau, Champlain Valley and Coastal New York regions may be particularly sensitive to changes in extreme climate events.

The map shows the predicted rates (in %) for low birth weight prevalence based on a spatial error model that incorporates such social determinants as race/ethnicity, prenatal care, smoking prevalence and maternal education.

Her team is currently using a spatially contiguous satellite derived dataset to build upon this work and to estimate health risks of heat exposures in rural and urban areas of New York. She is working with the National Weather Service offices to inform guidance on heat warning issuance in the area based on local thresholds.  The ongoing work is sponsored through a NASA ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) grant. A great poster presentation on this work can be found here.

Estimating Health Care Access Times

Dr. Insaf has been focusing research on data from a newly established congenital heart defects (CHD) surveillance program funded by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).  Analysis uses geocoded data from surveillance datasets to determine patient access times to Cardiac Surgical Care facilities using the Google driving distance/time Application Programming Interface (API).  These driving time estimates are then compared against travel times from the same address using public transit (where available in more urbanized areas).   It is widely accepted that differences in travel distance to appropriate care among individuals with birth defects can have a significant impact on healthcare utilization, and it has been suggested that geographic barriers may play a role in cessation of care among those with CHDs.

Calculated drive times in minutes for congenital heart defects patients to Cardiac Surgical Care facilities in Westchester County and the Bronx.

Other Representative Statewide Efforts

Dr. Glen Johnson, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental, Occupational and Geospatial Health Sciences at the City University of New York School of Public Health, focuses geospatial aspects of health, with particular application to environmental and community-level social determinants of health outcomes. Research in the Bronx  includes examining the relationship between walkable access to healthy food sources (HFS) and the risk of anemia in pregnancy.   After geocoding patient residences, street network distances were obtained for the closest healthy food sources, which were identified from multiple databases.  For lower-income patients, as indicated by Medicaid or lack of health insurance, those who lived less than 0.25 miles from a healthy food source were less likely to be anemic when compared to those who lived farther away.  Patients with commercial insurance showed no effect.  These results continue to help to understand how a nutritionally-mediated condition such as anemia during pregnancy can be affected by one’s built environment, while also highlighting the importance of conditioning on socioeconomic status for these types of studies.

The primary variable of concern in the Bronx study: The street network walking distance to a Healthy Food Source (HFS) for a pregnant woman.

Most recently he has been working with the Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE) who implement multiple programs aimed at improving overall population health in communities throughout NYC.  Examples range from community-based educational programs in nutrition and parenting to 4-H STEM programs for children.  Keeping track of the “where, when and who” of many ongoing programs in the largest city in North America is challenging. Online GIS mapping has provided a partial solution to this management challenge.  The poster below was presented at the New York State Health Foundation conference last December.

Johnson’s work also appears as  “A Community Needs Index for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program Planning: Application of Spatial Generalized Linear Mixed Models” in . Maternal and Child Health Journal.  He is a former biostatistician for the New York State Department of Health and a faculty member of the University at Albany School of Public Health.

Also at  CUNY  Dept. of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences is Dr.Andrew Maroko, Associate Professor. Past research involves the use of geospatial tools focusing on the health outcomes of (unhealthful) food-and-beverage advertising in subway stations  This research focused on the correlations between ad exposures and sugary-drink consumption, fruit-and-vegetable intake, and diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol rates. Subway-station ads for “less-healthful” items were located disproportionately in areas home to vulnerable populations facing diet and diet-related-health challenges. The fact that uneven ad placement did not relate to total rider counts suggests ads were not directed at the largest possible audiences but rather targeted to specific groups.

Ad placement did not relate to the number of riders entering at stations. Instead, exposure to food-or-beverage ads generally, and to “less-healthful” ads particularly (specifically ads in Spanish, directed at youth, and/or featuring minorities), was directly correlated with poverty, lower high-school graduation rates, higher percentages of Hispanics, and/or higher percentages of children in surrounding residential areas.

Other Maroko NYS geospatial-based research work includes “Integrating Social Determinants of Health With Treatment and Prevention: A New Tool to Assess Local Area Deprivation” and “Direct observation of neighborhood stressors and environmental justice in the South Bronx, New York City”.

Dr. Jessica Athens at New York University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, is part of the Health Geographics Research Initiative (Health GIS).   One of her primary focuses at the present is City Health Dashboard presents data on health outcomes and the upstream determinants of health for 500 Cities across the U.S.  Her team produced a pilot version with four cities which can viewed at www.cityhealthdashboard.com. Starting on May 15, the site will include data for 500 cities will be available at the same URL.

Dr. Athen’s other work includes the NYC Health Atlas which is sponsored by the New York Community Trust. The application provides direct service providers and public health researchers easy access to data needed for program planning, funding requests, and evaluation.

Also in the region at Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Drs. Christina Hoven, George Musa and Lupo Geronazzo-Alman are working on several projects using geospatial analyses to understand the effects of neighborhood quality, safety and socioeconomic status on psychopathology.

Summary

The combination of  world renown medical research facilities and the growing use geospatial technologies at  these organizations is an evolving environment the New York State GIS community should take advantage of and nurture.   As we find ourselves amidst major public health challenges impacting our communities from issues such as the growing influence of Climate Change, the spread of infectious diseases, and the ubiquitous opiod crisis among others, the use of geospatial tools in collaboration with the health care research community will bode well for increasing the visibility of the profession across the Empire State.

 

BetaNYC:  Championing the Open Data Cause

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Background

In 2008, friends, hackers, open data/open government enthusiasts, and other professional acquaintances began to gather and discuss the state of open governance in New York City and created the NYC Open Government Meetup by Hailey Austin Cooperrider.   In 2009, this group was relaunched as the Open NY Forum under the leadership of Philip Ashlock, Cooperrider, and Noel Hidalgo.  Over the next 3-4 years, the group met periodically to discuss and push for an Open Data agenda in the city.

The movement and discussion on open data in the metropolitan region was augmented by ongoing work of Council Member Gale A. Brewer who at the time was Chair of NYC Council Committee on Technology in Government and was campaigning for an Open Data  statue for the City of New York. In June 2009 she hosted a public hearing on open data standards legislation.   Another public hearing was held in June 2010. The law has finally passed, and was signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg on March 7 2012. In 2013 and after New York State Governor Cuomo launched Open NY, the state’s Open Government initiative, the group renamed to BetaNYC.

In 2013 the BetaNYC community embarked on a five borough tour and authored The People Roadmap to a Digital New York City – and agenda setting publication identifying community values and 34 ideas for successive administrations and Council to work on. Since this this time, BetaNYC and the civic tech community have seen several policy and legislative victories — better Freedom of Information tools, NY City Record Law, expanded Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA), and the expansion of civic innovation challenges.

During the same time period, the City of New York partnered with Code for America to enlist a team of fellows to build technology to address criminal justice issues as well as initiating a search to hire a local community organizer.  Noel Hidalgo was hired to fill this position and bringing a broad understanding and connections with the open data/open government community across New York City as part of his involvement with betaNYC. It was at this time BetaNYC became Code for America’s official NYC brigade.

In 2015, BetaNYC became a “Partner Project” of the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY) continuing its mission to “improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data.”  A purpose which clearly augments the New York City Open Data program, though with a uniquely different and more clearly refined focus on community groups and city residents.  As FCNY had been one of the organizations supporting the City’s first data datalog,  being a Partner Project had enabled the city’s efforts towards open government and open data to come full circle.

