Present: Donald Ijams, Michael Rose, David Hochede, Robert MacArthur, Josh Pope, Vickey Bagley, Mary Szczepanski, Teri Schultz, Andrew Acuff, Cheryl Van De Beuken, Anna Sanchez, Steve Whitney, Nancy Regens, Alan Moritz, Rainy Warf, Ryuba Barzohar and Christine O'Connor

Pima County DOT/Tech. Services/GIS - Update

Steve Whitney of Pima County, Transportation Department / Technical Services/GIS, described the basic functions of his section within the County. This information was particularly helpful to attendees new to GIS Cooperative meetings. He followed up with a description of the 1998 orthophotography project that resulted in the currently available imagery now in wide use.

One of Steve's important related projects for the last several years involves spatially adjusting the existing GIS base data sets to better match the orthophotography. Steve's section has now completed adjustment of the majority of the parcel layer, which is now available in the GIS Library. Layers currently being rectified to the orthophotos are the street networks, neighborhood associations and county development points. Other layers will eventually follow.

The 1998 imagery data covers 581 square miles of the metro area and includes elevation models. The second ortho photo project done in 2000 added 675 more square miles and higher resolutions. The current 2002 project is in the process of adding 350 square miles of high-resolution imagery. The deliverables from the 2002 project are expected to be available in color by late December.

CityScan/Master Address Database

Dave Hochede and the City I.T. development team have been working on the CityScan project for the past two years for use by the community via the Internet. It is currently in test mode on the City's Intranet until licensing issues with Oracle are resolved. The CityScan application is in the process of being upgraded to a modularized form and the web support infrastructure is being moved from the NT platform to Windows 2000.

Address Cleaning Project - Activities of GIS Intern

This past winter, the GIS Cooperative sponsored the hiring of a GIS Intern to assist with cleaning the official address database (called adcounty), as managed by Pima County Development Services. The Intern used a variety of resources to identify reasons for mismatched addresses and verify whether they were simply wrong addresses or indeed legitimate addresses. The intern program ended in July 2002, with over 700 changes or additions made to the official address file. The GIS Cooperative has received authorization to hire another Intern, who will continue assisting with the address cleaning work and will be housed at City I.T. due to space limitations at Pima County Public Works.

GIS Cooperative - Last Year and This Year

Accomplishments of the GIS Cooperative during the fiscal year ending June 2002 were discussed. (These are shown on the Cooperative page of this web site.)

Employees interested in attending GIS training or conferences in order to build GIS capacity within the City and/or purchase GIS software, please contact Don Ijams.

Tucson Community Technology Education Network (TCTEN)

Dr. Robert MacArthur, a GIS Cooperative member from The University of Arizona, gave a presentation on a project held this past summer involving youths working with the Tucson Pima Public Arts Council in using GIS and other technoligies to plan for refurbishing Scott Avenue in downtown Tucson. The project included planning for the planting of trees, and placement of water fountains, benches and lighting. TCTEN targets three types of audiences: small business, neighborhood organizations and youths. Their goal is to teach GIS concepts and the use of GIS technology to improve the quality of community life.

Other Business

A different meeting time was discussed as possibly being better for member attendance. A check will be made whether the room is available on the 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of the month at 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM.

For October, the GIS Cooperative meeting is scheduled for 10:00 - 11:30 AM, Friday, October 11, 2002.