Most people know where they live and can give directions to their homes or workplaces. But with the advent of Global Information Systems and global positioning sensors (GPS), anyone is capable of pinpointing where they are on Earth at any time with an incredible degree of precision.
This revolution and the myriad of real-world applications for GIS technologies will be the focus of an open house "GIS Day" from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center at Technical Area 3. All U.S. citizens and foreign nationals with Laboratory badges are invited to attend.
"Global Information Systems have significant, widespread uses in a number of existing programs at the Laboratory, and we think GIS can become a major capability in new and developing Laboratory programs," said Ray Neff, Los Alamos' Chief Information Officer (CIO).
The open house will feature a keynote address at 9:10 a.m. by Gar Clarke of the State Engineer's Office. A nationally recognized GIS advocate, Clarke will speak on how the state of New Mexico is using GIS technologies.
The program also includes presentations, posters, demonstrations and discussions to highlight the role GIS plays in a range of Laboratory applications. Additional presentations will examine how GIS is used in employee enterprise, biological homeland security, hurricane and transportation applications, along with the "Federal GIS One-Stop Initiative," a roundtable discussion led by Clarke. A light lunch will be provided.
Neff said that some examples of GIS applications at the Laboratory include the extensive use by emergency operations team members to track the Cerro Grande Fire's movement. After the fire, analysts used GIS to analyze flooding and erosion risks and map the extent of fire damage. The Laboratory GIS fire maps are available at http://www.esri.com online. More information about GIS work at the Laboratory is available at http://fwo.lanl.gov/fwo_pub/fwo_gis/html/index.html and at http://www.gislab.lanl.gov/index.html online.
The long-term goal of the Laboratory's GIS Steering Committees and the CIO
Office is to establish GIS as a strategically important set of capabilities
and to make them readily available for integration into major Laboratory programs.
"For environmental and societal applications of GIS, the Earth's the limit," Neff
said. "In fact, the strategic importance of GIS is so great that the
only limitation on how the Laboratory can capitalize on GIS technologies
is the imagination of the individual researcher."
Non-Laboratory badgeholders who wish to attend the open house must contact Mary Bowen at 5-4851 or write to mbb@lanl.gov by electronic mail and must arrive at the Study Center entrance at 8:30 a.m. Laboratory badgeholders do not need to contact Bowen or arrive early. Non-Laboratory computers are not allowed in the Study Center.
The open house is part of GIS Day, a national, grassroots event designed to showcase real-world applications of GIS technology at schools, businesses, government agencies and other organizations. GIS Day is sponsored by the National Geographic Society as part of an initiative called Geography Action. Other sponsors include the Library of Congress, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Environmental Systems Research Institute, the Association of American Geographers, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science and the United States Geological Survey. Additional information about the national GIS Day is available at www.gisday.com online. Information about the GeoSpatial One-Stop Initiative is available at http://www.fgdc.gov/fgdc/coorwg/2002/gos_hud.html online.
Further information about GIS Day at the Laboratory is available from Don Willerton (CIO-PO) at 7-2888 or dxw@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
-- Valerie Stockett and Jim Danneskiold
AGENDA
|