Before you begin this course, make sure you have completed the Course Orientation (see the Start Here! menu at left).
In the first part of this module, you will be introduced to a scenario in which an organization is trying to decide whether or not to make the investment in GIS. You will browse some of their existing data and draw some of your own conclusions about the decision.
In the second part of this module, you will begin to formulate your course project idea and plan. That will be your main focus this week. The first phase of your GIS plan will be to assess your local GIS situation. The assessment phase will require a lot of legwork. If you don't already have an idea, this assessment phase may help you come up with one and to go out on your own and find a few organizations (local government, utilities, consultants, etc.) and begin to document their past, present, and future plans for GIS. A couple of possible scenarios are listed in Part II. You will be expected to contact at least three people in your community by week 3 of the course.
Upon completion of Module 1, you will be able to: define some data needs of a particular organization; identify appropriate and cost-effective data sources for that organization; determine whether available data are sufficient for the needs of that organization, or if new data should be produced; and try to determine whether or not land surveyors should be called upon to produce data.
You will load and assess some data provided by a local water authority and think about what the authority's GIS data needs are, what the potential cost to convert their system might be, and consider what steps the authority might take in the future. You will then start to work on your own GIS assessment. You will get in touch with an organization in your area (i.e. local government or utility), find out if they are using GIS, and provide information about how they've made choices in regards to GIS.
This module is one week in length. The required deliverable this week is the beginning of a course project -- problem based learning proposal -- in the form of a simple narrative. Other than that you should be loading the software from Safe, finishing the required readings, and participating in the online discussion. The topic is posted in this week's discussion forum - reply to that post. At the end of the lesson you will see a list of things to post to your web page, but these are mostly to get you to start thinking about your project. If you are having trouble coming up with a project, jot down a few ideas and send them to me and I will help you choose between the possibilities. I realize there is a lot to process this week. Ideally, you will get an idea for your project and start to gather some contact information for your area. If you are able to post some of the information listed in addition to a basic outline narrative, that's great. If not, it should be posted by the end of week 2. By the end of the course, the weekly deliverables should all come together as the final deliverable. It should only need to be polished at that point.
Please see the Deliverables section at the end of Part II for this week's readings and action items.
Lesson 1 is one week in length. Please refer to the Calendar in ANGEL for specific time frames and due dates. To finish this lesson, you must complete the actvities listed below. You may find it useful to print this page out first so that you can follow along with the directions.
Step | Activity | Access/Directions |
---|---|---|
1 | Work through Lesson 1 | You are in the Lesson 1 online content now. The overview page is previous to this page, and you are on the Checklist page right now. |
2 | Complete the deliverables for Lesson 1 | Page 4 has this week's deliverables. |
My story:
The State College Borough Water Authority (SCBWA) serves approximately 65,000 customers in seven municipalities and has about 220 miles of mains. The Authority is not yet using GIS, but is aware of the benefits and costs of a GIS conversion. They have talked to consultants and are starting on a few small projects involving GIS. The Authority has a fairly common story to tell. They have CAD data and paper maps. There are some employees who have worked for the Authority for 25 years who don't even need to refer to the paper maps when responding to a call. At this point in time, starting from scratch and GPSing all features, as one firm suggested, is not an option for the Authority; the cost is too great. They do, however, realize that there are a lot of basemap data freely available at the local and county authority levels, so they wouldn't actually be starting from scratch.
Currently, the Authority's maps just show valve locations and line sizes. Updates are sent to an engineer located in a nearby city. Updates are only made once every two years. The Authority gets about 300-350 "locates" a month, in which Pennsylvania One-Call asks them to locate a line. They also have to go out and work on a line approximately 100 times a month. The design stage for a new development project can take up to a month because they have to wait on other utilities to mark their lines. Therefore, having just the water system in a GIS would not make all jobs much more efficient. The sewer authority has their system in GIS, so the water authority can look to them as an example of what the costs and benefits might be.
The Authority has come up with a list of mapping layers that would be beneficial to them:
A User Needs Assessment is a job identification methodology common in Information and Database Technologies. The task of an assessment is to identify end products that the user needs to perform the tasks. The methodology does not need to be identical as long as all the required tasks can be performed. Often it attempted to speed up all tasks through some form of automation. You can see how GIS fulfills that role. If this can be done, all well and good, however, often there is a trade off and common tasks can be expedited at the cost of a more unusual task. Formally, a User Needs Assessment starts with identifying all the procedures and data required to perform all of the tasks as they are done now. Next, automation of the most common tasks is sought. This can be done through technology, better information utilization through better data structures, storage, and retrieval. Frequently, these improvements take the form of automatic data lookup, e.g., returning the location coordinates for a GPS, and an address upon click on a point. In this way, forms can be filled out with minimum of end user input. Next, the rarer tasks are looked at and prioritized according to length of time they take and the frequency they are performed. Finally, any security or procedural upgrades are investigated. Often it is better to introduce these later as it cuts down on the re-training component and staff resentment. However, if they are to be deferred, the data structures need to be in place to facilitate future upgrades. When you start your own problem, think about the end results that users will require. (In real-life these are very complex, but this will give you an idea how they are constructed.)
