ATTENTION MAPPERS! GIS Day activities planned for Virginia Tech and localities
The Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT), the eCorridors program, and other GIS groups at Virginia Tech will be participating in the global celebration of GIS Day, November 18, 2009, through several participatory mapping activities. Over the years, GIS Day has played a large role in creating geographic awareness throughout the world. This worldwide event takes place during Geography Awareness Week and provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society.
Our theme for this year’s activities is participatory mapping. Projects that involve participatory, citizen science, or crowdsourced information are helping Virginia Tech GIS researchers understand the capabilities and limitations of participatory science as a trusted instrument for data collection in research and how the uncertainty of that information might propagate through the modeling and decision making process. All interested individuals are invited to participate in any or all of the activities celebrating GIS Day.
Activities planned include:
Open Street Map
OpenStreetMap is a wiki-style map of the world that anyone can freely use, copy, view, and edit.. While OpenStreetMap began with just streets, it has grown to include almost every map feature imaginable. Participants are encouraged to help map the Virginia Tech campus and the surrounding Blacksburg area by making additions and edits to OpenStreetMap. This is an open project that anyone can edit at any time.
How to participate: Visit http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Blacksburg,_Virginia for information on how you can start contributing to OpenStreetMap. The local OSM community is gaining momentum. Stay tuned to the Blacksburg OpenStreetMap wiki page for updates on events in our area, or follow CGIT on Twitter (@CGITatVT) to receive occasional announcements including local OSM events.
Additional Links: Open Street Map
Local Broadband Access Mapping
Celebrate GIS Day by helping to map local online environments. One important element in participatory democracy today is access to fast, reliable, affordable and understandable online communications. But very little public information is available about residential Internet availability and options. Individuals can participate in GIS Day and help to strengthen public understanding of local Internet environments by testing the speed of their own connections at home by using the eCorridors bandwidth speed testing application.
How to participate: Visit http://www.ecorridors.vt.edu/maps/broadbandmap.php to test your internet connection speed.
Bicyclist and Pedestrian Map-based Survey
The New River Valley Bicycle Association, Town of Blacksburg, and CGIT are working together to provide a web-based mapping survey, where cyclists are asked to document their routes and daily commutes. The data being collected will help identify what transportation infrastructure should be improved to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians. Planners hope to provide improved, contiguous routes through downtown, to make getting around by bike more appealing. To participate in this survey, individuals are asked to sketch the routes they commonly travel in a map-based interface. How to participate: Visit http://www.cgit.vt.edu/ProjectWebs/Bikepedsurvey/index.html and start mapping your routes.
Read more about this project: http://www.nrvbike.com/archives/186
For additional information on any of the events listed contact Peter Sforza at (540) 231-8490 or sforza@vt.edu
More than 80 countries will participate in holding local events such as corporate open houses, hands-on workshops, community expos, school assemblies, and more. According to GIS Day website, Over 600 events are being planned and will take place in 71 countries and 46 U.S. states.
GIS Day 2009: Practical Applications of GIS for Fire Hydrant Inventory, Maintenance and Flow Testing
GIS Day draws attention to special applications of GIS technologies in action. In 2009, the Montgomery County PSA implemented a fire hydrant maintenance and testing program. This program was made possible through application of GIS technologies enabling location verification, system pressure verification, manufacturer model and cast date tracking, and water system modeling. [Click here to download poster PDF]
Ecosystem mapping seminar
Watch the special online presentaiton as Dr. Roger Sayre, USGS, speaks on Mapping Standardized Ecosystems for the Nation and the Planet. [more]
Researchers set the stage for national database of water pipe infrastructure
A group of Virginia Tech faculty and researchers are working to create the prototype of a national internet-based geospatial database of underground water pipes with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation.
The project is a collaboration between Sunil Sinha, project leader and associate professor in the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Randy Dymond, associate professor in the department and co-director of CGIT, Thomas Dickerson, CGIT research associate, and Rahul Vemulapally, civil and environmental engineering graduate student.
“Underground water pipes are the nation’s arteries” said Sinha. “Unfortunately, they are not in a very healthy state. About 40 pecent of the water is lost because of leaks and other structural damage.”
Sinha added that it is difficult to monitor and maintain underground pipes, but a standardized, web-based geospatial database of the existing infrastructure information would be very helpful to water utility companies and municipalities.
The Internet prototype application will be created based on underground water and sewage pipe information supplied by three of the 17 cities that are partnering with Sinha and the Center for Geospatial Information Technology. “We are currently receiving data in different formats from Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Seattle -- the three pilot cities,” said Dymond. “One of [the center’s] jobs is to take this diverse information and create a standard format that could be used by all partnering cities.”
The geospatial database will include rich, interactive maps of the water pipe infrastructure, as well as data exploration tools and reports. “Users will be able to pan and zoom or easily identify attributes such as pipe diameters, size, or current condition,” explained Dickerson.
The development of the geospatial database application is part of a group of large-scale water infrastructure projects that Sinha is managing at Virginia Tech. The overall objective of the on-going water infrastructure research at Virginia Tech is to improve the decision-making process as it applies to water pipe infrastructure asset management and renewal programs.
The data received from the partnering cities are stored on San Diego Supercomputer Center managed by the National Science Foundation and supervised by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Only Virginia Tech has full access to the data through the team of faculty and researchers involved in the project. All participating utilities have limited access to this national water pipe infrastructure database.
Innovative civil engineering application promises cleaner waters
Streams, lakes, and bays may soon be cleaner thanks to an innovative approach to managing stormwater runoff being developed at Virginia Tech and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A novel software application will help engineers and planners select the most efficient and site specific methods – called “Best Management Practices” (BMPs) – of controlling the amount of pollutants that enter the receiving waters through stormwater runoff.