With FCNY as fiscal sponsor and Noel being selected as a fellow at Data & Society, BetaNYC began work with the Civic Innovation Fellowship program out of the Manhattan Borough President’s Office. BetaNYC and the FCNY have continued the partner project relationship. As of April 2017, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has provided the funding for the Civic Innovation Fellowship program, and the FCNY continues to manage those funds.

BetaNYC Today

BetaNYC supports a broad range of programs focusing on geospatial-focused efforts in the city’s civic technology arena, open data, and community neighborhoods.  Of particular focus in their outreach and mission are the city’s community boards which are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts of the five boroughs. There are currently 59 community districts: twelve in Manhattan, twelve in the Bronx, eighteen in Brooklyn, fourteen in Queens, and threehttps://communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov/ in Staten Island.

Manhattan’s 59 Community Districts covering the five boroughs

Data

At the core of BetaNYC’s offerings is its data portal which currently includes 130 datasets (BetaNYC sponsors 27) from 22 different organizations.  The interactive portal offers developers and individual users access to a wide range of data formats.  Illustrative of their work in advocating open data and access, BetaNYC sponsored its third NYC School of Data conference on March 3, 2018.  This community-driven conference included conversations, panels and workshops intended to empower community members to improve neighborhoods across the city.  The conference is framed to celebrate NYC’s transformative open data law and International Open Data Day, while kicking off NYC’s second annual open data week. Conference attendees are encourged to participate in #hackhall — a daylong open space for open source civic & government technology projects. In the #hackhall, attendees collaborate, connect to new libraries/projects, and improve open source projects.

BetaNYC’s data catalog is leveraged to support the development of apps, websites and visualizations.  Selected datasets are featured in media articles, news reports and blog posts across the region and are highlighted in the Showcases collection on their website.

Programs and Activities

Community Boards

As the result of a three year partnership with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, BetaNYC designed tools and customized trainings specifically intended to help Community Boards access, analyze, map and use data to inform decision-making. The workshop introduces the easy-to-use BoardStat tool to query NYC 311 – service requests and explore trends in health, safety and quality of life concerns.  BoardStat is designed for community. Not only does BoardStat empower a community board staff and its members to gain timely insights, it is furthering the Manhattan Borough President’s long-standing goal of making government transparent and responsive, reactive, and moving beyond open data access to meaningful use.  BetaNYC’s most recent event in this space was March 5th.  Examples of documents and materials used as part of this BetaNYC training session are available in this Google Drive shared folder.

Attendees at BetaNYC’s School of Data March 5th focusing on NYC Community Boards

#BetaTALK – Affordable Housing: Data, Policy, People

In July 2016 BetaNYC hosted a lunchtime discussion at Civic Hall centering on the topic of affordable housing in New York City.  The event was to share knowledge about this extremely important and complex topic focusing on a wide range of housing-related topics (and data) including, but not limited to, rent-stabilization, New York City Housing Authority and Section 8 voucher statistics, proposed building plans and Landmark Laws, and NYC government datasets such as Pluto, ACRIS, Department of Buildings, and the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development as well as the American Community Survey among others.   Other BetaTalks are available for viewing on YouTube.

BetaNYC is committed to continue the conversation and help the Civic tech community grow ideas, analyses, and projects on this topic by building more accountability, clearer, and up-to-date information on rents across the City at a highly localized level, since differences can be stark between blocks, buildings, professional even within buildings.

Testimony & Advocacy

On behalf of BetaNYC, Executive Director Noel Hidalgo frequently provides expert testimony to the New York City administration and legislature on a wide range of open data/open source, new technologies, and government transparency issues.  BetaNYC has been instrumental in Over the past 18 months, illustrative efforts in this context include presentations on the Automated Decision Systems Local Law 49, testimony on both the Open Data Examination and Verification Report, and Intro 1696-2017 (Open Algorithms Bill).  

Data Jams

Data Jams are occasional BetaNYC “hands-on” events focusing accessing and interpreting  specific NYC government program datasets. Recent Data Jams have centered on program data from NYC311, NYC Dept. of Planning, and NYC Parks.  

NYC School of Data

Held in conjunction with NYC Open Data Week (March 3-10, 2018), BetaNYC’s School of Data is a community conference showcasing NYC’s civic design, civic/government technology, and open data ecosystem. It seeks to build a framework of relationships that can demystify data and technology, foster democracy, build cross-borough relationships, and mentor a new generation of civic leaders. 2018 topics focused on four key areas: digital literacy & privacy, smart & wise cities, effective & open government, and lastly, civic

Summary

BetaNYC continues to champion the open data and government transparency intersection in New York City.  Best illustrating how grassroots efforts can have significant and game changing impacts on public policy in the new technologies realm.  For the taxpayers and by the taxpayers.

Their broad catalog of programs and activities offers many opportunities for involvement much of which is centered around their long-standing and highly visible BetaNYC Meetup platform. And by extension, collaboration with several other Meetups (GeoNYC, New York Tech, Civic Hall) Code for America, Coalition for Queens, Dev Bootcamp, OpenPlans, Silicon Harlem, NYC Digital, NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, NYC Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, NYC’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, and NYC 311 has broadened its footprint as well.  While this critical mass of geospatial infrastructure, to say the least of visible and strategic political support, has contributed to the development of BetaNYC’s success and unique position on the Manhattan geospatial landscape, it can serve as a model to other metropolitan areas across the Empire State in establishing frameworks for similar open data and civic technology causes.

We are pleased to have BetaNYC on our agenda for this year’s Westchester GIS User Group Meeting May 17th at Purchase College.  We anticipate considerable discussion and attendee involvement focusing on open data and government transparency as part of our  “GIS for “Resiliency and Sustainability” theme.  The BetaNYC community is encouraged to attend.

For more information, BetaNYC contact Noel Hidalgo and Emily Goldman or visit the betaNYC website.

Geospatial Business Spotlight: SkyOp, LLC

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Company Name:           SkyOp, LLC

Location:                       5297 Parkside Dr. Suite 435, Canandaigua, New York 14424

Website:                        www.skyop.com

Employees:                  4 + 6 contractors

Established:                January 4, 2013

History

After reading an article in the June 2012 issue of WIRED, SkyOp owner and founder Brian Pitre caught the drone bug.  A self-proclaimed computer-geek, and after nearly 40 years in the computer business, Pitre’s hunch – which very quickly proved to be correct – was that this technology was different.  Very different.  A game changer.  And he immediately immersed himself in learning as much as he could about the technology.

Over the next several months he self-taught himself to fly one and in the meantime designed a drone that would later be manufactured in Canada.  By November 2012 and using $15K of his own money, Pitre was in the drone business. As it turns out, and often the case in the tech business, barely three months later in January 2013 DJI released the Phantom drone for $600.   Today, DJI is the market leader in the drone industry.

 Over the next 18 months, Pitre continued his research into the emerging drone market identifying 68 vertical markets that could use drones. Along the way beginning to build and offering training programs out of is Canandaigua office as well as collaborating with regional colleges.  In November 2014 SkyOp formalized its first college training course with Monroe Community College.

In January 2017, the company was one of six selected from a pool of 250 around the country to compete for $2.75 million in prizes at GENIUS NY, a business accelerator program at CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity Tech Garden in Syracuse.  Receiving $250,000 from the Genius NY incubator, SkyOp graduated from the program in December 2017 which helped giving credibility to the company and its training programs.  SkyOp has also received financial support through the New York State Hotspot program as part of the Venture Creations Rochester Institute of Technology Business Incubator.

Today, SkyOp is a premier Empire State UAS training and courseware licensing company having 23 academic partners in nine states.  In New York State alone, SkyOp has established training programs with SUNY Ulster, SUNY Jefferson Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, Corning Community College, and of course Monroe Community College among others.

