About GIS Day

GIS Day Watch - July 2007

In This Issue

New GIS Day Kiosk CD

The 2007 GIS Day Kiosk CD is an updated version of the popular kiosk CD developed last year. The CD features 12 videos that will help GIS professionals, educators, and students explain and understand how vital tasks, like tracking wildfires and providing aid after a natural disaster, can be better performed using GIS. The CD is available upon request at www.gisday.com/kioskcd.

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GIS Day Resources

Consider utilizing the following resources to enhance your GIS Day event.

ESRI Education Community Web Site
The ESRI Education Community is a living environment for the exchange of ideas and experiences, curriculum, software, and data among GIS educators around the globe.

Maps: Tools for Adventure
Looking for a great way to introduce children to mapmaking and GIS? This National Geographic Web site has several mapping and GIS-themed games as well as introductory text about maps.

GIS Lab
Provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the "GIS Lab" is a collection of lessons, data, and information about using geographic information systems and spatial analysis in education.

EnviroMapper
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) EnviroMapper is a wonderful example showing the capability of GIS to combine layers of information about place so we can see relationships, possible outcomes, and trends and use that information to make more informed decisions.

EnviroMapper is a Web-based interactive mapping tool for viewing and querying environmental information. You can zoom in to an area or enter a state, county, city, ZIP Code, or watershed to view environmental data from EPA's Envirofacts Warehouse.

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GIS Day Participant Wins Award

Avid GIS Day participant Indiana University (IU) was honored with a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for innovative use of GIS technology during the 2007 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC), June 18-22, in San Diego, California.

The University Information Technology Services (UITS) at Indiana University plays an important role in Indiana GIS, most notably in providing the university community, GIS professionals, and the general public with online access to terabytes of data via the Indiana Spatial Data Service and the Indiana Spatial Data Portal. The Web application gives businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and the public statewide imagery for their specific needs. About the award.

Visit the IU GIS Day Web site for more information about their successful GIS Day events.

Congratulations!

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Service at Sea Embarks on Four-Year Journey

Service at Sea, a ship-based technology assistance program, set out on a four-year GIS (mapping technology) service expedition with a ceremonial launch from the ESRI UC in San Diego on Friday, June 22. The full journey begins in August 2007.

A crew of GIS experts, scientists, and teachers as well as a videographer will circumnavigate the globe with an environmentally friendly sailboat and offer free training and mapping services to conservation organizations throughout the expedition. To assist teachers in teaching GIS, the journey will be chronicled and shared with K-12 teachers worldwide as downloadable teaching units and live webcasts to augment social studies, geography, conservation, and technology curricula. The teaching units and lessons will be in accordance with national science standards.

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Featured Events

With GIS Day 2007 approaching and planning under way, read how two organizations celebrated GIS Day in 2006.

GIS Day Breakfast
The Corporate Geo-Informatics directorate, City of Johannesburg, South Africa, celebrated GIS Day with a breakfast celebration for their most valued clients, which included representatives from internal departments, municipal-owned entities, and private businesses. The event was a great success with more than 40 participants. The celebration included a map exhibition, a GIS Day cake, and great prizes. View pictures.

Bahamas Primary School Celebrated First GIS Day
Sadie Curtis Primary School celebrated its first GIS Day by learning about local agencies' use of GIS technology. Danielle Hanek, GIS analyst with the Bahamas National Geographical Information Systems (BNGIS) Centre, who participated in the presentation, said, "Students were amazed that GIS is being used in the Bahamas. Many expressed interest in learning what types of careers exist in the field."

The event concluded with a cake shared by the school principal, teachers, and students. Sadie Curtis Primary School is one of 10 schools participating in a three-year Geographic Information Education Project (GIEP) and is the first school in the Bahamas to have a GIS Youth Club. View pictures.

Get great ideas from what others have done with their GIS Day events. Read success stories from 2006.

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GIS in Action

Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico Finds GIS to Be the Ideal Tool
The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico employed ESRI ArcGIS technology to create, manage, and update GIS data concerning its existing and potential natural protected areas and projects. The trust is a nonprofit institution devoted to the acquisition and protection of ecologically important lands in Puerto Rico and the development and promotion of environmental, educational, and research activities in natural protected areas. Using ArcGIS, the trust has been able to generate 3D visualizations of its properties and adjacent land parcels with proposed construction projects to effectively support protection and defense strategies against the impact of proposed developments in the neighboring lands of a natural reserve.

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