NYS GIS Association Annual Meeting

NYS GIS Association Annual Awards Presentations

GIS Spatial Application Awards

Recognition of impressive and innovative accomplishments across the state.

Brian Barnes

Town of Amherst, NY

(cont’d) During the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for historic-archival visual comparison purposes, Brian used an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) – Drone (DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian model) to record daily & weekly traffic volume patterns on 5 major thoroughfares in and bordering the Town of Amherst, NY. Brian wanted this unprecedented event to be visually collected in a way that future generations could see the drastic change in daily traffic patterns that took place. He collected major North & South bound streets (Transit Road & Niagara Falls Blvd), along with major East & West bound streets (Maple Rd & Sheridan Dr), as well as additional areas (Millersport Hwy), NYS interstate expressways (NYS I-290 & I-990), and Wegmans and Tops Supermarket parking lots. He had already collected these same areas from other regional flights pre-COVID-19. To keep consistent collections were always near to the weekday rush hour traffic periods of 4:30-5:00 pm or late AM on the weekends. A dramatic shift in vehicle traffic was observed throughout all phases of the pandemic. Early declines in traffic and therefore vehicle emissions were reported across the state. Street traffic and parking lot volumes continue to evolve years later as private sector businesses try to return their workforce to pre-pandemic onsite staffing levels.

Sonam Bagul

New York University Center for Urban Science & Progress

(cont’d) The data used for this project is collected using GIS based applications to mark the exact pathways followed by the individuals while interacting with healthcare facilities. This project demonstrates 3D enablement of disaster-related field data through use of first-hand observations of 1,936 individuals egressing New York City healthcare facilities during the onset of COVID-19 in the Spring of 2020.

We designed a web-based interactive dashboard to monitor the data in 3D space, to understand the people’s mobility patterns near the health care facilities in peak times of Covid-19. 3D epidemiology provides new mechanisms to understand the egress behaviors of individuals and their interaction with surroundings. All the individuals are shown using the cylinder graphics and their origin, interim destination, final destination points are captured to emphasize on the hotspot areas where the chances of infection spread are accelerated. Due to proximity to other individuals, touch behaviors (e.g. touching the same door knob, holding the railing at the same place) at the hotspots can be highlighted and more frequently sanitized or monitored according to the situation requirements by related departments and subject experts.

The web-based dashboard enabled the users to expand the egress behavior monitoring capabilities from 2D to 3D. For achieving this transition to visualize the data in 3D space, the observed individuals were annotated as cylindrical polygons instead of 2D point maps. The definition of feature specific color schema (e.g. time type, gender, medical Personnel, PPE usage) and custom shading for attribute values within every feature added a greater depth to help distinguish between contrasting patterns and behaviors. This was achieved using dynamic vertex color shading and addition of drop-down filters to select features of choice in the dashboard. The color scale legend in the Potree dashboard is set to update automatically when a particular feature from the dropdown menu is selected.

GIS Champions

Recognition is given for exemplary support of the GIS profession and of the value of GIS technology in society.

Stephen Levin

CEO of Solar One (former New York City Council Member, District 33)

In early 2019 Alan Leidner, then NYC GISMO President, and Wendy Dorf, Member, NYC GISMO Board of Directors with the assistance of Robert Dorf, NYC GISMO member developed the language for City Council legislation to amend the City Charter. The proposed legislation provided for a NYC Geospatial Information Officer (GIO), the development of a Citywide GIS Strategic Plan, and the organization of a Citywide GIS Steering Committee composed of City agency GIS Directors and other key GIS and IT managers.

This legislative proposal was introduced to the City Council through the efforts of then Council Member Stephen Levin, City Council Member Robert Holden – also Chair of the Council’s Technology Committee, and then Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (now Council Member Brewer).

Over the course of two years Stephen, Robert, and Gale shepherded this legislation through the City Council including agency reviews and public hearings. On December 15th, 2021 this legislation (Intro 2158) was passed by a 51 – 0 vote of the City Council.

This legislation is absolutely crucial to the development of GIS in NYC. Because GIS is a “collaborative and sharing technology” it requires a leader and coordinator, a common plan of action, and a team of experts from City agencies. This legislation requires that all three of these steps be taken. We are infinitely grateful to Stephen, Gale, and Robert for making this happen.

Jiin Wen has been a GISMO member for more than twenty years. As the GIS Director for the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) she has developed important data resources and applications to support the mission and operations of EDC. Additionally, she has been an active member and leader of GISMO serving for many years on the GISMO Board of Directors. Jiin also served as an elected member of the NYS GIS Association Board of Directors. In November, 2021 Jiin was elected GISMO President.

Since then, she has organized and participated in GISMO webinars, the GISMO Application Fair, and the GISMO Job Fair. She has adopted new approaches to interacting with members and working with the Board of Directors. She has also collaborated with Amy Jeu (GISMO) and Theo Goetemann (Basil Labs) on a Citizen Science, disaster management initiative of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The application uses smartphone technologies to capture respondents’ geolocation and voice responses to a questionnaire, translates the responses into a common language and text format, and uses AI tools to map and analyze this information. The application is designed to improve communications with rescue teams during times when normal communication channels are overwhelmed. It has the potential to save lives both locally and in countries around the world impacted by disaster events.