GIS Online Student Spotlight - 9/18/15

Congratulations to Jim Galliart on being named GIS Online Student Spotlight for his outstanding work in Special Topics in GIS (GIS 4930)

Welcome to the spotlight, Jim! Jim lives in Story City, Iowa with his wife of 18 years, Nicole. They have two cats, Gandalf and Loki. Jim works in the Iowa Department of Transportation as a Design Technician Specialist, and is studying GIS to bridge the gap between his CAD knowledge and his department's GIS source data.

To follow Jim's work within the program, visit his blog at Adventures in GIS.
 

Project 1 - Network Analyst (Week 1 and 2)

In this project, students work with Network Analyst for a Hurricane Evacuation Scenario in Tampa, FL USA. What makes this project interesting (especially this year) is that UWF GIS Online student, Nicole Gusack, is currently interning with the Tampa Bay National Weather Service Office where she actively helped prepare for recent hurricane/tropical storm events using the same methods we employed in this project - specifically, by applying the "Project Pheonix - The Tampa Bay Catastrophic Plan" to prepare.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Organize and prepare project data in a geodatabase and feature dataset for use in Network Analyst.
• Utilize a customized tool to clip and reproject multiple features, provide justification for its use, and review how it is scripted with Python.
• Classify a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) dataset based on researched methods and convert it from a raster to polygon feature in order to identify low lying areas in Tampa, FL.
• Summarize key processes completed for Prepare week, including any issues encountered along the way.
• Identify shelters by travel time.
• Analyze routes for evacuation and delivery of emergency supplies.

What we like: Congrats to Jim for submitting one of the only 100% A+ map packages. What we like most is his professionalism and attention to detail. Check out his blog and read about the project and his experience for yourself - it's a good read!  

In the prepare section, we like the way he symbolized flood zones and elevation.  Look at all of those emergency service labels! All accounted for and easy to read.    

Basemap of the Tampa, Florida area showing classified DEM, flood zone, and emergency services.

In the analyze section we like the map layout, fonts, and organization of information. There was a lot of information required on the analysis map this week, but he did a great job of making sure everything was present and easy to view.

A map of the Tampa, Florida area showing downtown evacuation routes, patient evacuation routes, emergency supply routes, and nearest shelter locations based on travel time.

Keep up the excellent work Jim, and good luck with the project's conclusion!