Presentation I gave to the Construction Survey Class at Kankakee Community College

1. UNDERSTANDING GIS
Presentation for Kankakee
Community College
May 2, 2012 by Diane Redwitz

2. What is GIS?
GIS stands for Geographic Information System.
A GIS lets us visualize, question, analyze,
interpret and understand data in many ways
that reveal relationships, patterns and trends
in the form of maps

3. What can I do with GIS?
• Map where things are
• Map Quantities
• Map Densities
• Find out what’s inside
• Find out what’s nearby
• Map change

4. Equipment and Software that helps us
Map Locations
• Google
• ESRI ArcMap
• BING
• Open Street Maps and other Open Source
• Trimble, TopCon, Magellan, and other GPS
devices or Data Collectors
• Smartphones, Tablets and Laptops

5. Highway Dept uses for GIS
GIS is used at the Kankakee County Highway Dept in
the following ways:
Survey Crew – locate plans using a website, map
GPS locations, locate boundaries (parcel and
ROW), show topology and aerial photography.
Traffic Safety – locate traffic accidents, help gather
data to acquire grants, street asset inventory
(lights and signs)

6. How is the Highway Dept Using GIS?
Sign Maintenance County Crashes
Topology overlay to correct
$236,000 Sign Grant Project Drainage Problems

7. Other GIS Uses
Mapping and Charting
Aeronatical
Cartographic
Nautical
Topographic

8. Natural Resources
Agriculture
Climate Change
Conservation
Envionmental Management
Forestry
Marine and Coast
Mining
Oceans
Petroleum
Water Resources

9. Public Safety
911 Computer Aided Dispatch
Emergency/ Disaster Mangement
Fire Rescue and EMS
Homeland Security
Law Enforcement
Wildland Fire Management

10. Transportation
Aviation
Highways
Logistics
Railways
Ports and Maritime
Public Transportation

11. Utilities and Communication
Electric
Gas
Location Based Services
Pipeline
Telecommunications
Water/Wastewater

12. Other uses
Military operations
Geospatial Intellegence
Health and Medical
Banking and Financial Service
Facility Management
Insurance
Media Press
Real Estate
Retail (Papa Johns and Walmart)
Education, Libraries and Museums
and many others

13. Maps, Analysis and
Future Development

14. Remote Sensing

15. Analysis of a Off Shore Wind Farm Location
Utility Buffer
Bird Migration Shipping Buffers

16. Questions?
Thank You
Resources:
ESRI
USGS
UWF
Kankakee County Highway
National atlas
Diane Redwitz
GIS Technician
Kankakee County Highway Dept
750 S East St.
Kankakee, IL 60901
815-933-1731