First Nations and Native Tribal Governments Geographic Information System (GIS) Workshop

Part 1 SDI GIS GPS

First Nations and Native Tribal Government Geographic Information System (GIS) Workshop

Sunday, June 14, 200910:30 – 4:30

The Ruby RoomCrowne Plaza Hotel 300 Third St

Niagara Falls, NY  14303.

• In the 1620s Father Gabriel Lalemant recorded the Iroquois name for the river Onguiaahra — meaning "the Strait" — which later evolved into "Niagara."

• "Niagara" is a native name that may be derived from Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the "Niagagarega" people on several late 17th century French maps of the area.

•

• Native Niagara:

• Three Sisters Island,

• Turtle Native American Center

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

1. Explain benefits spatial data infrastructures (SDI) in cross-border land and resource management,

2. Better understanding of the use of geospatial technologies to Indigenous issues and

3. Provide a networking forum to encourage future cross-border collaborations.

Workshop Objectives

• Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

• Evolution of SDI– GSDI Global Spatial Data Infrastructure

– CGDI Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure

– NSDI US

– GeoConnections

• GIS and GPS– GIS Geographic Information Systems

– GPS Global Positioning System

Presentation Outline:

What is SDI? • Framework for sharing and integrating of location-based data using the

Internet.

Definition:

• An integrated, on-line mechanism to deliver geospatial data and services and information from the closest point to their source for applications, better business and policy decision-making, and value-added commercial activities.

• Governed by standards and vitalized by partnerships.

Defining Spatial Data Infrastructure

GSDI• The Global Spatial Data

Infrastructure (GSDI) Association is an inclusive organization of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world.

• The purpose of the organization is to promote international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues of pressing importance.

• SDIs are being developed in over 54 countries

Nationally Focused Global Phenomena

• SDI agencies in most countries:– The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) handles SDI

on a global level– The US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is

responsible for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure in the US.

– Canada has a Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI)

– Europe’s SDI is the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE).

– There are hundreds of frameworks around the world, each oriented toward becoming a spatial data infrastructure.

US Maps and Data on www.geodata.govCrowne Plaza Hotel 300 Third St., Niagara Falls, NY  14303

US NSDI Vision

• Goal: A geographic information resource for the 21st Century

• Current and accurate geographic information is readily available locally, nationally, and internationally

• Improved public and private sector use of geospatial data resulting in better decision making

HISTORY

• 1977 - Federal focus on coordination of mapping, surveying, and geodesy activities in government

• 1990 - Federal Geographic Data Committee Formed

• 1994 - National Spatial Data Infrastructure formed by Presidential Executive Order 12906

• 1996 - Emergence of Regional, and Global SDI initiatives

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

The Original Vision

• Reduce Duplication

• Increase Efficiency/Effectiveness

• Save Money

• Uniform Standards

• Agree on Base Data (Framework)

• Resources/Partnerships

National Spatial Data Infrastructure US

Strong Federal Support– FGDC 1990– NSDI Presidential Executive

Order 1994

Extensive partnerships with communities

A Network of NSDI Organizations

Indigenous Mapping Network

National League of Cities

National Association of Counties

University Consortium on GI Sciences

Open GIS Consortium

FGDC

International City/County Managers Association

National States Geographic Information Council

Indigenous Mapping Network

• The Indigenous Mapping Network's (IMN) mission is to empower native communities by connecting them with the tools they need to protect, preserve, and enhance their way of life within their aboriginal territories.

• IMN is a conduit for native individuals and groups to meet and build relationships, and assist one another in accomplishing sovereignty goals.

• IMN endeavours to bridge the gap between traditional "mapping" practices and modern mapping technologies. (See Success Story 2)

Core Components of the NSDI

Vitalized by Partnerships

MetadataMetadata

GEOdataGEOdata

Clearinghouse (catalog)Clearinghouse (catalog)

FrameworkFramework

StandardsStandards

CGDI Component: Why Standards?

• Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure • Data standards that allow layers to be shared from distributed sources• Metadata standards that allow data to be described• Technology standards that allow data to be shared from closes point to source over

Internet

Vision & Guiding Principles for the CGDI

Guiding PrinciplesVision

• To enable access to the authoritative and comprehensive sources of Canadian geospatial information to support decision-making.

• Allows users to access data and information from it’s closest point to source, thereby maintaining currency, avoiding versioning and minimizing duplication.

• Allows providers to maintain control over their data and information, sharing it with the people who need it but with privacy and security safeguards in place.

Administrative Boundaries

Geographical Names of Canada

Landsat-7 Orthoimage Data

National Road Network

Canadian Digital Elevation Data

Canadian Geodetic Network

Framework reference layersGeoBase: Standardized national base data, maintained in partnership, and accessible at no cost to users and without redistribution restrictionsGeoConnections is supporting maintenance of these layers and additional layers.

CGDI Component: Data Content

• Policies that address common approaches to licensing data that allow redistribution

• Policies that allow for sharing while respecting privacy & security

• Policies that address barriers due to pricing

CGDI Component: Policies

CGDI Component: Applications

Decision Support Systems

CGDI Component: Technologies

Index / Search Engine Metadata Access

Who has all the information… and how do we get to it?

Information stored in silos…This was the state of spatial information in Canada

Background of the CGDI

Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI)

• SDIs can break down information silos – forming a new type of ubiquitous information infrastructure like the global banking/ATM system

• Canada has successfully developed an SDI (the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure) that reduces many of the information-sharing barriers that characterize a nation with decentralized governments

Progress to Date (2005-2008)

Planning and Capacity Building Initiatives

• Support the development of Aboriginal organizations geomatics strategies and business plans

• Raise geomatics and CGDI awareness

• Build capacity for the use of geomatics and the CGDI

Addressing Land and Resource Management and Community Planning Initiatives

• Support the use of geospatial information for land and resource management (see Success Story 6)

• Support community planning with systems and integrated information

Challenges

• CGDI is a new geospatial data sharing model, which is still evolving and not well known or understood by many users

• Technologies to implement the CGDI model are based on standards that are also still evolving

Opportunities

• To support decision makers through regional atlases and decision support systems using the CGDI

• To capture practices and lessons learned from early adopters to accelerate innovation

• Advisory committee/user community are providing valuable feedback to GeoConnections

• Working towards a data and application framework that will facilitate national information exchange

Challenges and Opportunities

CGDI Benefits

CGDI Benefits

• Informed decision-making: easy access to current information enabling easier integration of information and enabling collaborative activities.

• Efficiency: interoperability, by adhering to common and open information standards and specifications. Also reduces duplication of effort.

• Reduced costs: applications can be built by reusing existing services and technology components. Standard interfaces simplify interconnection and integration.

• Usability: provides reliable access to geospatial information for Canadian governments, businesses and individuals anywhere, anytime.

• Economic growth: encourages the profitable export of Canadian technology, products and services and internal growth with increased sales.

NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program

• The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) represents a broad consortium of government agencies and non-government organizations that work together to promote more cost-effective production, ready availability, and greater utilization of geospatial data across a wide range of disciplines. The NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) was established by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to help form partnerships among organizations to implement the NSDI.

• CAP participation is open to all sectors, except for Federal agencies, and has included: – Federal agencies prior to 2008 – State governments – County and City governments – Tribal organizations (Tribal meta data training)*– Academic institutions – Regional organizations – Private organizations

• * Other funders: FWS and FEMA

CAP Funding Philosophy • Reach new organizations

• Implement proven solutions

• Sustainable projects

• Encourage/require partnerships and collaboration

• Seed funding

• Require in-kind resource match (dollars) as appropriate

• Fund infrastructure development

• Once implemented move on to new startups

 

• Funding and Native Tribal Project Information: http://www.fgdc.gov/grants/

• The Convergence of many Technologies • What is a Geographic Information System?• The Components of a GIS

• Think of maps on computer. That's a very simple way to start understanding GIS.

