Data Services: Recent Activities (Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission)

Recent Activities

SPC members have worked together to assemble an unparalleled data arsenal capable of highlighting
relationships and commonalities across the region, as well as unique assets and opportunities.

In 2007, SPC continued to expand and enhance critical data needed to support public plans and programs for Southwestern Pennsylvania. This data, representing the human, built, and natural environments, is a key component to aid Commission decision-making. Sharing the data and resources of SPC with partners at all levels of government helps our members make informed decisions by examining past activity and planning for future growth. The region’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based data affords perspectives at the regional and local level regarding the region’s transportation, development, and utility infrastructure, and aids in multi-level analyses throughout the planning process.

A Fresh Look At Southwestern Pennsylvania

The PAMAP program, administered by the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, has provided a fresh bird’s-eye view of Southwestern Pennsylvania. PAMAP, a new electronic map of Pennsylvania, is being created as a seamless, consistent, high-resolution set of digital geospatial data products. This multi-year program will produce a map compiled from recent high-resolution aerial photography and elevation data, and will also include existing digital map resources developed by state and federal agencies, counties, regional agencies, and municipalities. In 2006, aerial photography was acquired for 22 counties in western Pennsylvania. At the same time, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data was also collected to measure the topography and elevation of those same counties. One important component of the LiDAR data is region-wide topography at a two-foot contour interval, which is extremely useful in calculating slope and for floodplain studies.

These new products were provided to the region’s counties for use in new and existing GIS applications, and to develop more accurate mapping of land use, infrastructure, and slope. SPC is incorporating the aerial photographs into the Unified GIS Land Use / Land Cover program to update data initially developed in 2000. Using the 2000 land cover data as a base, the PAMAP aerial photography is digitized and examined to show recent and changing development patterns across the region between 2000 and 2006. The resultant data provides a current base map for a multitude of local government projects and plans, and will aid SPC’s modeling and forecasting programs.

[ top ]

Defining Transportation and Employment Patterns in GIS

Throughout 2007, SPC carried out comprehensive updates to the region’s fixed-route transit systems in the regional GIS. By digitizing transit stops and routes, SPC, our planning partners and transit providers could analyze current transit service and plan for changes in development patterns and employment trends. To determine where people work, SPC geocoded over 110,000 businesses from Dun & Bradstreet data in the regional GIS. This aided in identifying concentrations of jobs across the region and tying them to their respective municipalities and traffic analysis zones. In addition, SPC digitized hospitals and health centers both in and outside of our region and compared drive and ride times from all municipalities to those locations. These functions helped to improve the accuracy of SPC’s traffic modeling and forecasting processes to reflect current and future mobility across the region,and serve as important inputs to the region’s long-range plan.

[ top ]

Signals For Transportation Management and Operations

SPC’s GIS was used as a starting point for activities related to the Regional Traffic Signal Program. SPC maintains a database of over 2,600 traffic signal locations across the region in the regional GIS. During fieldwork for SPC’s Highway Performance Monitoring and Congestion Management Programs, signal locations are documented, digitized, and coupled with traffic volumes to monitor the movement of vehicles and people on the region’s roads. By combining traffic signal data from several sources into one comprehensive format, SPC’s traffic signal database is used by local governments to inventory their signals and associated components, and to aid maintenance and hardware upgrades. SPC also created an LED Savings Calculator on its website, allowing local officials to determine the potential savings by converting their traffic signals to light emitting diodes (LED).

[ top ]

GIS and Data as Key Components of Our Region's Plan

SPC’s GIS and data resources played an important role in Project Region and the development of our Region’s Plan. By combining data products from the regional GIS with outputs from SPC’s modeling and forecasting programs, SPC used scenario planning to determine how and where the region would experience growth in the future. Using the GIS to combine data representing land cover, public sewer and water, population, and housing units at the Census Block level, base population densities and settlement patterns were established. Following up with GIS data that limits development, such as state gamelands, cemeteries, floodplains, and steep slopes, the region’s landscape was initially classified as “developed, developable, and off-limits.” Working from policies developed by the Regional Partners, SPC coded all but the “off-limits” blocks based on the four most common components or variables used in scenario planning: the location of development, the density of development, the mix of development, and transportation system elements. Data on population, workplace employment and households from SPC’s Cycle 8 Forecast was distributed to the blocks based on how conducive they were to development according to policies established in our Region’s Plan. Six different draft scenarios were developed, coded, and executed in the GIS across the regional data sets. When a scenario was completed, the results were evaluated across indicators chosen by the Regional Partners to measure the impacts of scenarios based on the policies from our Region’s Plan. After initial runs and the evaluation of the results, the six draft scenarios were re-evaluated, and then either combined or eliminated to come up with our Regional Vision Scenario.

[ top ]

Statewide Activities with Local Applications

SPC has continued to foster working relationships with state and federal agencies regarding geospatial data to aid our local governments and planning partners. SPC has worked with the U.S. Census Bureau to incorporate accurate data from the local level to prepare for Census programs on the horizon in 2010. SPC continues to play an active role in supporting statewide efforts by the PA Mapping and Geographic Information Consortium to establish spatial data standards for use at local and regional levels. Working with representatives from across the state to guide the direction and eventual products from PAMAP, SPC has helped in applying highly accurate local data to state programs. Finally, SPC was able to showcase Southwestern Pennsylvania’s regional GIS products and present findings on the importance of geospatial data across the Commonwealth to state officials and legislators at the PA Geospatial Policy Symposium in Harrisburg.

[ top ]