This edition of Metes and Bounds is packed with new information! From the annual John Cowan Memorial Scholarship Winner Announcement to Annual Conference Updates, and everything in between!
John Cowan Memorial Scholarship Winner Announced!
Congratulations to the 2024 recipient of the John Cowan Memorial Scholarship in geography, which was awarded to Sage Hill from Pittsburg State University! Sage is currently working towards a degree in Geography with a minor in sustainability. We look forward to what the future holds for Sage!
KAM Conference update
The Program Committee is right on schedule with planning our annual conference, to be held October 22 to 25 in Lawrence. Here are some of the highlights:
As you may have seen on LinkedIn or our website, this year’s theme is “Mystery on the Kaw: Seeking Answers with the Latest in GIS Technology.”
We are delighted to have Captain Jonas Baughman of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department join us as this year’s keynote speaker. Jonas is a heavy user of GIS for crime analysis. You can read his bio on our website [kansasmappers.org], and an abstract for his talk will be posted as soon as it is available.
July will be a big month for #KAM2024! Pre-conference workshop [kansasmappers.org] registration, general registration, and the map gallery submission form will open for business. Watch your email and LinkedIn for a separate announcement.
We already have three exhibitors confirmed with several more working on their plans to join us. If there is a vendor you would like to see at the conference, please reach out to Program Committee Chair Amy Roust. You get bonus points if you can share contact information for that company!
Got 80s clothing?Our Thursday evening social event will be 1980s themed, and costumes are strongly encouraged. Watch those summer yard sales and thrift stores for Members Only jackets, stock up on Aquanet, and we’ll see your totally rad alter egos for a murder mystery on October 24.
How can you help? Send in those breakout session abstracts [kansasmappers.org]! To ensure inclusion in this year’s program, please submit no later than Friday, August 2, 2024. While all presentation slots are 45 minutes long, we are open to proposals that group together two or more shorter talks on the same theme/topic. Again, reach out to Program Committee Chair Amy Roust to discuss your options!
DASC Geoportal hub - the latest scoop
Eileen Battles, DASC Manager
Geospatial content is continuously being added to the Data Access & Support Center (DASC) Geoportal Hub, the official website of the Kansas GIS Clearinghouse. Whether you are looking for statewide K-12 school locations, tax unit boundaries or just want to view some imagery – we have the data!
2024 NG911 Imagery
Statewide, 1 foot resolution, leaf off, natural color, 4 band imagery was acquired for the entire state between February – April 2024. The imagery is now being prepared for QA which will take place late summer/early fall of this year. DASC will once again need your help with this review! Our imagery partner, Surdex, provides an easy to use, browser-based review interface through which we can customize review areas to a single county, a portion of a county or multiple counties. Watch for an email from the DASC staff in the coming months with information on how to sign up to help!
Once the imagery has passed QA and has completed post processing, we anticipate it will be delivered to DASC early 2025. The imagery will be available for download in MrSID files tiled by USGS 24K quadrangle and as a DASC hosted imagery service.
This imagery is made possible thanks to funding provided by the Kansas NG911 Coordinating Council, with additional support funding from the Kansas Department of Transportation Traffic Records Coordinating Committee.
2023 NAIP Imagery
Thanks to the USDA-FSA imagery program, statewide 1 foot resolution, leaf on imagery is available to download in natural color and CIR county mosaic MrSID files. The 2023 NAIP is also available via a DASC hosted imagery service.
Looking for GIS data and resources from a Kansas local government or a Midwest MAGIC partner state?
Check out the new interactive map on the DASC Hub>Data Partners page which provides links to other state and local government data partners web pages. If your organization’s information needs to be added or updated, please contact Dave Grolling (dgrolling@ku.edu).
Lunch and Learn Webinars
Kansas Statewide Contours Processing
11 am - 12 pm, Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Coordinating with the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA), the Data Access and Support Center (DASC) worked on creating statewide contours derived from QL2 level LiDAR tiles. The main goal of this project was to help users better visualize elevation on KDA’s Kansas Base Flood Elevation (BFE) Portal. This portal will allow users to request a BFE where data is available within Zone A floodplains in Kansas. The 2-foot contours were clipped at the county level and will be available for download by county and available as a service through the DASC Geoportal Hub. This presentation will focus on the project life cycle from LiDAR data acquisition to processing methodology to system architecture to quality assurance to providing the finished product to KDA and to the public. Along the way, the presenters will cover issues faced in LiDAR data quality and coverage, geoprocessing methodology, IT infrastructure, and resource allocation. We will present on how DASC faced these issues and the ways that project staff negotiated available resources and found a path forward while improving on processing runtime, product quality, and customer satisfaction.
Call for Articles announcement will be made again soon. These articles will be featured in the fall edition of the Meets and Bounds Newsletter. For more information about articles please find it here.
Congratulations to the 2024 recipient of the John Cowan Memorial Scholarship in geography, which was awarded to Sage Hill from Pittsburg State University! Sage is currently working towards a degree in Geography with a minor in sustainability. We look forward to what the future holds for Sage!
