New Virginia.gov Website Includes Interactive Mapping

The new release of the Virginia.gov website now includes interactive mapping from a variety of state agencies. Utilizing both the VGIN base map webservice and VITA HW/SW platform called the GEP (Geospatial Enterprise Platform), users can interactively navigate to view details of up to 15 layers provided by Virginia state agencies. The data range from VEC Employment Offices, DMV Offices, Public Boat Ramps, to Hospitals and ABC Stores. The interactive map also be yet another method to access information about a given locality.

Take a look and be sure to provide feedback at the bottom of the map!

Chesterfield Launches Online Mapping Site - CitizenGIS

Chestefield County launched a new online mapping application this month. Using ArcGIS Server and Silverlight the CitizenGIS site allows the public to view property, street, environmental, easement, utility, political, topographic,planning and special layer information. Additionally, political and school information is provided in text format. Three years of VBMP imagery (2002, 2007 and 2009)can be viewed. In a press release GIS Manager Nancy Parker stated "One of our goals was to make the online mapping features as intuitive as possible for users." My quick review of the site confirms they hit that goal dead on.

Elevation Framework Data - Kickoff

The Elevation Framework Initiative Action Team (FIAT) met May 20th in Charlottesville to start efforts to improve the quality and availability of elevation data in Virginia. Over 35 individuals, representing local governments, state and federal agencies, universities and the private sector, participated in person or by web conference. An overview was given by VGIN, the hosting agency. Dewberry gave an informative presentation on its LiDAR project for over 3,000 square miles of coastal Virginia. FEMA talked about the requirements and benefits of better elevation data to flood risk map modernization. Sanborn presented on LiDAR data analysis and visualization. USGS presented on the National Elevation Dataset and CLICK, the LiDAR information and data clearinghouse. I hope to make these presentations available in a later post after I receive them. The group settled on a business objective and started work on a charter and work plan. Stay tuned for future posts about the initiative.

Big Apple gets LiDAR Scan

A New York Times article published yesterday reports on a LiDAR flight designed to "yield the most detailed three dimensional picture of New York City to date." The article mentions numerous uses for the data including maps of solar energy potential and flood zones. Sanborn flew nine 6-hour missions at night from April 14 to April 30th at an altitude of 3,500 feet.

A quick update on the 2010 LiDAR projects for coastal Virginia - all 3,000+ square miles have been successlly flown in separate missions by Dewberry and Sanborn. Some preliminary data are expected in the next few months and we should be on schedule for final product deliveries before the end of the year. Thanks are due to USGS, The Nature Conservancy and the University of Virginia LTER project for providing the funds.

NAIP 2008 Imagery - Revised Mosaics Available

In 2008 the Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN), the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia Department of Forestry partnered with USDA to acquire leaf-on, color-infrared, 1-meter resolution, digital imagery for all of Virginia. VGIN has made compressed county mosaics available for download here.

In the first versions of the JPEG2000 mosaics the infrared band (band 4) did not display properly in ArcMap 9.3.x. This is a known bug for certain versions of JPEG2000 headers. USDA has revised the header to allow proper display for most of the Virginia mosaics. VGIN has recently made the new versions (identified as Countyname.v6) on the VGIN download page. If you are using the old mosaics you may wish to update to the new version. If v6 is not appended to the county name only the uncorrected version is available at this time.

VGIN has also received from USDA the NAIP 2008 imagery in quarter quad tiles in GeoTIFF format. If you have a need for uncompressed imagery for specific areas feel free to contact John Scrivani for access to this public domain imagery.

An excellent example of the uses of leaf-on-infrared imagery is the Urban Tree Canopy Analysis being done for various communities by the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Geospatial Extension (VGEP) at Virginia Tech.

Boundary Improvements along WV - VA State Line

Plaques commemorating boundary improvements along the Jefferson County West Virginia and Loudoun County Virginia state line have been presented to the Virginia and West Virginia State Commissions and the Jefferson and Loudoun County Commissions. Pictured is a presentation of the plaque installed in Leesburg. Loudoun County's GIS Manager Larry Stipek is pictured on the right.

Though the plaques were commemorated last week, the effort to survey and improve the boundary definition was completed and adopted by both state legislatures in 1997. The Leesburg Today recently covered the story with an article.

The indefinite nature of the West Virginia - Virginia state line, which mostly follows ridge lines of the Blue Ridge Mountains, generally does not get highlighted until issues of development arise (see previous blog post about the windfarm controversy in Highland County, VA). When the issue does arise, surveying is required and is challenged by historical descriptions going back 150 years or more to the political processes that created the boundaries.

Transportation For The Nation - TFTN

Last week at the GIS for Transportation symposium - GIS-T - in Charleston, WV the strategic planning effort for TFTN was initiated. The GIS-T symposium is a gathering of mostly state and federal DOT officials that provided an opportunity to obtain the input of this stakeholder group. Throughout the year the TFTN strategic planning team will be soliciting input from various stakeholder groups from across the nation. The idea for TFTN was started by the National States Geographic Information Council - NSGIC - and was born out of the same notion of Imagery For The Nation. Essentially, these data are being collected multiple time by many different parties for various purposes. Why not collaborate so that we can collect transportation data once and use it many times? Makes too much sense. The challenge is of course in the collaboration of all the diverse business needs.

TFTN is important to Virginia GIS because it follows what we already have established, a "Transportation for Virginia" if you will, through the Virginia Road Centerline efforts. Thanks to data sourced from local governments who provide updated local transportation data to VGIN, who then combines the data statewide and includes VDOT data, Virginia has the most complete and comprehensive road network available in Virginia. These data are then leveraged with federal and private collaborators. An example of how the US Census is using Virginia RCL for the 2010 Census was demonstrated by this presentation from the US Census in slides 14-20.