2006 November 02

This issue sponsored by

ESRI

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Editor's Introduction

This week I continue my tour of the major GIS shops in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, with the first part of my report on TriMet, the city's mass transit agency. I also review a new book from ESRI Press. Plus, my usual round-up of news from press releases.

— Matteo

GIS Shops in the Portland Area: TriMet (Part 1)

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet)—the mass transit agency for the Portland metropolitan area—has integrated GIS deeply into its internal operations and its interface with customers. The agency, which Google Transit chose as its first site, has developed the first open source application for the transit industry, is laying the groundwork for wireless location-based services (LBS), and is preparing to roll out a completely updated interactive mapping service. This is the first of a two-part report on the agency's GIS shop; the second part will appear in next week's issue.


Screenshot of Google Transit in action

I discussed TriMet's GIS projects with Bibiana Kamler McHugh, TriMet's IT Manager of GIS & Location-Based Services. She has been with the agency for almost ten years. "When I first moved to the area," she told me, "I felt like a kid in a candy store just because of all the data, and a lot of that is thanks to Metro. So, I was able to focus less on data and data integration and more on application development."

Read more …

Book: Mapping Global Cities

Aye Pamuk, Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis (Redlands, California: ESRI Press, 2006), paperback, 182 pages, $49.95

Nearly twenty years ago, when I earned my graduate degree in political science at a highly quantitatively-oriented university (M.I.T.), I never even heard of GIS. Today, according to Aye Pamuk, "Spatial analysis methods using GIS have not yet become integrated into the standard methods toolbox of all social scientists." Her book challenges this omission, by demonstrating how GIS can "add value" to conventional nonspatial social science quantitative methods and why it "should be adopted by those not yet fluent with these methods."

She does so by focusing on the "new challenges unleashed by international and domestic migration patterns worldwide," driven by her "long-standing desire to understand the evolution of human settlements throughout the world." The book displays the author's passion for her subject, the complexity of the problems she addresses, and the power of the GIS tools she details.

Read more …

News Briefs

Please note: I have culled the following news items from press releases and have not independently verified them.

  1. CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS

    1. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded EarthData International a $4.3 million contract to map portions of one of South America's largest countries using the GeoSAR radar mapping system. Read more …

    2. NAVTEQ, a provider of digital map data for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions, has concluded a European agreement with vehicle routing solutions specialist Optrak Distribution Software Limited. Read more …

    3. The City of Nampa, Idaho, is using GPS and digital photo mapping software to create a Web-accessible map database showing the precise locations of all the grave sites in its public cemetery. Read more …

    4. Informi GIS A/S, ESRI's distributor in Denmark, recently signed a contract with the newly expanded NyVejle municipality that will give NyVejle a professional and state-of-the-art enterprise GIS based on ESRI's software. Read more …

    5. In June, HDR, Inc. awarded a contract to Merrick & Company—a provider of LiDAR, digital ortho imaging, photogrammetry and GIS mapping services—to deliver raw and processed LiDAR data, 1-foot contours, 6-inch color digital orthophotography, and three-dimensional wireframes and footprints for 1.7 square miles of the University of California's Riverside (UCR) campus. Read more …

    6. TerraGo Technologies, provider of GeoPDF and the MAP2PDF family of products, has entered into a strategic agreement with In-Q-Tel, the independent strategic venture capital fund that identifies technologies to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and the larger intelligence community.Read more …

  2. PRODUCTS

    1. ESRI Canada has released K-12 lessons and tutorials for ArcView 9.x and GIS Resources for Grades 7 & 8 lesson and data CD. For more than nine years, ESRI Canada's Schools and Libraries program has been dedicated to raising the awareness of geography and GIS in schools (K-12) across Canada. Read more …

    2. Pictometry International Corp., a provider of digital, aerial oblique imagery, announced at its FutureView 2006 User Conference a new suite of 3D products. Read more …

    3. DeLorme has introduced its new XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise suite of products, which includes a range of mapping, routing, navigation, GPS, and GIS file management features. Read more …

    4. The GRASS Development Team has released Version 6.2.0 of GRASS GIS. Read more …

  3. CONFERENCES

    1. Visual Learning Systems (VLS), a provider of automated feature extraction (AFE) software, is sponsoring free workshops at the upcoming MAPPS/ASPRS Conference being held in San Antonio, Texas. Read more …

    2. Civil engineering will now be a central component of ESRI's annual survey and GIS conference. Read more …

  4. PEOPLE

    1. DMTI Spatial, a provider of location intelligence solutions, has appointed Alex MacKay as Chief Executive Officer. Read more …

    2. Infotech Enterprises America, Inc., formerly VARGIS, LLC, has hired Mr. James Fass as its new Chief Operating Officer. Read more …

  5. OTHER

    1. The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) recently unveiled a supplement to its Code of Ethics, entitled "Rules of Conduct. Read more …

    2. To meet the requirements of the GIS community in the Middle East and North Africa, ESRI has established ESRI Northeast Africa (ESRI NEA) to expand its software distribution into Libya, Chad, and Sudan and provide the support and services required by its growing customer base in the region. Read more …

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Contact

Please send comments and suggestions to:

Matteo Luccio, Editor
GIS Monitor

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