Spring 2018
Vol. 4, No. 1-2

Welcome to the Oregon GIS Framework Newsletter!

Inside this issue you will find:
* the featured data set: city limits - 2017
* recent Framework Implementation Team activities and upcoming meetings
* recently cataloged/updated Framework data
* how Oregon is taking Framework to the next level
* noteworthy activities and mentions
* a few words from the coordinator

This newsletter is published up to four times a year by the Oregon Geospatial Enterprise Office.

The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse ignited excitement for many potential viewers in Oregon and across the United States in August. The same fervor led to increased planning and data compilation efforts by the Office of Emergency Management and many other agencies, counties, and cities, to ensure the safety and well-being of the public. The Office of Emergency Management set up an editable feature service for the eclipse events and wildfire data to leverage the huge amount of interest in the eclipse and preparations for it. The feature service allowed emergency managers, state agencies, local authorities and governments to build a crowd sourced database containing information about the eclipse and related events. Participants and partners provided the information using an Esri GeoForm and in some cases, using custom bulk upload processes over a course of about two weeks. The effort was so successful that Daniel Stoelb, Office of Emergency Management GIS Manager, plans to incorporate more crowdsourcing efforts in the future. Daniel will be presenting on the eclipse and wildfire data capabilities in RAPTOR at the 2018 GIS in Action conference at Portland State University, April 23 - 24.

RAPTOR experienced a clear uptick in eclipse-related traffic around the August 21, 2017 eclipse

RAPTOR is built on Framework data and is used by over 33 state agencies, including Oregon Department of Transportation, Department of Human Services, and the Department of Administrative Services. RAPTOR’s user base included over 1,000 users as of February 2018, including local, tribal, city, state, federal, and other state state agency governments. Because of its Framework base, it provides a foundation for coordination among all levels of government. It is focused on the state level, but the Office of Emergency Management is working on data use agreements with local governments, cities, and tribes to allow them to ingest RAPTOR data for their internal systems.

To access the public version of RAPTOR, visit the Office of Emergency Management home page , and look for the link to Real-time Assessment and Planning Tool for Oregon (RAPTOR) within the Emergency Operations section.

Meetings held since the last newsletter publication:

• Coastal Marine FIT: October 5, 2017

• ORMAP/Cadastral FIT: October, 2017

• Elevation FIT: December 8, 2017

• Joint Hazards and Prep FIT: November 7, 2017

• FIT Leaders Meetings: November 9, 2017 and February 8, 2018

• Hydrography FIT: January 4, 2018

• Administrative Boundaries Comprehensive Planning Work Group: January 19, 2018

• Geosciences FIT: March 1, 2018

• Framework Forum: March 15, 2018

Upcoming meetings:

• ORMAP/Cadastral FIT: April 25, 2018

Recently posted data:

• 2017 Urban Growth Boundaries

• 2017 NRCS Soils (SSURGO database for Oregon)

The 2018 Framework Data Inventory and Assessment kicked off in February. The survey was designed to evaluate:

Framework data elements are fundamental geospatial data sets, covering all parts of the state that are possible for that data set. These data are considered to be authoritative, as defined by the state-led GIS Program Leads working group, and to serve the purposes of a broad range of users. Framework data should be developed to agreed-upon standards, shared appropriately, discoverable, and be the best data available given the current resources. Framework data should be maintained under stewardship agreements through a voluntary, collaborative, geospatial-community-based effort.

Since its inception, the Framework community has made huge strides forward in the assembly and maintenance of Oregon’s GIS Framework. As a result, we have an extensive set of coordinated, statewide data elements. Under Oregon Revised Statute 276A, Oregon’s Framework will be taken to the next level in terms of accountability, funding, and more. The 2018 Framework Data Inventory and Assessment plays an important role in the progress because it will collect status information in a standardized and quantifiable way. The data can then be analyzed and interpreted, paving the way for increased understanding and improved communication of Framework’s accomplishments and needs. The data inventory and assessment will provide a baseline aligned to the initiation of work under Oregon Revised Statute 276A and provide guidance to the Geospatial Enterprise Office in its efforts to automate performance measurement in the near future.

Framework Implementation Team leads are working with theme work group members to complete the survey for each and every data element. The original deadline for completion of the survey was March 15, but the deadline has been extended to gather more survey responses. The collected survey responses will be used for a variety of applications, including helping the Oregon Geographic Information Council to design the funding mechanism for Oregon Revised Statute 276A and to develop the Council’s new strategic plan.

