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A Message from the Core Committee
Greetings Volunteers and Friends,
We hope that you've had a great start to 2014. We have been busy as ever and our volunteers have been lending their expertise to many projects some of which are showcased in this newsletter. We invite you to read their stories and share your comments and ideas with us.
Since the last newsletter, four missions have been completed: two remote sensing projects in Tanzania and Chile, one project for a Seattle based nonprofit organization, and one for the USGS' Map Corps initiative (listed under featured stories).
Early this year, in collaboration with Humanitarian Open Street Map (HOT), 18 of our volunteers started digitizing various features on OSM in South Sudan and the second phase of the project just began with 15 volunteers continuing the work. We have also concluded the recruitment for a project in Afghanistan and will be sending two instructors to Kabul in August. With our latest mission, the total number of projects is at 140 with 491 deployed volunteers.
Internally, we have been discussing the redesign of our website for some time. Core Committee member, Carol Kraemer, has taken the lead on exploring various options and we hope to share more details with you in our next newsletter.
We hope you enjoy the stories of our volunteers' selfless efforts and invaluable work. We couldn't be more proud and grateful.
With sincere wishes,
GISCorps Core Committee: Dianne Haley, Carol Kraemer, Heather Milton, Mark Salling, Allen Ibaugh, Dave Litke, Shoreh Elhami
P.S. Please email info@giscorps.org if you wish to be removed from this list. |
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Deployment and Partnership News
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Missions in Progress
A total of 14 missions are currently in progress. Detailed accounts of these projects are posted on our Ongoing Projects Page.
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Modeling Change Patterns in Nguru Forest - Tanzania
This project was initiated as a small grant request from the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) by the University of Kwazulu-Natal and the Wami Ruvu Basin Water Office in Tanzania. The first volunteer conducted the analysis using the TM imagery and now the consortium has acquired new and higher resolution imagery (Rapid Eye) and the second volunteer Linda DeLay, GISP, a GIS Specialist from New Mexico, conducted similar analysis on the Rapid Eye imagery. The intention of the project was to assess the effects of fragmentation on the landscape using high resolution imagery. Read more here.  Remote Sensing Specialist Assisted a Project in ChileAtacama Desert Project (ADP) of Forensic Architecture and Goldsmiths University requested the assistance of a remote sensing specialist. ADP asked the advice of the volunteer in the selection of appropriate satellite data-sets/imagery to analyze vegetation health and vegetation decrease in several areas along the Loa River in Chile. Jim Norton, a remote sensing specialist from Canada was recruited for this project and recently finalized the analysis and has submitted a report. Read more here.   The National Map Corps Project - Volunteer Website In April 2013, GISCorps began a National Map Corps Project Phase 2 in response to a request from the U.S. Geological Survey to create a website where National Map Corps volunteers can get involved, ask questions, organize, and interact with each other. Lauren Heller, a GISCorps volunteer and Google employee was recruited to head the project; GISCorps volunteers David Litke, Carol Kraemer, Karen Chadwick, and David Lok assisted Lauren, and the website was opened to the public in January 2014. Read more here.  GlobalWA Interactive Web Mapping with ArcGIS OnlineGlobal Washington a not-for-profit organization based in Seattle, WA requested the assistance of a volunteer with expertise in developing a web based interactive map. Len Olyott of Brisbane, Australia was recruited and created several web maps for GlobalWA. Read more here.  GISCorps Volunteers Digitizing in Open Street Map (OSM) - South Sudan18 GISCorps volunteers from 8 countries have begun digitizing various features and landmarks in Open Street Map (OSM) environment in areas of South Sudan that are largely unmapped or poorly mapped. This effort is in collaboration with the Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT). The second phase of the project has begun. Read more here.  GISCorps Volunteer from California Continues Educating Students About GISJavier Aguilar, a GISCorps volunteer who has been educating elementary school students about maps and GIS (see related story), is continuing his efforts in collaboration with the LA County Assessor's office during a GIS Day celebration and beyond. Following is a photo of Javier and a group of students.  Search and Rescue GISCorps Team Members were Sworn InThanks to the hard work of GISCorps and the California Office of Emergency Services, members of the California GISCorps SARGIS pilot program have been sworn in as Disaster Service Workers (pending background and paperwork processing).This means that the GISCorps members trained in MapSAR and other SARGIS tools can be called up as mutual aid resources by the State to help with missing person searches, recoveries, and any type of disaster where a GIS resource is needed. Read and learn more about MapSAR and GISCorps' involvement in this blog and also from GISCorps MarSAR webpage. 
Read more about other completed GISCorps projects here.
Read more about projects in progress here. |
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Name: Lorri Peltz-Lewis
Organization: Fire and Aviation Management at USFS
GISCorps mission/Year served:GISCorps volunteers assist in Search and Rescue pilot project in California, 2012-2014
Share your experience about the mission: I volunteered for this mission since we continue to see the need for integrating GIS into emergency services. Search and Rescue (SAR) for wilderness is a key opportunity to work with many local responders who don't have the skills to support mapping. After attending training, I wrote up a project plan to help guide the pilot project, conducted numerous meetings, training sessions for the GISCorps volunteers and interested attendees, presented to the CA SAR Coordinators what GISCorps is and what GIS can do for them, etc. We ran into a couple of snags getting called out to incidents that appear to be soon corrected. The GISCorps team will be sworn in at a ceremony this January 2014 and that should open the door for us to participate in SAR events as well as provide support on state incidents.
Anything else to share:While it has been difficult to get recognized by the state, for numerous appropriate reasons, this has been highly rewarding to work with so many dedicated volunteers and colleagues. I look forward to more events and broadening my geospatial network!
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URISA's next annual conference will take place in New Orleans, September 8-11, 2014. We're working on a volunteer opportunity to conduct field collection of data to support a nonprofit in New Orleans. Stay tuned!
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News from Friends of GISCorps
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Thank you for your continued support of URISA's GISCorps!
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Get Social with GISCorps!
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Shop for GISCorps Stuff
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Do you find yourself in need of a new T-shirt, coffee mug, ball cap or tote bag? Do you want to advertise GISCorps and your association with the organization? Well, you are in luck! You can now find various GISCorps items at our online shop.
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GISCorps Core Committee
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Shoreh Elhami, Co-founder
Dianne Haley, Chair
Allen Ibaugh
Carol Kraemer, Vice Chair
Dave Litke
Heather Milton
Mark Salling
Contact us:
www.giscorps.org
Email: info@giscorps.org
Twitter: @giscorps
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Volunteer Database
It is critical to our operations that our volunteer database is as up-to-date as possible, since it is this database that we query to find volunteers suitable for deployment on a mission.
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URISA 2014 Conference Calendar
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For more information, visit
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New URISA Membership Options
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URISA recently introduced new membership categories for Young Professionals (those under 35), Government Agencies and Educational Institutions.
Now is a great time to join URISA!
For more information, click here.
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