Pollutants are washed off the roads, parking lots, or other surfaces by stormwater, and include toxic motor oil, pesticides, metals, bacteria, and trash. The Congressional Research Service reported in 2007 that up to 50 percent of water pollution problems in the United State are attributed to stormwater runoff.
The application is the product of collaboration between faculty and researchers from Virginia Tech’s Virginia Water Resources Research Center ("water center"), the Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT), and the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering.
The new BMPs selection approach, called Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), will factor in dozens of site-specific criteria such as soil types, land slopes, or maintenance accessibility before choosing the optimal BMPs for a particular location.
“This technique is expected to drastically reduce the BMP selection time and will also eliminate the human error from such a complex process,” says Tamim Younos, water center associate director and research professor of water resources in the Department of Geography in the College of Natural Resources who serves as project coordinator. Other project leaders include Randy Dymond, CGIT co-director, and David Kibler, professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Traditionally, the selection of BMPs has been done only by proficient stormwater experts guided by little more than vaguely written regulations, experience and intuition. “They rely heavily on past knowledge, tradition, or even personal preference for particular methods of controlling stormwater runoff,” explains Kevin Young, research associate at CGIT.
Young adds that all too often personal bias has led to “cookie-cutter” solutions to very complex stormwater management needs, resulting in poor control of the pollutants.
A widely used, conventional BMP is to build detention ponds near commercial or residential areas, regardless of the actual construction site needs and conditions. “The stormwater is directed to a detention pond where gravity takes over, depositing sediment and some pollutants onto the bottom,” says Younos. “The pond overflow which still may contain dissolved pollutants reaches streams, rivers and lakes, and possibly groundwater.”
Other types of BMPs are trenches and porous pavement that allow the stormwater to infiltrate into the ground, vegetated wetlands and sand filters that help sift the pollutants, or proprietary stormwater technologies such as hydrodynamic separators.
The new tool will be pilot-tested on Town of Blacksburg’s storm water system and the local Stroubles Creek watershed. The AHP software will be used by the research team to select BMPs within the watershed contributing runoff to Stroubles Creek, the town’s main receiving water body. Two existing computer models will then be used to simulate how efficient the selected BMPs are at removing the stormwater runoff pollutants.
“The best part about conducting a pilot test on Blacksburg is that the town will be able to implement our recommendations,” says Younos. “We are very pleased by the town’s enthusiasm and support for this project.” Other stakeholders include the New River Planning District Commission, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Young discussed the principles of this novel approach to managing stormwater runoff in his Master’s thesis, under the guidance of the late professor G. V. Loganathan.
The software will be free to use by all interested engineers and planners, localities, and BMP review authorities, and will be applicable in other states with geographic and climatic environments similar to Virginia.
New leaders commit to Virginia Tech’s quest for cutting edge technologies
Randy Dymond and Kathleen Hancock, both associate professors at the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), are now co-directing the Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT) at Virginia Tech.
As CGIT’s co-directors, both Dymond and Hancock have expressed their commitment to advancing Virginia Tech’s quest for excellence in research. “The University’s 2006-2012 strategic plan identifies Geographic Information Systems (GIS), our core research specialty, as a strategically important expansion area,” explains Dymond. “We have been particularly pro-active in bringing large scale GIS projects to Virginia Tech and delivering results at the highest quality standards. It is what we do best.”
Randy Dymond, who founded CGIT in 2003, has been with Virginia Tech since 1998. His expertise includes GIS (a technology that links physical features on the earth to a database of their descriptions, locations, and characteristics), water resources, civil infrastructure systems, land development and land use change impacts.
Dymond is involved with a variety of projects at CGIT, ranging from FEMA floodplain delineation and hazard mitigation to storm water runoff management. “I thoroughly enjoy the process working with others to develop a promising idea and taking it through to completion. This is how CGIT came into existence four years ago,” says Dymond.
Kathleen Hancock joined Virginia Tech’s CEE department and CGIT in 2004. She had served the Center actively as associate director prior to her current appointment as co-director. Hancock has been involved in projects dealing with geospatial solutions to transportation problems, freight operations and planning, and transportation safety.
Project to give bird’s eye view of Virginia trail system
Virginia is so rich in bike and hiking trails, yet there is no seamless statewide database that would ensure efficient planning and public access. But this will change soon as a statewide project is set to create an Internet-based digital repository of existing and planned bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, including bike lanes, hiking and horseback riding trails.
The project is coordinated by John McGee (assistant professor, forestry department), Steve Prisley (associate director at CGIT and associate professor, forestry department), and Steve Sedlock (research scientist at CGIT), and is funded by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
“Currently, information on bicycle and pedestrian facilities comes to us from many different sources and in many different formats, making statewide planning analysis extremely time consuming and difficult,” explains Kimberly Spence, statewide planning programs manager at VDOT.
The CGIT researchers will convert the available bike and pedestrian infrastructure information into a standard, seamless digital format. This innovative digital database will be provided to statewide decision makers and later to Virginians via a web-based GIS application.
“The initial application will allow decision makers to zoom into a specific area, add aerial photography and potentially other map data as a “backdrop,” or quickly obtain information such length or width for a specific segment of the bike or pedestrian infrastructure,” explains John McGee, assistant professor of forestry and geospatial extension specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension.
In the future, and as funding allows, the web-based GIS application can be extended and adapted to public use, so anyone will be able to go online, find the desired bike, hiking or horseback riding trail, and then print a detailed map. “This is where you can really begin to dream, as we could potentially enhance the public web application to include nearby facilities such as campgrounds, pet friendly areas, restaurants, lodging, and other businesses,” says McGee.