CAD & GIS News for Govies 6/26

CAD News for Govies is a weekly feature on Acronym that scans thousands of industry articles to present you with a regular source of CAD and GIS news, information and ideas that impact the public sector.

Here’s the latest round-up:

Turning a Paper Map into a 3D Image Overlay

The image overlay featured in Google Earth is quite powerful (see it put to use with these historic overlay maps of North Carolina). By fading or “seeing through” the historic maps, users are able to compare the similarities and differences between old and new maps, and to study the changes in North Carolina over time. But how can you create one for your state, city or town? It’s really quite simple! Kerry Leith from Stress-driven has written a  step-by-step walkthrough to help you get started. Read more on the Google Earth blog.

Does Energy Benchmarking Actually Lead to More Efficient Buildings?

Thinking of making energy efficient upgrades to a public sector facility? If you are then you would typically start with an energy benchmarking process – whereby you collect and report data on energy and water use to inform any upgrades. This process, however, can be costly, hurt a property’s value, and as it turns out, might also be ineffective. That’s according to a new report out of Harvard University, which finds that energy benchmarking imposes burdens on building owners with no guarantee of producing energy savings. Read more at Government Technology.

Pretty Map of all the Waterways in the U.S. (from public data and open source code)

If you’ve ever marveled at the beauty of America’s rivers from the comfort of an airplane seat, you can now enjoy a map of the country’s waterways developed from public data and open source code. The creator is former Google engineer, Nelson Minar, who worked for weeks on the project to create a vector tile map of American rivers based on the NHDPlus dataset (a geospatial, hydrologic framework dataset envisioned by the EPA. “It’s mostly a demo project with readable source, but it’s also kind of pretty,” Minar explained. Minar has developed three products – web maps which can be viewed in a browser, a GeoJSON vector tile server, a thoroughly documented tutorial on building a vector tile server and raster renders of every single river (see below). Read more at Directions Magazine.

Don’t Forget - BIM for Transportation Webinar – July 31

Following on from the previous news item, if you’re interested to know how your agency can utilize BIM for infrastructure projects in the transportation industry, CADD Microsystems, an Autodesk Platinum Partner, is hosting a free webinar on July 31st on BIM for Transportation. This session will discuss the needs and common challenges of transportation planners and engineers and how BIM solutions can help you to tackle these issues head-on. Sign up here.

About Caron

Caron Beesley is the Editor in Chief of [acronym] Online. Caron has led the editorial team since [acronym] was launched in 2006 and has written several guides designed to help the public sector leverage information technology and digital design solutions to improve government operations and the delivery of public services. Caron is also the point of contact for contributed articles and guest bloggers. Contact Caron at editor@acronymonline.org or via Twitter @AcronymOnline.