Rocket City Geospatial 2008 : Workshop Descriptions & Room Assignments

WORKSHOP #1

TITLE:  Virtual Alabama

ROOM:   USSRC - Educational Training Facility Auditorium

PRESENTER:   Chris Johnson

ORGANIZATION:   US Space and Rocket Center

DESCRIPTION:   The Alabama Department of Homeland Security (AL DHS) has implemented a statewide 3D visualization program of state geographic and community asset data called Virtual Alabama. Virtual Alabama leverages existing state asset imagery and infrastructure data in an affordable visualization tool that utilizes a 3D globe interface to retrieve images from a merged global imagery dataset, thus allowing geographic and terrain data to be displayed using streaming technology.

The AL DHS has leveraged these technologies to work in a continuing partnership with federal, state, and local government to transform massive amounts of data into useful knowledge providing the common operational picture needed to protect lives and safeguard Alabama citizens in times of man-made or natural disasters.

This technical demonstration will focus on how Alabama is using state of the art visualization technologies to deliver GIS mapping and analytics to a non-technical user base and how data sharing partnerships are being used to build the system. Along with demonstrations of various aspects of the program, the presenters will show how technologies from the military have been leveraged into civilian applications as part of Alabama's Homeland Security mission. Some examples include: the integration of structures and building floor plans as 3D models, adaptation of plume models, and attaching to sensors to provide the first responder community with the situational awareness and understanding needed to better prepare, prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural and manmade disasters.

Virtual Alabama just celebrated its second anniversary since reaching Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on July 24, 2006. Today, we have over 3300 users representing over 1000 agencies at all levels of government. None of this would be possible without the hard work and dedication from county and municipal agencies across the state which currently provide nearly 90% of the data in the system.

Virtual Alabama is also gaining national recognition and has been awarded 5 National Awards for technology innovation in the past 6 months. They include the National Governors' Association 2008 Public/Private Partnership Award, the American Council for Technology 2008 Intergovernmental Solutions Award, the Google Superstar Award (first time ever awarded to government agency), the Council of State Governments 2008 Innovations Award, and this week won the Government Computer News Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government Award.

We have been working closely with Federal DHS to develop a pilot program for regionalization of the concept. Several states are deploying systems modeled after Virtual Alabama. Our team has met with Departments of Homeland Security and Governors' offices in 18 states so far. In July 2007, Louisiana implemented a similar system called Virtual Louisiana. Maryland and Illinois are in the process of installing systems now.

WORKSHOP #2

TITLE:   ArcGIS Server

ROOM: USSRC - Educational Training Facility - Classroom

PRESENTER:   Steve Mulberry and Keith Cooke

ORGANIZATION:   US Space and Rocket Center

DESCRIPTION:   This workshop takes an in-depth look at what's new with ArcGIS Server. Share and examine handy and valuable tips and tricks that go beyond serving quality maps quickly. Learn about planning for performance, installation and configuration, exploring administrative tools, using map cache to make better maps fast, publishing and using geoprocessing services, building lightweight mapping applications with just a few lines of script and finally see how to leverage the newest tools, layers and the ArcGIS Server Resource Center

WORKSHOP #3

TITLE:   National Hydrography Data Set

ROOM:   Marriott-Columbia Room

PRESENTER:  Carl Nelson

ORGANIZATION:   USGS

DESCRIPTION:  Introducing the National Hydrography Data set, the most comprehensive surface water dataset available (http://nhd.usgs.gov/)

Abstract: This class provides all of the basic information you need to exploit the power of the National Hydrography Dataset. The NHD was carefully designed for scientific applications and consists of many attributes and characteristics perfectly suited for geographic analysis using GIS. However, the data was designed to be simple enough for anyone to use, not just highly skilled GIS specialists. Thanks to this design, powerful applications can be developed with just a day's training. The class starts by looking at how others around the country are using the NHD. The NHD data structure is explored and applied to basic mapping techniques. The ability to navigate throughout the stream network is covered, opening up new approaches for conducting GIS analysis. The data structure is explored in more detail revealing many new possibilities for analysis. The important process of linking scientific data to the stream network is covered. These techniques, combined with network navigation, lead to cause and effect analysis allowing the scientist to discover how one event in the environment can impact another event. The importance of data change management, the added power of NHDPlus, and the role of ArcHydro are also covered.

WORKSHOP #4

TITLE:  The Convergence of CAD and GIS- The Ultimate Enterprise Geospatial Solution

ROOM:  Marriott - Atlantis Room

PRESENTER:  Autodesk Technical Experts

ORGANIZATION:   Autodesk

DESCRIPTION:  There are vast amounts of geospatially-based data across organizations in both GIS and CAD formats that represent a huge investment by the custodians (Utilities, Planning, Public Works, Transportation, etc.) of these data. This is compounded as greater than ever flows of geospatial data appear, and the advent of more advanced collection techniques. Merging and sharing such datasets has become paramount with the realization that real business value can be drawn through reuse, and the rise in web access is resulting in an even greater need to provide external access to such data. This workshop will also review different types of Building Information Models like IFC, CityGML, DWF and Google Earth available today and some methods to leverage these within Web Based environments.Attendees will gain a better understanding of what a Building Information Model is and how a web-based mapping application can expose these over the web.

Autodesk Feature Data Object Data Access Technology (FDO) enables the access and analysis of multiple native data formats without translation or duplication (MicroStation, Shape files, Geodatabases, ArcSDE, Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, and 2400+ formats are supported). This session will explore the practical use of FDO as a means to not only build data bridges and integrate geospatial data but also to facilitate the convergence of CAD and GIS data sources.

WORKSHOP #5

TITLE:   Building web sites for sharing geospatial information

ROOM:  Marriott-Discovery Room

PRESENTER:  Lacey Sharpe

ORGANIZATION:   Intergraph

DESCRIPTION:   This workshop will demonstrate how existing data sources can be used to build web sites for sharing geospatial information. GeoMedia and GeoMedia WebMap will be used to build web sites/services during the workshop. GeoMedia enables the user to connect to disparate data sources, setup a GeoWorkspace and then using GWM Publisher the user can publish a GeoMedia WebMap (GWM) web site. GWM Publisher can be used to publish OGC web services such as OGC Web Map Server (WMS) and OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) as well as Google™ Maps or Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ mashups. The workshop will cover publishing each type of web application.