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Office
for Geographic Information Gets NASA Grant and NSGIC
Award
The Kentucky Office
of Geographic Information in the Governor's Office for Technology was
recently awarded a $1.3 million NASA grant to gain a clearer picture of
forest, urban and rural landscape in Kentucky.
The aim of the project is to
develop a digital snapshot
(computer map) of the Commonwealth's natural and
manmade landscape as
it is now, and compare it to how it was used in another time period
(change detection). Change detection compares two satellite images and
shows whether or not a landscape has changed. Knowing how the landscape is
changing is an important factor when deciding how to make sound land
management decisions. As part of the project, tools will be developed to
assist federal, state and local decision makers in making future land use
decisions.
The project will be accomplished through the use of
advanced satellite and data processing technologies. The members of the
Kentucky team who wrote and won the grant are: the Office of Geographic
Information, the KY Department for Natural Resources - which includes the
Commissioner's Office, the Division of Forestry, and the Division of
Conservation, Morehead State University, the U.S. Forest Service, Daniel
Boone National Forest, and the U.S. Geological Survey and Space Imaging
Services, Inc. Susan Carson Lambert in the Governor's Office for
Technology is the Principal Investigator. The grant will be conducted over
a three year period beginning in January of 2002. The initial data product
- a 2002 landcover map - should be available sometime in the spring of
2003. The landcover map shown was created from 1992-1994 satellite data.
At the recent NSGIC
Annual Conference in St. Louis, Susan Carson Lambert was awarded a
Governmental Excellence award. The award is given to individuals who have
done important work nationally that moves GIS technology and digital
geographic information forward and who have contributed to the NSGIC
organization in some special way.
Susan Carson Lambert is the Executive Director of the
Office for Geographic Information in the Governor's Office for Technology.
In the past year, Lambert worked with a group of 25 people from the
private sector libraries, non-profits, academia and multiple levels
of government to design The GeoData Alliance - a new, innovative, nonprofit
organization open to all individuals and institutions committed to using
geographic information to improve the health of our communities, our
economies, and the Earth. The purpose of the GeoData Alliance is to
foster trusted and inclusive processes to enable the creation, effective
and equitable flow, and beneficial use of geographic information. The
award was also given for her professional efforts in the U.S. mapping
community and advocacy for data sharing partnerships and collaboration,
as well as her efforts to surface and frame state GIS Director's issues
and presentation of the issues in appropriate national forums for debate
and resolution.
Visit the Office for Geographic Information at http://ogis.state.ky.us/
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