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Fall 2022

Regional GIS Partnerships

Over the past several years, the ESRGC has collected housing study data in towns across the Lower and Mid-Shore region. The ESRGC employed SU student interns to measure a variety of risk variables leading to property degradation in over 35 towns. This summer, the ESRGC partnered with the Washington College GIS Program, located in Chestertown, MD, to expand the housing study area to Chestertown in Kent County.

“We were excited to partner with the ESRGC on this project and continue to support GIS in our region. This was a great example of a successful collaboration between multiple organizations on the Eastern Shore,” said Erica McMaster, Washington College GIS Program Director.

This project stems from a 2016 Salisbury University pilot housing study in the City of Cambridge with the goal of identifying contributing factors leading to property degradation. SU student interns were sent into the field using a customized digital survey application and tablets to collect data via a property condition survey, measuring a variety of risk variables leading to property degradation. These risk variables included infrastructure damage, property accessibility for emergency services, and various site attributes and conditions such as property vacancy, litter and vandalism. The City of Cambridge has since been awarded over $1.7 million in rehabilitation and housing initiatives. The grant proposals and applications that led to this funding were heavily reliant on the data collected and results analyzed, confirming the need for assistance in the city.

Collaborating with the Washington College GIS Program allowed all time to be dedicated to collecting data in the field, rather than SU interns traveling to and from Salisbury.

“This was an ideal partnership,” said ESRGC Project Manager Mary Buffington. “We were impressed with the Washington College intern's ability to quickly understand the data collection process, the importance of consistent measurements, and pleased with the overall quality of their work.”

The Chestertown housing study project was supported by Kent County's Local Management Board and the Upper Shore Regional Council as they recognize how valuable the data can be for the region.

Michael Scott, Ph.D., GISP

Director, Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative
Dean, Henson School of Science and Technology

ESRGC News 

State Park Visitation Dashboard

The ESRGC is developing data exploration tools to visualize the trends and economic impact associated with parks and outdoor recreation in Maryland. These tools will visualize state park visitation statistics overtime to help local leaders understand the impact of visitors to these locations. Local and federal parks will be included as well. The ESRGC will also analyze the economic impact of outdoor recreation on the economy utilizing data from ESRI, Bureau of Labor Statistics and existing reports. The Parks Dashboard is a product of the Delmarva Index.

SHA CCVV StoryMap Resource

The Maryland Department of Transportation (DOT) State Highway Association (SHA) Climate Change Vulnerability Viewer (CCVV) showcases a variety of climate-related data layers and infrastructure to view, interpret and utilize for analysis related to climate change, extreme weather and transportation. The CCVV was developed to support internal and external transportation professionals as they make efforts to avert and mitigate potential impacts of sea level rise that result from global climate change, but the sheer amount of data on the CCVV can be intimidating. MDOT SHA partnered with the ESRGC to build a StoryMap with the goal of explaining how the data layers on the CCVV can be viewed and interpreted to build and maintain resilient assets throughout Maryland. Explore the MDOT SHA Climate Change Vulnerability Viewer StoryMap to learn more about what flood data are available, how the data can be used to identify potentially vulnerable assets and prioritize areas of concern.

Awards

Adjunct Faculty Offerings

This semester, our own Anastassiya Suprunova is teaching GEOG 320: Cartographic Visualization. This course covers design principles and techniques for creating maps with modern mapping tools, including ArcGIS Pro. Anastassiya hopes that with this, students will be introduced to interactive geo-visualization and (geo)visual analytics.

ESRGC Notable Achievements

• Congratulations to Tim Lanzi for recently receiving his Master of Computer Science from Arizona State University.
  
• We are excited to announce Ryan Mello and his family have welcomed Matilda into the world.

A copy of the current financial statement of the Salisbury University Foundation, Inc. is available by writing 1308 Camden Avenue, Salisbury MD 21801 or on its website, www.salisbury.edu/foundation. Documents and information submitted under the Maryland Solicitations Act are also available, for the cost of postage and copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis MD 21401, 410-974-5534.

SU is an Equal Opportunity/AA/Title IX university and provides reasonable accommodation given sufficient notice to the University office or staff sponsoring the event or program. For more information regarding SU’s policies and procedures, please visit www.salisbury.edu/equity.

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