Latecomer to Google Earth as GES Bandwagon
1 06 2006I always thought GE was super cool, but after the intial WOW factor wore off, I had pretty much just thought of it as an interesting toy. As a very experinced ArcGIS user, it seemed to me that whatever I could do in GE that was applicable to my job and our area of interest, I could do better in ArcGIS. After all, I had better imagery & topography (GE should really let you use your own topographic data source since they don't have it available for most areas).
Then I was tasked with creating a browse-able map for our sister law firm. They wanted to see the location of client properties in the Edwards Aquifer region, and determine, based on a variety of factors, if they would be a good canditate for conservation easment funding that is being provided to protect our water source. I could have done a traditional GIS analysis, but thier critera were rather fuzzy and changed across the region. They really wanted to see the properties and make thier own decisions. Well, I sure didn't want to install ArcReader, port the map over, & then train them to use ArcReader. So Google Earth seemed like the logical choice.
Our services coordinator was already creating a kml file with all our clients properties to aid in getting directions & determining travel times (which BTW GE is NOT really good at it rural areas). I used the KML_Home extension and exported the Edwards Aquifer Zones and all the counties in Texas with labels. Then I just combined the 3 items into a single folder in GE and emailed it to the attorneys. They were off and running with nearly zero training from me. They made thier decisions and had ownership & confidence in them. In fact one of the attorneys who is weeks away for having a baby, gave this gem of a quote:
Oh my God, Google Earth is so exciting I hope I don't go into labor after using this map.
If your interested here is the kmz of the Edwards Aquifer Regions and the Counties of Texas.
Here’s this week’s feedback for me–
After setting up a simple (to a GIS person, anyway) procedure to geocode historical census data using a historical map overlay in GE, the feedback from the first-time user was “I was able to play around with the [historical]map and place a few electronic pushpins with an astounding degree of
ease.”
It’s these kind of end-user experiences that indicate to me the potential for ‘virtual globes’ (or GES) to be have a profound impact as a visual communication platform for a huge, general audience.
Brian
Brian,
I looked at your Hurricane Analysis site & you have totally transformed my concept of the power of GE when combined with interactive forms driving dynamic creation of layers.
I've already implemented a conversion of some spatial data using MySQL 5 as my storage engine. We are using it to dynamically create shapefiles based on spatial & non-spatial data query parameters. However, that limited that data to GIS users.
The difference in perspective and decision ownership between a flat map that a GIS anaylist creates and a dynamic data visualization is significant. You've really inspired me to look at our data and decide what/how to present it in a way that the decision makers can better understand/trust the spatial data. I think they currently have the feeling that this GIS stuff is some magic black box, where they give me some criteria and then get back a map and some charts or tables, but can't understand how & sometimes why I came to the conclusions that I did.
Thanks for the kind words.
The integration of GE with the robust PostGIS has opened up a broad range of analytical possibilities that have attracted interest from a wide variety of sectors. And the great thing for clients is that the open-source stack on the back-end lets them gives them a variety of flexible options for deployment that may or may not heavy involvement from their IT department.
In short, the power of these tools is simply not limited to data visualization but also communication among co-workers and clients.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch offline if you have any questions of how we’ve set up the GulfImpact.com stuff.
BT