Technical Sessions Abstracts
Tom McCaffrey, University of Calgary
Data, data and more data - what to do with it all. As an institution with more than 40 years of gathering data, the problem that arises is how do we handle the vast quantity and mixed data types. The question isn't about storage rather more about usage. Can we use archival CAD data and combine it with modern geo-referenced LiDAR or vector data sets? How can we implement the use of this data to help plan and forecast the University's future? Will combined data types provide solutions to problems that do not directly have data related to them, in other words, can we use multiple data sets to create new hybrid data sets? This presentation will show how the University of Calgary uses both standard data and mixed hybrid data sets to inventory and plan the assets of the facilities management group. GIS technology is used to assist in new building development, landscape planning, way- finding, and improved student experience on campus. The process of asset management and geodesign helps make the University of Calgary a University of the Future.
Greg McDermid, University of Calgary
The new land-use policies in Alberta are designed to promote collaborative local management. As a result, resource extraction companies have a pressing need to create and maintain a shared repository with local-level information on the status of the landscapes on which they operate. However, to date there is no central repository or service that delivers stand-level, wall-to-wall information on the statis of habitats across the province. In this talk we introduce an ongoing Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) project aimed at (1) creating full-coverage baseline landcover map amenable to semi-automated accrual and updating that includes local accuracy estimates; (2) enhancing the baseline map with habitat attributes beyond landcover type; (3) developing semi-automated change-detection methods to update the baseline information regularly; (4) evaluating the feasibility of using the updated, accrued habitat map provide spatially distributed predictions of the status and trend of biodiversity within a region; and (5) developing a prototype service capable of delivering GIS products with information on habitat and biodiversity via the internet. The results of this project will benefit industrial, government, and non-government organizations throughout Alberta, and provide a practical example to other provincial and national monitoring programs.
Don Kitchener, MD of Willow Creek
Creating and maintaing a road network and addressing dataset can be a tedious and difficult task. This presentation aims to provide a background in how to structure and work with road and address data to ensure you have a routable and accurate dataset. Techniques will be given to perform quality checks along with a review of automated methods to make the process more effective and much less time consuming. Some creative tools that provide no cost to low cost alternatives to some of the mainstream methods will be reviewed. Should you choose to become a member of the AMDSP having your data in good order will make for a seamless integration into the larger dataset.
Jonathon McIntyre, i-Open Technologies
Just as the technology in GeoSpatial Applications themselves changes rapidly, the realm in which they are created, tested and deployed is changing as well. Economic challenges, diverse locations, collaborative teams and rapidly changing requirements are forcing geomatics departments to rethink how they deliver data and applications to stakeholders. Agile Development methodologies, cloud-based project management, distributed revision control, and continuous integration systems are key tools that i-Open is leveraging to respond to co-development challenges. We'll look at some of the issues we've run into in implementing a development system that allows collaborative development efforts while producing the highest quality code for applications.
Verda Kocabas, Blackbridge Geomatics
GIS datasets representing anthropogenic footprints play an essential role in many forms of spatial analysis on a landscape, and are an important data input in Alberta’s Land-use Framework Initiative for understanding and addressing issues such as the cumulative effects of natural resource development. These datasets provide information on the human impact, and help provide an indication of affected land, or areas left in a natural or near natural state. The current method of mapping anthropogenic footprints requires extensive manual interpretation and it follows assumptions based on typical or average areas, which draw into question the accuracy of datasets that are currently available.
Alberta Energy and Blackbridge Geomatics have collaborated to build an intelligent system for mapping anthropogenic footprints related to oil & gas production in Alberta. The project aims to create a method to efficiently and accurately map the spatial footprint of well pads and gas plants in the province (over 600,000 individual features), and to integrate this method into a complete semi-automated software solution for the production of GIS datasets. The innovative approach of image processing and shape detection used in this study will allow each feature's footprint area to be mapped on a per site basis. It provides a standardized method for mapping features with quantifiable accuracy, eliminating the need for estimation. The preliminary results show that the produced dataset achieves more than 90% accuracy, however, the current methodology requires continued refinement to overcome the challenges that have resulted from the implementation of automated production.
This study addresses current issues in mapping accuracy, such as shape and orientation of features, and develops a processing system framework which allows timely production of Alberta's well pad and gas plant footprint dataset. An energy footprint data layer over any oil and gas producing area that is produced with this technology can be useful in public and private sectors. Future steps will involve applying the developed technology to map additional anthropogenic footprint features, such as pipelines, forestry cut blocks, gravel pits, and resource access roads. At this time, all of these data layers are either non-existent or of unknown accuracy, and will be important for success of the Land-use Framework initiative.
Rhia Reikie, University of Calgary
Most fine spatial resolution imagery has been used in the urban environment. It is exceptionally heterogeneous, with features of interest that are sub-meter to meter in size. In traditional satellite imagery (20-100 m resolution) these individual objects are smaller than the pixel size (L-resolution) preventing detailed knowledge about the object. Only H-resolution imagery allows information to be gathered on these objects; H-resolution means that a single object contributes to the values represented by multiple pixels. High spatial resolution imagery (sub-meter resolution) can therefore detect those features of interest in an urban scene such as individual houses, cars in parking lots etc.
H-resolution imagery both requires and benefits from object based image analysis techniques (OBIA). OBIA uses algorithms to divide an image into object primitives representing regions of homogeneous pixels which are analyzed as a single unit or ‘object’. The analytical challenge of OBIA is to define the ‘objects’ such that they are similar to features of interest for the analyst. Once this relationship is secured, the objects allow the use of classification rules based on object properties, leading to more accurate image classification.
Use of OBIA in a high spatial resolution urban image is well known; its application to smaller ground features in a natural environment is less explored, but has high potential to add value to remote sensing approaches. In this application high resolution imagery analyzed with OBIA techniques is used where the features of interest are created by beavers. Beaver activity can have extensive impact on vegetation, habitat and animal or human mobility and as such needs to be identified when planning both conservation and infrastructure projects. As many of these features of interest can be meters in size it is important to use sub-meter imagery so that the features will be H-resolution. This project develops a process for identifying small beaver-related features in a natural landscape using OBIA. Both the process of optimizing object creation at various scales and the process of adapting classification rules for these objects are demonstrated.
David Birkigt, University of Calgary
Over the past decade the Little Smoky region of West-Central Alberta has undergone rapid development by forestry and upstream activity. A changing ecosystem associated with this development has led to concerns for the population status of the woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) herd. To understand the challenges and find potential solutions, an understanding of the organisms themselves and their interactions with future landscape conditions must be achieved. Geospatial data-driven techniques from complex systems modeling and artificial intelligence provide insight and a means of exploring resolutions to such environmental issues. This presentation will introduce the audience to the implementation of a scenario-based geographic cellular automata (CA) of upstream activity, and its integration with an agent-based model (ABM) of caribou activity, using the Little Smoky herd as a case study. The CA simulates plausible future scenarios of development based on historical development patterns as observed on satellite imagery and discussion with experts. The ABM represents caribou as agents, and captures their behaviors as observed in GPS-collar telemetry data through rule-based decision making. In a GIS environment, the ABM representation of caribou can be combined with future landscapes, allowing for the testing of scenarios of land development and mitigation measures on caribou population resilience. This represents a unique tool with benefits to industry, government and the public.
Andrew Pylypchuk, Blackbridge Geomatics
Vast national and provincial repositories of historical aerial photography are largely inaccessible due to incompatibility with modern digital processing and distribution technology. These information resources can add significant value for geospatial decision-making when accessed and utilized within a modern geospatial software platform. The current method of processing historical air photos relies on extensive manual processes, and does not give users the ability to processes large volumes of air photos quickly and efficiently. The project objective is to create a system for the automated processing of digital air photos and the associated metadata, and a managed archive and web mapping service to efficiently store and disseminate the digital data to users.
