Although initial incident information shown focuses on response to COVID-19, data related to other types of incidents common in Minnesota such as significant flooding and wildfires can be added as they occur in the years ahead.   Similarly, future development plans anticipate directly incorporating many of the individual data resources presently listed in the "Other Situational Awareness Maps and Info" section.

MNSAV works best on large displays such as those typically associated with desktops, with performance diminishing as the screen size becomes smaller.   As a practical matter, tablets are the lowest level of usable platform.

To view MNSAV, go here: www.mnsav.org

About the Emergency Preparedness Committee: The Emergency Preparedness Committee of the Minnesota Geospatial Advisory Council  is one of the United States' oldest and largest state-based organizations with the mission of bringing together the geospatial and emergency preparedness/response communities. Winner of the 2010 Minnesota Governor's Geospatial Commendation Award.

The Census Bureau runs numerous data collections. It publishes statistics for all sorts of geographic areas. There are Census and American Community Survey statistics for: states, metro areas, counties, American Indian Reservations, school districts, legislative districts, ZIP codes, cities and townships. The most detailed local geographies available from the Census Bureau are sub-county and sub-city areas called Census Tracts and Block Groups. 

Are there sub-county or sub-city service areas, districts, or zones for which you need Census statistics?  Interested stakeholders can provide input on 2020 Tracts and Block Groups, now through the end of April. For the Twin Cities 7-county area, Metropolitan Council has prepared a preliminary set of new boundaries, viewable online at metrocouncil.org/census2020. The preliminary redrawing of Tracts and Block Groups is consistent with Census Bureau’s requirements, and informed by recent estimates of population and housing.

In the Twin Cities 7-county area, send questions, comments, and requests concerning Census Tracts and Block Groups to: Paul Hanson at Metropolitan Council, paul.hanson@metc.state.mn.us, phone 651-602-1642. Comments and requests should be submitted by April 30, 2019. 

In other counties or states, other planning agencies and county governments are coordinating the review and update.

Please share this with interested stakeholders: Interested stakeholders could be planners, analysts, or anyone who uses localized Census statistics for specific small areas.

The GIS Student Organization at the University of Minnesota is very grateful for the support of MN GIS/LIS in our 18th Annual GIS Networking and Career Fair event. This event seeks to bring together students interested in a career in geospatial technologies with local GIS industries and organizations. We had over 100 participants representing a wide range of academic departments and schools. We also had attendees from multiple nearby universities and over 20 representatives from local GIS industries and organizations. 

The fair offered an opportunity to connect with potential employers, resume reviews by participant vendors, a student poster competition, and provided free professional headshot photographs. 

The event also featured three guest speakers: Sam Klimoski, GIS Coordinator in Technology and Communications at the City of St. Paul; Eric Shook, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the U of M-Twin Cities; and Sharvari Sangle, GIS Developer at SRF Consulting Group and MGIS 2016 Alumni.

We were able to meet our goals with the energetic assistance of volunteers from GISSO and strong support from the MN GIS/LIS Consortium Event Grant, and our partner academic and professional organizations.

More information about this event and the GIS Student Organization can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/gisso/fair.

The NW/NC GIS User Group met Tuesday, August 14^th at the Beltrami County Administration Building in Bemidji, MN.  An invitation was extended to the Northern Minnesota GIS Users Group to join us for the day and several attended.  A total of 47 GIS users from various city, county, federal, and tribal agencies as well as private businesses throughout the state attended the event.  The focus of the meeting was mobile technology and use of apps in the field.  The morning was filled with 10 user demonstrations of various ArcGIS Online, Collector, Avenza and/or Survey123 projects and what they saw as the pros and cons of each.  Networking opportunities were provided and the room was buzzing with talk of GIS and mobile apps!  Chris Pouliot, Information Technology Specialist with MN IT Services, presented “What It Takes to Make A Good Collector App” to the group throughout the afternoon.   A very special thank you to the MN GIS/LIS Consortium for funding an event grant that helped to make this event possible.  Anyone wishing to receive information on upcoming events of the group can email nw.nc.gis@gmail.com to be added to their email list.  

