MapQuest never seemed so cool.
In conjunction with national Geography Awareness Week and Geographic Information System (GIS) Day, on Wednesday the U Geography Department informed students what the world of geographic research has to offer.
Geography Information Systems are computerized maps that are wired to satellites and other databases and are used to do mapping analysis, simulations, study environmental and climate change, do urban planning, study the relationships between geography and disease and map transportation routes.
“GIS allows us to make very current data bases–‘what if’ scenarios at a very detailed level–using data from the city, censuses, etc.,” Harvey Miller, Geography Department Chair, said.
Miller is working on a GIS to find out how to better configure traffic patterns in Salt Lake City to make transportation systems more accessible.
Also in the department, professor George Hepner is using GIS as a way to determine which areas of the world are likely to breed terrorism, focusing on economic and environmental factors. Assistant professor Bing Xu is studying the spread of bacterial disease in rural Asia through GIS.
In conjunction with the Geography Department, the DIGIT Lab (Digitally Integrated Geographic Information Technologies) is creating a GIS of the U campus.
For his Master’s thesis, DIGIT Lab director Adam Sobek created an interactive campus map that can locate any building on campus, identify all wheelchair accessible routes, give construction updates and determine the fastest route to any campus location.
Working with the U Center for Disability Services, the Health and Safety Office and Space Planning and Management Office, Sobek is able to receive automatic updates to campus situations, allowing the map to be altered for emergency situations.
“For disabled people it’s very valuable,” Sobek said. “Also, if space planning modifies a building, it immediately changes on GIS.”
These maps can be accessed at www.map.utah.edu.
The DIGIT Lab is working on making 3-dimensional GIS, allowing users to go inside buildings to locate routes and rooms and know what is happening in those rooms.
“With the Health and Safety Office, we combine GIS with people-soft schedules. That way if there is an earthquake, we know how many people are in a building at a time and can create evacuation plans,” Sobek said.
Currently, only the School of Medicine has been constructed in 3-D. Jeremy Larsen, a GIS analyst and research assistant in the DIGIT Lab, said, “We are currently creating similar 3-D models for all buildings on campus? It’s like a 3-D MaqQuest for the university.” They hope to finish the project by December.
Sobek hopes to market these GIS to the University of Utah to be used in the new Union kiosk, allowing visitors and new students to easily access any route on campus. 3-D GIS maps would also allow people with disabilities to locate elevators before going to the building.
In the Geography Department, students can earn a GIS certificate by taking upper-division geography and computer science courses. The certificate is offered to undergraduate, graduate and non-degree students, and can be received in conjunction with any major.
Larsen said, “GIS is something just about anyone can use in the university, in just about any department.”