Training

Class Content

SkyOp offers their coursework in Canandaigua office as well as at educational institutions, sUAS manufacturers, public safety organizations, and businesses.  Regardless of location or educational setting, SkyOp’s core course offerings focus on introductions to the technology/learning to fly, applying the technology to public safety disciplines, and hands-on-training for specific drone units.

SkyOp recently established a strategic partnership with Little Arms Studios, a leading developer of professional-grade simulation solutions.  This business relationships enables SkyOp to deploy Little Arms Studios’ Zephyr Drone Simulator throughout the SkyOp commercial and consumer drone training network which serves much of the Northeastern United States. Zephyr’s unique Learning Management System makes it a preferred solution for SkyOp instructors looking to oversee each student’s development both inside and outside the classroom.  Several other interesting Zephyr drone simulation video examples are available for viewing on YouTube.

FAA Testing

SkyOp is now an authorized FAA Knowledge Testing Center and can administer the remote pilot knowledge test. Individuals can schedule an appointment, call CATS Testing at 800-947-4228, Option 3 and sign up to take the test at our location in Canandaigua, NY. SkyOp is open for testing Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10:00am until 4:00pm each week except holidays.

As of August 2016, individuals operating a drone for any commercial or business purpose must obtain an FAA remote pilot certification. The remote pilot knowledge test Unmanned Aircraft – General costs $150, includes 60 questions, and requires a passing score of 70%. With successful completion of the test, you can apply for a remote pilot certificate for FAA Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 107.

Summary

Drones have found a niche in a wide range of industries including construction and engineering, real estate, film and cinematography, public health and agriculture.  Firefighters and police officers have tapped into the technology as well.  Illustrative of their presence within the statewide GIS community, SkyOp assisted in the training of NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) staff which are utilizing drones in the support of spill response, coastline erosion, wildlife surveys, forest fires, and  search-and-rescue missions.

There is no question opportunities for professional growth in the emerging drone industry is tremendous.  Fundamentally changing the approach to many existing geospatial data collection programs and applications.

Contact:

Brian Pitre
SkyOp, LLC
585-598-4737
brian@skyop.com

10 Questions: Michael R. Martin, CLM

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GIS applications in water quality analysis and mapping historically have not been one of the more visible uses of geospatial technology across the Empire State.  While revisiting some of my contacts in the Adirondack Region, I connected with Michael Martin, CLM (Certified Lake Manager) at Cedar Eden Environmental. Michael has a long history of professional work based in the North County which intersects mapping and geospatial data collection with water quality analysis, watershed management, and land use planning. He is actively involved in several professional organizations and continues to work across the region.

eSpatiallyNewYork: How did Cedar Eden Environmental get started? 

Martin:  I started Cedar Eden Environmental after 16 years in the environmental field working in the public, private and non-profit sectors. I was born and raised in New Hampshire and had an interest in the environment, lakes and ponds in particular, from a very early age. I attended the University of New Hampshire when, at the time, there was no such thing as a degree in Limnology (the study of freshwater systems), so UNH co-taught limnology through the Botany and Zoology departments. While at UNH, I specialized in phytoplankton and limnology. After graduating with a BS in Botany, I was hired by the State of New York’s Department of Environmental Services in the limnology department, where I sampled numerous lakes around the state and became the State’s expert on phytoplankton. From there, I went to work for an environmental consultant in Pennsylvania. In 1992, I moved to the Adirondacks to establish the Adirondack Aquatic Institute, a non-profit research institute focused on human impacts to water quality. Over the past 30 years I have worked throughout New England, the Northeast, the Adirondacks, Mid-West and West Coast diagnosing water quality issues, conducting environmental monitoring and developing holistic, long-term water quality and aquatic plant management plans for individuals, municipalities, water suppliers, lake associations, environmental organizations, NGOs and government agencies.  In addition to my business, I established a non-profit educational outreach, LakeStewardship.org, in 2006 to promote lake and environmental stewardship in North America and to serve as a resource for lake residents, lake associations, lake managers and cottage owners associations.

eSpatiallyNewYork: So lake, watershed and environmental management services are the focus of your work?

Martin: The main focus of my work is on environmental management, especially lake water quality, watershed management and aquatic plant management. What happens on the land within a watershed determines the water quality of downstream water bodies. I use a combination of data collection, data analysis and geographic data processing in the development of management plans. I also use GIS-based models and GIS-derived data to predict the impact of land use and changing land use on water quality. In addition to lake and watershed management planning, I have been involved in a number of projects that evaluate large datasets consisting of 10 to 20 years of data, where I use GIS and statistical software to analyze both temporal and geographic trends in water quality.

 eSpatiallyNewYork:  Tell us a little about your geospatial background and how you introduced it into Cedar Eden’s client service.  

In 1980, my college advisor had an interest in acid rain impacts and got me started on creating isopleth curves for pH and alkalinity in NH lakes. This was very early GIS so I had to digitize everything on a large table-sized digitizing board, including the outline of the State of New Hampshire and the locations of each of the lakes in the state. I developed algorithms to convert point data into isopleth curves across the state. This fascinating work got me interested early on in the power of geographic tools for environmental assessment. While working for NH  Department of Environmental Services I sampled lakes and built computer models to evaluate the impact of development on lakes.  As a result, I was asked to serve on NH’s GIS Steering Committee.  Examples of CEE’s GIS work can be found on my website.

Having grown up along with GIS, I am thrilled by the availability of data nowadays. Gone are the days when users would have to digitize everything by hand such as soil polygons from county soil books and wait overnight while our computers geo-rectified and created topology for the digitized layers (and hope the application didn’t crash during the night). I have been using ESRI products since the beginning, starting with ArcCAD and some early desktop mapping products. I was one of only 100 worldwide recipients of the Geodyssey Environmental GIS research Grants sponsored by ESRI & AuotDesk for using desktop GIS technology in environmental applications. As recipients, we were brought to Redlands, CA for training at ESRI headquarters.  Currently, I am using ArcGIS 9.x and use readily-available base data as the starting point for my projects. I have not upgraded to ArcGIS 10 although I have used ArcGIS 10 while working on subcontracts. I use standard GPS (Garmin Oregon 650t) and GPS-enabled depth finders (Eagle/Lowrance Model 480 Recording Sonar\GPS+WAAS Mapping Unit) for data collection since I generally do not need sub-foot accuracy for my projects. I have been involved in several projects requiring more accuracy and have subcontracted for digital surveying and digital topography from aerial photography. In my space, the use of drones has the potential to assist in efforts  like aquatic plant mapping.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  How does water-based (surface, submerged, etc) geospatial data collection differ from land based data collection?

Martin: Geospatial data collection for water-based applications is similar to land-based applications, though it tends to be more time-consuming. On land, you are able to stand still while acquiring data but this is not possible while floating on a lake.  This is an area where I believe there will be growth in the use of drones  – mapping features (like aquatic plants) in open water.  Generally, however, because we do not need sub-foot accuracy, we are able to acquire data while moving. For instance, to create a bathymetric map, we use a GPS-enabled fathometer that continuously records water depth and location. The same system can be used to map the edges of a littoral zone (area of plant growth) of a lake by driving a boat towards and away from land and triggering a waypoint each time the edge of the littoral zone is passed over.

 eSpatiallyNewYork:  Cedar Eden has been involved in some focused non-watershed/water quality mapping projects such as agricultural inventories – what can you tell us about these projects?