The online survey was developed by Framework Coordinator Theresa Burcsu and the Framework Implementation Team leads and modeled after the National Geospatial Data Asset Portfolio Lifecycle Maturity Assessments. Please contact Theresa if you would like to learn how you can contribute to the 2018 Framework Data Inventory and Assessment.

You may recall the winter storms that launched Oregon into 2017. To celebrate GIS Day 2017, Oregon's Office of Emergency Management created a story map illustrating how they used GIS and RAPTOR (Real-time Assessment and Planning Tool for Oregon) to document winter weather conditions throughout the state to assist their partners in getting a presidential disaster declaration for the January 2017 storms. Check it out here. Interested in learning more? Contact Daniel Stoelb, Office of Emergency Managment GIS Program Coordinator.

The National Geospatial Data Act (s.2128) was reintroduced to the United States Senate last year. Oregon's own Geospatial Information Officer, Cy Smith, played an important role in the bill's reintroduction. For the full story see this GeoJava article published on GIS Day 2017 (November 15, 2017).

Geosciences FIT is looking for input and feedback on proposed changes to the Oregon Geologic Data Compilation and associated standard. Please contact Lina Ma for more information.

The Addresses theme is the newest member of Oregon's Framework. Tom Elder of the Oregon Department of Human Services has agreed to lead this group. If you are interested in being part of this important work effort please contact Tom.

Oregon Revised Statute 276A Oregon Geographic Information Council was passed into Oregon statute in the 2017 Legislative session. The new statute restructured and expanded the Oregon Geographic Information Council to provide equitable seats at the Council table for local governments, including cities, counties, special districts, regional bodies, and public safety answering points. Tribes, federal agencies, non-profits and private citizens are also represented on the new Council, as is the Oregon Legislature. The restructured membership provides a balanced approach to the collection, management and use of locational data.

Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) would like to hear about your interest in a routable road centerline based on authoritative data. ODOT currently has an internal need for a routable network. Commercial datasets have been examined but these only provide part of the data needed. Because of this the two most feasible options include either buying a commercial dataset and adding needed data to that data or building a routable network in house. Either option will be costly and there will need to be a heavy lift to start either endeavor but after that maintenance will be much easier. If you have interest and some applications (uses) to justify building routable network that would be available to folks please contact Chad Brady, Transportation FIT lead, with a description of what you would use it for and if this would eliminate the need for you to buy similar data or use services online and a cost savings estimate for your agency if this product was made available. Please contact Chad by April 30, 2018.

The Atlas of Oregon Lakes is now five years old and Portland State University is in the process of updating the website. They are also updating the base map for the lakes website. It spans the area from Bellingham to Eureka and into Idaho and attempts to provide an accurate depiction of National Hydrography Dataset features, public lands, and roads. They plan to improve the depiction of roads in Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service areas. If your organization is interested in linking to the website or otherwise leveraging it or if you are interested in making use of the base map or have suggestions on how it might be improved, please contact Dr. Dick Lycan by April 30, 2018.

Oregon's Framework geospatial community is organized in what can be called a collaborative governance system because the community works in partnership to deliver products, standards, and decisions that govern the Framework data, its standards, and its stewardship. Among the tools that are used to collaborate and govern are the Framework Forum, FIT theme groups, and striving for input and consensus around decisions. While time-consuming and at times tricky, Oregon Framework's collaborative governance structure has clearly demonstrated the power of partnership. With its large collection of publicly accessible data elements and standards, Framework really exemplifies the saying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Cy Smith, Oregon's Geospatial Information Officer talks about this in detail in his article "GIS and Collaborative Governance" in CIO Applications magazine.

A key characteristic of collaborative governance is that it is not simply consultative. Rather, it relies to an extreme on two-way communication for success. In this way, two-way communication drives the direction of the community and implies that all of the members of the Framework community have an important role to play, a real responsibility even, in the governance of Oregon's Framework. Because we are having conversations, working together, fueling and building on each other's work, we are, as Andrew Carnegie is credited with saying, attaining uncommon results. And it's a beautiful thing!

Thank you for your contributions and collaboration!

Theresa Burcsu
Oregon Framework Coordinator