Scaling Geospatial Data Creation for State GIS Operations

States across the US have long relied on GIS to inform decision-making on crucial issues related to infrastructure, the environment, and the well-being of their residents. However, acquiring, creating, and maintaining the data to fuel these geospatial analysis workflows remains a challenge in our dynamically changing world. 

Fortunately, innovation in both technology and how states approach GIS has paved the way for more accessible and reliable geospatial analytics. Not only that, federal funding opportunities offer the financial resources to create and maintain statewide geospatial data repositories, supporting a wide range of applications in climate resilience, transportation planning, equity and inclusion, and more.

In our recent webinar, former National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) president and Minnesota GIO Dan Ross joined Ecopia AI’s Brandon Palin and Abigail Coholic to discuss a variety of real-world case studies from state agencies across the US that are using high-precision mapping data to enhance critical infrastructure projects related to climate resilience and population growth. The conversation also includes information about available funding opportunities. We’ve summarized key takeaways from the discussion here and have included a recording of the webinar below. 

The power of geospatial data in addressing statewide GIS challenges

The webinar kicks off with Dan Ross emphasizing the importance of high-precision geospatial data to help understand climate vulnerabilities and inform decision-making related to how an organization might plan, fund, and build resilience for both natural and built environments. He highlights how Ecopia AI (Ecopia) collaborates with governments of all levels to create comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate geospatial data to support various initiatives including stormwater management, public safety, and transportation planning.

Brandon elaborates on Ecopia’s solutions, explaining that Ecopia's AI-based technology ingests high-resolution geospatial imagery to extract comprehensive land cover data. This results in a complete digital representation of critical infrastructure and natural features with the level of accuracy of a trained GIS professional, but at the speed and scale needed for changing communities. As the session progresses, the conversation explores the important role of high-precision geospatial data in preparing for and responding to significant challenges facing states today, including flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, and population growth. 

Flood mitigation 

Brandon explains the substantial risk that coastal surges and inland flooding pose to communities throughout the US. Drawing attention to the recent havoc from storms such as Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Harvey, which claimed lives and inflicted billions of dollars in damages, Brandon underscores the urgency of leveraging geospatial data to understand, quantify, and ultimately mitigate the threats posed by flooding. He emphasizes the significance of having high-precision data related to impervious and pervious surfaces, natural vegetation cover, and elevation to assess risks and address challenges associated with the high-intensity storms that communities are experiencing more frequently. Brandon further explains that this data is crucial to help enhance the accuracy of flood forecasting and allocate resources appropriately based on areas with the highest flood risk.

Urban heat

Brandon discusses the impacts of the urban heat island effect on communities, which include increased energy consumption, adverse health effects, impaired water quality, and elevated emissions. Acknowledging extreme heat as the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US, Brandon draws attention to the fact that urban heat effects are often concentrated in vulnerable communities. Geospatial data layers play a crucial role in addressing this challenge by helping to identify communities at risk, and examining the relationship between vegetation canopy coverage, impervious surfaces, and increased temperatures. However, open-source land cover data tends to be overly broad or outdated, making it very difficult to identify risks and support communities. Brandon stresses the importance of detailed, accurate, and up-to-date geospatial data for comprehensive risk assessment and vulnerability mapping as well as guiding targeted interventions like tree planting initiatives and infrastructure development to support communities facing urban heat challenges.

Wildfires

To round out this summary of natural hazards facing US states, Brandon then focuses on another growing risk: wildfires. Wildfires are growing in frequency and intensity, threatening communities, forests, and the economies that depend on them. Since the turn of the century, the United States has borne witness to 15 forest fires that have caused at least $1 billion in damages each. High-quality geospatial data is vital for assessing layers such as forests, grass, and shrubs, which influence fire behavior and fire spread potential. Moreover, Brandon highlights the important role that highly accurate geospatial data plays in emergency response preparedness from identifying efficient evaluation routes to determining areas in need following a disaster.

Population growth

The session then shifts to discuss how, in addition to natural hazards, rapid population growth and urbanization pose new challenges for states. Over the next three decades, populations are expected to surge by 25%, reaching nearly 10 billion people by 2050, with a staggering 68% residing in cities. This migration to urban centers, coupled with population growth, anticipates nearly 7 billion people living in cities, marking a 50% increase in capacity. Abigail explains that the surge in population and urbanization is already straining transportation infrastructure. Urban areas in particular are struggling to efficiently move people and goods, leading to increased congestion, diminishing residents' quality of life, and posing economic challenges by impeding the timely movement of goods and services. Additionally, the increase in population, with more vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists sharing limited road space, elevates the risks associated with commuting, resulting in record-high fatalities. Abigail describes that the disparity in access to efficient and safe transportation further marginalizes vulnerable populations and calls out the need for significant improvements to ensure pedestrian safety, address wear and tear, and accommodate heightened demand.

State GIS case study examples 

After assessing key challenges facing states, Brandon and Abigail share examples of how states have collaborated with Ecopia to leverage geospatial data for enhancing critical infrastructure related to climate resilience and population growth. Here’s a quick breakdown of each case study.

