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Contents | Mobile GIS | Feature Article | New GIS Software | Market Report
News| WebMapping | Russian Data | OnTheStreet | Free Scripts
Canada eh! | Events | Tech-Tips| GIS Book | Jobs
SpatialNews - "GIS On The Street" #3
April, 2000
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On The Street!
We're continuing to share stories about SpatialNews around the globe.
"On The Street" is a column we've started to give you a chance to share your experience with
thousands of other GIS/Mapping professionals just like you. We want to showcase "real life"
stories from SpatialNews readers. These are highlights of GIS or mapping projects that people are working
on right now. Here we will bring you the opinions of the people who are working "hands-on" with the projects. This will be a great opportunity to get an idea how people around the world, from various disciplines,
are working with GIS technologies. In these feature we're delivering stories from readers in
Canada, Australia, and the US.
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Tell Us How You Do Things!
Would you like to be featured in our "On The Street" Column? If so, drop us a line explaining who you are and what you do.
If applicable, please explain an interesting GIS/Mapping project that your currently involved with.
Email us requesting: Put me on the street!
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GIS at Canada Mortgage and Housing
Allan Krisciunas is the Project Manager for a GIS Feasibility Study at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in Ottawa, Canada. They've retained Prior & Prior
Associates of Toronto to undertake a study into whether it's feasible to
use GIS in housing market analysis and surveys.
This is a first for CMHC, Canada's housing agency, a Crown
corporation, in business for 50 years assisting Canadians with a great
variety of housing needs. Canadians are now amongst the best-housed people
in the world, and CMHC has played a large part in making that happen.
However, while they've been working with maps for almost as long, they've never
used GIS.
CMHC market analysts use maps constantly in carrying out their business
processes to serve a wide variety of clients. But they've always done it
"the old-fashioned way" -- this may be fine for a well-known investment
house, but it's time we looked at map visualisation and analysis using
computers, not paper. The current study will examine how CMHC market analysis processes might be
improved with GIS. For instance, defining precise urban neighbourhoods
that better reflect the true market for a particular type of housing
product might be greatly facilitated with GIS, where currently the only
tools are a paper map and spreadsheet.
However, cost/benefit has yet to be proven. That's the purpose of this study.
If you're interested in touching base with them on the results of the work,
check out the following website over the next few months:
www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/mktinfo/gis_feasibility.html
Allan Krisciunas
Senior Economist / Market & Surveys Analyst (GIS)
Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
akrisciu@cmhc-schl.gc.ca
Mapping pre-1950 Poverty
Dorothy Turner is a student at UW-Milwaukee. Her GIS project is trying to map the links between poverty, pre-1950 homes and
lead-poisoning. The project entails looking at three districts, two core districts that will prove her theory and another district as a
control. The project is now in the data collection stage, which is almost complete and she's now awaiting further
instruction. Good luck Dorothy dotty@uwm.edu
Sugar Cane Mapping in Australia
Alan Stafford, Masters student with the Cooperative Research Centre for
Sustainable sugar, lives and works in beautiful tropical North
Queensland, Australia. His home is on the beachfront, looking south to
Port Douglas and north to the Daintree. He notes in his first life he was a navigator in the merchant navy.
Alan currently works for the local Sugar Mill as a Cane Inspector and Spatial analyst in charge of compiling each years farm maps and maintaining a
current database. The software platforms used are ESRI PC ArcInfo and ArcView. They have their own GPS base station and rely on a Trimble Pro XR to perform updates.
He tells of a pet project during harvesting season from June to November
each year. An information system is updated daily, via ArcView and a
notebook installed in his field 4wd, assisting him to more efficiently
control the harvesting operation. He also provides a major support to their
research agronomists. Alan notes he would like to hear from kindred spirits from anywhere in the world.
alan can be contacted at taimalan@internetnorth.com.au... G'Day Alan!
GIS at Bowling Green U.
Rachel Krieger is a student at Bowling Green State University working on
a study looking at different indicators of children's health in Ohio's counties.
She's targeting counties based on the number and
percentage of children in the total county population, the percentage of
low birthweight babies born there (by race), and the percentage of children
in poverty. Her study uses 1995 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Ohio
County Department of Health. Rachel can be contacted at
rkrieg@bgnet.bgsu.edu
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