Infrastructure Maintenance
Locations and line sizes.
Data: Infrastructure position, Pipelines and Valves as lines and points, Attributes: size , pipe type, date of installation, length of pipe, date of repairs etc., Projection, Datum.
Location Services
The Authority gets about 300-350 "locates" a month, for Pennsylvania One-Call.
Data: Infrastructure positions, Property Lines, Building Lines and Footprints as Lines and Polygons, Projection, Datum..
Line work approximately 100 times a month.
Data: Infrastructure Location, Property Information, Work Order No. Work Required, Equipment and Parts Required, Projection, Datum.
Threat avoidance
The sewer authority has their system in GIS, so the water authority can use this to identify contamination problems.
Data: Storage Tanks, Pump Station, Well Fields, Sewage Company Data, Projection, Datum., Distance to Sewer from Well Head, Sewer Line to Pipe Line Junction Distance , Uphill or Down Hill, etc.
Code Compliance
Ensure that buildings are adequately covered by Fire Hydrants.
Data: House Lines and Footprints, Fire Hydrants Location and Attributes (including hydrant number, flow data with date, manufacturer and model number, etc.), Number of houses in fire hydrant service radius, required Flow Rate, Projection, Datum.
I contacted the engineer who updates and maintains the Authority's data and requested a portion of the service area. It is usually easier to convince someone to share data when the use is for "education purposes only." Agreeing to share data inevitably means that you are agreeing to answer questions about those data that you may or may not know the answer to. The data I originally acquired from the firm were CAD data. After a conversation with the engineer about why I wanted the data, he indicated that he did have the same data converted into shapefiles. He converts the data from CAD to GIS for mapping purposes. In this activity we will look at the CAD data provided.
I also acquired basemap data from Centre County. This data is available for public use. I met with the County director and he provided me with a CD of the data. We will look at a few of the county layers, which have been clipped to the extent of the SCBWA Pine Grove Mills Service Area.
Registered Students download from ANGEL the Lesson 1 data (lesson1files.zip) to a new folder (e.g., C:\MGIS\GEOG488\Lesson1).
The data in this exercise are used by permission of the State College Borough Water Authority and the GIS Director of Centre County, Pennsylvania. I want to thank the Centre County GIS Director, Steve Albright of the Water Authority, and Jeff Sergeant of Gwin, Dobson & Foreman Inc.
Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar or click the File menu and choose Save.
You have just completed Part I of this module, which involved looking over some data provided by a water authority. In Part II, you will start a GIS assessment for your local area.
Your story:
You can take any number of approaches for this module. Be sure that you feel comfortable with your decision as this modules continues on throughout the class and is ultimately part of the final course project.
A couple possible scenarios:
Questions you might ask local contacts:
This module is one week in length. There is no required deliverable this week other than finishing the required readings and participating in the online discussion. The topic is posted in this week's discussion forum - reply to that post. Below you will see a list of things to post to your web page, but these are mostly to get you to start thinking about your final project. I realize there is a LOT to read this week and a lot to process. Ideally, you will get an idea for your project and start to gather some contact information for your area. If you are able to post some of the information listed below, that's great. If not, it should be posted by the end of week 2. By the end of the course, the weekly deliverables should all come together as the final deliverable. It should only need to be polished at that point.
1. Readings:
Required:
Recommended:
2. Post a paragraph about your course final project topic.
3. Post a list of GIS project specifications to your cumulative document or e-portfolio, including write-ups of:
4. Start a "digital rolodex." List the contacts you made this week and explain how they helped or what they contributed to your plan. You should make at least three contacts by week three of the course.
5. Discuss the weekly topic on the discussion forum.
6. Start to think about and write your course paper. See the Course Paper Assignment [13] page for more information about this assignment. It will be due by week five. If you are waiting for contacts to get back to you, this is a great time to polish off the course paper, that is, before your final project starts to occupy all your time.
You have just completed Project 1.
Don't forget...if you have any questions,feel free to post them to the Lesson 1 Discussion Forum.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/image/UniversalVw.jpg
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/image/UniversalTrslt2.jpg
[3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/image/UniversalVw2.jpg
[4] https://cms.psu.edu/default.asp
[5] http://www.profsurv.com/magazine/article.aspx?i=1003
[6] http://www.profsurv.com/magazine/article.aspx?i=1015
[7] http://www.profsurv.com/magazine/article.aspx?i=1040
[8] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/GIS_INTEROPERABILITY_THE_SAFE_WAY.pdf
[9] http://nationalmap.gov/report/national_map_report_final.pdf
[10] http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10606.html
[11] http://theamericansurveyor.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_WashingtonView_May-June2004.pdf
[12] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/Joffe_Comments.pdf
[13] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/node/2071