Community Corner
Gaithersburg Celebrates GIS Day With Week of Activities
Gaithersburg celebrates GIS Day this week with events that will showcase Geographic Information Systems and how they impact everyday life.
From the City of Gaithersburg: The City of Gaithersburg celebrates GIS Day in November with discussions and activities designed to showcase Geographic Information Systems and how they impact everyday life. With more than 700 layers of information in its database, the City’s GIS serves as an important tool for analysis and strategic decision making. More than just a mapping application, the GIS database helps inform staff and elected officials about such things as the availability of affordable housing, impervious surface coverage, most effective snow plow routes, access to social services, and much more.
A variety of activities are planned to highlight GIS applications. The Mayor and City Council made an official GIS Day proclamation at their meeting in October, during which staff gave a demonstration of several of the City’s newest web-based maps.
City staff will take GIS on the road on Monday and Tuesday, November 13 and 14, when they visit Gaithersburg Elementary School. Using mapping tools, second graders will be guided through an exercise to learn where their Thanksgiving meals come from.
City Employees will celebrate GIS Day on Wednesday, November 15 from 10 to 11 a.m. with map demonstrations, a donut-shaped food decorating challenge (a map of Gaithersburg is roughly donut-shaped because of the presence of NIST in its center) and GIS/geography trivia at City Hall.
Map Discovery Day at the Community Museum on Wednesday, November 15 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. will feature map activities, travel journal making and a tour of the City’s map gallery. At 7 p.m., Gary E. Weir, Chief Historian at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, will explore the civilian and military use of maps during World War I. The Gaithersburg Community Museum is located at 9 South Summit Avenue. Admission is free.
Gaming with Maps in Olde Towne takes place on Saturday, November 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., starting at the Community Museum. Game developer Niantic, creator of Ingress and Pokémon Go, relies heavily on GIS. Niantic has given the Museum a special map for Ingress. The Museum will also be throwing out Pokémon Go lures all day.
For more information on these programs and other GIS initiatives, please visit the City website, call 301-258-6325, or e-mail gis@gaithersburgmd.gov.
Image via Pixabay
