Broadband Mapping
Broadband mapping information
Geodata Services has been assisting in preparing the National Broadband Map through TetraTech who serves as prime contractor on broadband mapping in Montana and North Dakota. The Montana Broadband mapping effort is under the Montana Department of Commerce, and the North Dakota effort is under the Department of Administration. Nationally, the NTIA and FCC took the national broadband map live on 02/17/2011. The Montana and North Dakota broadband web maps have been publicly available since mid January. This was the first national effort to map broadband availability for wired and wireless coverage throughout the US. The effort is one part of the National Broadband Plan.
Rocky Mountain Front GIS Collaboration
Schedule and project page
This project assists citizens and agency partners on the Rocky Mountain Front address community, economic development, and natural resource related issues through the creation of a comprehensive inventory of GIS (Geographic Information System) data sets, and by providing training in their use and application. The project is also a Rocky Mountain Front GIS Collaboration that facilitates the sharing of data and technical assistance between counties. The result is better informed decision making on a variety of important and complex land use, development and natural resource issues. The non-profit organization Future West is organizing an interdisciplinary team of professionals, including Geodata Services, Inc. in applying collaborative GIS tools to to community decisions, as well as training and technical support.
Department of Natural Resources Forest Stewardship Decision Support Tools
Geodata Services Inc. won several competitive contracts for a statewide assessment of forest stewardship potential for forest managers and landowners. A model was developed with statewide coverage for vegetation, wildlife, population characteristics, insect and disease, economic variables and other factors, and a regional assessment, supplemented by a CommunityViz scenario analysis, was conducted. The project used CommunityViz scenario software to apply a weighted average model to a large regional ecosystem analysis. This project was an innovative approach to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. Staff subsequently developed a decision support tool and updated Montana’s Statewide Forest Assessment completing sub-models based on the 11 national objectives. The sub-models using 78 different data layers (all from public sources) and applied them to the approximately 1000 watersheds within the state. The tool is being used by mid level managers with limited GIS experience to assist in the decision process to allocate farm bill forestry grants.
Planning, 3D Visualization & Decision Support with CommunityViz™
CommunityViz™ enhances GIS, combining 3D mapping with a dynamic spatial spreadsheet and a powerful suite of reporting and analysis tools. This software allows users to explore many alternative scenarios and explore planning decisions in new and innovative ways. Geodata is a certified CommunityViz consultant and instructor and one of the leading experts in applying CommunityViz to residential planning.
CommunityViz is an extension to ArcGIS® by Environmental Systems Research Institute ESRI, the world leader in GIS software. CommunityViz was developed by the Orton Family Foundation, and is supported and distributed by Placeways, LLC.
Learn More
Highway Wildlife Linkage Area and Public Safety Mapping
Highway wildlife linkage information
Since 2004, Geodata has had contracts with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Idaho Transporation Department and the Idaho Fish and Game to develop highway wildlife linkage areas in western Montana and the entire state of Idaho. These project involved comprehensive geospatial modeling of ecosystem level wildlife linkage for large carnivores and big game species, collection of base data on species, vegetation, imagery, and structures and urban infrastructure and developing a comprehensive GIS data set as a basis for collaborative workshops. Geodata analysts suppoted biologists, engineers, planners and NGO partners in a series of 10 workshops with collaborative GIS support and followup to map existing linkage areas for wildlife conservation ecosystem linkage and public safety.
Wildfire GIS and Risk Assessment
Urban sprawl and residential population growth are common to many parts of the Western United States. Rapid subdivision growth combined with recreational property development on the urban wildland interface are increasing the wildfire risk in thousands of communities. Geodata Services, Inc., working with the Orton Family Foundation, have adapted one of the leading community planning GIS software tools to assist the National Firewise program in community risk assessment, evaluation and education.