Want to see where Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Systems have been installed?  There is a new initiative from the DOE to do just that.  I hope it will help us with our LA County Solar Map – http://solarmap.lacounty.gov

Here is the site: http://openpv.nrel.gov/

It has some pretty cool mapping and analytical tools for the cost of solar over the years, here: http://openpv.nrel.gov/visualization/index But it is only aggregated to a state level, so we need more details.

Here is the full release:

DOE and NREL Announce Open PV Mapping Project

October 26, 2009

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the beta release of the Open PV Mapping Project. The Open PV Mapping Project is a collaborative effort between government, industry, and the public that will develop a comprehensive database of photovoltaic (PV) installation data for the United States. The project is the largest installation database with over 50,000 entries.

The project will provide a Web-based resource for users to easily understand the current status and past progress of the PV industry from the data that show current and recent trends of the PV market. Additionally, users may add their own PV installation data, browse PV data entered by others, and view statistics. Moving forward, NREL will add additional data and use this information to drive further analysis of market growth.

Full story

October 27th, 2009 | Category: Announcements, GIS Data | Leave a comment

I wanted to pass this along to folks who are using Google Maps …

Dear Premier customers,

We just made some changes to our map data for the United States that may affect your applications. Please read the post on the Google LatLong blog for full details, and the note below for more info on possible effects on your maps.

We’re excited to bring new features and functionality to Google Maps API Premier including: comprehensive parcel data, more detailed natural features like parks and water bodies, and new base map data types like bike paths and university campus maps. These updates have improved geocoding accuracy as well as our imagery/data alignment, and we’ll be making even more improvements going forward.

How does this update impact Maps API Premier customers? The data that powers API features like geocoding and driving directions has been updated. If you’re using client-side geocoding in the browser, your applications will automatically start using the new data. If you’ve been using the HTTP geocoder and caching any retrieved data, you should re-geocode with the new data as soon as possible. With the “Report a Problem” feature, we’ll be updating the map data regularly, so we recommend that you continue to refresh any cached data in order to take advantage of the latest data too.

We’re excited about this launch, and also pleased to announce that this move should shorten the time it takes to push corrections to the map to less than a month. Corrections to base data can now be quickly reported and tracked with the new  “Report a Problem” link to communicate directly with us about any updates or corrections that you think need to be made to our maps.  Our Google Enterprise Technical Support team is standing by to assist you if you have any questions and to make sure any issues are resolved quickly, at support.google.com/enterprise.

Thanks for your patience as we roll this out!

Google Enterprise Maps Team

October 8th, 2009 | Category: Announcements, Software, Technical | Leave a comment

Kenneth Bennett of RRCC passed a very interesting (though dense), thorough, and relevant article along, considering that redistricting will start in earnest next year.  As he states:

This is a well-written and balanced article on redistricting and GIS technology that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in 2005.  If you have the time, I encourage you to read it if you have not already done so.

Kenneth

PNAS Article (2005) by Benjamin Forest on Redistricting and GIS

September 28th, 2009 | Category: Case Studies, Technical | Leave a comment

Thanks to all who attended the EGIS Committee meeting on Tuesday 09/22/09.
Click HERE to view the powerpoint presentation in .pdf format (http://dpwgis.co.la.ca.us/website/egis/ladpwGoogleMapsApps.pdf)!

(Road Closures Application)

September 24th, 2009 | Tags: ESRI ArcGIS Server, Google Maps, Javascript API, Mashups, Power Point, REST Services | Category: Case Studies, Documents, Technical, Technique | Leave a comment

This is a fairly major resolution of this case – it concerns GIS practitioners and governments maintaining GIS data across California.

Santa Clara County Releases Its Geodata
September 16, 2009

After a three year legal battle, Santa Clara County finally provided a copy of its GIS parcel basemap data to the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) in compliance with California’s Public Record Act (PRA).  Decisions from both the California Superior Court and the California Court of Appeal clearly affirmed that public agencies must provide their geodata in accordance with the PRA (California Government Codes §6250-6259).  Generally, agencies can not charge a requestor of their geodata more than the direct cost of duplication, and they can not restrict how a requestor can use or redistribute the data.  Santa Clara County had been selling its geodata for $ 158,000; the cost CFAC finally paid was $ 3.10 per disk, plus shipping.
More »

September 22nd, 2009 | Category: GIS Data, News | Leave a comment

I have downloaded and projected all current fire perimeters from August 28 – September 2nd – they are in Zone V in a single directory.

All Station Fire Perimiters (as of September 2, 07:02) – zip file

September 2nd, 2009 | Category: Fire, GIS Data | Leave a comment

Hello – here is a recent fire perimeter from this morning.

• 090109_0631_station.zip

Also wanted to pass along a description of the process on how they are created from Tim Smith of LA County Fire.

Thanks Tim – I also wanted to pass along my appreciation for all of the hard work your team is doing.

Fire Perimeter updating …

I am sending this email to let you know that fire perimeters are obtained in 12 hour operational periods. They must be proofed by the situation leaders at the incident for accuracy before anything is published. Even if we could obtain them via satellite or other means the information still must be approved by the appropriate staff on the incident. The perimeters that we get from the GIS Professionals on the incident are final approved versions. It is very important that we use the perimeters that these people have approved. On the Station Fire the GIS team is composed of Federal, State and Local professionals, with the Federal Government in the lead role. The Federal Government also takes the lead role on information gathering that is why everything is published to the Federal site first.

More »

September 1st, 2009 | Category: Fire, GIS Data | Leave a comment

Attached below are a set of GIS shapefiles that have been zipped up for use.

NOTE!  These are provided AS IS.  They are used for planning purposes by the fire department, and are not intended to show the fire perimeters at a specific time.  They will provide a useful guide, but I am putting them here as a service, and if you have questions about them, hold them until  the fire is done – I will not burden the fire fighters with requests at this time.

I will also begin putting them up on this site as we receive them.

For users of the LA County Repository – we’ll begin to load them into the Repository.

• September 1, 2009 – Station Fire Perimeter
• August 31, 2009 – Station Fire Perimeter
• August 30, 2009 – Morris and Station Fire Perimeters
• August 29, 2009 – Morris and Station Fire Perimeters

August 31st, 2009 | Category: Fire, GIS Data | Leave a comment

Here is the perimeter for August 30th at midnight: ca_station_20090830_0025_z5 (zip file)

August 30th, 2009 | Category: Fire, GIS Data | Leave a comment