Martin: CEE has been involved in a number of non-watershed mapping projects. In Fulton County, we provided mapping for use in the development of an updated county-wide agricultural management plan. In Lewis and Columbia Counties in the early 2000s, I created master GIS libraries and provided on-site GIS training for their County Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCD). Columbia County SWCD was particularly interested in the Hudson River Valley, so I also created a detailed topographic and resource-based map of the Hudson River Valley. The Town of Santa Clara is close to my office in Saranac Lake and is adjacent to one of the largest Adirondack lakes which I have studied for years. In the mid-1990s I was asked by the Town to prepare a new zoning map for them. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to utilize GIS for its data management and mapping capabilities. I worked with the Town Supervisor to transform the Adirondack Park Agency land use map into town-based zoning.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Cedar Eden was part of a Statewide Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) GIS project.  What was the size/scope of this project?

Martin:  The Statewide AEM program is a tool used by the County SWCDs to monitor and assist agricultural activities within their respective counties with the goal of minimizing environmental impact. I was hired by NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets and the NYS Soil & Water Conservation Committee early on to develop a GIS-based data entry and management system so that each county could track AEM participation using GIS and so that the State could evaluate statewide trends in AEM. I built customized GIS base layer datasets for each county, created a data entry system using Visual Basic and then traveled around the State teaching the counties how to use the new program. I also collated all of the initial data into a statewide GIS and provided the initial statewide analysis of the results from the program. The AEM program is still in use today, tracking agricultural entity’s participation in various incentives designed to minimize the environmental impact of agricultural activities.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  You’re involved in professional organizations such as the North American Lake Management Society, New York Federation of Lake Associations, Certified Lake Managers, what is the role of geospatial technologies in these circles/organizations?  Is geospatial a “must-have” skill set to work in water quality/watershed management disciplines?

Martin:  Involvement in relevant organizations is important to both gain and share knowledge. I was past-president of the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS), past Regional Directors for NALMS and the New York Federation of Lake Associations and was a founding member of the Indiana Lake Management Society. I am a Certified Lake Manager through NALMS. Early on, geospatial technologies were experimental and research-based. Over time, as the technologies matured, and the usefulness of their application became apparent, geospatial technologies began to move into the fields of limnology and watershed management; and therefore knowledge of these technologies became known.   GIS/geospatial are must-have skills for anyone wishing to start out in the environmental fields as geospatial information & analysis are important and pervasive tools in environmental management. There is virtually no application of applied limnology or applied environmental management where geospatial information is not processed. Citizen scientists are now being taught the use of geodata collection and geospatial mapping in order to conduct their own mapping of aquatic plants and map the locations of invasive species.

 eSpatiallyNewYork:  Invasive species is a major concern across the Empire State today. How is this playing out in your work?

Martin:  I have been involved with invasive species since I graduated in 1984. Invasive species issues have always been a concern in the northeastern United States, but where we once were projecting what might happen we are now dealing with the realities of those projections.  Invasive species are a present threat to much of what we value as natural systems, both aquatic and terrestrial. CEE work focuses primarily on the aquatic side and I am asked to deal with aquatic plant management planning more and more. It is hard to get folks to focus on much else when they see their lake being covered by Eurasian milfoil or some other aquatic non-native species. Invasive species alter the entire ecosystem, including nutrient cycles, within a lake and managing invasive species becomes an integral part of overall lake management.  I work  with a number of lake communities  now who are attempting to restore a balanced aquatic plant community because they relied on the advice of  lake management companies which over-treated the lake and had all of their native plants wiped out along with the non-native (invasive) species.

 eSpatiallyNewYork:  Do you attend any of the statewide GIS conferences?

Martin:  I do not regularly attend GIS conferences. I have attended these in the past but found that the focus was not generally in my area of interest. However, I do have information to share on the use of GIS in environmental management and will look into future conferences.  However, when I attend regional, state and international environmental conferences, I follow and often contribute to the GIS & geospatial tracks. These conferences include the North America Lake Managements Society’s (NALMS) International Symposium, the New York State Federation of Lake Associations’ annual conference, the New England Chapter of NALMS and others.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  What’s your association with the Adirondack Watershed Institute?  What other organizations do you work and collaborate with in the Adirondacks?

Martin:  In 1991, I was the founding Executive Director of the Adirondack Aquatic Institute at Paul Smith’s College. When I left in 2000, the institute was renamed the Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI).  Today, I am only tangentially involved with their operations and occasionally   utilize their water quality laboratory for projects. I continue to stay active with the Adirondack Lakes Alliance as well as the NYS Federation of Lake Associations and the various NYS Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM).

 eSpatiallyNewYork: Who are you working with now?

Martin: I have a number of municipal and association clients. On the lake management side, one of my longest running clients is the Mount Arab Preserve Association. I have been monitoring their two lakes since 1992 when I was at the Adirondack Aquatic Institute. They have stuck with me through all my career moves and we will be starting up our 27th year of monitoring this June. On the geospatial side, I am once again working with the Town of Santa Clara. The Planning Board has asked me to update the Town’s zoning map. When the map was initially created using the APA land class map, there was no parcel information and the scale of the source maps were to great for any accuracy. The Town had an issue when a property was being sold and it wasn’t clear from the existing maps what the zoning was (the parcel appeared to be split into two zones). As a result, I am in the process of using parcel maps to ensure that zoning is accurate at the parcel level. This is an iterative process, involving GIS mapping and then consultations with the Planning Board to resolve issues where the intended zoning isn’t clear at parcel-level scale. I also have a number of lake and plant management planning clients, primarily located in eastern NYS.

eSpatiallyNewYork: What’s the next big thing in New York State water quality?  

Martin:  In addition to invasive species, climate change is having a noticeable detrimental impact on the water quality of NYS’s lakes and ponds. Lakes are becoming warmer in the summer and the ice-free season is becoming longer. As a result, I see more and more lakes experiencing blooms of cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) which are potentially toxic. Managing nutrient levels that control the growth of algae and managing aquatic plants (native and non-native) become more critical as the waters warm and the growing season lengthens. This can only be done through a combination of in-lake and land-based solutions to nutrient pollution control. It is critical that lake associations and municipalities begin to manage water quality in the long-term using a planning-based approach rather than in the short-term, using chemicals to treat symptoms. The latter approach may provide short-term relief, but it further destabilizes the ecosystem, causing chemical-dependency and additional water quality problems.

For more information, contact Michael Martin @ mmartin@cedareden.com.

 

   

Geospatial Technologies at the New York State Museum

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While in and out of Albany for nearly 34 years as part of public service, I’ve been on and around the Empire State Plaza probably close to 100 times, if not more.  At the western end of the plaza is the Cultural Education Center (CEC) which operates under the auspices of the State Education Department.  The CEC houses the State Museum, State Library, and the State Archives.  Back in the day, when the State Archives was known as the State Archives and Records Adminstration (SARA), the statewide GIS community had a much closer association with the CEC when SARA was an early source of funding for GIS implementation and hardcopy conversion grants.  Over the years, these GIS centric funding sources, which are still administered through the  LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT FUND (LGRMIF) have become much more limited as program criteria and focus has changed significantly.  More recently, it was a discussion with Susan Winchell-Sweeney in the Anthropology Department at the State Museum which became the genesis of this article learning more about the expanding use of geospatial technologies in different program areas within the Museum.  (Note:  As part of this article, certain maps, due primarily to size, are available via Google Drive.  These documents are referenced in the appropriate location in the article and can be accessed via a hyperlink.)

New York State Geological Survey (NYSGS)

From its beginning in 1836, the New York State Museum has been home to some of the nation’s leading scientists, including pioneers in archaeology, paleontology, ethnology, and botany. Its collections now rank among the finest in many fields and total more than sixteen million specimens, objects, and artifacts.  A long time contributor to statewide mapping,  the State Museum is home to the New York Geological Survey (NYSGS) which produces GIS datasets and  map & charts products.  The Survey has a broad mission of geologic research, investigation, and mapping across the Empire State and is committed to making the resulting geologic knowledge of their work readily and publically available.

