Introduction
| Purpose | Maps
| Scope | Finding the Data |
Summary
Unique Resources Enter the Plan
The next steps centered on refinement of the coordinate
locations for ENC and PNC data. The ENC and PNC database
grew to over 3000 records distributed across all areas
of the state of Arkansas and a systematic check for
every coordinate would be difficult.
Alternative data sources, such as the USGS Geographic
Names Information System (GNIS), were evaluated to assess
school locations, hospitals and other government institutions.
However, the source data was deemed incomplete, inaccurate,
or out of date. Other sources such as commercial geographic
data were evaluated as well but demonstrated the same
problems faced using the GNIS data. Neither of these
sources was developed to account for state institutions
such as the local area health clinic or the local unemployment
office.
Good fortune provided the state with another resource
that could assess the quality of the location data.
In 1997 a pilot program began in the state which put
GIS and GPS technology into Greenbrier High School.
The program became very successful and grew to a number
of other high schools across the state. In 1999, the
state legislature through the Department of Education
appropriated funds to place the program in a number
of other high schools.
Nationally recognized for its innovative approach to
community service and self-guided learning, the
Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST)
program provided a field-level resource for assessing
data quality. During the beginnings of the EAST program,
technical support had been provided to the EAST schools
by the
Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies
(CAST) at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Both of these programs, working in concert, provided
the state with a mechanism to build a high-quality geographic
database of assets that could support decision making
for the provision of network services.
Through the use of geographic information technology,
CAST could send the regional data to the high school
students, who could then ground truth the geocoded data
and then return the data to CAST. CAST could then reassemble
the data into a statewide database.
Tasks identified for CAST
-
Organize ENC and PNC data by the 15 regional educational
co-ops boundaries
-
Develop guidelines for EAST schools to utilize
best methods for capture of ENC and PNC data
-
Develop guidelines for EAST schools to return ground
truth ENC and PNC data to CAST
-
Distribute data to EAST schools in the co-ops
-
Provide technical support during the ground truth
phase
-
Receive ground truth ENC and PNC data and reorganize
into seamless statewide layers
-
Return data to Department of Information Systems
Tasks identified for EAST
-
Receive data from CAST
-
Collaborate between the other EAST sites within
a co-op and develop scheme for ground truthing
-
Ground truth all ENC and PNC data
-
Organize data in each school
-
Organize data for the whole coop
-
Return all ENC and PNC data to CAST
Introduction
| Purpose
| Maps
| Scope | Finding
the Data | Summary
|
