More than 200 West Virginia geospatial technology leaders, commercial vendors, government managers and educators are on West Virginia University’s campus this week (May 8-11) for this year’s State Geographic Information System Conference. Events are being held in WVU’s Brooks Hall.

The West Virginia GIS conference provides learning opportunities to participants from all levels of government, academia, nonprofits and the private sector. Through presentations, workshops and demonstrations they will discover new methods of research, sharing ideas and methods in GIS applications ranging from economic development, natural resource management, transportation and public health. A demonstration of the state-of-the art immersive CAVE will be a focus of geovisualization research.

Some 80 percent of all data today have some form of geolocational reference. GIS has an integral role in clarifying some of the major issues facing West Virginia, including economic development in the oil and gas industry, tourism, improvement of transportation and many other services. GIS also has a major role in our everyday lives, powering apps on smartphones, tablets and personal computers that direct us on vacation, help search for routes, stores and services and tag our photographs and videos on maps.

This year’s conference theme of “Achieving Success with GIS in the Mountain State,” refers to the numerous GIS applications and research projects that benefit the citizens of West Virginia and our nation. Examples include parcel and tax mapping, trail development, land-use planning, marketing, wetland identification, permit tracking, natural resources management, crime mapping, road and utility maintenance and emergency services dispatching.

“By gathering experts from an array of different fields, these conferences have the ability to generate a common understanding of our local and regional geography,” said State GIS Coordinator Tony Simental. “I hope this conference will encourage GIS professionals to collaborate for better future development in West Virginia.”

The conference began Tuesday afternoon (May 8) with Geocaching and GIS training opportunities and continued with workshops and paper and poster presentations as well as speakers who are at the forefront of the profession.

This bi-annual conference is hosted by the West Virginia GIS Technical Center housed in the WVU Department of Geology and Geography, the State Office of GIS Coordination and the West Virginia Association of Geospatial Professionals.

More information about the conference can be found online or contact Kurt Donaldson, project manger at the West Virginia GIS Technical Center at (304) 293-0557.

-WVU-

CONTACT: Rebecca Herod, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
304-293-7405, ext. 5251, Rebecca.Herod@mail.wvu.edu

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