Scanned air photos require significant pre-processing in order to be used in geographic information systems. This can involve modeling, orthorectification and tonal balancing of each image, creation of large area mosaics, and processing of mosaics into a managed geospatial platform. Geo-correction and proper tonal balancing can be a major challenge due to the lack of ground control points for historical data, highly varied acquisition parameters (altitude, weather, date) and the typical lack of associated metadata (camera calibrations, exterior orientations, acquisition scale, focal names). Currently, there is no off-the-shelf software package available that can automatically process and manage scanned historical air photos. Without this critical technology, a unique and valuable source of historical geo-intelligence cannot be leveraged in contemporary geospatial mapping and analysis systems.
The proposed data ingestion system allows for automated processing (orthorectification, tonal balancing and mosaicking) of scanned historical air photos. Due to the lack of ground control points for historical data, highly varied acquisition parameters and in many cases, non-existent metadata, this geo-correction and tonal balancing requires new technology. The BlackBridge Geomatics proprietary air photo correction system was developed in partnership with PCI Geomatics for ingesting and correcting imagery from the Government of Canada’s National Air Photo Library (NAPL), which dates as far back as 1928. The NAPL air photos present many challenges for image ingestion and processing. The media has not been stored in ideal conditions resulting in degradation such as warped film and contact prints; the imagery is often faded or has been marked by previous users. The older photography does not always have fiducial marks or accurate geographic metadata resulting in difficulty geo-positioning the imagery. The processing system developed and utilized to catalogue, geo-reference and store the imagery uses a multi-step approach to correctly identify the location and accurately orthorectify the imagery while compensating and correcting for some of the problems in the physical media.
The project workflow was setup as a semi-automated staged approach, with each stage having a specific task (ingestion, coarse correction, fine correction). The project expects to bring historical air photos from physical storage in warehouse to easy accessibility on the web in a useful geospatial platform. This historical data will be indispensable for future integrated mapping efforts including land use change of the Canadian prairies from the 1920’s to present. This archive will allow scientists to detect the land use changes that have taken place, particularly in the built-up land, and to understand and model land use changes that might take place in the future.
Dale Rhyason, D.B. Rhyason & Associates
This will be an “interactive” presentation / discussion that will both entertain and challenge attendees. This discussion will not focus on what technology can do for us but will focus on what we can do for our organizations, our customers and our shareholders by effectively implementing the GIS and related technology we have today or that is emerging in the near future. Dale will lead the discussion with observations based on 30 years of following GIS implementation. Join us to share your thoughts, ideas and challenges on achieving GA3 and to hear other ideas on what we need to do to be effective.
Therese Morris, Mountain View County
In 1997 there was a recognized need for the development and maintenance of a standardized digital dataset to support emergency vehicle dispatch and routing within the province. Originally called the Southern Alberta Emergency Routing Project (SAERP) the Alberta Municipal Data Sharing Partnership (AMDSP) is an initiative that provides province-wide municipal support for integration and sharing of emergency data. The membership is comprised of both urban and rural municipalities and is guided by a volunteer board who are elected from the AMDSP Membership.
The primary mission of this partnership is “promotes the creation and sharing of "accurate" and standardized municipal GIS data within its Membership and with Member identified agencies for the betterment of emergency and public services in the province of Alberta”. In doing so, this partnership provides a municipal GIS dataset, including address points, points of interest and a single road network for emergency and public service use in Alberta to organizations including:
• Alberta Health Services
• Emergency Dispatch Agencies
• Alberta Emergency Management Agency
• Alberta One Call Corporation
• Alberta Solicitor General API3 Program
• RCMP/Peace Officers
• Elections Alberta
• Mapping Provider: TomTom
• School Divisions
• Statistics Canada - for the Census
• Spatial Data Warehouse – Address Alberta Initiative
• Stantec Consulting Ltd. - Alberta and Geobase Road Maintenance.
The vision of this partnership is to provide “Open sharing, access to, and use of ONE set of municipally controlled GIS data for emergency and public services in the Province of Alberta”. With an original membership of only 9 municipalities in 2007 there are now more than 78 members. Come and have a look at what the AMDSP has to offer and how your municipality can benefit from this effort. We’ll even give you a sneak peek at the data and the data standards already being used and maintained by this partnership.
Tracey Harvey, Selkirk College
The purpose of this presentation is to share innovative and collaborative work that occurred during the winter term of 2012 within Selkirk College’s Advanced Diploma and Bachelor of GIS programs; GIS was employed to study teen pregnancy.
This presentation will explore the project development and goal identification processes, data availability and resolution, mapping considerations and challenges and GIS and Nursing collaboration benefits. In Summary, GIS students’ skill improved greatly and Nursing students applied epidemiology directly thereby learning more about teen pregnancy.
Attendees will learn about the real work that needs to occur in order to apply GIS to a health concern. They will be exposed to important details that need to be considered and the complexity of using GIS within this relatively new field. Stories shared will be transferable to other areas of health.
Jennifer Janzen, ALCES Group
Alberta has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. While this growth has created a vibrant and prosperous economy, it has also placed tremendous strain on the forest, grassland and rivers which help to sustain our economy and population. All Albertans need to understand this pressing issue.
Alberta Tomorrow is an effective educational tool for teachers, students and all Albertans that helps Albertans understand the process of sustainable planning that balances land-uses such as agriculture, oil and gas and forestry with ecological integrity.
Daryl McEwan, GeoDiscover Alberta / Sustainable Resource Development
GeoDiscover Alberta (GDA) Program was established in 2009 as the Government of Alberta’s primary gateway to web-based geospatial data and information services. Accessible to industry and the general public, GDA maintains a catalogue of provincial geospatial data and service assets required to help make informed decisions regarding land use. With over 1350 data layers and map services and still growing, GDA is a cooperative, collaborative model where multiple groups develop and implement policies, standards and technical solutions.
This session is an overview of the GeoDiscover Alberta program as well as a demonstration of the program’s public-facing portal. It will be of interest to anyone wanting to know better how to access GIS data from the Government of Alberta as well as those interested in land-use planning, Cumulative Effects Management and Regulatory Enhancement.
Lawrence Zhang, ERCB
The spatial data is increasingly used by organizations to make business decisions. It requires the geodatabase to be a live data source in order to ensure data accuracy and timeliness. Unfortunately, some technical and historical limitations lead most organizations to separate business database and geodatabase into different servers. Even when the data are located in the same server, most business data are not ready for GIS applications.
This presentation describes an ETL (extract, transform and load) service which ERCB has developed. This service performs the GIS data formation and replication from a non-spatial database to a geodatabase. This service can be utilized in multiple ways and on a real-time or near real-time basis.
In the ERCB, we have developed a GIS application development framework that enables us to implement the ETL service as a subset. This service-oriented framework provides an extensible software development methodology using ArcGIS Server. The software developers can implement individual ETL business services using the ArcGIS server object extensions. In many cases, software developers are not needed.
There are several mechanisms for the ETL service to be initiated: a direct call from a client application; polled by ETL engine to check the source data for changes; calls from the database triggers or the SQL Service Broker.
The ETL service is a multi-tiered system composed of a WCF service tier, an ArcGIS Server tier and a geodatabase tier.
A very useful ETL process, Generic ETL, was implemented. This process is derived from the ETL framework and extended to a set of ETL scenarios which satisfy some common conditions. The advantage of using this process is that we can create ETL services for wide range of data without having to write software code. Instead of specifying the specific business rules in the software code, they are located in a few database objects.
