Projects and Activities 2012

Executive Summary

The West Virginia GIS Technical Center, located in the Department of Geology and Geography, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, provides focus, direction and leadership to users of geographic information systems (GIS), digital mapping and remote sensing within the State of West Virginia. The primary objectives of the Center can be grouped into three major divisions – GIS data and map development, housing, and dissemination for the state and nation; provide technical support, technical guidelines, and applied research for GIS; provide training, education, and outreach in the field of GIS. Drs. Trevor Harris and Gregory Elmes direct the eight full time staff and numerous students in these endeavors.

The WV GIS Technical Center maintains two major portals to help with GIS data dissemination in the state. The WV GIS Clearinghouse (http://wvgis.wvu.edu) features over 300 unique datasets valued at more than $50 million dollars. MapWV.gov (http://mapwv.gov) is a public gateway to online mapping resources in the Mountain State, providing a wealth of high-quality maps and geographic data via the Internet. Several critical infrastructure layers were developed or updated last year. The WV GIS Technical Center greatly expanded the statewide imagery infrastructure by publishing the Sheriffs’ Association imagery as a publically available dataset. It updated the state’s streams and water bodies within the state. It also partnered with the WV Department of Transportation to develop and publish a new road centerline dataset. The Center field collected about 500 miles of trails for central and northern West Virginia. It updated 2,740 structural and cultural features for the national gazetteer known as the Geographic Names Information Systems (GNIS) database. Other data layers updated or published include flood data, tax parcels, and elevation datasets.

Mapping applications continue to remain an important focus of the WV GIS Technical Center. The Center created a new internet mapping application to help businesses and researchers explore unconventional energy resources (http://unconventionalenergyresources.com/), such as Marcellus shale gas resources, throughout the nation. It rolled out a new viewer to support the National Carbon Sequestration Program. The Center updated the statewide Flood Mapping Portal, the WV Trout Stocking Portal, the State Historic Preservation Mapping Portal, and updated the state’s mapping viewer.

The WV GIS Technical Center once again organized and hosted the West Virginia State GIS Conference in which 200 people joined together to discuss the future of GIS in the state. The Center also hosted over 20 different workshops and training events for over 350 students. The training events covered basic ArcGIS software, server usage, advanced GIS programming, map design, and topical areas such as flood mapping and cadastral mapping.

Download Full Report Documents:

• Full 2012 Report (PDF)
• Power Point (PDF)

Past Annual Report Documents

• 2011 Report
• 2010 Report
• 2009 Report
• 2008 Report
• 2007 Report