Creating a comprehensive road and bridge inventory for the Texas Department of Transportation 

In the initial case study, Brandon shares that Ecopia examined the road and bridge network in Texas, a state that has been significantly affected by natural disasters in the last two decades. Specifically, the absence of an up-to-date road and bridge inventory posed challenges in routing emergency vehicles effectively, given variables like elevation, rainfall, and water runoff that often lead to submerged and impassable bridges. In partnership with the Center for Water and Environment at the University of Texas and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT), Ecopia extracted 38,000 miles of detailed road features and bridge inventories across 11 counties to create a road elevation model that takes into account the height of bridges and roads to support emergency services. This enabled the state to identify which infrastructure is most at risk during a major natural disaster and understand which roads are safe during emergency scenarios. The road elevation model supports a better understanding of critical infrastructure and enables the creation of precise real-time flood inundation maps which help TxDoT to be proactive in its flood response, and provide better flood information for citizens and communities.

Understanding climate resilience equity with data from the Texas Water Development Board and NOAA

Brandon describes how the Ecopia team leveraged high-precision land cover data created in collaboration with the Texas Water Development Board and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to examine climate resilience in the Houston metropolitan area. Analyzing an area of approximately 12,000 square miles, Ecopia used comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date land cover vector layers to understand the spatial relationship between income, poverty, tree equity, and impervious surfaces. Leveraging Ecopia’s vector layers with publicly available census data, a direct correlation was found between income and impervious surfaces: households in the bottom 20th percentile of medium income had an average of 48% impervious land cover whereas the top 20th percentile had an average of 36.5%. This statistic gains significance when considering that impervious surfaces not only increase the likelihood of disasters during extreme precipitation but also have the most substantial impact on urban heat, the primary cause of weather-related deaths in the US. The result of this project is a targeted understanding of social and economic disparities in communities across Houston, serving as a valuable source of information to guide problem-solving initiatives. A similar analysis of more US coastal cities can be found here.

Scaling pedestrian network analysis for the Illinois Department of Transportation

Abigail then shares a case study related to Ecopia’s partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to support community planning in metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across Illinois. Focusing on The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), Abigail explains that CMAP sought to improve pedestrian infrastructure and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) across the nation’s third most populous metropolitan area. After 10 staff members spent over a year manually digitizing transportation features, CMAP was looking for a more efficient solution. To support CMAP and other MPOs in the region, IDOT selected Ecopia to create a comprehensive map of transportation features across Illinois. Ecopia’s AI-powered systems created a full pedestrian infrastructure network map across the entire 3,000 square mile area requested by IDOT, achieving efficiency while maintaining high accuracy standards. This dataset included sidewalk centerlines and edges with width attribution to identify gaps in pedestrian infrastructure. Beyond sidewalks, Ecopia delivered additional features, such as bike centerlines, truncated domes, medians, crosswalks, and more, providing a detailed understanding of transportation infrastructure. Abigail explains the important role this data plays in supporting ADA compliance and Vision Zero initiatives, as well as promoting pedestrian safety and transportation equity in the region. 

Funding opportunities for statewide geospatial programs

The next portion of the webinar focuses on how states can leverage federal funding opportunities to support scalable high-precision geospatial data creation. Dan acknowledges the historical funding challenges for state governments but notes that financial support has become more accessible with recent opportunities from the federal government. Abigail then shares some specific examples of funding that states can access from federal sources to help sustain their geospatial programs.

Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT Program)

The objective of the PROTECT grant is to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards such as sea level rise, flooding, and other extreme weather events through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, and at-risk coastal infrastructure. It is divided into planning grants and resiliency grants. The planning grants are centered around creating a resiliency plan that focuses on having a strong understanding of current assets and the implications of specific conditions in the future to better plan for natural disasters. The second category of resiliency grants is focused on investing in infrastructure to help negate the negative impacts that were identified in the resiliency plan. 

Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) 

The Safe Streets and Roads for All grant is associated with developing, completing, or supplementing a comprehensive Safety Action Plan. This includes analyzing the current safety conditions and then developing a strategy, shaped by data, to address the safety concerns and strive towards Vision Zero.

The first step to achieving this is to develop a detailed understanding of infrastructure to identify potential risks and then determine how to best avoid and eliminate these risks. Abigail explains that this includes understanding how intersections are structured, plus examining sidewalk continuity and the presence of crosswalks. Once factors like these can be identified, an organization can plan and accommodate for these risks and adapt infrastructure to increase safety. 

Reconnecting Communities Program (RCP) and the Neighborhood Access & Equity (NAE) program

Lastly, the Reconnecting Communities Program (RCP) and the Neighborhood Access & Equity (NAE) programs are working to remedy historic inequities in transportation. With over $1 billion in total funding and an annual cadence, the two sister programs aim to help states, MPOs, and other eligible participants improve equity across their region while contributing to resiliency. Specifically, this competitive grant emphasizes assisting economically disadvantaged or underserved communities with planning and capacity building. Eligible planning activities include identifying, monitoring, or assessing air quality, emissions, areas of extreme heat, gaps in tree canopy coverage, or flood-prone transportation infrastructure as well as assessing transportation equity or pollution impacts. 

Learn more about these and other federal funding programs here.

Harnessing geospatial data to create more  resilient and equitable communities 

From coastal flooding to urban heat to population growth and beyond, state governments are tasked with solving several complex challenges. Comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date geospatial data provides a foundation for assessing risk related to climate and infrastructure vulnerabilities, and informs planning efforts to build resilience, equity, sustainability, and more. Ecopia’s advanced geospatial data is empowering decision-makers with the information they need today to prepare for tomorrow. Combined with more accessible federal funding opportunities, this data is paving the way for states to create a more resilient and equitable future for residents. 

To learn more about how AI-powered geospatial data extraction can help your state, watch the webinar below and get in touch with our team.