A windows ETL polling service was also created, which can be used to trigger the ELT process at scheduled polling intervals, polling times and with some desired dependencies among different jobs.
Abdel-Rahman Muhsen, GISCorps (URISA)
GISCorps is a program of the Urban and Regional Information System Association (URISA). It coordinates short-term volunteers who provide GIS services to underserved communities worldwide. Since its inception in October 2003, the Corps has attracted over 2,500 volunteers from over 93 countries and deployed over 272 volunteers to 88 missions in 42 countries.
This presentation describes a crowdsourcing mission that was initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to GISCorps, this mission involved several volunteering organizations. The main goal was to crowdsource the available health facilities in Libya after the revolution, and to produce a final GIS layer that would help WHO return and operate in Libya.
GISCorps was assigned the role of QA/QC the crowdsourced data. The challenges and methods applied are discusses in this presentation.
Tanya Charles, Clover Point
Those who have the data are no longer defining our world; those who share the data are defining our world.
So, the question is how do you bring millions of people together, authenticate them for permission to collaborate on various disparate data sets, using tools and processes that are already corporately adopted? Using case studies such as the University of British Columbia, and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations we will show you how sharing data using the right tools and the right avenues can make you rethink what the cloud really is and how much your organization will be revolutionized by being early adopters. This is not your Grandmother’s cloud.
Sharing data is no longer just about Open Gov, and the Web 2.0 model. These are just a means to an end. Sharing data is about finding the best way to combine unlimited data sources for consumption within a venue that brings authorized tiers of users together for a smarter way to collaborate and make decisions regardless of ancient barriers like time space and language. This is the new methodology, driven by people, for people. The new Cloud applications are accessible, integrated, standardized, designed for maximum understanding and intelligence. Goodnight Grandma.
Trevor Wiens, Apropos Information Systems Inc.
Using Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in land use planning, management, or modelling is difficult for many reasons but primarily because of issues with data access, completeness, privacy, and representation. Spatially explicit planning or modelling tools (e.g. Marxan, SELES) use GIS area layers of planning units as their base. Treating IK as observational data in this same planning unit framework can be used to effectively address both representational and privacy issues. Emphasis on printed reports has hindered the development of living repositories of IK data. Living repositories can provide ready access and also be used to effectively plan future data gathering efforts and in turn create reasonably complete and representative IK data sets. Trevor has been involved with IK data for almost 20 years and presents his experiences with these issues and a solution he has developed for Indigenous Communities to effectively capture and use their IK.
Vanessa Vallis, Golder Associates
Remote sensing techniques have made it possible to semi-automate the mapping of various land cover types, typically via the analysis of multi-spectral imagery. This talk highlights recent advancements in field of Remote Predictive Mapping (RPM) and how this technique can be applied to projects in Alberta. As the availability of high resolution digital imagery and DEMs increases, new analysis capabilities and techniques are being developed. Recent advances in remote sensing techniques have made it possible to use bare earth LiDAR in an object based image analysis (OBIA) to automate the classification of geomorphic features based on their morphometry. Data pre-processing and auxiliary datasets such as, terrain derivatives and multispectral images are additional elements that may be incorporated to increase analysis capabilities. This methodology facilitates the mapping of the geomorphic landscape at a level of detail driven by the analyst.
Veronica Krawcewicz and Dean Vigoren, University of Alberta
From their creation until September of 2011, the old University of Alberta maps existed on the web environment as a cropped PDF file with a grid. Research showed there was demand in the University of Alberta community for a better mapping utility. The new maps were envisioned to be usable and useful to students, faculty and staff, or anyone who needed to “know where to go” on any University of Alberta campus. This project includes a Google Maps interface incorporating new and old information layers, realistic 3D buildings, and 360-degree panoramas and tours. The mapping system continues to evolve as new layers of data and interactive tools are created.
Presentation attendees will learn about the process of this project: creating 3D building models for Google Earth, panoramas and tours for 360Cities, and KML information layers. They will also learn how these assets can then be applied in exciting and interesting research projects that were not envisioned when the project began. Anyone interested in working with KML files and 3D models for Google Earth, or who is interested in the progress of GIS for universities, would benefit from attending.
Nigel Forster, City of Medicine Hat
In the Spring of 2010, the Medicine Hat Fire Service approached the city’s GIS Department, to initiate an analysis study, as part of their (Council directed) 10 year strategic plan. The focus of the study was to compile and analyze five years of (FDM) incident data, and from this to develop GIS maps to visually represent the Fire Services’ response time areas, and to create an accurate view of possible gaps in coverage. An additional purpose of the analysis was to evaluate the existing response time guideline (approved by City Council in 2004) of having the first arriving engine company (4 firefighters) on scene within 6 minutes (2 minute preparation and 4 minute drive time, 90% of the time.
Once the study of call compliance was complete, it became evident that there were major residential areas of the city that were currently outside the 6 minute response protocol. GIS coverage maps were then analyzed in relation to municipal census data stored in the corporate GIS database, to estimate how many residents could be at risk. Currently close to 20,000 people (approximately one third of Medicine Hat’s population) reside outside the area serviced under the existing department guidelines. As a direct result of the GIS analysis, a decision item was drafted and presented to City Council in July 2010, with a recommendation to build a fourth station in Medicine Hat by 2014. The Network Analyst extension was then used to evaluate potential locations for the new additional station, to minimize the gaps identified in the response coverage analysis.
This presentation will examine the methodology for creating accurate coverage maps, for calculating the number of people at risk, and for developing an accurate road network file (including turn restrictions and impedance values) to be used to model various potential locations and scenarios utilizing the Network Analyst extension for ArcGIS.
Chris Moon, Rocky View County
Rocky View County spends more than half of its annual budget on maintaining road assets. Thus how to track road maintenance records has always been an important issue to the maintenance planner. CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) system have been used to keep maintenance records, but these systems lack the ability to organize and visualize location data to users.
Recently our GIS system successfully managed to integrate and visualize information from the two different systems in a GIS environment. This presentation introduces how GIS is applied to AVL and CMMS with different coordinate systems (Cartesian and Linear Reference Systems). Eventually two systems marry in a GIS environment and GIS provides the integrated information to users.
Dale Lutz, Safe Software
The past 20 years have seen incredible changes in how Geospatial Data is collected, transformed, visualized, and used. From tapes with Kilobytes of simple raster datasets, to diskettes with 2D CAD files, to spatial databases, to 3D, to Gigabyte point clouds, mapping professionals have never had such a wealth and diversity of information available to them. The presentation will explore these developments and examine the direction of recent industry trends through the lens of Safe Software, the Canada-based maker of FME® and the experts in spatial data transformation.
Steve Liang, University of Calgary, Department of Geomatics Engineering
Recently large-scale sensor arrays and the vast data sets they produce worldwide are being utilized, shared and published by a rising number of researchers on an ever-increasing frequency. With the rapidly increasing number of sensor network deployments, the vision of a World-Wide Sensor Web is becoming a reality. However, realizing the sensor web vision is very challenging. Building a sensor web system requires addressing the following open problems: (1) Discovering relevant data among the distributed sensors and delivering it to interested users efficiently, (2) Handling heterogeneous sensor networks and their data independently of the underlying network protocols, data models, and data formats, (3) Preventing transfer large volumes of sensor data streams, and (4) Handling large numbers of sensors, and large numbers of users. In the GeoCENS (Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Sensing) project, we designed an architecture and built a sensor web platform. With GeoCENS, users can maneuver a 3D sensor web browser, within a single virtual globe, in order to discover, visualize, access and share heterogeneous and ubiquitous sensing resources, and other relevant information. Our aim is to address the aforementioned technical challenges, propose innovative approaches, and provide the missing software components for realizing a worldwide sensor web.