• Let's break down the term Geographic Information Systems, to understand each part:

– Geographic = a location. For example - your house, a city, a highway connecting two cities

– Information = information about the location. For example - how many people in the house, name of the city, lanes in the a highway

– System = that ties-in the above two

GIS – Geographic Information SystemA tool to help you see and learn about the world around you

Development of GIS: The Convergence of many Technologies

• Human societies have collected and processed geographic information for millennia; maps in some form or another seem to be at least as ancient as the written word

• Demand for geographic information has historically exceeded the supply; early advances of mathematics and technology, in its broadest conceptual and cultural sense, has been a driving force in the ability to construct and disseminate geographic information

• The twentieth century has produced a vast change in the hardware used for geographic measurement, in fact, the technology used for geographic information may have changed more in the twentieth century than it did for the previous 4000 years

Development of GIS: The Convergence of many Technologies

• The most critical new hardware element is the computer, alongside with the development of software has sparked a fundamental rethinking of the concepts underlying geographic information

• A geographic information system can integrate information from different sources, thereby exploiting a variety of technical advances as they occur

• In the modern geographic information system, the map is replaced by a database accessed through a software system

How GIS works?

GIS gives the ability to see and analyze many 'layers' of information at once based on location. Many types of data, can be layered and analyzed together.

“adjacent to”“connected to”“near to”“intersects with”“within”“overlaps”

Space as an indexing system

 

From Maps to InformationGIS is more than just maps, it has tables of data behind them. This means when you combine maps and data to get the information you need. GIS Links Spatial Data with Descriptive Data about a Particular Feature on a Map(see Success Story 4)

GIS Applications and ProductsLand and resource management and community planning Land claims Record TEK

Unama’ki InstituteClean drinking water and marine water quality are an important part of our work. We are responsible for monitoring drinking water safety in our communities and check water quality weekly in 4 of our communities.

Join our student news team as it explores where Unama’ki’s drinking water comes from and how it is monitored. The students interview community experts that work to ensure their drinking water is clean and safe.

Aboriginal Community GIS mapping

Community GIS mapping

.

State of First Nations and Native Tribal Governments GIS Activity

• Many First Nations and Native Tribal Governments have no in-house GIS capacity, but it is early days and the numbers are growing

• Costs are a factor, but costs are going down for equipment, GIS (open source and commercial) and some are free, like Google Maps.

• First Nations and Native Tribal networks are becoming more active.

• When looking at cost you should cost: hardware-software, staff, salaries and training.

GIS system components

1. Computer

2. GPS

3. Scanner

4. Digitizer

5. GIS software

6. Graphic software

7. Office software

8. More demanding applications will cost more in software, computer power and human resources (more qualifications needed)

9. DATA (acquisition) cost– CGDI resolves that problem by providing free access to data

GeoRSS - a logical step forward (The Future)• GeoRSS is an emerging standard

for encoding location as part of an Web feed. (Web feeds are content, such as news articles, Audio blogs, video blogs and text blog entries rendered by programs such as web browsers.)

• GeoRSS feeds are designed to be consumed by geographic software such as map generators.

• Apparently GeoRSS capability will soon be built into many desktop applications, so you could for example embed an active updating map in a word document (as long as you are connected to the web) in the not too far feature.

What is GPS?• The Global Positioning System, or

GPS, can show you your exact position on Earth any time, anywhere, in any weather.

• The system consists of a constellation of 24 satellites that orbit 11,000 nautical miles above Earth’s surface.

• GPS satellite signals can be detected by GPS receivers within meter.

• These days GPS is finding its way into cars, boats, planes, construction equipment, movie making gear, farm machinery, even laptop computers

Why do we need Differential GPS?To improved accuracy, so GPS becomes more than just a system for navigating boats and planes around the world. It becomes a universal measurement system capable of positioning things on a very precise scale.Differential GPS involves the cooperation of two receivers, one that's stationary and another that's roving around making position measurements. One receiver measures the timing errors and then provide correction information to the other receivers that are roving around.

