BTAA-GIN Collection Stories

By Jaime Martindale For nearly 15 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been collecting and archiving state and local geospatial data.  While students and researchers may be the primary audience, we hope that as these collections grow, broad use by public audiences looking for historical geographic footprints of places in Wisconsin also grows. Wisconsin maintains a series of “Foundational Layers” which are critical to the flow of annual business applications, information sharing, and other use cases in government agencies across the state. For agencies to provide essential public services to constituents, having reliable geospatial data is important to support functions like 911 emergency response, maintenance and construction of roadways, sidewalks or trails, building new facilities, and smart community planning.   As important is it may be to offer users the latest and greatest versions of foundational layers for current issues and applications, having a...

By Shirley Li Featured Item or Collection: Indiana Statewide LiDAR: 2016-2020 What is the item? This index map provides download links to LiDAR data in Indiana. The 3DEP data products consist of lidar point clouds (LAS) and digital elevation model (DEM) data. 3DEP acquisition of QL2 Lidar for the State of Indiana began in spring of 2016 and was completed in the spring of 2020, with the final data delivered in December 2020. The data was made available as a web-based distribution method supported by GDSL@Purdue and Institute for Digital Forestry at Purdue University.    What BTAA Library submitted the item? Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies Interesting tidbits You can not only download the point cloud data, but also the derived DSM, DTM, and NDHM. You can preview DEM and NDHM in the browser The Indiana LiDAR data portal is built using open source technology Caption: LiDAR data download for Marion Count...

Data-Driven ArcGIS StoryMaps How to Create a Story Map by Batch Attaching Media to Points Using ArcGIS StoryMaps By Jay Bowen, University of Iowa Libraries Tags: ArcGIS StoryMaps, data-driven, map tour, batch attachment, images, spreadsheet, csv Overview There are a lot of questions on the GIS Q&A sites about how to create a story map from a spreadsheet of point data with images using the newer version of ArcGIS StoryMaps , but very few answers. If you are like me, you liked how Esri's Classic Story Maps allowed you to upload an entire csv of points with image urls to create a data-driven story map in one quick step without having to do this point-by-point. You may have agonized over this process in the newer version and you might be unaware that, by implementing a few extra steps using ArcGIS Desktop, you can also do this with the newer version. In the post that follows, I will walk you through the steps involved so that you can create a data-driven tour in ArcGIS StoryMaps u...

By Melinda Kernik.  What’s in this collection? The  Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) archives data generated from student, staff, and faculty researchers from a wide range of disciplines.  Over fifty of the datasets have a spatial component, with varied topics including:   reconstruction of river discharge since the last glacial maximum in North America digitized highway network showing dates of freeway construction in and around the Twin Cities, Minnesota (1920-1995) distribution models of invasive species in Minnesota Librarian curators review all submissions to DRUM and work with researchers to ensure that the data are complete and well described. Collection highlight One of the most frequently downloaded items in DRUM is data about racially restrictive covenants in Hennepin County .  The files have been downloaded more than 6500 times in the last 11 months!   Racial covenants were legal clauses embedded in property recor...

By Cecilia Smith. What are the items? The BTAA Geoportal collates spatial layers from local and state agencies that cover a range of themes, including infrastructure. Among these layers are bridge datasets at the city, county, and state levels. Browse the  bridges of BTAA Counties What BTAA Library submitted the item? All 13 members of the BTAA Geoportal have submitted datasets of bridges in their states. Interesting tidbits: The types of data on bridges differ among states: Some datasets, like Nebraska Bridges , include the date of bridge construction and reconstruction for all bridges in the state. The oldest listed bridge in the dataset was constructed in 1888. IowaDOT provides individual feature layers for bridges proposed to replace the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing, IA, including alternatives called the Purple Bridge , Blue Bridge , and Green Bridge . Maryland’s Historic Highway Bridges contains historical bridges throughout the state. Images of the bridges can be viewed b...

By Caroline Kayko What is the item? This item is a geospatial dataset depicting the Border-To-Border (B2B) Trail in Washtenaw County, MI in both shapefile and geodatabase file form. The B2B Trail is a non-motorized trail that stretches across Washtenaw County and connects cities, parks, and other destinations. It is currently still under construction, which is reflected in the dataset. Image of B2B Trail Dataset via Washtenaw County Park Finder What BTAA Library submitted the item? University of Michigan Interesting tidbits: The trail length will total 70 miles upon completion It spans 35 miles along the Huron River Greenway, connecting Ann Arbor, Dexter, and Ypsilanti Conservation of the Huron River corridor is one of the project goals The trail is intentionally routed away from roads to create an ‘urban wilderness Snapshot of B2B Trail Segments in Ypsilanti Map from Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission (via City of Ypsilanti) Where can I find out more? Border-To-Border T...

By Kathleen Weessies The BTAA Geoportal brings together datasets from different sources. This can be helpful when you’re looking for data gathered by multiple government units. Trails are a perfect example: The state government and a local government will be paying attention to the trails under its own care. The joggler or unicyclist, however, only wants maintained surfaces away from motor vehicles. This map shows the trail dataset available from the State of Michigan (gray dashed line) and the trail dataset from Allegan County (orange dashed line). We can readily see that each entity has features that the other doesn’t. The attribute information can also vary, depending on what the unit of government prioritized in the data gathering process. In this case, Allegan County tagged each trail by its corridor type. This allows us to separate out and highlight trails that were built on abandoned railroads (green dashed lines). The State of Michigan dataset doesn’t provide this detail. This ...