Alex Joseph, Cybera
The Water and Environmental Hub (WEHUB) project has created a cloud-based, open source web platform that aggregates, federates, and connects water and environmental data. It better enables users from across the water community to access, mashup, analyze, model and interpret water data, information, issues and opportunities. By combining water expertise with an open web development approach the project spurs economic diversification and benefits both public users and the private sector by improving access to water data, information, and tools for academia, government, industry, NGOs, and the general public.
In partnership with other open data repositories around water, the WEHUB has developed a web-based platform that not only provides a water-related data catalogue, but delivers an innovative aggregator service that is linked with a unified output service (API). This allows organizations and users to develop customized applications on top of the WEHUB web platform and gain access to all of the WEHUB's aggregated data. Open standards (e.g. OGC standards such as WMS, WFS, SOS, WaterML, GroundWaterML, etc.) are used whenever practical, efficient and economical to meet the needs of users. The project extends across Alberta and Western Canada, with scalability a key design thrust.
This two year (2010-12), $1.8 million project is funded by Western Economic Diversification, the University of Lethbridge, and Cybera Inc. The project is driven by the University of Lethbridge, Cybera Inc., and the Alberta WaterPortal. Tesera Systems and Dr. Steve Liang (GeoSensor Web Lab) are the lead developers for the project.
Tara Seitz, GiQ Inc.
Geographic Information Systems are, in fact, systems and it is time we started managing them that way. Ensure the continuity and effectiveness of your GIS by capturing the whats, wheres, whys, whens and how-tos. This presentation will help you understand the importance of documentation, and its value when done correctly. S stands for system - so start minding your policies, procedures and quality standards.
Jeff Lamb, Pacific Alliance Technologies
The City of Whitehorse had stored its financial and asset information in separate databases and GIS data was only available on a few desktops throughout the municipality. By standardizing on the ESRI platform, the City was able to consolidate all of its data into a central geodatabase. Using the ArcGIS for Microsoft Silverlight API, Pacific Alliance Technologies then implemented iVAULT ArcGIS to enable GIS, asset and financial data to be linked and published through the Web. This transition has significantly streamlined infrastructure maintenance, enabling the City to minimize disruptions and provide more reliable customer service. City staff can now click on any asset and pull up the corresponding work order. This enables municipal staff to see which work orders should be prioritized based on urgency, as well as identify the status of ongoing projects. Public Works Supervisors can also directly edit work orders and share information with employees.
Michael Schlosser, Autodesk
Explore “what could be” in the context of “what is” with 3D GIS and geospatially enabled 3D conceptual design tools for creating, evaluating and communicating convincing infrastructure project proposals for faster stakeholder approval and more confident decision making. Attend this presentation to see how you can incorporate existing 2D CAD, GIS, BIM, and raster data to quickly create 3D models that more realistically depict the local environment. Learn how you can easily evaluate multiple design alternatives in the context of the existing environment by overlaying GIS data and using infrastructure sketching and proposal management tools. See how you can communicate visually rich proposals of these alternatives with interactive navigations, rendered images, and recorded videos.
Gary Zhang, MRF Geosystems Corporation
This presentation focuses on the successes achieved and the lessons learnt from implementing web-based GIS for many municipalities in Canada and US. It will cover the system architecture for internal-facing and public-facing web sites, user privilege management, map plotting, map tips, GIS editing, and website hosting. One major challenge is the integration with other enterprise systems such as Taxation, Assessment, Automatic Vehicle Location, Asset Management, Document Management, and E-commerce. Another major challenge is the balance of cost, capability, and performance. Screen shots from real projects will be used extensively in this presentation.
Cindy Post, University of Alberta
The Early Childhood Development Mapping Project (ECMAP) is a five year initiative that aims to strengthen Alberta's ability to make positive early childhood development a reality for every child in the province. Using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) combined with socio-economic and community data, analyzed information provides insights into how young children are developing in different geographic areas in Alberta and across the province, and possibly into the factors and circumstances that may affect development.
As the popular context for GIS typically supports the natural resource sector, this project uses GIS in support of social mapping or human geography. In its middle stages, this presentation is an overview of the ECMAP project, and will highlight research processes, initial results, and how GIS was integrated to support a social context.
Mauricio Yamanaka, University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
The manifold effects of climate change in vegetation dynamics have become a priority research topic over the past decades. Tropical dry forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, yet it has been poorly investigated. In tropical ecosystems, the seasonal development of vegetation also known as phenology is largely dependent of the timing and amount of rainfall. Recent studies have shown changes in precipitation patterns across the Americas, thus mapping the activity and development of vegetation requires high temporal data.
Remote sensing phenology has emerged as a feasible method to assess land surface dynamics over large geographic extents. This study employs satellite time series at 250m resolution from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to evaluate the response of vegetation to climate variations in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. The data were processed by function fitting in TIMESAT; a stand-alone program developed by Malmö University, Sweden; that fits a smoothing algorithm to satellite data. This project has mapped the spatial distribution of dry forest phenology over the past decade. Our metrics included the beginning and end of seasons, as well as key seasonality parameters such as ecosystem productivity. This research adds to our current knowledge of land surface processes at the regional scale.
Darcey Reynard, University of Alberta
A child's early development is influenced by his or her environment – including the built form of cities. But these built environments can vary greatly depending upon how neighbourhoods are constructed. In the two major cities in Alberta, Canada (Calgary and Edmonton), neighbourhoods built before World War II tend to be more walkable and are characterized by a mix of residential development that includes more amenities for children (e.g., schools and health facilities). More recent, post-war suburban development is much more dependent upon the private automobile. Furthermore, there are fewer amenities for children in these recent developments, despite the high numbers of young families with children who inhabit these neighbourhoods. This greater dependence on the automobile, as well as the greater travel distance to reach children’s amenities should, therefore impact early childhood development. The Early Development Index (EDI) is being used across Alberta to assess the development of children at the level of their communities of residence. Using the EDI, it was possible to test if a child's development was possibly dependent upon the walkability of his or her environment. It can be difficult to evaluate walkability, so a number of neighbourhood characteristics were used as an approximation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software can be used to calculate these approximations of walkability and then model their spatial relationships with EDI results.
Sinisa Vukicevic, University of Alberta
The paper (presentation) is an attempt to introduce the concept of environmental protection in the planning process on the principle of dynamic modelling with the aim to identify potential impact of planned activities on the environment and to determine the optimal alternative development. The paper will introduce the application of the model of integration as an approach that will assist the planner and the decision maker to achieve a more sustainable decision. Moreover, the presentation will try to explore possibility of application of the Model to Canadian environment, particularly in (the province of) Alberta.
The model is defined under the SEA terms that relate to the Republic of Ireland. Nevertheless, the model is universally applicable, although it would be necessary to calibrate it to the local conditions. Since the SEA regulations are more or less unique at the EU level (SEA Directive) and even Canadian level, calibration is related to the local planning systems rather than to the local SEA systems.
The model of integration consists of two sub-models: the cumulative environmental sensitivity sub-model and the expected development pressures sub-model.
The environmental sensitivity sub-model aims to generate a cumulative environmental sensitivity map. This is a synthesis map of environmental elements observed in terms of the degree of their sensitivity to planned activities. The sub-model aims to determine the most sensitive areas from the standpoint of the environment and to guide decision makers to in the optimal (most sustainable) direction for future development in order to meet new development demands.
The development pressure sub-model was based on population and employment indicators. The population data came from the Census where the population growth was analyzed in census period: 2002 and 2006. Employment data may be within the general census data or may come from separate studies. In the case of Ireland, the employment data came from the POWCAR data source, which analyzed information from the Census.
