BTAA Geospatial Information Network News & Highlights

Check out the latest blog post about the BTAA Geoportal  on Spatial Reserves - A Guide to Public Domain Spatial Data. The Spatial Reserves blog is maintained by Joseph Kerski & Jill Clark and contains a wealth of information about open geospatial data and issues around access. Mr. Kerski was an invited speaker at our recent  BTAA GIS Conference.      The Spatial Reserves blog is based upon       the themes from the       The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data .

By Jae Sung Kim This interview is part of our Data Provider Series, which highlights local governments and institutions that offer open GIS data. In each interview, providers tell us about their missions and data resources. We hope this will be a great way for readers to learn more about local GIS developments and new initiatives. Name: Maurie Kelly Title: Director Division/Department: Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA) Website: www.pasda.psu.edu About Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA) Using PASDA, users can easily find geospatial data with various functions including preview and download. Maurie Kelly noted that: “The data made available through PASDA is provided by our data partners to encourage the widespread sharing of geospatial data, eliminate the creation of redundant data sets, and to further build an inventory (through the development and hosting of metadata) of available data relevant to the Commonwealth. PASDA serves as a resource for locating data throughout th

By Jaime Martindale Featured Item: Wisconsin Statewide Tax Parcels 2014-2020 Wisconsin Act 20, the biennial state budget for 2013-2015, created statutory directives for state and local governments to coordinate on the development of a statewide digital parcel map. The Statewide Parcel Map Initiative is an effort to create a digital parcel map for Wisconsin by aggregating local parcel datasets utilizing geographic information systems (GIS). The Parcel Initiative is a multi-faceted, multi-year collaborative effort of the Department of Administration, State Cartographer's Office, and local governments. The predecessor to the Statewide Parcel Initiative was the LinkWISCONSIN Address Point and Parcel Mapping Project , which ran from July 2013 through September 2014. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) launched a statewide broadband initiative with goals to map broadband service within the state, develop a vision for broadband in Wisconsin, and work to extend broadband acc

By Kathleen Weessies & Karen Majewicz Featured Item: Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard Early on in the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, Johns Hopkins University took the lead in creating a portal of frequently updated data feeds. It pulls together up to 600 datasets including medical cases, hospitalizations, deaths, recoveries, stay at home orders, essential vs. nonessential business designations, and travel and quarantine orders. This Dashboard is one of the most commonly cited public sources of aggregated Covid-19 data, as it delivers public health statistics using easy-to-understand maps and charts. Users do not need to load the GIS data in external applications to analyze it. Screenshot of the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard on November 2, 2020 COVID-19 Cases Worldwide : Data points indicate location of available case numbers (not total cases) However, if users would like to go deeper and make maps or charts of their own, many of the geospatial datasets in