Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications

Floods are considered the number one natural hazard, causing more deaths and damage year after year.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided funding to a college in North Dakota for GIS and remote sensing technology and training.  That college, in turn, created a study to assess risks to local communities and facilities in the path of potential flooding. Jacqueline Stenehjem, former assistant professor at Williston State College, Williston, North Dakota and Dr. Peter G. Oduor, associate professor of geology and geography at North Dakota State University, describe how the grant from NSF benefited that population on many levels.

Patrick Melancon, Public Safety GIS manager for the state of Tennessee, attended the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) development conference last week in Orlando, Florida. He was pleased by the focus on GIS for Next Gen 9-1-1, but fears not all are as prepared as they will need to be.

Editor in Chief Joe Francica provides an encapsulated review of publicly traded geospatial information and location technology companies. The global economic turmoil has had a dramatic impact on this technology sector, with few companies delivering positive gains for shareholders. The roller-coaster ride of the last two years is unlikely to change but opportunities exist for investors who believe that location-based information is still an essential driver of business.

In December, Infotech Enterprises and DTS GIS participated in a Directions Magazine webinar to present a cost-effective solution to the NERC-mandated transmission line monitoring. This webinar sparked more good questions than could be answered during the allotted time. Here those answers are presented in detail.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reports that the Marcellus Shale underlying much of Pennsylvania and portions of New York and West Virginia is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. This formation has long been considered prohibitively expensive to access but recent advances in drilling technology and rising natural gas prices have attracted new interest in this previously untapped formation. Updated lease maps of the area are critical to tapping this vast energy resource. Editor in Chief Joe Francica spoke to Brock McCarty of

Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg picked out the top All Points Blog posts and "Worth a Click" items from the last six months. If you missed them the first time around - here's an opportunity to catch up!

Editor in Chief Joe Francica picked out the top articles from the Directions Magazine archives. The criteria was a balance between "editor's choice" articles, and those that were most popular according to our reader statistics. If you missed them the first time around - here's an opportunity to catch up!

Ignacio Guerrero is currently a principal for Andes Consulting and has held senior management roles with Intergraph and Rolta. He attended the Rocket City Geospatial & Alabama GIS Conference, which took place in mid-November in Huntsville, AL. He offers a recap and his assessment of the conference.

Western Monmouth Utilities Authority, a wastewater treatment service provider for several towns in the New Jersey area, had both a GIS and a SCADA system, and 18 vehicles in its fleet canvassing a large geographic area spanning 195 miles of sewer lines and 27 pump locations. This article describes how the company implemented a GPS fleet tracking solution that could interoperate with its GIS and SCADA.