Technical Sessions Abstracts
Tom McCaffrey, University of Calgary
Data, data and more data - what to do with it all. As an institution with more than 40 years of gathering data, the problem that arises is how do we handle the vast quantity and mixed data types. The question isn't about storage rather more about usage. Can we use archival CAD data and combine it with modern geo-referenced LiDAR or vector data sets? How can we implement the use of this data to help plan and forecast the University's future? Will combined data types provide solutions to problems that do not directly have data related to them, in other words, can we use multiple data sets to create new hybrid data sets? This presentation will show how the University of Calgary uses both standard data and mixed hybrid data sets to inventory and plan the assets of the facilities management group. GIS technology is used to assist in new building development, landscape planning, way- finding, and improved student experience on campus. The process of asset management and geodesign helps make the University of Calgary a University of the Future.
Greg McDermid, University of Calgary
The new land-use policies in Alberta are designed to promote collaborative local management. As a result, resource extraction companies have a pressing need to create and maintain a shared repository with local-level information on the status of the landscapes on which they operate. However, to date there is no central repository or service that delivers stand-level, wall-to-wall information on the statis of habitats across the province. In this talk we introduce an ongoing Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) project aimed at (1) creating full-coverage baseline landcover map amenable to semi-automated accrual and updating that includes local accuracy estimates; (2) enhancing the baseline map with habitat attributes beyond landcover type; (3) developing semi-automated change-detection methods to update the baseline information regularly; (4) evaluating the feasibility of using the updated, accrued habitat map provide spatially distributed predictions of the status and trend of biodiversity within a region; and (5) developing a prototype service capable of delivering GIS products with information on habitat and biodiversity via the internet. The results of this project will benefit industrial, government, and non-government organizations throughout Alberta, and provide a practical example to other provincial and national monitoring programs.
Don Kitchener, MD of Willow Creek
Creating and maintaing a road network and addressing dataset can be a tedious and difficult task. This presentation aims to provide a background in how to structure and work with road and address data to ensure you have a routable and accurate dataset. Techniques will be given to perform quality checks along with a review of automated methods to make the process more effective and much less time consuming. Some creative tools that provide no cost to low cost alternatives to some of the mainstream methods will be reviewed. Should you choose to become a member of the AMDSP having your data in good order will make for a seamless integration into the larger dataset.
Jonathon McIntyre, i-Open Technologies
Just as the technology in GeoSpatial Applications themselves changes rapidly, the realm in which they are created, tested and deployed is changing as well. Economic challenges, diverse locations, collaborative teams and rapidly changing requirements are forcing geomatics departments to rethink how they deliver data and applications to stakeholders. Agile Development methodologies, cloud-based project management, distributed revision control, and continuous integration systems are key tools that i-Open is leveraging to respond to co-development challenges. We'll look at some of the issues we've run into in implementing a development system that allows collaborative development efforts while producing the highest quality code for applications.
Verda Kocabas, Blackbridge Geomatics
GIS datasets representing anthropogenic footprints play an essential role in many forms of spatial analysis on a landscape, and are an important data input in Alberta’s Land-use Framework Initiative for understanding and addressing issues such as the cumulative effects of natural resource development. These datasets provide information on the human impact, and help provide an indication of affected land, or areas left in a natural or near natural state. The current method of mapping anthropogenic footprints requires extensive manual interpretation and it follows assumptions based on typical or average areas, which draw into question the accuracy of datasets that are currently available.
Alberta Energy and Blackbridge Geomatics have collaborated to build an intelligent system for mapping anthropogenic footprints related to oil & gas production in Alberta. The project aims to create a method to efficiently and accurately map the spatial footprint of well pads and gas plants in the province (over 600,000 individual features), and to integrate this method into a complete semi-automated software solution for the production of GIS datasets. The innovative approach of image processing and shape detection used in this study will allow each feature's footprint area to be mapped on a per site basis. It provides a standardized method for mapping features with quantifiable accuracy, eliminating the need for estimation. The preliminary results show that the produced dataset achieves more than 90% accuracy, however, the current methodology requires continued refinement to overcome the challenges that have resulted from the implementation of automated production.
This study addresses current issues in mapping accuracy, such as shape and orientation of features, and develops a processing system framework which allows timely production of Alberta's well pad and gas plant footprint dataset. An energy footprint data layer over any oil and gas producing area that is produced with this technology can be useful in public and private sectors. Future steps will involve applying the developed technology to map additional anthropogenic footprint features, such as pipelines, forestry cut blocks, gravel pits, and resource access roads. At this time, all of these data layers are either non-existent or of unknown accuracy, and will be important for success of the Land-use Framework initiative.
Rhia Reikie, University of Calgary
Most fine spatial resolution imagery has been used in the urban environment. It is exceptionally heterogeneous, with features of interest that are sub-meter to meter in size. In traditional satellite imagery (20-100 m resolution) these individual objects are smaller than the pixel size (L-resolution) preventing detailed knowledge about the object. Only H-resolution imagery allows information to be gathered on these objects; H-resolution means that a single object contributes to the values represented by multiple pixels. High spatial resolution imagery (sub-meter resolution) can therefore detect those features of interest in an urban scene such as individual houses, cars in parking lots etc.
H-resolution imagery both requires and benefits from object based image analysis techniques (OBIA). OBIA uses algorithms to divide an image into object primitives representing regions of homogeneous pixels which are analyzed as a single unit or ‘object’. The analytical challenge of OBIA is to define the ‘objects’ such that they are similar to features of interest for the analyst. Once this relationship is secured, the objects allow the use of classification rules based on object properties, leading to more accurate image classification.
Use of OBIA in a high spatial resolution urban image is well known; its application to smaller ground features in a natural environment is less explored, but has high potential to add value to remote sensing approaches. In this application high resolution imagery analyzed with OBIA techniques is used where the features of interest are created by beavers. Beaver activity can have extensive impact on vegetation, habitat and animal or human mobility and as such needs to be identified when planning both conservation and infrastructure projects. As many of these features of interest can be meters in size it is important to use sub-meter imagery so that the features will be H-resolution. This project develops a process for identifying small beaver-related features in a natural landscape using OBIA. Both the process of optimizing object creation at various scales and the process of adapting classification rules for these objects are demonstrated.
David Birkigt, University of Calgary
Over the past decade the Little Smoky region of West-Central Alberta has undergone rapid development by forestry and upstream activity. A changing ecosystem associated with this development has led to concerns for the population status of the woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) herd. To understand the challenges and find potential solutions, an understanding of the organisms themselves and their interactions with future landscape conditions must be achieved. Geospatial data-driven techniques from complex systems modeling and artificial intelligence provide insight and a means of exploring resolutions to such environmental issues. This presentation will introduce the audience to the implementation of a scenario-based geographic cellular automata (CA) of upstream activity, and its integration with an agent-based model (ABM) of caribou activity, using the Little Smoky herd as a case study. The CA simulates plausible future scenarios of development based on historical development patterns as observed on satellite imagery and discussion with experts. The ABM represents caribou as agents, and captures their behaviors as observed in GPS-collar telemetry data through rule-based decision making. In a GIS environment, the ABM representation of caribou can be combined with future landscapes, allowing for the testing of scenarios of land development and mitigation measures on caribou population resilience. This represents a unique tool with benefits to industry, government and the public.
Andrew Pylypchuk, Blackbridge Geomatics
Vast national and provincial repositories of historical aerial photography are largely inaccessible due to incompatibility with modern digital processing and distribution technology. These information resources can add significant value for geospatial decision-making when accessed and utilized within a modern geospatial software platform. The current method of processing historical air photos relies on extensive manual processes, and does not give users the ability to processes large volumes of air photos quickly and efficiently. The project objective is to create a system for the automated processing of digital air photos and the associated metadata, and a managed archive and web mapping service to efficiently store and disseminate the digital data to users.
