Tucson Area GIS Cooperative

Meeting Notes

City Information Technology Dept. Pueblo Room

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Present:

Present: Steve Whitney, PC DOT; Laura Pinnas, TEP; Jack Avis, Marana; Bill Marum, COT DSD; Christine O'Connor, COT IT; Dee Korick, COT ES; Larry Cassen, COT ES; Ron Platt, TDOT; Terri Schultz, Tucson Fire; Jonathan Zalusky, Addressing intern; Linda Coon, PC DSD; Clint Chiavarini, COT UPD; Donald Ijams, TPD; Josh Pope, Planning Center; Mike Rose, Planning Center; Manny Rosas, PAG; Liza Castillo, TEP; Grant McCormick, UofA; Daniel Casey, TPD; Walt Coleman, IDT; Robert MacArthur, UofA; Robert Shay, PC Wastewater Mgmt.

GIS Cooperative Chairman Steve Whitney presiding.

ESRI ArcPad Application - Town of Marana

Jack Avis presented the Town of Marana's community mapping project that involves volunteers using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) running ArcPad and loaded with local GIS layers and images. The purpose is to map site-specific details, including digital images of the mapped features, relating to Marana's Homeland Security needs. Marana partnered with various emergency response/public safety agencies. Data and imagery dissemination will utilize ArcReader.

Volunteers supporting the project come from the Volunteers In Police Service (VIPS), which is associated with Homeland Security Citizen Corp Councils. The VIPS members first attend general training by public safety officials, then receive GIS training. The VIPS mapped locations of site and building features to provide more detailed information to first responders.

Examples include fire hydrants, entrances/exits, utility features, fences/gates, sprinkler hookups/stand pipes, and many more. Northwest Fire provides hazardous material data. The PAG digital orthophotos provide a base layer in conjunction with other GIS layers on which the user digitizes the target features. VB Script was used to customize ArcPad.

The project is focusing on schools first, then will expand to other site classifications. Benefits include providing first responders with vital information, protecting vital assets and facilities, providing more detailed GIS data, and offering a community resource.

Base Address Improvement - GIS Cooperative Intern

Jonathan Zalusky, who is the GIS Cooperative sponsored intern for addressing, presented an overview of his addressing work and some of the tools that he has developed to assist in address problem research. In the past year, thousands of addresses have been researched and resolved. The primary address datasets are maintained by the Addressing Section of Pima County Development Services Department (PCDSD) and includes data from their Permits Plus system, and the GIS layer ADCOUNTY, which is derived from their addressing maps. The main goal is to synchronize the addresses between Permits Plus and ACCOUNTY through the verification of addresses against various other sources of address data, including the GIS street network and parcel layers, and selected public and commercial websites.

The research application is built in Microsoft Access, and has been enhanced over time to make address research and verification easier and faster. An address parsing tool has also been built, which will correct and reformat address lists based on our adopted standards. This tool has been written as a VB class, so it can be provided as a tool to interested users. Other address databases are being sought for additional sources for address verification. Potential sources include E911 and utilities.

GIS Cooperative Funding Requests

Addressing intern: It was agreed to continue the addressing internship. The idea was raised that there may be potential for additional jurisdictions to contribute funding towards this internship. Research is needed of existing Intergovernmental Agreements that cover addressing services performed by PCDSD. We need to gauge the level of support that the jurisdictions are willing to put forth. PCDSD addressing staff may need to be expanded to keep pace with regional development and to increase their capabilities to process the results of address research.

Pictometry: It was agreed that the Cooperative's contribution to the Pictometry pilot project would be increased from $10,000 to $12,000.

Electronic Plans portal: It was agreed to pursue a proposal by Integrated Digital Technologies (IDT) that would effectively provide access to a data Distribution Portal for electronic plans of proposed development to all Cooperative member agencies. This pilot project is designed to test the feasibility of using a portal as a single repository to which private firms can upload subdivision development plans and plats, at various phases of the platting process. The annual fee for this service would be $5,000. If this effort proceeds, it was suggested that we promote it as a GIS Cooperative provided service.

ArcView 3.x for Tucson-Pima Public Library

The Main Library has inquired if anybody has ArcView 3.x licenses that they are no longer using, and could be transferred to them. The number of licenses that they need will be determined. TDOT and Tucson Water came up as potential sources of unused licenses.

Pima Association of Governments Orthophoto Project of 2005

The PAG Regional Data Committee (RDC) has chosen the preferred vendor for the project, and the approval process is underway by the management bodies within PAG. Notable elements of the chosen proposal include the use of a fixed-frame digital camera for image acquisition, and a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) bare earth elevation model with a point spacing of 3.3 feet.

Electronic Plans Submission Subcommittee Report

A pilot data distribution portal for the Cooperative has been established by IDT, and is available for testing and review here. You can create a free account, log in, and take a look. There are some CAD drawings as well as a draft workflow Visio diagram that will help improve the design of the portal.

Emergency Response Subcommittee // TCTEN - City High Collaboration

The City High School students have begun to input the building detail data collected in the field into ArcView. So far ten buildings have been mapped in the field, and we are fine-tuning the process for data collection and input. Overall the students are doing very well, and are close to being independent mappers.

Arizona Professional Land Surveyors Geospatial Organization Initiative Report

Applications for APLS membership as a Geospatial Professional continue to come in. The application review process has been established and the Geospatial Committee has begun to process the applications. More information and application forms can be found at the APLS website.

Nominees for 2005 GIS Cooperative Chair

Larry Cassen (City Environmental Services) was voted to chair the Cooperative for 2005.

Next Meeting:

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 / 3:00 P.M / City I.T. Pueblo Room