Array of Sunshine

The Florida Region of ASPRS Annual Meeting will be taking place Friday, August 23rd, beginning at 9:00am.

Where: Tradewinds Resort, St Petersburg, FL, Sabel Room
When: Friday, August 23rd, beginning at 9:00am

Tentative Agenda:
9am – 12pm Technical Sessions
1:30pm – 3pm Technical Sessions and Professional / Student Award Ceremonies
3pm – 5pm Florida Region of ASPRS Board Meeting (Open to all members)

Registration is FREE! If you are intending on attending or presenting, please RSVP here if you have not already done so.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18fgyYZ_gRUoYySatPwu4gvOJcDLe91iXW68ovSIWUCQ/viewform

Since our meeting is being hosted in concert with the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society – please consider registering for the FSMS Conference activities as well
This is NOT required to attend the FL-ASPRS meeting
http://www.fsms.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=FSMS&Category_Code=AnnCon

If you need hotel accommodations, please consider reserving a room at the Tradewinds Resort:
http://www.tradewindsresort.com/fsms.aspx
Use Group Code: FSMS

In the recent years of budgetary cutbacks and cost cutting measures, one of the common questions raised revolves around why a state or local agency such as the Property Appraiser, Police/Fire Department or Environmental Department should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for imagery when there appears to be an abundance of freely available imagery on the “web”.  This question has been asked of me on multiple occasions from multiple sources in my agency, as well as, from other agencies.  Hence, this article is of relevance to discussions, perhaps, state-wide.

The well written article by Mr. Kalinski highlights the advantages and disadvantages of using “Commercial Off-the-Shelf” (COTS) imagery available from Google, Bing, etc.  The crux of the matter resolves to a few basic issues; (1) you get what you pay for, and (2) not all imagery is the same. 

In a table (reproduced below) Mr. Kalinski points to the availability of metadata, resolution, currency and cost as the major factors that should influence the end-users decision.  He ends the article by reminding the end-user that there is no warrantee of usability with “free” imagery… caveat emptor! (my words)
 

This topic has arisen within the state, and in the Fall of 2012, several of the Water Management Districts and the Florida Department of Transportation engaged in an exercise to determine the positional accuracy of COTS imagery.  I constructed a set of guidelines and we independently applied them to Google and Bing images for our respective Districts.  In general, we used a photo identifiable, surveyed points that had been previously used for ortho-imagery horizontal accuracy testing to test the COTS images.  While there is some variation, most likely resulting from different image years, the results were fairly consistent (and shown below).
   

In general, we found that Bing images, as viewed through a then-available free  ESRI Map service, had greater horizontal accuracy than Google.  In fact, Bing image horizontal accuracy is very close to the horizontal accuracy specification for state-wide 30cm ortho-imagery.  So… as suggested by Mr. Kalinski, if we were interested in locating a favorite fishing spot, the Bing image would be great.  However, if we are using the imagery in a court of law, we have a very different end-use.

Calling all students! Are you currently looking for an opportunity to get more involved and network with leaders in the Florida geospatial industry? If so, the perfect opportunity has arrived to be in on the ground floor of the ASPRS Florida Region Student Advisory Council (FL-SAC). The FL-SAC has been commissioned by Florida Region President, Brian Murphy, to provide all university and college students in the State of Florida and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with a venue to participate and organize geospatial activities.

The initial proposed FL-SAC structure is similar to the national Student Advisory Council (SAC) of which I have had the pleasure of being a part of for the past 2 years. As the outgoing SAC Chair, I have had the opportunity to voice the opinions of ASPRS students at National ASPRS Board meetings, participate in national conferences as a student assistant, organize student mapping competitions, strengthen ASPRS student chapter relationships, share ASPRS student-related activities via our student blog, and compile employment opportunities for job seekers through the Virtual Career Expo (ASPRS login required).