Scanned air photos require significant pre-processing in order to be used in geographic information systems. This can involve modeling, orthorectification and tonal balancing of each image, creation of large area mosaics, and processing of mosaics into a managed geospatial platform. Geo-correction and proper tonal balancing can be a major challenge due to the lack of ground control points for historical data, highly varied acquisition parameters (altitude, weather, date) and the typical lack of associated metadata (camera calibrations, exterior orientations, acquisition scale, focal names). Currently, there is no off-the-shelf software package available that can automatically process and manage scanned historical air photos. Without this critical technology, a unique and valuable source of historical geo-intelligence cannot be leveraged in contemporary geospatial mapping and analysis systems.
The proposed data ingestion system allows for automated processing (orthorectification, tonal balancing and mosaicking) of scanned historical air photos. Due to the lack of ground control points for historical data, highly varied acquisition parameters and in many cases, non-existent metadata, this geo-correction and tonal balancing requires new technology. The BlackBridge Geomatics proprietary air photo correction system was developed in partnership with PCI Geomatics for ingesting and correcting imagery from the Government of Canada’s National Air Photo Library (NAPL), which dates as far back as 1928. The NAPL air photos present many challenges for image ingestion and processing. The media has not been stored in ideal conditions resulting in degradation such as warped film and contact prints; the imagery is often faded or has been marked by previous users. The older photography does not always have fiducial marks or accurate geographic metadata resulting in difficulty geo-positioning the imagery. The processing system developed and utilized to catalogue, geo-reference and store the imagery uses a multi-step approach to correctly identify the location and accurately orthorectify the imagery while compensating and correcting for some of the problems in the physical media.
The project workflow was setup as a semi-automated staged approach, with each stage having a specific task (ingestion, coarse correction, fine correction). The project expects to bring historical air photos from physical storage in warehouse to easy accessibility on the web in a useful geospatial platform. This historical data will be indispensable for future integrated mapping efforts including land use change of the Canadian prairies from the 1920’s to present. This archive will allow scientists to detect the land use changes that have taken place, particularly in the built-up land, and to understand and model land use changes that might take place in the future.
Dale Rhyason, D.B. Rhyason & Associates
This will be an “interactive” presentation / discussion that will both entertain and challenge attendees. This discussion will not focus on what technology can do for us but will focus on what we can do for our organizations, our customers and our shareholders by effectively implementing the GIS and related technology we have today or that is emerging in the near future. Dale will lead the discussion with observations based on 30 years of following GIS implementation. Join us to share your thoughts, ideas and challenges on achieving GA3 and to hear other ideas on what we need to do to be effective.
Therese Morris, Mountain View County
In 1997 there was a recognized need for the development and maintenance of a standardized digital dataset to support emergency vehicle dispatch and routing within the province. Originally called the Southern Alberta Emergency Routing Project (SAERP) the Alberta Municipal Data Sharing Partnership (AMDSP) is an initiative that provides province-wide municipal support for integration and sharing of emergency data. The membership is comprised of both urban and rural municipalities and is guided by a volunteer board who are elected from the AMDSP Membership.
The primary mission of this partnership is “promotes the creation and sharing of "accurate" and standardized municipal GIS data within its Membership and with Member identified agencies for the betterment of emergency and public services in the province of Alberta”. In doing so, this partnership provides a municipal GIS dataset, including address points, points of interest and a single road network for emergency and public service use in Alberta to organizations including:
• Alberta Health Services
• Emergency Dispatch Agencies
• Alberta Emergency Management Agency
• Alberta One Call Corporation
• Alberta Solicitor General API3 Program
• RCMP/Peace Officers
• Elections Alberta
• Mapping Provider: TomTom
• School Divisions
• Statistics Canada - for the Census
• Spatial Data Warehouse – Address Alberta Initiative
• Stantec Consulting Ltd. - Alberta and Geobase Road Maintenance.
The vision of this partnership is to provide “Open sharing, access to, and use of ONE set of municipally controlled GIS data for emergency and public services in the Province of Alberta”. With an original membership of only 9 municipalities in 2007 there are now more than 78 members. Come and have a look at what the AMDSP has to offer and how your municipality can benefit from this effort. We’ll even give you a sneak peek at the data and the data standards already being used and maintained by this partnership.
Tracey Harvey, Selkirk College
The purpose of this presentation is to share innovative and collaborative work that occurred during the winter term of 2012 within Selkirk College’s Advanced Diploma and Bachelor of GIS programs; GIS was employed to study teen pregnancy.
This presentation will explore the project development and goal identification processes, data availability and resolution, mapping considerations and challenges and GIS and Nursing collaboration benefits. In Summary, GIS students’ skill improved greatly and Nursing students applied epidemiology directly thereby learning more about teen pregnancy.
Attendees will learn about the real work that needs to occur in order to apply GIS to a health concern. They will be exposed to important details that need to be considered and the complexity of using GIS within this relatively new field. Stories shared will be transferable to other areas of health.
Jennifer Janzen, ALCES Group
Alberta has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. While this growth has created a vibrant and prosperous economy, it has also placed tremendous strain on the forest, grassland and rivers which help to sustain our economy and population. All Albertans need to understand this pressing issue.
Alberta Tomorrow is an effective educational tool for teachers, students and all Albertans that helps Albertans understand the process of sustainable planning that balances land-uses such as agriculture, oil and gas and forestry with ecological integrity.
Daryl McEwan, GeoDiscover Alberta / Sustainable Resource Development
GeoDiscover Alberta (GDA) Program was established in 2009 as the Government of Alberta’s primary gateway to web-based geospatial data and information services. Accessible to industry and the general public, GDA maintains a catalogue of provincial geospatial data and service assets required to help make informed decisions regarding land use. With over 1350 data layers and map services and still growing, GDA is a cooperative, collaborative model where multiple groups develop and implement policies, standards and technical solutions.
This session is an overview of the GeoDiscover Alberta program as well as a demonstration of the program’s public-facing portal. It will be of interest to anyone wanting to know better how to access GIS data from the Government of Alberta as well as those interested in land-use planning, Cumulative Effects Management and Regulatory Enhancement.
Lawrence Zhang, ERCB
The spatial data is increasingly used by organizations to make business decisions. It requires the geodatabase to be a live data source in order to ensure data accuracy and timeliness. Unfortunately, some technical and historical limitations lead most organizations to separate business database and geodatabase into different servers. Even when the data are located in the same server, most business data are not ready for GIS applications.
This presentation describes an ETL (extract, transform and load) service which ERCB has developed. This service performs the GIS data formation and replication from a non-spatial database to a geodatabase. This service can be utilized in multiple ways and on a real-time or near real-time basis.
In the ERCB, we have developed a GIS application development framework that enables us to implement the ETL service as a subset. This service-oriented framework provides an extensible software development methodology using ArcGIS Server. The software developers can implement individual ETL business services using the ArcGIS server object extensions. In many cases, software developers are not needed.
There are several mechanisms for the ETL service to be initiated: a direct call from a client application; polled by ETL engine to check the source data for changes; calls from the database triggers or the SQL Service Broker.
The ETL service is a multi-tiered system composed of a WCF service tier, an ArcGIS Server tier and a geodatabase tier.
A very useful ETL process, Generic ETL, was implemented. This process is derived from the ETL framework and extended to a set of ETL scenarios which satisfy some common conditions. The advantage of using this process is that we can create ETL services for wide range of data without having to write software code. Instead of specifying the specific business rules in the software code, they are located in a few database objects.