Things to Learn

Each year the GIS/LIS Fall Conference is the event in Minnesota for GIS professionals and practitioners to learn from each other, and this year is no different. In Bemidji, we’ll have amazing keynote speakers, 15 workshops, 38 sessions, an Esri Hands-On Learning Lab, and a whopping 129 presenters. And with networking events Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, you’ll have ample opportunities to catch up with colleagues both new and old.

Things to Do

Wait, have you ever actually been to Bemidji? If not, you probably don’t know how many cool things there are to see and do in the area. Check out the Bemidji Sculpture Walk just minutes from the conference gatherings. While you’re walking downtown, drop in on the Headwaters Science Center, or snap a selfie with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (who will be presiding over the 5K fun run/walk). When the conference is over, escape to the other side of the lake for the weekend at Lake Bemidji State Park, or take a detour to the Mississippi Headwaters in Itasca State Park on the way home.

Things to Know

So now you’re convinced you want to attend, right? If so, here are some key dates you need to mark on your calendar:

• 9/4: Hotel conference rates end (no harm in booking early!)
• 9/8: Early registration ends 
• 9/29: Online registration ends
• 10/4: Workshop day
• 10/5-6: Conference proceedings

Still on the fence? Why not peruse the preliminary program before making your final decision?

As incoming Board Chair, I am very excited for what ALL of us can accomplish in 2017! After two years as your at-large representative and one year as chair-elect, I have witnessed the amazing work accomplished by Consortium Board members, committee members and all of YOU on a weekly basis. As outgoing chair Tami Maddio stated in the previous e-announcement, 2016 was a year to remember. I would like to publicly “Thank” those Board members who are moving on to their “real jobs.” Thank you Heather Albrecht (3 years) and Brandon Tourtelotte (2 years) for your contributions to the Board of Directors, networking events, workshops and our annual conference. You have both made a difference with your ideas and comments. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Mark Kotz. He has been a longtime chair of the Awards committee and is stepping down to concentrate on other things. Mark has been instrumental in events and conferences for many years.

We have a number of exciting events lined up for 2017, from networking events like curling to our annual Spring Workshops and finally to our 2017 annual conference at a new location, Bemidji (October 4-6). Your Board of Directors will be working diligently on your behalf and we always welcome comments and suggestions. Volunteering opportunities are available with MN GIS/LIS committees. Please contact us at volunteers@mngislis.org to get involved. 

Scott Freburg

Your 2017 Consortium Board Chair

This year’s conference brought us record attendance to a familiar place.  Ryan Stovern and the 2016 Conference Committee did an excellent job pulling everything together for the big event.  Those who attended were offered a wide variety of Workshops and sessions as well as intriguing speakers.  We also were able to share GIS with educators on Wednesday at the 2nd Educator workshops.  We enjoyed great networking opportunities on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Other fun activities included the fun run and a tour of a live working Great Lakes research vessel.  Thank you to Ryan Stovern and the Conference Committee for an excellent 2016 Conference.

The Board worked on refining and reorganizing the scholarship and education committees officially becoming the Education Committee. Our involvement with K-12 activities has increased over the last several years and 2016 proved to offer even more for K-12 including an expansion of Educator workshops at the fall conference and support for the first ever MN on the Map student online map contest.  Thank you to Scott Freburg, Stacey Stark and the Education Committee for the hard work on these efforts in 2016.

Spring workshops were also a great success once again.  Thanks to Michelle Trager and the Spring Workshops Committee, 14 workshops were offered with some available in 3 remote locations.

Networking Events included a Curling Event, Spring Workshops event at Republic, and a co-event with University of MN GeoSpatial for GIS Day in November were well attended.  Thank you to Zeb Thomas and the Networking Committee for organizing these events.

The MN GIS/LIS Consortium had a busy year.  Thank you to all of the dedicated Board members and volunteers who made all of the events and work possible in 2016.   Volunteering opportunities are available with MN GIS/LIS committees or events throughout the year.  Please contact us at volunteers@mngislis.org if you would like information about volunteer opportunities.