By connecting students from campuses across Florida and Puerto Rico, I look forward to replicating National SAC activities on the regional level through my FL-SAC position as the incoming Chair. These activities can include collaborating on a future GeoLeague Challenge team, forming a Student Map Competition team for the upcoming San Antonio conference, organizing an online technical meeting similar to this recent Eastern Great Lakes Region symposium, or creating a webinar series to share student research projects. Having attended many professional webinars and participated in numerous classes as part of the University of Florida’s distance education Geomatics program, I am comfortable with the video conferencing and virtual meeting space technology that will enable us to collaborate beyond our physical campuses. For those of us able to travel, I look forward to face to face meeting and networking opportunities such as the Florida Region ASPRS Annual Meeting in St. Pete Beach on August 23^rd.

If you are interested in getting involved with the FLSAC in any capacity, please contact our ASPRS Florida Region faculty advisor, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or myself at any time. We look forward to growing the ASPRS FLSAC regional student body with you!

ASPRS & ISPRS students participating in the 2011 ISPRS Advanced LiDAR Data Processing & Applications Workshop and Summer School are shown above. Six ASPRS Florida Region students from the University of Florida traveled to the week-long event in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

• Florida is not the southernmost state in the United States. Hawaii is farther south.

• May 20, 1970 Florida lawmakers passed and sent to the Governor a bill adopting the moonstone as the official state gem. Ironically, the moonstone is not found naturally in Florida...nor was it found on the moon.

• Miami installed the first bank automated teller machine especially for rollerbladers.

• Florida is the only state that has 2 rivers both with the same name. There is a Withlacoochee in north central Florida (Madison County) and a Withlacoochee in central Florida. They have nothing in common except the name.

• Citizens of Okeechobee County Florida own more pick-up trucks per capita than anywhere else in the country with an average of 3.2 trucks per family. Okeechobee County also has a larger population of cows than it does people.

• Once a year, thousands of Floridians stand at the state line and toss dead fish into Alabama. It's the annual Mullet Toss hosted by Flora-Bama Beach Bar in Pensacola.

On April 22nd the Florida Region created a committee called “The Florida Region Student Advisory Committee (FL-SAC).” This committee will help serve the entire Student Member population, and will also serve as an ASPRS Student Chapter resource. Through the FL-SAC, we hope to give every student member of ASPRS in the Florida Region to be able to get involved in some meaningful way, whether it be at a Chapter level, Region level, or National level.

We have asked two individuals to head this Committee: Adam Benjamin, as the Chair; and Dr. Amr Abd-Alrahman, Faculty Advisor; and will grant them authority for developing additional roles in the committee.

Adam Benjamin is a current PhD student of Geomatics from UF out of Plant City. He is currently concluding his role as Chair of the national Student Advisory Council this summer. My intent is to benefit from Adam’s experiences and leadership from the National ASPRS SAC, to help model the FL-SAC after the national SAC, and develop a self-sustainable Student program at a Regional level.

Dr. Amr Abd-Alrahman is also from the University of Florida’s Geomatics program and has become increasingly involved at a National level as well. Amr will be helping Adam coordinate regular teleconference meetings with all of the students in our Region, to help engage students, while encouraging Chapters to host their own regular meetings, to supplement the Regional meetings.

Our goals for this committee are the following:

• Assisting in the hosting of regular FL-SAC teleconference calls

• Developing a Self-Sustainable Student-Run organization

• Developing a reporting mechanism for Student Chapters to Report to the Region, via the FL-SAC

• Encouraging faculty from other Universities, Departments and Disciplines to get involved with the FL-SAC and their Chapters

• Encouraging chapter involvement with the national GeoLeague competition

• Assisting with the recruitment of new Students and Faculty

• Developing a series of Paper Presentations by the Florida Region students

• Helping form new Chapters

• Helping Sustain existing chapters

Adam and Amr held the first meeting of the FL-SAC on May 13th, 2013, attended by a combination of students, board members, and faculty members.

If you are interested in helping become involved with the FL-SAC  or know anyone who might be interested, please have them contact Adam, Amr and myself.