A windows ETL polling service was also created, which can be used to trigger the ELT process at scheduled polling intervals, polling times and with some desired dependencies among different jobs.
Abdel-Rahman Muhsen, GISCorps (URISA)
GISCorps is a program of the Urban and Regional Information System Association (URISA). It coordinates short-term volunteers who provide GIS services to underserved communities worldwide. Since its inception in October 2003, the Corps has attracted over 2,500 volunteers from over 93 countries and deployed over 272 volunteers to 88 missions in 42 countries.
This presentation describes a crowdsourcing mission that was initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to GISCorps, this mission involved several volunteering organizations. The main goal was to crowdsource the available health facilities in Libya after the revolution, and to produce a final GIS layer that would help WHO return and operate in Libya.
GISCorps was assigned the role of QA/QC the crowdsourced data. The challenges and methods applied are discusses in this presentation.
Tanya Charles, Clover Point
Those who have the data are no longer defining our world; those who share the data are defining our world.
So, the question is how do you bring millions of people together, authenticate them for permission to collaborate on various disparate data sets, using tools and processes that are already corporately adopted? Using case studies such as the University of British Columbia, and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations we will show you how sharing data using the right tools and the right avenues can make you rethink what the cloud really is and how much your organization will be revolutionized by being early adopters. This is not your Grandmother’s cloud.
Sharing data is no longer just about Open Gov, and the Web 2.0 model. These are just a means to an end. Sharing data is about finding the best way to combine unlimited data sources for consumption within a venue that brings authorized tiers of users together for a smarter way to collaborate and make decisions regardless of ancient barriers like time space and language. This is the new methodology, driven by people, for people. The new Cloud applications are accessible, integrated, standardized, designed for maximum understanding and intelligence. Goodnight Grandma.
Trevor Wiens, Apropos Information Systems Inc.
Using Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in land use planning, management, or modelling is difficult for many reasons but primarily because of issues with data access, completeness, privacy, and representation. Spatially explicit planning or modelling tools (e.g. Marxan, SELES) use GIS area layers of planning units as their base. Treating IK as observational data in this same planning unit framework can be used to effectively address both representational and privacy issues. Emphasis on printed reports has hindered the development of living repositories of IK data. Living repositories can provide ready access and also be used to effectively plan future data gathering efforts and in turn create reasonably complete and representative IK data sets. Trevor has been involved with IK data for almost 20 years and presents his experiences with these issues and a solution he has developed for Indigenous Communities to effectively capture and use their IK.
Vanessa Vallis, Golder Associates
Remote sensing techniques have made it possible to semi-automate the mapping of various land cover types, typically via the analysis of multi-spectral imagery. This talk highlights recent advancements in field of Remote Predictive Mapping (RPM) and how this technique can be applied to projects in Alberta. As the availability of high resolution digital imagery and DEMs increases, new analysis capabilities and techniques are being developed. Recent advances in remote sensing techniques have made it possible to use bare earth LiDAR in an object based image analysis (OBIA) to automate the classification of geomorphic features based on their morphometry. Data pre-processing and auxiliary datasets such as, terrain derivatives and multispectral images are additional elements that may be incorporated to increase analysis capabilities. This methodology facilitates the mapping of the geomorphic landscape at a level of detail driven by the analyst.
Veronica Krawcewicz and Dean Vigoren, University of Alberta
From their creation until September of 2011, the old University of Alberta maps existed on the web environment as a cropped PDF file with a grid. Research showed there was demand in the University of Alberta community for a better mapping utility. The new maps were envisioned to be usable and useful to students, faculty and staff, or anyone who needed to “know where to go” on any University of Alberta campus. This project includes a Google Maps interface incorporating new and old information layers, realistic 3D buildings, and 360-degree panoramas and tours. The mapping system continues to evolve as new layers of data and interactive tools are created.
Presentation attendees will learn about the process of this project: creating 3D building models for Google Earth, panoramas and tours for 360Cities, and KML information layers. They will also learn how these assets can then be applied in exciting and interesting research projects that were not envisioned when the project began. Anyone interested in working with KML files and 3D models for Google Earth, or who is interested in the progress of GIS for universities, would benefit from attending.
Nigel Forster, City of Medicine Hat
In the Spring of 2010, the Medicine Hat Fire Service approached the city’s GIS Department, to initiate an analysis study, as part of their (Council directed) 10 year strategic plan. The focus of the study was to compile and analyze five years of (FDM) incident data, and from this to develop GIS maps to visually represent the Fire Services’ response time areas, and to create an accurate view of possible gaps in coverage. An additional purpose of the analysis was to evaluate the existing response time guideline (approved by City Council in 2004) of having the first arriving engine company (4 firefighters) on scene within 6 minutes (2 minute preparation and 4 minute drive time, 90% of the time.
Once the study of call compliance was complete, it became evident that there were major residential areas of the city that were currently outside the 6 minute response protocol. GIS coverage maps were then analyzed in relation to municipal census data stored in the corporate GIS database, to estimate how many residents could be at risk. Currently close to 20,000 people (approximately one third of Medicine Hat’s population) reside outside the area serviced under the existing department guidelines. As a direct result of the GIS analysis, a decision item was drafted and presented to City Council in July 2010, with a recommendation to build a fourth station in Medicine Hat by 2014. The Network Analyst extension was then used to evaluate potential locations for the new additional station, to minimize the gaps identified in the response coverage analysis.
This presentation will examine the methodology for creating accurate coverage maps, for calculating the number of people at risk, and for developing an accurate road network file (including turn restrictions and impedance values) to be used to model various potential locations and scenarios utilizing the Network Analyst extension for ArcGIS.
Chris Moon, Rocky View County
Rocky View County spends more than half of its annual budget on maintaining road assets. Thus how to track road maintenance records has always been an important issue to the maintenance planner. CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) system have been used to keep maintenance records, but these systems lack the ability to organize and visualize location data to users.
Recently our GIS system successfully managed to integrate and visualize information from the two different systems in a GIS environment. This presentation introduces how GIS is applied to AVL and CMMS with different coordinate systems (Cartesian and Linear Reference Systems). Eventually two systems marry in a GIS environment and GIS provides the integrated information to users.
Dale Lutz, Safe Software
The past 20 years have seen incredible changes in how Geospatial Data is collected, transformed, visualized, and used. From tapes with Kilobytes of simple raster datasets, to diskettes with 2D CAD files, to spatial databases, to 3D, to Gigabyte point clouds, mapping professionals have never had such a wealth and diversity of information available to them. The presentation will explore these developments and examine the direction of recent industry trends through the lens of Safe Software, the Canada-based maker of FME® and the experts in spatial data transformation.
Steve Liang, University of Calgary, Department of Geomatics Engineering
Recently large-scale sensor arrays and the vast data sets they produce worldwide are being utilized, shared and published by a rising number of researchers on an ever-increasing frequency. With the rapidly increasing number of sensor network deployments, the vision of a World-Wide Sensor Web is becoming a reality. However, realizing the sensor web vision is very challenging. Building a sensor web system requires addressing the following open problems: (1) Discovering relevant data among the distributed sensors and delivering it to interested users efficiently, (2) Handling heterogeneous sensor networks and their data independently of the underlying network protocols, data models, and data formats, (3) Preventing transfer large volumes of sensor data streams, and (4) Handling large numbers of sensors, and large numbers of users. In the GeoCENS (Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Sensing) project, we designed an architecture and built a sensor web platform. With GeoCENS, users can maneuver a 3D sensor web browser, within a single virtual globe, in order to discover, visualize, access and share heterogeneous and ubiquitous sensing resources, and other relevant information. Our aim is to address the aforementioned technical challenges, propose innovative approaches, and provide the missing software components for realizing a worldwide sensor web.
