November 20, 2013 – November 20, 2013 was Geographic Information System (GIS) Day, and Daya Snapp, GIS Technician at Bi-State Regional Commission gave a brief glimpse into the world (pun intended) of GIS Services at Bi-State.
The presentation highlighted examples of how Bi-State captures, manages, analyzes, and displays geographically referenced information using GIS software. Recent projects include capturing spatial data on water and sewer paper maps to create Utilities GIS for municipalities; managing employment data that is used in part to model travel demand on the transportation road network for the Quad Cities Area Long Range Transportation Plan; analyzing crash data for the Quad Cities Intersection Crash Study; and displaying amenities on an attractive cartographic map displayed in a kiosk at Illiniwek Forest Preserve, near Hampton, IL. These are just a few of the many ways GIS is used in planning for the region and assisting our member governments.
Finally, Ms. Snapp introduced two new GIS services. Staff utilizes Esri® Community Analyst to create custom demographic reports and simple maps upon request. Community Analyst contains thousands of data variables available with a few mouse clicks. Sample reports were provided to Commissioners. In addition, Bi-State staff will start implementing ArcGIS Online. This will put GIS in the hands of member governments, allowing local government staff to view and use maps and data that has been created for them without expensive, technically-challenging hardware and software.
For more information about GIS services at Bi-State, please visit http://bistateonline.org/index.php/mapping-gis/gis-mapping-services or contact Lisa Miller, Data/Graphics/GIS Director at (309) 793-6302, ext. 133 or