First introduced in 1960, the Maps & Charts series combines large format graphics with associated text with emphasis on the graphic in lieu of descriptive text. The primary purpose of the series is to document surface and subsurface geologic data that are difficult to present in other formats. Many geologic maps are published in this series. Since 2006 geologic mapping at the New York State Museum has benefitted from cooperative federal partnerships mainly through the U.S Geological Survey.  Traditional geologic mapping has been enhanced by technological developments such high resolution LIDAR terrain models. Many products contain both a surface map of geologic formations and materials as well as subsurface geologic cross sections. NYSGS also maintains a limited number of GIS datasets (shapefiles) which can be found on their website including Bedrock and Surficial geology, statewide Physiographic Provinces map, and Brittle Structures of New York.

Illustrative of the many outstanding hard copy map products available from NYSGS, this Moravia Quadrangle surficial geology update documents existing environmental and landscape conditions, as well as field data collection efforts in producing the map. Great content for an online StoryMap! (Google Drive: #1MoraviaQuad)

Using AutoCAD

One of the more interesting elements of my interviews and discussion with Museum staff as part of this article was learning how CADD (yes, as in Computer Aided Design and Drafting) is used among professional staff.  While the GIS community routinely recognizes and acknowledges the contribution of CAD community in the broad geospatial effort, its use on a day-to-day use is often innocuous.  All the more interesting a find on the desktop in the State Museum.

In this user space at the Museum is Heather Clark, who is a  drafter and Principal Investigator with the Cultural Resource Survey Progarm (CRSP).  She works extensively with AutoCAD as part of aiding interpretations at archeological sites.   And it should come as no surprise that much of her work – and the CRSP program as a whole – comes from conducting archeological and historical district studies as part of New York State Dept. of Transportation projects.  Though she also works on projects with Dept. of Conservation, Office of General Services, Dept. of Corrections, and Canal Corps.

Heather focuses on making project maps for archaeological crews to take out in the field prior to digging a project.  Sometimes the maps include DOT provided georeferenced base maps or AutoCAD generated files.  She’ll also often make maps from scratch from “heads-up” digitizing from orthophotos.  Project principal investigators provide pertinent information regarding testing locations and site information (both historic and prehistoric archaeological sites) from the field work which she adds to the maps for their final reports.  She also makes thematic maps (soil maps, density maps, contour maps) depending on the principal investigator’s needs, as well as maps for  architectural historians identifying historical districts and National Register Eligible structures.  Recently CRSP staff have been doing a more thorough geophysical survey using both  Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and  Magnetic Susceptibility Meter instruments.  (As part of this article I was able to share with CRPS staff how the AutoCAD client is capable of consuming map services.  Many of the planimetric features Heather uses in creating map products for field crews – at least within the Westchester County footprint – are made available in map services published by Westchester County GIS.)

Heather started working at the Museum in 2005.  She received her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Anthropology at the University at Albany and recently completed a graduate certificate in Geospatial Intelligence at Penn State.  CRSP staff often have the opportunity to engage in independent research.  In this regard, Heather notes “My work here at the Museum has developed from my love of New York State history, particularly domestic sites and activity from colonization to the early historic period. Additionally, I am interested in the faunal analysis of archaeological sites as a tool to learn about food consumption practices and site use.”    Heather can be reached at heather.clark@nysed.gov.

AutoCAD generated file highlighting project limits, waterways, edge of pavement, guard rails, wetland areas and other features.

In the same project area, to determine if there may be an archaeologically significant sites, CRSP staff systematically tests the area with circular 40 cm round pits to identify soils and associative artifacts for each soil stratum (orange annotation.)

Archaeology Projects

Archaeology is concerned with the spatial relationships of materials and features, and the recording and visualizing of these finds and their locations is an important aspect of the archaeological process. In curatorial research conducted by the Anthropology Department, geographic information systems and mapping techniques are utilized during the various phases of excavation and analysis.  Instrumental in expanding the use of geospatial technology in the Anthropology Department has been Historical Archaeological Technician, Susan Winchell-Sweeney.

Prior to her work with the Museum, Susan, who has a  BS degree in Archaeology and Soil Science and a professional certification in GIS (GISP),  worked in several archaeology and GIS capacities at Bard College.  She also collaborated with the State Museum’s  archaeological staff on a research project in the Southern Adirondacks and did an undergraduate internship in the 1990s learning how to use ArcINFO on a Unix Workstation making surficial and bedrock maps under the direction of Dave Gerhard.

Upon her arrival at the Museum as a full-time employee in 2007, Susan began using ArcMap GIS software in the management of the South Street Seaport Museum historical archaeological collection. This collection from New York City resulted from some of the largest professionally conducted urban excavations in North America. Spanning over 300 years of Manhattan history, the two million artifacts constitute the greatest extant collection of archaeological materials from 17th-century Dutch New Amsterdam and includes remains from 18th-century English Colonial and early 19th-century American Republic periods as well. Now under the stewardship of the New York State Museum in Albany, the collection is undergoing extensive processing so that it may be utilized for archaeological and historical research. While this preparation is underway (a task likely to take more than ten years to complete), GIS  aids in inventory management, and provides context for the original buried artifact sites. An exhibit mounted in 2009 entitled, “Where Did They Come From, and Where Are They Now? The Artifacts of the South Street Seaport Museum,” highlighted this use, and originated as a poster presented at the 2007 NYS GIS conference in Albany.  (Google Drive: #2SouthStreetSeaport)

Other representative geospatial efforts by Susan as part of her work with archaeological efforts at the Museum include:

Deuel Family Cemetery
Washington County, New York

Both CRSP and Anthropology staff initiated a geophysical survey at the Deuel Family Cemetery under the direction of the bioarchaeologist, Lisa Anderson. She was contacted after the accidental discovery of skeleton remains from an unmapped historic cemetery,  and asked to determine if other unmarked graves might exist.  As part of this work, both GPR and MS technologies were deployed.  Magnetic susceptibility (MS) is another geophysical technique becoming increasing more popular for archaeological investigations in the US (it’s been around for quite a while in Europe). In very simple terms, an MS meter measures how “magnetizable” soil is, which can be a marker of past human activity. The anomalies seen in the project map (the darkest areas) are likely grave shaft locations consistent with less compacted soil, organic material, and perhaps iron coffin hardware which could account for higher MS readings. Because different geophysical techniques measure different properties, it is often useful to use more than one on an archaeological site. The green circles on this map indicate areas where both MS and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) identified anomalies.   The MS survey interval necessary to pick up something the size of an historic grave shaft requires taking a reading every 25 cm, along transects only half a meter apart  which is extremely time-consuming.  At this project site, Museum staff had only two days to collect data.  (Google Drive: #3DeuelFamilyCemetery)   

The Hurley Site
Esopus River Valley, New York

This project was created to support the research of Dr. John Hart, which focuses “primarily on the histories of maize, bean, and squash in New York and the greater Northeast and the interactions of human populations with these crops.” His work has essentially pushed back the dates of the beginning of agriculture in the Northeast (a sometimes hotly debated topic in archaeology). The Hurley site, located in the Esopus Creek valley of eastern New York, was excavated in the 1950s and 60s. The collection is now curated by the New York State Museum. The GIS map and database were produced from hand-drawn, decades-old field notes (Susan digitized the pits and features; Dr. Hart created a spreadsheet with over twenty fields defining pit characteristics – this was then joined to the digitized features, allowing for a myriad of queries and visual representations.) (Google Drive: #4HurleySite

Evidence from the Hurley site including 439 deep pits, some with massive deposits of maize kernels, and human dental pathologies suggest that maize-based agriculture was a significant component of early subsistence systems. The Hurley site adds to the State’s understanding of the diversity of subsistence practices in historical Algonquian territories prior to European incursions.