Alex Joseph, Cybera
The Water and Environmental Hub (WEHUB) project has created a cloud-based, open source web platform that aggregates, federates, and connects water and environmental data. It better enables users from across the water community to access, mashup, analyze, model and interpret water data, information, issues and opportunities. By combining water expertise with an open web development approach the project spurs economic diversification and benefits both public users and the private sector by improving access to water data, information, and tools for academia, government, industry, NGOs, and the general public.
In partnership with other open data repositories around water, the WEHUB has developed a web-based platform that not only provides a water-related data catalogue, but delivers an innovative aggregator service that is linked with a unified output service (API). This allows organizations and users to develop customized applications on top of the WEHUB web platform and gain access to all of the WEHUB's aggregated data. Open standards (e.g. OGC standards such as WMS, WFS, SOS, WaterML, GroundWaterML, etc.) are used whenever practical, efficient and economical to meet the needs of users. The project extends across Alberta and Western Canada, with scalability a key design thrust.
This two year (2010-12), $1.8 million project is funded by Western Economic Diversification, the University of Lethbridge, and Cybera Inc. The project is driven by the University of Lethbridge, Cybera Inc., and the Alberta WaterPortal. Tesera Systems and Dr. Steve Liang (GeoSensor Web Lab) are the lead developers for the project.
Tara Seitz, GiQ Inc.
Geographic Information Systems are, in fact, systems and it is time we started managing them that way. Ensure the continuity and effectiveness of your GIS by capturing the whats, wheres, whys, whens and how-tos. This presentation will help you understand the importance of documentation, and its value when done correctly. S stands for system - so start minding your policies, procedures and quality standards.
Jeff Lamb, Pacific Alliance Technologies
The City of Whitehorse had stored its financial and asset information in separate databases and GIS data was only available on a few desktops throughout the municipality. By standardizing on the ESRI platform, the City was able to consolidate all of its data into a central geodatabase. Using the ArcGIS for Microsoft Silverlight API, Pacific Alliance Technologies then implemented iVAULT ArcGIS to enable GIS, asset and financial data to be linked and published through the Web. This transition has significantly streamlined infrastructure maintenance, enabling the City to minimize disruptions and provide more reliable customer service. City staff can now click on any asset and pull up the corresponding work order. This enables municipal staff to see which work orders should be prioritized based on urgency, as well as identify the status of ongoing projects. Public Works Supervisors can also directly edit work orders and share information with employees.
Michael Schlosser, Autodesk
Explore “what could be” in the context of “what is” with 3D GIS and geospatially enabled 3D conceptual design tools for creating, evaluating and communicating convincing infrastructure project proposals for faster stakeholder approval and more confident decision making. Attend this presentation to see how you can incorporate existing 2D CAD, GIS, BIM, and raster data to quickly create 3D models that more realistically depict the local environment. Learn how you can easily evaluate multiple design alternatives in the context of the existing environment by overlaying GIS data and using infrastructure sketching and proposal management tools. See how you can communicate visually rich proposals of these alternatives with interactive navigations, rendered images, and recorded videos.
Gary Zhang, MRF Geosystems Corporation
This presentation focuses on the successes achieved and the lessons learnt from implementing web-based GIS for many municipalities in Canada and US. It will cover the system architecture for internal-facing and public-facing web sites, user privilege management, map plotting, map tips, GIS editing, and website hosting. One major challenge is the integration with other enterprise systems such as Taxation, Assessment, Automatic Vehicle Location, Asset Management, Document Management, and E-commerce. Another major challenge is the balance of cost, capability, and performance. Screen shots from real projects will be used extensively in this presentation.
Cindy Post, University of Alberta
The Early Childhood Development Mapping Project (ECMAP) is a five year initiative that aims to strengthen Alberta's ability to make positive early childhood development a reality for every child in the province. Using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) combined with socio-economic and community data, analyzed information provides insights into how young children are developing in different geographic areas in Alberta and across the province, and possibly into the factors and circumstances that may affect development.
As the popular context for GIS typically supports the natural resource sector, this project uses GIS in support of social mapping or human geography. In its middle stages, this presentation is an overview of the ECMAP project, and will highlight research processes, initial results, and how GIS was integrated to support a social context.
Mauricio Yamanaka, University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
The manifold effects of climate change in vegetation dynamics have become a priority research topic over the past decades. Tropical dry forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, yet it has been poorly investigated. In tropical ecosystems, the seasonal development of vegetation also known as phenology is largely dependent of the timing and amount of rainfall. Recent studies have shown changes in precipitation patterns across the Americas, thus mapping the activity and development of vegetation requires high temporal data.
Remote sensing phenology has emerged as a feasible method to assess land surface dynamics over large geographic extents. This study employs satellite time series at 250m resolution from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to evaluate the response of vegetation to climate variations in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. The data were processed by function fitting in TIMESAT; a stand-alone program developed by Malmö University, Sweden; that fits a smoothing algorithm to satellite data. This project has mapped the spatial distribution of dry forest phenology over the past decade. Our metrics included the beginning and end of seasons, as well as key seasonality parameters such as ecosystem productivity. This research adds to our current knowledge of land surface processes at the regional scale.
Darcey Reynard, University of Alberta
A child's early development is influenced by his or her environment – including the built form of cities. But these built environments can vary greatly depending upon how neighbourhoods are constructed. In the two major cities in Alberta, Canada (Calgary and Edmonton), neighbourhoods built before World War II tend to be more walkable and are characterized by a mix of residential development that includes more amenities for children (e.g., schools and health facilities). More recent, post-war suburban development is much more dependent upon the private automobile. Furthermore, there are fewer amenities for children in these recent developments, despite the high numbers of young families with children who inhabit these neighbourhoods. This greater dependence on the automobile, as well as the greater travel distance to reach children’s amenities should, therefore impact early childhood development. The Early Development Index (EDI) is being used across Alberta to assess the development of children at the level of their communities of residence. Using the EDI, it was possible to test if a child's development was possibly dependent upon the walkability of his or her environment. It can be difficult to evaluate walkability, so a number of neighbourhood characteristics were used as an approximation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software can be used to calculate these approximations of walkability and then model their spatial relationships with EDI results.
Sinisa Vukicevic, University of Alberta
The paper (presentation) is an attempt to introduce the concept of environmental protection in the planning process on the principle of dynamic modelling with the aim to identify potential impact of planned activities on the environment and to determine the optimal alternative development. The paper will introduce the application of the model of integration as an approach that will assist the planner and the decision maker to achieve a more sustainable decision. Moreover, the presentation will try to explore possibility of application of the Model to Canadian environment, particularly in (the province of) Alberta.
The model is defined under the SEA terms that relate to the Republic of Ireland. Nevertheless, the model is universally applicable, although it would be necessary to calibrate it to the local conditions. Since the SEA regulations are more or less unique at the EU level (SEA Directive) and even Canadian level, calibration is related to the local planning systems rather than to the local SEA systems.
The model of integration consists of two sub-models: the cumulative environmental sensitivity sub-model and the expected development pressures sub-model.
The environmental sensitivity sub-model aims to generate a cumulative environmental sensitivity map. This is a synthesis map of environmental elements observed in terms of the degree of their sensitivity to planned activities. The sub-model aims to determine the most sensitive areas from the standpoint of the environment and to guide decision makers to in the optimal (most sustainable) direction for future development in order to meet new development demands.
The development pressure sub-model was based on population and employment indicators. The population data came from the Census where the population growth was analyzed in census period: 2002 and 2006. Employment data may be within the general census data or may come from separate studies. In the case of Ireland, the employment data came from the POWCAR data source, which analyzed information from the Census.