Volume 11, Number 4, 2003
When a sniper terrorized the Washington, D.C., suburbs last October, stumped police turned to geographic profilers.
Crime scene addresses were fed into a computer, which mapped a geographic pattern that could have tipped police to where the killer lived. It didn't turn out to be the case-clincher, but it was one more tool for beleaguered law enforcement officials.
In a new computer classroom at Penny Hall, University students are learning to use similar Geographic Information System (GIS) software. GIS is a common thread uniting students of geography, market research, geology, food and resource economics, civil engineering, urban affairs, marine studies, disaster research and environmental policy.
The 28 workstations funded by the College of Arts and Science are used for regular classes and special seminars.
Abhijit Banerjee, a graduate student in energy and environmental policy, has used the computer to map where a specific bird species nests in New Castle County, Del. "It is a very good tool for our research in biodiversity," Banerjee says.
Other students digitized forest stands from 1928 aerial photos of southern New Castle County and compared them with the current stands to document the disappearance of forests for the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Health science students use the software to map the spread of disease.
As professors and students realize new uses for GIS, the number of students using the sophisticated software multiplies, says Tracy DeLiberty, assistant professor of geography.
DeLiberty, a climatologist who came to UD from the University of Oklahoma eight years ago, says the teaching classroom was necessary because the GIS technology requires state-of-the-art computer hardware to run effectively. GIS software should be taught in a lab setting, she says.
"I am able to introduce geographic principles and concepts and then able to apply them directly in the classroom by having the students download real data from federal and state agencies and run some analysis to look at a particular socioeconomic or environmental problem," DeLiberty says. "The GIS teaching classroom is allowing our students to be very competitive in the job market with experience using GIS technology."
John Callahan of the Office of Information Technologies-User Services, the campus GIS support coordinator, says the University chose ESRI software because that company holds the largest market share and its software has advanced capabilities. He says ESRI products are prevalent, especially within federal and state government agencies, so students will have a smooth transition from Penny Hall to the workplace.
GIS classroom users also have access to the Delaware Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory (DataMIL), a continuously updated online source of current spatial information for the state.
Dick Sacher, manager of Information Technologies-User Services, says GIS users often must gather data from a variety of sources--several individual sets of aerial photography data or overlays of road networks and municipal boundaries, for example. "A considerable amount of work is required to 'stitch together' the contiguous pieces and to modify them to align with other data layers," he says.
Sacher says the picture changes when Delaware is the area being studied. Then, researchers can get seamless, vertically integrated statewide layers of data from the Delaware DataMIL, a joint effort of the University, the Delaware Geological Survey, the Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination and the U.S. Geological Survey. Each data layer is documented using national metadata standards.
"The DataMIL serves its geographic data using cutting-edge technologies known as OGC-compliant Internet map services, including image and feature streaming," Sacher says.
"We used to struggle with getting and using data for teaching," DeLiberty says. "Now, I can just go to the DataMIL and get it. Not only is the data available in an easy downloadable and usable form, but it also includes metadata--the documentation behind the data that includes information about what unit of measurement the data reside in, what coordinates the data are in. Federal agencies are good about documenting the data, but some other agencies are not. It's not because they're negligent. It's because it takes a lot of time."
DataMIL users have access to data on elevation, land use, hydrography, geodetic control points, tax parcels, transportation, aerial and satellite photography and municipal boundaries.
From the basement of Penny Hall, students are studying the state's Inland Bays two counties away, while others are checking roadway congestion in the towns immediately surrounding the campus. Other recent projects using GIS include:
"It's become very important and very useful for all kinds of different problems that have any kind of geographic or spatial component to them," DeLiberty says.
The web site [www.udel.edu/gis] is a portal for GIS resources and information at the University. DataMIL information is available at [http://datamil.udel.edu].
--Kathy Canavan