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WHAT IS GIS?
GIS is the field of study that makes computer generated interactive maps possible. Most people have seen flashy GIS maps on television news programs and shows like CSI. GIS.com provides this definition - "Geography is the study of locational and spatial trends about the earth's surface, the objects found on it, and the people who inhabit it. GIS technology provides a framework to manage, analyze, and disseminate geographic knowledge." See the Wikipedia for a complete definition.
SEMO GIS USER GROUP
The SEMO GIS user group was formed to promote knowledge of GIS in and around Southeast Missouri. Most of the group are "newbies" who are new to GIS. All interested persons are welcome. Everyone is encouraged to buy Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop, 2nd ed., for an excellent introduction to GIS and a six month trial version of ArcGIS Desktop. Garet Couch, a GIS consultant with Wind Environmental Services, LLC., gave the group a simple Excel Degree/Minute/Second to Decimal Degree calculator and detailed instructions on how to add X, Y coordinates to ArcMap. Thanks Garet!
Eleven GIS enthusiasts met at the SEMO RPC for the January, 2010 meeting. Jay Rodenbeck, Jefferson County GIS, gave an excellent presentation on Pictometry - aerial oblique photography. Several SEMO areas, including Jefferson County, have purchased aerial images and related software from Pictometry. These images include one "straight down" and four oblique views. The licensed software - Electronic Field Study - may be used by a virtually unlimited amount of users in a customer's office. This seems to be a marked improvement over ESRI products which require expensive licenses for each computer in areas without a free GIS server like www.semogis.com . The oblique images are valuable to assessor's who can see many details not available in traditional views. They save lots of money viewing Pictometry images instead of personally visiting properties. The images are tiled (not mosaaiced) in shapefile format. So, it's easy to import into ArcGIS. The group discussed a potential problem - What happens after the two year license expires?
A dozen GIS enthusiasts met for the July User Group meeting where Jim Martin of Griner and Schmitz, Inc. (jim@grinerschmitz.com), presented an excellent summary of GPS. Jim discussed the history of the original U.S.Military sponsored NavStar system, which is now in general civilian use, through new satellite systems sponsored by private and public entities. See http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/. He described equipment and system requirements for accuracies from 10 meter to two centimeter. Jim passed around an upper end TopCon GPS unit for the group to see. This sophisticated unit even includes a GIS capable camera.
Mark Duewell, MSDIS Program Manager, (msdismail@missouri.edu) presented a summary of the status of GIS in Missouri. A few of the items are:
- It looks like the two-year statewide imagery flyover program will be a three-year one. All Cities and Counties can buy in to this program for higher resolution imagery.
- This year's Federal stimulus money for our state has already been used in the NAIP leaf on imagery program. This data is now in QA/QC and will soon be available.
- There is some discussion of combining the Missouri Mappers Conventions with MAGIC Symposium.
- MSDIS is planning Metadata workshops around the state in 2010.
- There are now several active user groups in Missouri, including SEMO, Tri-Lakes, Springfield, ArcInfo (KC), Mid-Missouri, St. Louis, and Pony Express (NW & Kansas). Mark said successful user group meeting formats include an outside presenter, an inside presenter, meetings every two or three months, informal minutes, and last about three hours.
Pat Stack, a Design Solutions Executive with Seiler Instrument, led the March User Group meeting. Pat brought several examples of Trimble GPS units and related equipment. He demonstrated some cutting edge GPS units and discussed their use, maintenance and software pricing. He led the group through an initial set up of Pathfinder Office. The group engaged in an excellent discussion of many GPS topics, including group pricing of Trimble units.
The November User Group meeting was attended by nine GIS and Health professionals and others interested in GIS. This unstructured meeting included group discussions on a variety of GIS related topics, including data sharing and HIPAA privacy rules, disaster preparedness in general and for special needs individuals, addressing, MERIS, and many others. This group is an excellent place to bring GIS questions and to hear top GIS professionals in this area's responses. Everyone with an interest in GIS is welcome to attend.
Eighteen people attended the May 2008 User Group hosted by two ESRI representatives, Lindsey Hunter and Jennifer Kuntz. Lindsey is this area's Sales Associate. She introduced herself and distributed ESRI mouse pads, cups, and product literature. Jennifer gave an informative and detailed presentation on Model Builder, including it's elements, construction and execution. Then, she discussed geodatabase types, uses, and differences, with info on subtypes, validation, topology, versioning and replication. This was one of the best and most informative User Group meetings ever.
The March 2008 User Group was attended by ten GIS professionals and interested people. The Group discussed Cape Girardeau County's GIS mapping site on EMapsPlus which is somewhat difficult to use, ESRI's licensing of tools, comparison of the Glaize Creek Project and Jefferson and Perry County maps at www.semogis.com, and the status of the statewide aerial photography flyover project. MSDIS now has these photos available to the public. However, the files are huge! MSDIS will provide the data to anyone who sends a portable hard drive to their office.
Click HERE for 2006-2007 user group meeting summaries.
DISCUSSION LIST
Show-Me Net has created an email discussion list to improve communication among user group members and anyone interested in GIS in this area. Messages addressed to the group are delivered to everyone in the group. Everyone is invited to join. Click HERE to join.
SHOW-ME NET AND GIS
Show-Me Net, Inc. partnered with the SEMO Regional Planning & Economic Development Commission to gather data to promote community mapping by making highly detailed maps of this area available to local cities and counties and to anyone on the Internet. After staff learned with a development server, Show-Me Net registered domains semogis.com, semogis.org, and semogis.net in January 2006. A fully functioning production server was online in June 2006. SEMOGIS.com has produced dependable high quaility interactive GIS map images since.
Show-Me Net closed its office December 31, 2009, and transferred SEMOGIS and its equipment to the SEMORP&EDC , whose knowledgeable and experienced staff and considerable reputation and assets will insure SEMOGIS will be here for the foreseeable future. A special word of thanks is also due to Big River Telephone company, who donated server rack space and Internet access. We could not function without their practically unlimited bandwidth.
HOW TO PAGES
Detailed instructions.
- Streamlining Geoprocessing with ModelBuilder, by Jennifer Kuntz (ESRI)
- Geodatabases: An Overview, by Jennifer Kuntz (ESRI)
- How to download a map from MSDIS and import into ArcView.
- How to add X, Y coordinates to ArcMap.
- How to convert Degree/Minute/Second to Decimal Degree (Excel spreadsheet)
- How to create buffers using the ArcGIS wizard.
| http://msdisweb.missouri.edu/ | MSDIS The Missouri Spatial Data Information Service |
| http://www.esri.com | ESRI The leading GIS software provider. |
GIS DATA LINKS
GPS LINKS
| Easy GPS | http://www.easygps.com/ |
| USA Photomaps | http://jdmcox.com/ |
http://www.semogis.com/GIS/