Stacey Maples, GIS specialist in the Map Library, introduced the concept of geocoding. Geocoding assigns spatial coordinates to features in the landscape.

The method of recording line data was invented by Don Cook in New Haven in the 1970s for the New Haven census. GSP is a system of satellites maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense for navigational and security purposes. The satellites are atomic clocks with radios that send a message about position and the exact time the message was sent. The position is determined by trianaterlation.

Garmin units are used by the Map Library for most of their field work. The units collect coordinates as you move through space and record a time date stamp. You can take photographs with a time date stamp that can be geo-referenced to the Garmin units.

Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Director of Hixon Center for Urban Ecology, approached the Map Library with data from 2001 of all the street trees in New Haven. The original database needed to be written into ArcPad to be able to 2001 update records. The Map Library created custom forms for the units allowing the surveyor to revisit all the sites and verify old data and update any new data. A group of high school students, using Trimble units, discovered areas were trees should be planted and they planted the trees when approved.

Colleen explained the pedagogical advantages of using the GPS units. The student participants in the Forestry school learned how to manage data sets and develop community outreach skills. High school students were also involved as interns and worked in their own neighorhoods developing both technology skills and pride in their surroundings. The interns helped educate the city of New Haven staff about the use of these technologies.

Richard Brooks, from the Law School, used the Trimble Juno units to record beach-goers to examine issues of racial integration and notions of personal property. They chose beaches since there is no artificial boundaries on a beach…the beach-goers determine what space belongs to them. The Map Library developed a database for data collection and loaded the database onto the Trimble Junos so surveyors could record race, age, gender, cluster information, and proximity to those around them on the beach. This data collection made it possible to aggregate attributes of the beach-goers. There were 13,000 observations over 2 weeks.

Rick is an economist with a law degree and does econometric modeling. This project was initiated after Rick read an article in the New York Times by Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone. The article posited that when communities become more diverse, there is more isolation. Rick didn’t agree with this idea and the method by which Putnam arrived at his conclusions. This study grows out of the desire to utilize data collection and technology to develop a study that collects more accurate data. The data is being used to write an NSF grant.

Stacey finished by discussing the future of spatial data capture comparing it to the notion of cloud computing…GPS data and capture will be ubiquitous as more and more of us carry phones, cameras, and other portable devices.

Use this link to view Stace’s presentation slides (.pps file, 34MB).