CGIS Enhances Coastal Atlas, Maryland's Chesapeake & Coastal Program GIS Applications for Coastal Zone Management
CGIS works with Maryland's Chesapeake & Coastal Program (CCP) to develop the Coastal Atlas, an online mapping and planning tool that allows state and local decision-makers to visually explore and analyze data for coastal and ocean planning activities. Besides recently updating the Ocean and Estuaries applications in Coastal Atlas to ArcGIS API for Flex (2.4), CGIS continues to build out their functionality. For example, the CGIS Data Development team conducted a survey to determine if oyster plantings by Maryland's Department of Natural Resources are having a positive effect on the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. Yates Bar survey data from 1906, 1974, and 2010 were mapped; acres of oysters were then calculated to determine the difference and the rate at which the population in the bar is changing. The survey and maps will be integrated into the Estuaries application, which offers data and tools for critical tidal and near-shore habitats for targeted conservation, protection, and restoration activities. CGIS is also creating a Federal Consistency tool for Coastal Atlas, which will enable anyone embarking on a development project within the coastal zone to locate federal and state policies that may affect their projects. Stay tuned for announcements about the launch date of the updated and new applications, and the oyster survey results. 
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CGIS Interns Gain State Project Experience
Maria Hrabinski, Justin Mannion, James Parmeter, and Alex Stapleton signed on with CGIS in June 2011 as part-time GIS Technician interns to work on the Maryland Broadband Mapping Initiative and other statewide GIS projects. As they get closer to their 2012 graduation date, they are also gaining practical GIS experience by assisting with projects of statewide value.
What do workforce development and Maryland's GIS Inventory have in common?
In addition to his part-time position with CGIS, Justin Mannion completed a 3-credit internship by serving as a project lead for Maryland's most recent Statewide GIS Inventory Challenge. The goal for the one-week campaign held during National Geography Awareness Week in November was to obtain all 21 of the state's framework layers. Mr. Mannion's tasks included determining the missing layers, presenting the project plan to the MSGIC Executive Committee, contacting the GIS managers in all of Maryland's counties, and assisting county personnel with entering information. At the end of the challenge, 95 framework layers had been added and there are now 1,364 data layers registered to the State of Maryland in Ramona, the National GIS Inventory. Along with contributing to workforce development, the real-world experience that the internship offered helped strengthen Maryland's GIS inventory.
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