Nebraska
GIS Steering Committee
1:00 PM, Wednesday, November 6, 2003
Main Auditorium, Nebraska Department of Roads
Minutes
Present were (authorized to vote *):
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Alan Beierman |
* |
Nebraska Public Power District |
MAJOR MEETING TOPICS
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NOTICE OF MEETING: A public notice of the meeting, pursuant to Section 84-1411 R.R. S. 1943, was published in the Lincoln Journal Star on Thursday, October 30, 2003.
ROLL CALL: Chairperson Jim Brown called the meeting to order at approximately 1:00 PM. There were ten duly authorized members present therefore a quorum was present to conduct business.
APPROVAL OF 7/9/03 MINUTES: Scott McIntyre moved to approve the minutes as submitted. John Miyoshi seconded. The motion passed (see vote #1 on Voting Record sheet).
UPDATE ON STATUS OF LAND RECORD MODERNIZATION STUDY: Everyone has received copies of the final report. Payment to GeoAnalytics was approved at the last meeting but the final report remained in a pending status. The Steering Committee now needs to consider approving the report so that a copy can be sent to the USGS.
The Advisory Committee met yesterday to discuss implementation strategies and development of a methodology but are not yet prepared to give a report on possible legislation at this time. Members of the Committee will be meeting with the various interest groups to determine the best way to move forward. A report will be given at the next meeting to address any outstanding issues. A vote to approve the report will be to approve the reports prepared by the consultants and affirming the Advisory Committee's authority to move forward to explore and develop strategies for implementation.
The Advisory Committee recommends adoption. Kathy Lang moved to accept the Land Records Modernization Study report as filed. John Miyoshi seconded.
Discussion included the observation that the report provides a good picture of where Nebraska is and will be useful in the future. Erik Hubl applauded the Steering Committee for taking this major step forward. Larry Zink offered thanks to the USGS for the funds to begin the project.
The motion passed. (see #2 on the Voting Record sheet)
STREET CENTERLINE/ADDRESS DATABASE: This database has been on the Steering Committee's list of things to do for some time but became more important with the work CALMIT has been doing with Bio-terrorism and Homeland Security. As a result, there has been discussion about the relative merits of purchasing a commercial product versus enhancing publicly available data. There were licensing issues associated with the use of a commercial product, a fact that influenced the decision to proceed with enhancement of the available TIGER data, where locally developed street address data is available. To date, Larry has received promises from 17 counties for local data but a licensing issue has surfaced because some of the counties used a third party vendor to develop their information. That issue led to discussion about drafting a data sharing agreement. Additional issues regarding the desire for compensation for data in the counties have also surfaced. Efforts are now underway to attempt to secure that compensation.
WATERSHED BOUNDARY DATABASE (WBD) WORKING GROUP: The NRCS raised this issue with the Steering Committee a year ago. There are new standards for watershed boundaries and the previous watershed sub-division work done in Nebraska does not meet the new standards. The NRCS has found the money to update boundaries in Nebraska and hired a contractor to that end. The work group is now in the process of developing a plan of action to ensure that all interested parties who so choose will be notified and can submit comments on draft revised boundaries. The decision was made to begin by doing watersheds that cross other state boundaries, then move to the Republican and then the Platte.
GEOSPATIAL DATA CLEARINGHOUSE: One year ago, an advisory committee was formed to evaluate both current data sharing activities and the GIS clearinghouse. That committee reaffirmed that Nebraska's clearinghouse should be housed at DNR. DNR has subsequently completed an internal IT review and is in the process of working with a core group from DNR and CALMIT-Conservation Survey Division about how the clearinghouse should be structured. The main focus of their efforts has been to establish a consolidated clearinghouse with the intent of using it also as a base for a Nebraska node of the National Map. Progress has been slow because there is no funding available.
The metadata clearinghouse webpage is available and work is underway on a page where other agencies can put their information.
One of the discussions has been how much to push to get full metadata developed for available datasets. The Steering Committee has taken a policy stand that metadata development should be done as it is critical for indexing purposes. Alternatively, the workgroup decided to move forward with something called metadata-lite as a means of encouraging people to at least enter the information needed to search and find data. It would not be detailed information. There were no objections from the Steering Committee.