President, Brian E. Murphy, CP, GISP

Brian Murphy currently serves as a Business Development lead for the Integrated Intelligence Systems Business Unit of Northrop Grumman where he has been working in the geospatial industry for just over six years. While at Northrop Grumman, he has held a variety of geospatial positions, including geospatial analysis, GIS application development, photogrammetry,  orthorectifiation and LiDAR processing. He graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s in Land and Water Management (2001) and a Masters of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning (2009). Brian currently serves as the Florida Region Vice President and Webmaster, in addition to serving as the Vice-Chair of the national ASPRS membership committee. He also serves on a number of other national level ASPRS committees and divisions, including the Sustaining Members Council and Professional Practice Division.

Vice President, Ekaterina Fitos

Ekaterina Fitos is a certified GIS professional currently employed with Halcrow. Her responsibilities include: project management for the District’s Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data with focus on distribution and maintaining quality assurance and control, contract administration for the annual Digital Orthophotography program, and GIS analysis. She holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Masters in Geography and GIS, and Bachelors in Environmental Science. Ekaterina has served as a Director for the Florida Region of ASPRS since 2008, and is currently chair of the Professional Award Committee.

Past-President, Evan Brown, CP, CMS

Evan Brown is a Certified Photogrammetrist (CP) and Certified Mapping Scientist (CMS GIS/LIS) with 15 years of experience.  Evan is a graduate of the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Geomatics also from the University of Florida.  Evan is employed with National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  Evan's 15 years of experience include technical efforts and project management in GIS, GPS, photogrammetry, LIDAR, and remote sensing.  Evan has been a member of ASPRS since 2001 and has been honored to serve the Florida Region as President, Director and Vice President since 2007.

Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. Bon Dewitt

Bon Dewitt is an Associate Professor and administers the Geomatics Program in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida. He conducts research and teaches courses in many of the various aspects of Geomatics. He has been a member of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing since 1981 and has served on the ASPRS Florida Region Board of Directors for over 15 years. Dr. Dewitt is also licensed as a Professional Surveyor and Mapper in the State of Florida and serves on the Board of Directors for the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society.

National Director, Jeff Young

T. Jeffrey “Jeff” Young is currently the Vice President and Director of Photogrammetry for Pickett & Associates, Inc. He is a Florida licensed Surveyor & Mapper, a licensed Photogrammetric Surveyor with the State of South Carolina, a licensed Surveyor Photogrammetrist with the Commonwealth of Virginia and an ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist. Jeff has held positions within ASPRS as a Florida Director, National Membership Chairperson and is currently Florida’s National Director. He has been a member since 1993.

Director, Kimberly Nale

Kimberly has been as member of ASPRS since 2008, first joining as a University of Florida Geography student she organized the local participation of UF students in ASPRS activities and has attended numerous ASPRS Conferences. She holds a Bachelors in Geography from the University of Florida. Her professional experience includes imagery and LiDAR QA/QC with Dewberry and she presently serves as a Geospatial Analyst for eMap International. In that role Kimberly manages a wide variety of imagery acquisition both aerial and satellite and establishes project specifications insuring that imagery capture meets client requirements. In addition she is responsible for change detection from both aerial and satellite imagery for major oil and gas clients.

Director, Brenda Burroughs

Brenda has been in the Geospatial Profession for over twenty years. She is currently the U.S Region Sales Manager for Optech, responsible for sales and marketing of Airborne Digital Aerial Camera and LiDAR Systems. She began her career selling Landsat satellite imagery and over the years has expanded her knowledge and experience to include aerial imagery, digital mapping and analytical services, with extensive knowledge and background in GIS/Remote Sensing Applications products and services.

Director, Keith Patterson PSM, SP, GISP

Keith is a Senior Project Manager at Dewberry in Tampa, Florida and is a Florida licensed Professional Surveyor and Mapper (PSM). He has over 30 years of experience in remote sensing, photogrammetry, mapping, surveying, GIS and related geospatial services. His technical experience includes project design, LiDAR data processing, photo interpretation, change detection, trend analysis, environmental field reconnaissance, accuracy assessment and geodatabase construction aimed at supplying clients with reliable geospatial information. He has served in both executive level and program management positions.