GPS Receivers

Recreational GPS Receiver

• Low-end single frequency receiver ($200 - $600)

• Handheld– Meant to record tracks,

waypoints and routes– Navigation, proprietary

maps– 5 to 10 meter accuracy– Low resolution coordinate

display• Lat/Long to 0.1 second

(2-3 m resolution)• UTM to nearest meter

Mapping-grade GPS receiver

• Higher-end single-frequency receiver ($2,000 to $8,000)

• Receiver/Antenna/Controller– Handheld or separate

– Can send GPS positions to GIS software

• In the receiver• Or on laptops/pocket PC

• Many are capable of meter-level positioning (with corrections)

• Many will log raw GPS data

Mapping Traditional Knowledge with GPS 

GPS Field System ComponentsGPS Field System Components

Handheld Computer Device

Software Program (such as ArcPad); an application designed for field data collection

GPS Unit Existing Database (ArcView, ArcInfo, CAD)

Handheld Computers (Palm-Pilots) for Field Data Collection

Aboriginal Communities - Projects

http://www.geoconnections.org

GeoConnections History

GEOCONNECTIONS OBJECTIVES• Increase the amount of geospatial data, information and services

available on-line• Ease data integration issues through the use of data standards• Promote the development of innovative infrastructure technologies

through private sector partnerships• Simplify the conditions for geospatial data use and resale

GEOCONNECTIONS HISTORY

Phase 1: 1999-2005 – building the infrastructure

Task: establish and build the CGDI;

Phase 2: 2005-2010 – using the infrastructure

Task: Enhancing and applying the CGDI; evolve and expand the CGDI for end-users; all program investments in enhancing and applying the CGDI will be user-driven.

Phase 3: 2010 planning for sustainability underway

• BUILDING CANADA’S SDI• GeoConnections is a National partnership program led by Natural

Resources Canada that collaborates and partners with all levels of

government (federal, provincial and territorial), local agencies,

Aboriginal organizations, private sector, non-government organizations,

academia and international organizations in order to build, evolve and

expand the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) by

making geospatial information available in order to support decision

making.

Aboriginal Communities - Priority Area

GeoConnections, in consultation with its Aboriginal Advisory Group and other stakeholders, has identified two priority areas:

Aboriginal Advisory Group

• GeoConnections strives to help Aboriginal communities and organizations gain the capacity to use the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) for decision making.

• To this end, the program established an Aboriginal Advisory Group that represents cultural, national, regional, and local interests.

• The Advisory Group identifies how Aboriginal communities can benefit from using the CGDI and refines the program's focus as required.

GeoConnections Aboriginal Projects

• Location-based information enables Aboriginal people to map their futures, manage resources, and capitalize on opportunities. (see Success Story 5)

• Land and resource planning for many Aboriginal communities includes recognizing and incorporating traditional values into land-management practices and systems.

• Today, Aboriginal communities and the Government of Canada regularly negotiate self-government agreements, land-claim agreements, and other federal initiatives.

• To make sound decisions, Aboriginal communities are successfully incorporating both traditional and Western knowledge systems.

• Funding and Aboriginal Community Project Information:

• http://www.geoconnections.org/en/communities/aboriginal/projects

Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute - Talking MapChoose a river to begin exploring 30 Gwich'in place names:

Dineedidraii khyidh Official Name: Caribou HillsReference: This place name refers to the Caribou Hills north of Inuvik.Literal Translation: Dineedidraii = scratched down; khyidh = hills

(See Success Story 1)

 

. • Manitoba's World Heritage Site Nomination

• Neighbouring First Nations on Manitoba's east side have nominated their traditional lands to be protected from development. They signed an Accord in 2002, committing them to work together for the protection of their lands. Members of the Accord include four First Nations in Manitoba, and one First Nation in Ontario. As part of the process to secure both self-management and protection for their traditional lands, the Accord First Nations decided to pursue World Heritage Site status for their lands.

Thank you, Nyaweh (Tuscarora)