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Harness the Power of GIS in Civil 3D, InfraWorks, Revit & Beyond!
SHOULD I... USE GIS DATA?
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get asked all the time, where can I find “GOOD”, “FREE” (Not sure if “good” & “free” are complimentary terms) GIS data? What about “FREE” Satellite imagery? Would GIS be helpful for me?
Technically some of these images are not even from satellites, lots of them are really just aerial photographs from planes. But ‘Bird Mode’ doesn’t sound as cool… at least that what the Google Earth executives thought when they finalized the name. Other names discussed included “Airplane View,” “Superman,” and “I Feel Picture-y.” The short answers are, depends on what you are looking for. Yes you can, yes it will, and you get what you pay (or don’t pay) for. Long answer: Really the best option is either Google; what you are looking for using the name of the location (Google “<city/ county name>, download GIS”) you want it for, OR use ArcGIS Online. Well you can pay for hi-res data or find free sources. 14
by: James Lord
www.augi.com
Would contours, or pipe inverts, structures, watersheds, flood maps, centerlines, rights-of-way, utility locations be helpful to you? However, trying to find and access this data has been a hit and miss over the last few decades. Some places publish ‘shapefiles’ online, some places only allow you to view the data through a web interface. Tip: Some agencies really bury the GIS portals or data. For example, try googling Orange County Storm GIS and it will take you to the OC Public works maps & drawings page. But there is no GIS data on this page. Just a couple of PDF’s. My tip is to try typing GIS in the agency’s websites search tool. For the OC Public Works this took me to what I was looking for.
HOW CAN I USE GIS? There are so many ways to use GIS data, from creating maps, analyzing the data, and even creating apps. It can help Identify problems, monitor change, manage & respond to events, perform forecasting, set priorities, understand trends, locate existing features and so much more.
September 2020