The Goodhue County Environmental Permitting and Tracking Suite project will allow Environmental Health to geographically locate and display wells and septic systems quickly and accurately while sharing this data with appropriate agencies. Final goals include creating a well and septic permitting program that allows data and inspections to be conducted in the field with any device with wireless network capabilities, the collection of data that can be geographically analyzed for compliance and effective placement of new systems, and field use of Leica hardware and software to collect accurate positions of well and septic systems. A customized web mapping application will be made available for public viewing.

The County Surveyor and GIS Office work closely together to provide many services. The mission of the GIS office is to develop, implement, and maintain a GIS database for the county departments, local government agencies, private companies, and the general public.

Questions? Please contact County Surveyor Lisa Hanni at lisa.hanni@co.goodhue.mn.us or phone 651.385.3197.

MNGIS/LIS has been present as a vendor for several years, providing GIS information about the Consortium and how to get involved with GIS. Scott Freburg represented the GIS/LIS Consortium at this year’s vendor booth and spoke to 30-35 teachers about GIS, including a sign-up sheet with 18 teacher emails for further information.

It was an outstanding day! If you are interested in being a K-12 mentor please go to http://www.geomentors.net/ or contact Scott Freburg. Below are some pictures from GeoFest and of a Bloomington teacher and his 2016 Minnesota on the Map contest winners. GIS/LIS Consortium provided funding for t-shirts. Thank you!

The event went off without a hitch.  We had great weather and food cooked by City of Maple Grove Staff.  Throughout the two hour event there were conversations between many from the public and private sectors and the it proved to be a good networking event.  There were many people that said it was so nice out and they were having such good conversation that they didn’t want to leave.

There were 21 people in total attendance.  Attendee organizations included: Hennepin County, City of Maple Grove, City of Eden Prairie, City of Golden Valley, City of Rogers, Houston Engineering, Pictometry, and Frontier Precision.

If you'd like to be added to the groups mailing list to hear about or present at future meetings, contact Doug Gawtry, dgawtry@maplegrovemn.gov.

If you'd like to learn more about the group and future meetings, contact Brandon Keinath (bkeinath@mnpower.com), Andy Schmidt (ASchmidt@GREnergy.com), or request to join the LinkedIn group (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/6684945).

The Legislative Coordinating Commission (LCC) serves as the umbrella organization for legislative commissions, joint agencies, and other boards for the Legislature.  One responsibility of the LCC is to maintain a web site that shows the public how revenues from the Legacy Amendment and the Environment and Natural Resource Trust Fund are spent.  LCC staff work with 25 or so agencies that receive $300 million annually through the Legacy amendment to show citizens where the money goes. The web site is at http://www.legacy.leg.mn/.   The interactive map for the website that lets Minnesotans find projects near where they live, or want to explore can be found at this link: http://www.legacy.leg.mn/map.html.

Notified by the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, http://www.cartogis.org/awards/winners2015.php, Chris Cantey, Senior IT Specialist, and Lee Meilleur, Technology Services Manager, were recognized for having the best interactive map for 2015.

In this new map, users can select the General Land Office (GLO) plats map service as a backdrop (at certain large scales) and can click on a township feature to get the georeferenced PDF of the plat map for that area.  At scales where PLS corners are displayed, those points can also be clicked to view more information about the corner. For some corners, the “Certificate of Location” is viewable as a PDF. An excellent one-page help sheet shows the site’s features at a glance.

The digital GLO plat maps were created by a project that MnGeo coordinated in partnership with the Secretary of State’s Office, MnDOT, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the MN Association of County Surveyors.  The map service was created by Foth consultants.  The data and the map service are documented in the Minnesota Geospatial Commons in this record.

Minnesotans can thank Bill Burgess with the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) for the tip.

The dozens of lakes and streams on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin form a complex network of aquatic assets that members of the tribe’s natural resources department work diligently to protect. One way of safeguarding the tribe’s water resources is to identify catchment basins that feed rainwater into the system. By ensuring that identified basins are adequately covered in vegetation, which filters pollutants found in runoff, the tribe can help protect the overall health of its watersheds.

The task is made easier through the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology...

For anyone interested in learning more about Minnesota’s LiDAR elevation data, the Minnesota LiDAR Research and Education Committee will be hosting their second webinar in the free MN LIDAR Webinar Series on Tues. Dec. 9th.