Van Schaick Mansion Cemetery
Cohoes, New York

In 2016, the New York State Museum in collaboration with the Horsley Archeological Prospection completed a Ground Pentrating Radar survey of the Van Schaick Mansion Cemetery to determine if unmarked graves could be identified.  Commissioned by The Chapter House for Gen. Peter Gansevoort Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (who own the property) final interpretation and survey results shown in this map were completed in early 2017. This a multi-year project looking at a wide range of historical items and trends at the property.  (Google Drive:  #5VanSchaickCemetery)

GIS Analysis to Model Paleoindian Pathways
Northeastern United States

Finally, in collaboration with University of Montreal researchers and curator of archaeology, Dr. Jonathan Lothrop, Susan’s 2017 NYS GeoCon poster highlighted the use of GIS software in calculating the estimated Least Cost Path (LCP) of Paleoindian Pathways throughout the Northeast in search of and harvesting  Normanskill chert as part of toolstone acquisition. This is an awesome hardcopy cartographic product.  (Google Drive: #6NYS2017GeoCon)

Contact Susan @ susan.winchell-sweeney@nysed.gov for more information on the use of geospatial technology in archaeology at the State Museum.

Uses of Lidar

Advancements and use of lidar technology is having a profound impact on mapping and research by scientists in the Museum.  Bare earth models allow staff to visualize the landscape in unprecedented resolution and provide the ability to identify previously unrecognized glacial landforms which is useful in both surficial and bedrock mapping as well as for archeological exploration.   Early elevation models were constructed from grids that used 30 meter by 30 meter cells and then  later models used 10 meter by 10 meter cells. In comparison state of the art LIDAR produces much finer resolution grid cells.  Such resolution enables researchers to target certain glacial landforms or specific archeological sites for further investigation.

Examples of bare earth comparisons between LIDAR images at A) 30M, B) 10M, and C) 2M resolution.

Lidar is also useful for museum archaeologists who are sometimes called upon to investigate “discoveries” of historic sites by well-meaning members of the public  By example, there was a request  by a local conservation group in the Catskills to answer a question about “monumental and extraordinary stone structures built by an ancient race for ceremonial purposes – celestial alignment, etc.”.  And having access to good lidar data for the particular area in question helped staff to determine that the features in fact were ordinary stone walls marking property boundaries – older yes, but not ancient or mysterious.

Area reported to contain “monumental and extraordinary stone structures in celestial alignment – perhaps built by an ancient race for ceremonial purposes.”

Lidar data reveals “unique features” are really no more than normal stone walls marking former property boundaries.

Coincidentally, during the preparation of this article, lidar was highlighted in what’s being hailed as a “major breakthrough” in Maya archaeology.   Researchers, which included Thomas Garrison, assistant professor of anthropology at Ithaca College, have recently identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala.  The Lidar survey of 2,100-square kilometers encompassed several major Maya sites, including the largest at Tikal, and El Zotz, where Garrison focuses his research.

Laser scans revealed more than 60,000 previously unknown Maya structures that were part of a vast network of cities, fortifications, farms, and highways.

Summary

The above language and maps only begin to highlight the broad use of geospatial technology in the New York State Museum.  While presentations by Museum staff are occasionally made at the state conferences, their work and products are often published in technical and scientific publications as well.   It’s a well seasoned group of GIS professionals.  In addition to the geospatial programs reviewed as part of this article, the State Museum also is home to the State Committee on Geographic Names which advises the United States Board on Geographic Names on issues relating to place names in New York and the Empire State Organized Geologic Information System (ESOGIS) which provides information all of New York’s 42,000+ deep wells and thousands of shallow wells.

For more detailed information, visit the Research and Collections on the State Museum website.

The author acknowledges contributions from State Museum staff Susan Winchell-Sweeney, Heather Clark, and David Gerhard for their contributions to this article.

Views on the 2018 New York State Geospatial Landscape

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There’s probably enough below for a couple blog posts but I ended up throwing everything in together and stirring it up – so to speak.  The language on Part 189 (tax mapping) could be a post by itself.  Kind of all over the place, even revisiting some topics I’ve touched on before as part of eSpatiallyNewYork.  Part wish list and part commentary.  Ten items. More or less.

  1. Promoting NYS Local and Regional Government GIS Development:  This is a frequent mantra of mine and with the  constant advancements in computing and geospatial technologies it’s worth considering on a regular basis.   And most certainly as part of this year’s wish list. Opportunities abound across the Empire State to help local and regional governments  jumpstart and/or solidify their GIS program.   For example, funding is available through the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation focusing on infrastructure systems much of which is managed at the local level.  Or the large amounts of funding being made available as part of Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative through the NYS Office of the Attorney Genera  And the detailed inter-government discussions on the new Shared Services Initiative  which includes funding as part of the adopted FY2018 state budget.  GIS is the shared services technology. And regional GIS programs as part of the New York State Regional Economic Development Councils or by extension the New York State Economic Development Council?   GIS tools are at the foundation of economic development.   Not perfect fits,  but funding opportunities do exist in these program areas.

At the core of local and regional GIS programs is powerful server technology (local and hosted) that not only has the capabilities to support multi-government day-to-day business functions  but also provides the framework to publish geospatial content via map services.  Call it what you want Open Data, government transparency, or data sharing  but it is within this context that state agencies, nonprofits, academia, as well as  business and industry all have access to local data.  Let’s have 2018 statewide focused discussions on extending local and regional GIS capacity based on cost effective and server-based multi-government initiatives.

  1. Building GIS Association Legislative Capacity: While the Association has grown in so many positive ways over the past decade, the challenge continues for the organization to have its presence and mission heard in Albany’s governing hallways.  It is no small effort – organizationally and financially  to build this capacity.  Many similar professional organizations have full-time staff and Executive Directors whose job is to create awareness among elected officials, secure funding, and promote/influence legislation on behalf of the membership.    But currently the Association’s legislative efforts are in the hands of member volunteers.  And while Legislative Committee volunteers were able to coordinate a “Map Day” last May in Albany to introduce the Association to elected officials, the Association has yet to establish itself on the same playing field of recognition with other statewide geospatial heavyweights such as the New York State Society of Professional Engineering, New York State E911 Coordinators, and the lobbying efforts of large New York State based geospatial businesses.  Complicating the equation are Association members who hold licenses or certifications in other professions (i.e, engineering, surveying, photogrammetry, landscape architecture, AICP,  etc) and find themselves in a quandary as to support the Association’s agenda or the profession/discipline which holds their license.  To some degree, this issue manifest itself as part of the discussion with the Geospatial Data Act of 2017 which initially had lines of support drawn heavily along professional affiliation.  The Association must keep up the good effort and find a way to compete on the Albany stage.  Let’s hope the Legislative Committee can build upon its 2017 accomplishments and make further inroads in 2018.
  1. New York State Geospatial Data Act of 2018:   Not really,  but it DOES sounds great – right?   Close our eyes and make believe there is a state-equivalent of the much hyped (Albany) federal National Geospatial Data Act (NGDA) of 2017.   Just think of it:   A process across the Empire State in place to magically aggregate our local government tax-payer funded geospatial data assets into National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).  Newly appointed and designated state agencies responsible for providing support (similar to the designated federal agencies)  to make our geospatial contributions consistent with the federal data themes and standards as outlined in Section 6 and 7 of the proposed NGDA legislation.  Ultimately being made available via the GeoPlatform.  Continue reading →

Retail Trade Geospatial Mapping and Analysis

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There is no secret of the increasing use of GIS technology in the real estate industry due to the latter’s overwhelming interest and dependency on LOCATION.  For real estate professionals, location is always one of the determining factors influencing property value.  Geospatial technology provides the foundation for many common real estate tasks including  property research, market analysis, spatial analysis, matching tenants to available properties, plan market expansion and contraction, as well as staying abreast of changing consumer tastes and local demographics.  The expanding availability of business and marketplace datasets, online property (records) and land information systems, and more friendly and accessible enterprise web-based  geospatial software tools enables real estate firms building geospatial capacity to act more quickly than their competitors.