USGS ACTIVITIES: Ray Fox, USGS National Mapping Center
Lancaster County LIDAR Project The USGS is involved in a cost-sharing project with Lancaster County and Eros Data Center. They are hoping to partner with Omaha-area consortium as well on ortho-imagery acquisition.
New pilot project A new pilot project is underway as a part of the national map initiative to identify federal lands in Nebraska. The first areas to be mapped are the Omaha and Winnebago Reservations. They are beginning to look through existing data from Nebraska, USGS, and other federal agencies. Imagery, roads, drains, structures, names to features, some kind of contours to show elevation will be filled in as necessary but they would like any manual intervention to remain minimal. The final product will be 24K data horizontally and vertically integrated and will be accessible for individual printing. This is the first time the USGS has undertaken anything at this level.
National Map in Nebraska The USGS has been working with DNR on establishing a Nebraska node to the National Map. DNR already has the capacity to provide the platform but there is concern that agencies have adequate hardware and software to handle the increase in traffic. The USGS plans to establish a grant program to assist in providing agencies what they need. At this time a reasonable estimate would be in the area of $500,000 for the country.
The USGS is aggressively pursuing the Mapping Partnership Offices. That name will be changing because it is confusing to rural counties. They plan to establish one in Nebraska consisting of approximately 5-6 people. The Denver and Rolla offices will be dramatically downsized with some of those people moving to the Mapping Offices. Funding for moving expenses is not available, which means most of the reassignments have been voluntary. Opportunities for early retirement are being offered as well.
The State Mapping Workshop will be held in conjunction with the MAGIC meeting in Kansas City, April 18-22, 2004. Participation from Nebraska is needed to help set USGS policy. Erik Hubl asked if those workshops are to be held annually. Ray said that is the plan although they did not hold one last year. This will be the second. Nebraska is part of a 15 state region that includes Montana through New Mexico and up the Mississippi River.
National Map The Nebraska portion of the National Map will be served from DNR. Data for the remaining states will automatically be collected from different servers across the country. It should be possible to serve a wide variety of information from Nebraska from different servers as Kansas and Missouri have done, arranging for mirror servers so if one is down the other will pick it up. Any layers not addressed by the map will be linked to the individual states website.
I-TEAM MEETING: The GIS Steering Committee was confirmed as the main coordinating body for GIS collaboration in Nebraska at the bi-yearly meeting. Progress on dataset development was reviewed along with a general outline of what will be in the annual report next year. There was a homeland security representative from Kansas City who mentioned that there might be some money available for dataset development.
ANNUAL REPORT AND I-TEAM STRATEGIC PLAN: Larry provided the Steering Committee with an overview of what he proposed to include in the 2003 Annual Report and I-Team Strategic Plan. The mission statement remained the same. Strategic goals: priority database development, land records modernization, homeland security, data sharing and distribution, technical assistance, education and coordination, strengthen coordination.
Priority databases Progress is being made in the development of most of the priority databases, both framework and non-framework including hydrography, DOQs, DEMs, Cadastral, and Street Centerline/Address.
Soil Surveys The soil surveys are almost finished. There are two counties waiting to be complied and two waiting for certification.
Homeland Security - Efforts to develop homeland security GIS implementation and is going forward.
Technical Assistance The need for technical assistance is an issue that comes up as a need in every report and study done regarding GIS. CALMIT has made a huge contribution in their work with Homeland Security.
Data Sharing and Distribution Initiative Discussions are underway regarding the development of an enterprise geospatial clearinghouse and data center at DNR, but work has been slowed by a lack of resources and internal review and restructure of IT sectors at DNR.
There were no concerns expressed by Steering Committee members regarding the proposed elements of the Annual Report and I-Team Strategic Plan update. A draft of the plan will be available in January for the Steering Committee review, revision, and update.
