Kavya Beerval Ravichandra, GIS Analyst, and Lacey Duncan, GIS Project Coordinator, are presenting during a session at the annual Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Conference on Wednesday, May 11. Their program is one of the Public Safety/Emergency Management tracks and entitled, “Building Inventory: Getting from Parcels to BI.”
Kavya said, “The Polis Center at IUPUI works with county emergency managers and their planning teams to develop hazard mitigation plans for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Thanks to the data sharing initiatives in Indiana, Polis is able to develop a Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) model (ArcGIS data interoperability extension) that utilizes county parcels, 911 data, and Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (IDLGF) assessors’ information to produce accurate quantifiable risk assessments for these plans.
“The FME scripts developed through translators allows for an accurate model of buildings to determine the structure locations and construction attributes such as: occupancy types, building types, foundation, first floor height, construction type and year built. The resulting building inventory is used to determine building losses due to various hazards. This presentation will highlight the process steps that have enabled Indiana to develop an accurate building footprint elevation toolkit, comparisons to other states, and demonstrate the needs and purpose of this type of model.”
In addition, Kevin Mickey, Director of Geospatial Technology Education, is giving the opening plenary for the conference on Tuesday, May 10, the theme of which is “Geospatial Preparedness.”
Conference sessions cover a range of geospatial topics that help forge collaboration to better share information and explore challenges and ways in which geospatial preparedness can support emergency planning, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts to help build a more resilient Indiana.
IGIC–a nonprofit membership organization of GIS users and individuals from all levels of government, private industry, and educational institutions–is recognized as the official statewide coordinating body for the Indiana GIS. Its mission is to advance the use of geospatial data and GIS software and support public safety, emergency management, and geospatial practitioners by taking the lead in providing education, policy guidance, and other location-enabled technology resources.