Planning Support
GIS-based planning support systems are computerized programs that use geospatial tools to analyze and visualize scenarios to better plan for the future. Some general planning tasks that can be supported using GIS software and systems include compiling baseline information, evaluating courses of actions, modeling possible scenarios, and monitoring results and other possible outcomes. Researchers at our Center have developed numerous planning support systems using these types of tools.
These new systems are helping engineers, planners, and industry professionals make smarter and more efficient decisions about the future. For example, DeKalb County, Georgia, leaders used the systems to look at the financial impact that annexations and incorporations will have on the county.
Here are other examples:
Examining Georgia’s Past; Land Cover Change Over 50 years
Funded by the Georgia Conservancy, the project, “Examining Georgia’s Past; A Historic Look at Land Cover Change Over the Last Fifty Years”, analyzed satellite imagery to depict land cover change in Georgia over almost five decades (1974-2016). Through interactive maps, data dashboards, and ESRI StoryMaps, users can find out how Georgia’s past shaped the present, and what it means for the future of our state.
Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub
To aid the Thrive Regional Partnership in their mission to inspire responsible growth in the tri-state Chattanooga region, the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization (CSPAV) at the Georgia Institute of Technology created and manages a transportation and freight geospatial portal, the Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub (GCFH). The GCFH contains a suite of interactive maps, datasets and ESRI StoryMaps focused on truck freight and transportation in the greater Chattanooga area.
Mapping Gorilla Movements in Rwanda
Since the early 2000s, researchers at our Center and Georgia Tech have partnered with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International to map mountain gorilla movements in Volcanoes National Park in the African nation of Rwanda.
In 2012, the center converted 12 years of daily GPS readings of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International's mountain gorilla research groups into one consolidated spatial database with more than 50,000 unique mountain gorilla observations and their associated descriptors from 1999 - 2011. This database is available to the public for viewing through an interactive map.
Coastal and Marine Planning
The goal of the Georgia Coastal and Marine Planning (GCAMP) project is to conserve natural, cultural, and economic resources in Georgia’s offshore environment through planning and coordination. It aims to do this by facilitating the state’s management of coastal and ocean resources, coordinating with federal regulatory agencies, and providing online access to data regarding coastal and ocean resources.
Georgia’s coastline provides an infinite supply of natural wind and ocean resources that have the potential to substantially contribute to the state’s energy supply. GCAMP aims to define a clear process for licensing and permitting offshore energy in Georgia, and close the data and communication gaps between regulatory agencies that could delay the permitting process.