ON-GOING OPERATIONAL SUPPORT FOR INTERAGENCY GIS EFFORTS: Issues have been raised within IMServices and some other agencies about the activities occurring in Bio-terrorism/HHSS, Homeland Security/NEMA, etc. CALMIT has been assisting in acquiring the data but there does not appear to very clear vision regarding long-term maintenance and support issues. GIS is becoming more accessible to non-GIS specialists and someone needs to be available to handle problems. Someone needs to be responsible for maintenance and troubleshooting and IMServices does not have the technical expertise to support GIS applications or data. IMServices raised the issues as to whether this is something that they should be preparing to support, or whether long-term support will be available elsewhere. The initial idea was to look to HHS to begin the dialog on this issue or area of concern, but HHS has indicated that since they have not yet adequately considered those questions internally yet, they are not ready for such a dialogue.
Currently, a lack of time and funding has hampered efforts to address these issues. HHS is going to need to hire an ongoing GIS staff person within the next 3-5 years. CALMIT has not looked that far either. John Erickson said that this is a topic they are addressing in their office as it relates to long-term support and IT in general. No definite proposals have been made at this time but the topic is under consideration.
The National Map and other initiatives are turning old attitudes around. Dataset maintenance is becoming a critical issue and the question of whether or not HHS is going to be responsible for developing and maintaining databases is becoming important. Now that GIS has become both possible and visible, the demand for it has skyrocketed. Eventually it will probably be institutionalized into HHS and data will be lost if ongoing database support is not considered. In the past people have solved the problem of maintenance by supporting their own.
NEBRASKA GIS/LIS ASSOCIATION: Ed Kelley reported that there was a meeting October 27 in Gering, Nebraska. A board meeting was held followed by several user presentations. 25 people were present.
The next meeting will be held in Norfolk on Monday, November 17. Irrigation, Bioterrorism, and West Nile will all be addressed at this meeting.
The February 18 meeting will be held in Grand Island.
The annual meeting will be Monday, May 18 at the Central Community College in Hastings. Elections will be held at this meeting and awards will be given. Information regarding nomination deadlines will be coming out later should be available on the website along with nomination forms. Chris Stanton will be leaving the board and taking a job in Rhode Island. His replacement will be appointed soon.
It is time to begin thinking about planning the 2005 Symposium. A chair is needed for this event.
The Association co-sponsored the Mid-West GIS Arc Users conference in Omaha. Feedback was that the vendors liked the way it was set up and that it was well organized. Attendance was light but that is typical of conferences lately. The meeting provided a global view of ESRI. The next conference will be in Bloomington, Indiana in 2005.
REPORT ON GIS ACTIVITIES
FROM MEMBER AGENCIES:
Dick Genrich They have started work on edge-matching local roads in order to provide that information to the broader GIS user community for applications like the National Map. GIS day is November 17 at Roads and they hope to further educate staff within the agency. The GPS base station on top of Roads is operational again although it is not available to be published at this point.
Steve Frederick - Chris and Chad are in Missouri to discuss an emergency system. Missouri is one of the leaders in emergency systems.
The agency did a practice role-play with drugs in August and with the command center in October.
There has been some difficulty in deciding where the GIS data should be. Chris needs to schedule something with the policy cabinet people to show them the capability. They are able to provide geocoding for clients and are using GIS analysis to help with the Grand Island well water issues.
Training is scheduled for anyone who wants to learn ArcGIS. They are installing it at all the health centers. A layer is being added for the day care centers.
HHS will be having a GIS day as well. Great strides have been made although there is still a lot to do. The potential for use of this technology is overwhelming.
Alan Beierman They are still in the process of building the NPPD system, inputting data and testing. Things are going well with respect to budget. They have about six more months to go.
John Miyoshi The Lower Platte North NRD has been working with the Metropolitan Utility District and southwest Saunders County. MUD is putting their wells in the north end of the aquifer, Lancaster County is at the south end. Some private wells are only eight to ten feet deep and may be affected by the MUD initiatives. There are some liability issues.
Cathy Lang They are in the process of working on the land information system and borrowing any information they can to help counties developing GIS.
