Safe Software to Present at URISA 2007 on Integrating GIS Data for More Effective Disaster Response
Written by Safe Software
14 August 2007
Vancouver, BC- August 14, 2007 - When a hurricane, a tsunami, or other disaster occurs, one of the first and most critical challenges facing effective disaster response is rapid access to accurate spatial data.
Safe Software, makers of the FME® spatial ETL (extract, transform, and load) platform, will discuss solutions to this challenge during a presentation at URISA's 2007 Annual Conference, to be held in Washington, DC, August 20-23. Safe will also be exhibiting at booth number 317 from August 21-22. "In the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, a GIS disaster response team must quickly integrate location-based data provided by multiple agencies, and make the results available to other teams and organizations," said Dean Hintz, senior consultant and presenter from Safe Software. "The challenge facing responding organizations is that most of this data is not immediately usable with their GIS tools.
The data may be in a variety of different map scales and coordinate systems, and it often spans a wide range of data structures, formats and standards - from vector to raster, from spatial to attribute only or text, and from open standards such as GML, WFS and WMS, to de-facto and proprietary standards." For example, during the response phase of a disaster, a GIS team may need to plan an effective strategy using basemap data in ESRI Shapefiles, engineering data in MicroStation, topological data in GML, and flood extent data in WFS. In order for a GIS system to use these diverse data sources, the data first needs to be translated into a common format or data structure. This can waste critical time if the team is hand coding the required data transformations, or relying on tools that deal with only a limited number of formats. Safe Software's presentation will use a hypothetical disaster response scenario to show how spatial ETL tools provide important advantages over other approaches by rapidly integrating diverse source data into a common model. In addition, the presentation will demonstrate how this technology plays an important role in distributing data to response teams. "Spatial ETL tools can dramatically reduce response time in a disaster management scenario," says Drew Rifkin, Safe Software account manager and co-presenter with Hintz. "These tools enable GIS teams to quickly integrate multiple data types, while preserving the meaning of the information during transformation of the data to a common model. What's more, they can directly read from and write to multiple data stores, regardless of data structure or format. This significantly streamlines both receiving and distributing critical information, and ultimately helps disaster response teams save more lives."
Safe Software will present on August 22 at 10:30 am in the Monroe West room at the Hilton Washington. To learn more about spatial ETL, visit www.safe.com. A free 14-day trial of FME, Safe Software's spatial ETL platform, is available at www.safe.com/tryit.
About Safe Software and FME
Established in 1993, Safe Software is the maker of FME, the only true spatial ETL (extract, transform and load) platform that enables organizations to use and leverage spatial data in any format or application. Today, FME is used by thousands of customers in over 116 countries in a wide variety of industries.
FME provides the most extensive format support and powerful transformations to help organizations efficiently address the complete spectrum of spatial ETL tasks – from data translation to integration to distribution. Used by most GIS, CAD, ETL, and DB vendors, FME has emerged as the de facto integrated spatial ETL solution. FME is available in desktop and server solutions, and is also easily integrated into third-party CAD and GIS solutions, as well as most IT environments. Visit www.safe.com for more information.
GISuser Feature Articles
Top iPhone related GIS and Geo Tech news stories from 2009 - At the end of the year its always interesting for us to look at some of the stats and results to identify trends and more important, to see what our readers think is hot! In the "news" category it seems that iPhone related geo tech items were extremely popular.
Geo Social Location Checkin to Twitter from iPhone - With the cool SXSW event taking place Austin, TX, everyone who's anyone in social and social location seems to have rolled out updates this week, making your choice for how to check-in to your social media bookmarks even tougher to decide on!
10 Awesome GIS and Mapping apps for the iPhone - I recall last year at the ESRI UC when an iPhone was on stage showing a prototype app (think ArcPad on iPhone). It was then that I realized the iPhone platform is going to be BIG in mapping and there's a ton of opportunity for developers.
Nokia Booklet 3G, unboxing video and image gallery... Those of you in the USA who pop in to BestBuy occasionally, you may have seen a stand showing off the Nokia Booklet 3G. A sleek, 3G enabled, SIM slot (AT&T) sporting netbook.
Interesting Tweeple - 10 Geo Technology & Geo-Social Women of Twitter - given the growing love for geospatial and location-aware technologies, I’ve decided to hype 10 women that I feel make a significant contribution to the Geo-Twittersphere. If you’d like to add 10 knowledgeable and useful Twitter contacts to your Geo following list I highly suggest the following: (in no particular order)
10 Geo Social Location-Aware Apps Making Waves... With Twitter's opening of their location API to developers there's going to be a ton of third party apps that will enable Twitter users to share location-aware information via their Twitter accounts.
Signs that indicate you may be a GeoGeek (aka. GeoNerd) and some suggested Geo blogs - Chances are good that if you are a Geo Geek then you already know it and likely refer to yourself as one. However, there’s many of you out there that may be on the fence and wondering… “am I a Geo Geek?" Read on for a comprehensive list of signs you might be a GeoGeek followed up by some suggested Geoblog reading.
Real-time GPS Mapping and GIS Solution Aids Efficient Disaster Management - Saturday, February 7, 2009 will forever be known as Black Saturday in the State of Victoria, Australia. In the midst of a 10-year drought, a record breaking heat wave descended upon the state, with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees C (110-120 deg F), breaking all-time record highs in some cities - Victoria Police Use Trimble Juno SC Handhelds to Speed Assessment of Damage Caused by Bush Fires.
2010 ESRI Federal User Conference February 17-19, 2010, Washington D.C. Walter E. Washington Convention Center - The FedUC is the largest geospatial conference for federal agencies. Connect with other leaders, decision makers, and GIS professionals.
The International LiDAR Mapping Forum 2010 - Tenth Anniversary Event! ILMF 2010 will be held from March 3 - 5, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver at Colorado Convention Center.
The NAVTEQ 2010 Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony will be held during Ignite at O'Reilly Where 2.0. Be among the first to hear as NAVTEQ announces the winners for the North America region. Participants will be competing for a global prize pool of $10 million and growing by showcasing pre-commercial location-enabled apps using NAVTEQ map data & products. March 30, 2010, during Ignite Where, 7:30pm - 9:00pm, at the Marriott San Jose, CA
WHERE2.0 2010 - Now in its sixth year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. For 15% use Discount Code: whr10lbs
See more 