One Empire State firm which has embraced and is currently expanding it’s GIS infrastructure is the The Shopping Center Group (SCG).  A more focused group within the company is called SCG Retail which is located in Manhattan and concentrates on retail real estate properties in urban environments not specific to shopping centers.  It is in this office where primary SCG GIS resources are located providing geospatial support and guidance to other SCG offices in the United States.   Established in 1984, SCG is a retail-only real estate company providing advisory services to tenants, landlords, developers, investors and financial institutions.  With 22 offices from New York to Southern California, it is the largest commercial/retail-only real estate firm in the United States.

Sample SCG-Retail map of “targeted” neighborhoods in southern Westchester and Fairfield (CT) Counties. SCG-Retail uses ESRI’s Business Analyst to estimate the number of total employees who work within a defined area to generate a general idea of daytime population/employment hubs.  Rent ranges (Est. rent per square foot of retail space) is provided by brokers and business partners.

The SCG-Retail GIS operations are built on top of the ESRI GIS platform to conduct their industry leading mapping and demographic studies.  Connected offices utilize ArcGIS Server services, ArcGIS Online, and selected ArcGIS client programs.  In the Metro NYC region, SCG GIS staff utilize a variety of datasets as part of their market and site specific analysis including ESRI’s Business Analyst and Tapestry Segmentation products and in the a variety of public (Metropolitan Transportation Authority [train, bus, subway ridership], New York City [property/parcels, permits, bus ridership, etc]) and other commercially available real estate and consumer databases. Directing the SCG Retail geospatial efforts its New York City office is Will Parra who joined SCG Retail after working with Sanborn Mapping Company in Pelham, New York.

“SCG Retail’s use of GIS has grown significantly over the past 24-26 months” notes Parra, “it is used and integrated into all of our business decisions”.  Illustrative of SCG-Retail’s work is their recent 125th Street Corridor retail analysis in Harlem, New York – with the world famous Apollo Theater near the center of the study area.   To assess current and anticipated demographic changes in this area of Manhattan and how these trends will effect the potential retail trade landscape,  SCG-Retail GIS staff employed a variety of databases and mapping/analysis tools which enables staff to utilize custom designed GIS tools to establish potential consumer movement patterns in the study area during daytime and evening hours.  The resultant findings of their analysis, as highlighted in this StoryMap, identifies the 125th corridor, particularly the western end, as an excellent area for commercial retail growth and development.

Chase Welles, Partner, SCG Retail comments “Within the last 24-36 months, GIS technology has become an essential tool in working with clients and defining potential retail trade areas.  SCG Retail always had access to U.S. Census and demographic data, estimated consumer trade and drive-time zones, the ability to place potential consumers in defined locations at specific times of the day (AM/PM) via mobile device (smart phone) generated X,Ys  has been a game changer for us working in this space.  This mash-up of new consumer locational data with traditional Census, consumer spending patterns, and other GIS overlays is a very new, powerful, and emerging market analysis tool.”

When representing clients, a basic SCG-Retail map product is a radius map (typically .5 mile radius around a specific address) which provides a basic understanding of the demographics in a given designated trade area. Data is generated using ESRI Business Analyst Online.

Using data collected by mobile devices, The Shopping Center Group developed this map in ArcGIS Desktop to highlight the differences between where people who frequent Colonie Center in Albany, New York, live and where they work. This information is then used within Esri Business Analyst Online to uncover the slight variations in both the demographics and the psychographics of Colonie Center guests.

Learn More About SCG

SCG Retail GIS work has been featured in a February 2017 ArcNews article as well as in an ESRI Case Study YouTube video.  In 2016, The Shopping Center Group was also recognized at the annual ESRI User Group Conference with a Special Achievement In GIS (SAG) award.  Additional information and background on consumer research and analysis in the shopping center industry, visit the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) website.

Contact Will Parra, SCG Retail, at wparra@scg-retail.com.

Purchase College GIS Certificate Program

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Working professionals in the Lower Hudson Region now have the opportunity to learn more about and build introductory skills in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology through the noncredit GIS Certificate Program available at Purchase College. The certificate program will enable students to establish GIS skill sets to augment current job responsibilities and build the “geospatial edge” in an increasingly global and technological world.

Everything happens somewhere.

While there continues to be strong interest from the regional engineering/AutoCAD and environmental communities on how to better access and integrate GIS functionality into their organizations and business offerings, Westchester County GIS staff, which is closely aligned with the Purchase College faulty and supports the GIS Professional Certificate program, is seeing a noted increase in the use of GIS mapping technology in emerging areas such as nonprofits, health and social service programs, community groups, and crowd sourcing efforts.   One of the primary reasons for this increased use is the expanded use of web and server technologies –  a noted departure from the reliance on heavy software client applications – by instead leveraging more easy-to-use geospatial applications for a broader range of users.  This is particularly true in organizations and companies with limited technical expertise and infrastructure.

Starting in January 2018, students can earn the noncredit GIS certificate in as few as two (2) semesters.  Three elective courses ( Using Maps to Tell Your Story, Getting to Know ArcGIS Online, and Using Cloud-Based and Online GIS Platforms) are being offered individually as two-day courses on weekends.  A total of 16 hours per class.  No need to try to and  attend class during an already busy work week.  Course descriptions and instructor information, as well as registration information, is available on the Continuing Education GIS web page.   Successfully completing these three Spring 2018 courses and combining with one required course (GIS Essentials or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – offered each fall semester by the Environmental Studies program in the School of Natural and Social Sciences, on a noncredit option basis), the Purchase College GIS Certificate can be obtained in 2018.

Students may take individual GIS Certificate courses without commitment to the entire program. The courses are face-to-face courses held in a Purchase College computer lab. Students who successfully complete the four required courses are awarded a certificate by the School of Liberal Studies & Continuing Education, reflecting 21 continuing education units (CEUs).  Continuing education units (CEUs) are a way of measuring and officially recognizing the time and effort a student has  put into your education for your job or profession. As you update your credentials, are in line for a transfer, promotion, or evaluation of your current position, or want to  explore a new career, the CEUs recognize student achievement in noncredit learning activities.

Spring GIS coursework at Purchase College is particularly rich in context and timely as preparations are in progress for the annual Westchester GIS User Group Meeting which is hosted on campus by the Environmental Studies Program in May.  As one of the largest GIS User Group meetings in New York State, this year’s conference theme is “GIS in Sustainability and Resiliency” and is expected to be incorporated into each of the spring courses.

Whether trying to augment your existing career with a better understanding of geospatial technology or to begin to better understand “location based” concepts – the Purchase College GIS Professional Certificate Course is for you.    Registration for spring course work is now open.  Do it today!