Scott McIntyre They are moving ahead with their Spring 04 mapping project. Many agencies are involved. This project shows how GIS brings counties together. They did a qualifications short list to get the list of vendors down, which resulted in competitive numbers. In Douglas County, the original assumption was that it would cost 1.2 million. It looks like it will cost $380,000 from Verizon and still be a good quality product. They are working on inter-local agreements and contracts and hope to be done by the end of this year. That will leave them in good shape to move forward. MAPA is going to pay for some mapping in Iowa, 124 square miles of Dodge county. Over 2000 square miles will be flown.
Sonja Sebree The USGS is in the process of developing statewide datasets all over Nebraska. They have been proposing setting up some Internet Map Server sites of study areas to show people what the USGS is doing in Nebraska and what data is available.
The USGS gave workshops at the Lower Platte NRD. 40 people attended.
Work has been done on a bathometric survey with Central Platte. Other work has been done with the DEQ.
Larry Zink said that Jack Dangerman came to ESRI conference in Omaha and expressed great interest in Nebraskas Land Records Modernization efforts. He mentioned donating $25,000 worth of software to kick-start the process. Due to the state of the program, Larry was unsure of how to proceed but will now let him know there is interest.
True color, leaf on, 1-meter resolution FSA-USDA data is now complete statewide. They will be continuing those flights on a five-year cycle and flying 2-meter flights on the off years. This appears to be the best option currently available for updating statewide DOQs. FSA will also have the field boundaries. There was some concern about the data possibly not being publicly available. Jim Brown said discussions need to begin regarding buying that data and making it available via State Surveyor's office or Property Tax Administrator as that dataset is too valuable for assessors not to have access to it. All color photography is available through DNR.
Les Howard CSD is in the final stages of putting together the 2003 groundwater changes map and is beginning to work on meteorologic data. That data should be available in 2004. CSD has merged with the School of Natural Resources. Mark Kuzila is the director of CSD and the School of Natural Resources. They are in the process of putting together bylaws for the new agency.
Lincoln and Lancaster County are continuing to develop new databases and maintaining the old ones. GIS day will be November 19. They are trying to get more data available to the public. Workshops have been scheduled to discuss operational support and who maintains the data. Some departments need data but are not responsible for maintaining it and those circumstances need to be identified.
DNR - SURGO is almost done. Two counties have been compiled and are under certification review. Two counties are nearly compiled. Wayne Vanek has been the key to the completion of this project.
The National Hydrographic Database project is moving forward. Work has been completed on several basins in Eastern Nebraska, work is underway in the Blue Basin, to be followed by the Republican River Basin.
The 1999 DOQs will be done around the end of December. The FSA-USDA DOQs may be available in the end of January.
DNR is working on creating a page for other agencies to upload information and metadata for the Clearinghouse. They expect to have their available IT Coordinator position filled by the end of the month. Three internal applicants have already applied.
Ray Fox commented that the two keynote speakers for the two conferences in Nebraska this past year were the best he has heard.
Cliff Welsh acknowledged Duane Stott and Larry Zink for their leadership in the area of GIS and county government at the annual NACO conference this year.
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Vote Tallies for 11/6/03 GIS Str. Cmte.
Meeting |
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Roll |
Min |
NLRMS |
#3 |
#4
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#5 |
#6 |
#7 |
#8 |
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DAS - Steve
Schafer |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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DEQ - Tom
Lamberson, |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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CSD - Mark Kuzila
|
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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NGPC - Bruce
Sackett |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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NRC - Mahendra
Bansal |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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PTD - Cathy
Lang |
A/P |
. |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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PRO - Lauren Hill
|
A/P |
. |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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DOR - Dick
Genrich |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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St.Surv - Jim
Brown |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Clk of Leg. -
Patrick O'Donnell |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Sonia Sebree |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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John Miyoshi, |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Alan J. Beierman |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Cliff
Welsh |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Larry Worrell
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A/P |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Lash
Chaffin |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Duane Stott |
A |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Scott McIntyre
|
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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Dick Nelson |
P |
+ |
+ |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
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TOTALS |
10/13 P |
10 + |
12 + |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
"P"=present, "A"=absent,
"+"=voting for, "-"=voting against, "NV"=not
voting