Students, Planners, Sociologists See New Patterns with GIS
Technology
In a single morning at USM's Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) lab in Gorham, USM Professor Matthew Bampton helped
a town planner standardize tax records, traced a gas line
for a local utility, helped a graduate student map an underwater
fault line beneath the Bath-Brunswick coast, and reviewed
a colleague's database of environmental changes in the region.
GIS technology, which combines a powerful database system
with the three-dimensional graphics of computer-aided design
(CAD), has jumped the boundaries of geography to become a
major analytical tool for students, scientists, planners,
businesses, environmentalists, and law enforcement alike.
The technology can find links between seemingly unrelated
data, then quickly convert them into patterns on a map --
whether geographical or chart-based. Databases can be combined
to create a high-powered overlay showing several layers of
data at once. This kind of visually organized information
can be critical for law enforcement officials mapping vulnerable
infrastructure in their communities or for town planners monitoring
growth.
"GIS is to the 21st century what the microscope was to the
17th century," says Bampton. "What we're discovering is that
an ever-widening circle of people who are studying interesting
things in nature and human society are turning to this kind
of spatial analysis to find patterns and interconnectivity."
USM's lab is one of several hotbeds of GIS activity in the
state, and one of only a handful to regularly open its doors
to the public. Established in 1993 in Bailey Hall in Gorham,
the lab was expanded in 2000 with funds from the National
Science Foundation (NSF). There is public access to the lab
Wednesday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., with staff on
hand to assist.
A state GIS consortium also operates out of USM that allows
universities to share software with other Maine colleges and
universities, among them, Bowdoin and Unity Colleges. Bampton's
latest NSF grant, totaling $360,000, has helped equip GIS
labs at UMaine campuses in Farmington, Fort Kent, Augusta
and Machias, and has exposed more faculty to GIS capabilities.
At Fort Kent, for example, GIScience will be applied by
Professor Dave Hobbins to forestry-related projects; Joe Szakas,
an IT professor at UMA with research interest in criminology,
is researching GIS applications; and at UMF, the technology
will be used by Cathleen McAnneny, a medical geographer looking
at environmental factors affecting disease.
GIS technology has become a regular tool for academic research
for many students across the country, says Bampton. "You see
it with geology students, of course, but also with social
workers, business students, environmental science majors,
sociologists. "We had a graduate student in here the other
day who was using GIS to map healthcare providers and hospitals
in rural areas nationwide."
USM is the only place outside a traditional surveying school
where undergraduates are able to work using GIS, Global Positioning
Systems (GPS), and precision surveying equipment in scientific
research projects. Aided by another NSF grant, Bampton and
USM geology professor Mark Swanson loaded nine undergraduate
students (six chosen from a national pool of applicants) into
kayaks last summer to map minute and telling details of tectonic
plates on the Maine coast.
"GIS allowed our students to map in a week what used to take
a whole field season to do," says Bampton. "USM is actively
involved in putting GIS into the curricula and in training
across disciplines," says Dan Walters, who heads the Maine
Office of GIS in Augusta. "They provide services that directly
benefit local government and citizens, with internships, training
and project work."
It's a need that will continue to grow, says Walters, who
helped get $2.5 million earmarked for GIS-related projects
in the recently-approved environmental bond.
Those monies would be used to create statewide digital aerial
photography, helpful for accurately mapping "geography, streets,
houses, telephone poles, fence lines, you name it," says Walters.
"Very useful information for planning growth, or for planning
for and responding to disasters."
To schedule an interview or tour of the GIS lab, contact
Bob Caswell at the USM Media Relations Office, 207-780-4200.
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