Geospatially Mapping the Coastal Communities of Alabama Project Progression: A Monthly Newsletter for EDA Funded Project #G004824
March 2010
Student Workers Have Finished Work in Gulf Shores and Have Progressed to Orange Beach On March 26, 2010, student workers and their team leader, Darrell Rigsby, finished the geospatial mapping of Gulf Shores. On March 27, 2010, student workers and team leaders, Rigsby and Jones, progressed to collect data in the city of Orange Beach. Between March 27-28, 2010, the teams collected the geospatial data of over 1,200 infrastructure elements in Orange Beach. Orange Beach GIS Coordinator, Sean Brumley, and Clark Mobile Gas Special Projects Manager, Neil Grimes, helped student workers determine which areas of Orange Beach are considered priority areas. These areas are the most densely populated by residents and tourists. Also, Grimes informed team leaders about gas lines that were connected to major restaurants and hotels that are also considered priority for infrastructure data collection. The student teams and leaders realized that Orange Beach uses different infrastructure elements more frequently than Gulf Shores. “Orange Beach has a significantly higher concentration of gas infrastructure as Student worker and marketing opposed to Gulf Shores. There are also sometimes different major, Sara Yousey, collects types of infrastructure between the two cities. Orange Beach infrastructure elements in has different types of fire prevention infrastructures in order Orange Beach, Ala. on to meet the demands of the high rise condominiums whereas March 27, 2010. this is not the case as much in Gulf Shores where the building density is not as high,� team leader Darrell Rigsby said.
ArcGIS is used by the project to upload infrastructure data that will later be placed on Virtual Alabama. How exactly does this computer program help with the project’s efforts? ArcGIS is a GIS software product that allows users to show plotted areas on maps and create layered maps. ArcGIS software is used in the project to show what infrastructure elements were collected. These elements are defined by code and color on the map. For instance, a fire hydrant is displayed as a blue cross. There are multiple categories of utility types: cable/fiber, electric, gas, telephone, sewer, water, and storm water, each with a respective color to distinguish it visually on the ArcGIS map. After data points are collected, they are entered into the project laptop as a shapefile. A shapefile is a GIS file that consists of lines and points on a map. The information can then be geospatially referenced on the laptop. ArcGIS uses different layers, so information can be viewed through aerial photography, which helps project members grasp the amount of work that has been completed. Also, members can reference roads and hotels via ArcGIS maps that will be used as starting and stopping points for student workers. When the project is completed, each city will get a copy of their respective data sets for all infrastructure in that city. Also, the utility companies that have decided to partner with our project will receive their respective data. The final goal is to upload the data into Virtual Alabama, so it can be used effectively in the event of a disaster, particularly a hurricane. “Another major objective of the project is to verify the accuracy of the data using ArcGIS. With the verification of accuracy we can show how important and relatively easy and inexpensive it will be for cities, especially in hazard prone areas, to participate in geospatially mapping utilities or other important points, as we are doing with this project,” project leaders Amit Mitra and Luke Marzen said.
Contact Information: Dr. Chetan Sankar sankacs@auburn.edu (334) 844-6504
A fire hydrant, showing need for data collection, is covered under sand in Dauphin Island.