Geospatial Technologies at St. Lawrence University

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The 2017 New York State GeoCon in Lake Placid provided the opportunity to for me to catch up with several statewide colleagues which will be reflected in at least a couple upcoming blog posts.  As part of these discussions, I ended up connecting with a familiar Empire State GIS person of interest:  Carol Cady – who serves as GIS Specialist/Map Librarian at St.Lawrence University (SLU) in Canton, New York.  Our discussion and follow-up communications certainly highlight a wide range of geospatial activities in the state’s North Country which the SLU GIS program is a significant contributor.

Carol directs the GIS project which is housed in the Libraries and Information Technology Division.  Unlike many of the New York State public university geospatial programs, the SLU program is not associated with a specific academic curriculum or major.  She and other GIS program staff provide instructional, technical and research geospatial support to the entire university community in the use of geospatial software and technology including Remote Sensing and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).

Carol arrived at SLU in 2002 to oversee and manage the GIS program.  Before her arrival, the SLU GIS program had been established in the early 90’s by Professor Bill Elberty who was a Geography Professor and for whom the current GIS lab is named after.  Professor Elberty taught GIS courses which provided the foundation for many current GIS professionals across New York State.  After Professor Elberty retired in 1999 the GIS program data and software was moved to the Science Library.

Prior to accepting the SLU position, Carol served as a GIS Analyst for Fort Drum Natural Resources Branch as a contractor. Carol’s background is in biology with a BS from UMass- Amherst and a Masters in Zoology at the University of Vermont.   She was introduced to GIS as land management tool while a seasonal wildlife technician for US Fish & Wildlife Service at Moosehorn Refuge in Calais, ME.   She then returned to UMass to learn more about GIS with coursework in the Wildlife Department.

GIS Facilities and Academic Offerings

The principal location for GIS and GPS instruction at SLU is the Elberty Laboratory for Spatial Analysis.  The lab includes 15 dedicated GIS workstations, printing and plotting devices, field tablets, and both Trimble and Garmin GPS units.  Increasingly, smartphones using the ESRI Collector and Survey 123 apps are being used in field data collection efforts.  Both Carol and GIS/GPS technician Dakota Casserly offer support to the SLU community in a variety of software packages including ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth, IMAGINE, IDRISI, and NASA’s WorldWind.

On a regular basis, Carol teaches both Intro to Geographic Information Systems (with lab) and Directed Studies in Geology GIS classes and occasionally Advanced GIS and Intro to Geospatial Technologies.  GIS concepts are incorporated in other courses in the areas of Conservation Biology, Global Studies, Environmental Psychology.

Carol is assisted by Dakota Casserly, St. Lawrence University GIS/GPS Technician who is involved in the program on many levels including designing and guiding projects with student GIS technicians and teaching introductory sessions or specialized topics like GPS and Network Analyst.  A project he has recently completed is the Laurentian Legacy project.

Mapping the Laurentian Legacy is a partner project between the University’s Donor Relations department and the GIS Program. The web app provides interactive and searchable access to the University’s named spaces database.

Projects and Activities:

The GIS program at SLU provides support to many local and regional geospatial efforts.  The program has a long  relationship with the St. Lawrence Land Trust having provided maps for base line and yearly evaluations of easements.  Recently, SLU GIS staff, along with Jess Rogers, Assistant Professor, Biology/Environmental Studies, SUNY Potsdam, and Alex French, Sustainability Coordinator, Clarkson University conducted a suitability analysis to find large privately owned forested properties which meet Land Trust criteria to put lands into a protected easement.  More recently, Carol’s Intro to GIS has been involved in a suitability analysis to identify non-forested properties in all of St. Lawrence County that may meet Land Trust easement criteria.  In 2013 Dakota’s predecessor, Jonathan Ignatowski, worked with the St.Lawrence County Health Department to identify houses built before the early 1970s and may contain lead paint.  This was part of a larger project to help with lead paint remediation for household owners.

One SLU project which was of particular interest to me is the June 2017 Death in St. Lawrence County (DSLC) Project that began an archeological excavation at the St. Lawrence County Poorhouse Cemetery in Canton, NY.  As a result of decades of erosion, the cemetery had a number of graves at risk of washing away into the Grasse River.  While the original goal of the project was to identify and exhume at-risk graves, identify the individuals using forensic techniques, and re-inter the remains elsewhere on the property. Unfortunately, Mindy C. Pitre, an assistant anthropology professor at St. Lawrence University, who was overseeing the project said she and her team of students discovered that very little remained of the bones at the gravesites they dug closest to the Grasse River.  As a result, the bone could not be examined and information such as gender and age could not be determined, she said. The deteriorated bone fragments were returned to where they were found and reburied.  It was felt that continuing any further would have done more harm than good by removing it, so the project was stopped.  Nonetheless, the project did include the use of state-of-the-art geospatial tools including high resolution GPS data and 3-D photogrammetric software to record and digitally preserve the archeology. This project was presented as a poster at the Lake Placid conference.

Additional examples of student projects focusing on American Kestral nesting sites, Brook Trout spawning sites, wind turbine placement relative to hawk migrations, and the effects of St. Lawrence County land use changes on grassland bird habitat can be found on the SLU GIS landing page.

Working Partners:

Collaborating organizations in the North Country recognize SLU’s GIS contribution in regional geospatial efforts.  Notes Jason Pfotenhauer, Deputy Director. St. Lawrence County Planning Office:

“The St. Lawrence County Planning Office has had a long relationship with the GIS lab at St. Lawrence University having worked with Carol Cady for many years, as well as several of her mapping technicians.  We traveled to numerous State GIS conferences and NYS geo-spatial summits together and have had approximately 10 SLU students work with our office in various capacities.  Two recent larger scale county projects were the result of Carol’s willingness to supervise graduating seniors with strong GIS skills.  For the first, Carol took the initiative to pursue Walker Fellowship funding so that Sean Gannon could receive a paid internship and create the initial dataset for the County’s Agricultural Atlas.  The second project involved the collection of raw U.S. Census data to depict housing and socioeconomic data at the census tract level (which is not readily available on existing regional, state or federal websites).  Dylan Arpey undertook this initiative to help inform the County’s Assessment of Fair Housing.

The GIS lab staff have also provided us with valuable technical assistance that improved our capabilities in preparing maps for county constituents.  Most recently Dakota Casserly and Carol provided a tutorial on how to geoprocess tiffs in order to create digital models of hard copy flood plain maps.”

Star Carter, GIS Supervisor, Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) adds:

“The St. Lawrence County university/college GIS people are all fantastic and very worthy of recognition!  I work with the SLU crew a few times a year to get data or share data for infrastructure in the Village of Canton.  It’s a good relationship.  DANC has hired graduates and summer interns from both SLU and SUNY Potsdam.  A former DANC GIS Specialist graduated from SLU and is now in grad school in Colorado; and a current DANC GIS Technician graduated from SUNY Potsdam.  All of these graduates came out of their programs with enough GIS skills and practical experience to hit the ground running and be valuable employees right away.  So, from the hiring perspective of a local employer, having these GIS programs available at local universities is very important to keeping me supplied with a competent workforce”.

Summary

The St. Lawrence University GIS program illustrates the growing presence – and importance – of the New York statewide network of university programs which support regional and local GIS initiatives.   In absence of paid consultant assistance, University programs can often provide a certain level of geospatial support to governments and organizations with limited funding or geospatial capacity.  While several Empire State college programs offer both B.S. and advanced degrees in geospatial technologies, non-degree academic programs such as SLU offer high quality geospatial academic training, combined with applied field experience that adequately prepares students for a variety of geospatial workforce occupations.

For more information on the St. Lawrence University GIS Program, contact Carol Cady at ccady@stlawu.edu.