Vertical GeoSolutions, Inc

VerticalGeo will be attending the ESRI Federal User Conference in Washington, DC, February 17-19. Dr. Rick Marshall will be presenting a paper titled, “ArcGIS Server and GeoPDF Applications for Remote Airfield Visualization”.   Rick’s presentation will explore the capabilities that ArcGIS Server and GeoPDF technology provide for mission and flight planning for Air Mobility Command mission planners and aircrews.  The presentation will be on Thursday February 18th at 10:30 in Room 149A.

The ESRI Events link for the Federal User Conference is located here. Link.

The Saint Louis University Center for Environmental Sciences will be hosting the next ESRI St Louis GIS User Group (SLUG) Meeting on February 25 in the SLU CES GIS Lab in McElwane Hall on the SLU Campus.  Further details for the user group meeting can be found on the CES webpage.

Jan 28, 2010 Update: 

Thanks to Joe Francica of the Directions Magazine’s All Points Blog for offering up their list of Haitian Earthquake Relief Resources.  Their list of resources is very extensive and is located at:

http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/7147-Update-4-Multiple-Geospatial-Resources-for-the-Haitian-Earthquake-Efforts.html

Original Jan 27, 2010 Post:

I have been searching for sources of geospatial information for Haiti.  Here is a short list of the resources I have found:

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Unclassified Haiti Earthquake Crisis Relief Page 

U.S. Army Geospatial Center Haiti Page

U.S. Army Geospatial Center’s Haiti Maps Page

DigitalGlobe’s Earthquake Image Gallery and Damage Analysis

Delta State University Product Directory for Haiti

Delta State University’s GeoPDF Product Directory

I will continue to search for more sources and post frequent updates to the list.

GeoEye (www.geoeye.com) is producing some small scene High-Resolution Haiti imagery on it’s featured imagery website.  It is recent, very high resolution imagery, and updated frequently.  It is located here.  Link.  You can follow what is happening in Haiti through the imagery.

The following Post was located on the Google Earth Blog on Jan 13, 2010 and is located here: Link

Imagery Layer for Haiti Earthquake has been released

Google has been working with GeoEye over the last 24 hours to get fresh imagery from Haiti to help aid relief efforts. They’ve just released a KML file for it, which you’re encouraged to download. The file is actually a network link, so Google can push additional imagery to you without having to release another KML.

The imagery is remarkably sharp, and shows some amazing scenes such a a soccer field turned into a make-shift camp (shown above), and smoke continuing to billow out of some buildings.

Google has done similar things in the past, with events such as the Myanmar Cyclone or Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to the KML file, Google has set up a crisis response page for the earthquake with lots of information. Specifically, those that are able are encouraged to give donations to help rebuild lives and communities.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has selected VerticalGeo to become the newest USGS Business Partner.  VerticalGeo now becomes one of only 5 Business Partners in the State of Illinois, and the only Business Partner in southwestern Illinois authorized to sell and distribute USGS maps and imagery and create value added products to meet your individual needs using USGS data.  The Business Partner Program includes the additional product lines of digital cartographic data and aerial photographs.

Thanks to the Free Geography Tools Blog (www.freegeographytools.com) for posting on the CIA World FactBook availability in KML format.  The CIA FactBook is a great source for information on manydifferent topics.  As a former Air force navigator I would use the CIA World FactBook whenever I would travel overseas to a new country in order to get an idea of what the country was like.  The KML version of the World FactBook is located at: http://www.kmlfactbook.org/, and is a great tool.  There are several pre-defined reports  you can run with 2-D, 3-D, and Pie Chart outputs visualized by Google Earth.  Try it out.

VerticalGeo and ESRI are co-hosting the ESRI St Louis Region Defense User Group (DUG) Meeting on November 10th from 8:00am until 1:00pm at the Drury Inn and Conference Center in O’Fallon, Illinois.   At the DUG we expect 60-75 attendees from a broad spectrum from within the public and private sectors.  We will have attendees from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, USTRANSCOM, the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command and 375 Airlift Wing, the Army’s Corps of Engineers St Louis District and Engineering School at Ft Leonard Wood, the US Coast Guard, and several Defense and Intelligence sector consulting companies.

To view the agenda and register for the DUG please go to ESRI’s DUG Webpage located here: Link

Directions to the Drury Inn and Conference Center in Shiloh, Illinois can be found here: Link.

If you have questions about the DUG or would like to host or or be a presenter at future DUGs please contact Rick Marshall at (618) 670-4259 or rick.marshall@verticalgeo.co.

Dr. Rick Marshall will be representing VerticalGeo at the ILGISA Conference on October 5-6 at Northern Illinois University, Naperville.  Rick is a member of the ILGISA Publications Committee.  If you have any news that you would like to have included in the next copy of the ILGISA Illinois GIS Notes please let Rick know.  Your success stories are important to ILGISA and we are particularly looking for Southern Illinois success stories.

Thanks to the Free Geography Tools Blog for pointing me to the free online KML to Shapefile Converter offered by Zonums Software.  The download version has some bugs in it, but the online version is good to use.  It is free to use and can be found here:

http://www.zonums.com/online/kml2shp.php

How many times have you found something great on Google Earth and would like to show the same feature in your GIS?  This online application allows you to do that.  It is a great tool.