Data Services: Recent Activities (Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission)

Recent Activities

Virtual Project Evaluation Tools

In 2008, to aid in determining the best projects to allocate limited resources, SPC has developed some technological tools to compare projects across regional data resources. Using the far-reaching data layers within SPC’s regional geographic information system (GIS), SPC takes potential transportation and economic development projects and intersects them with demographic, economic, transportation, and environmental data to develop custom reports on adjacent and impacted elements. By examining data such as current and forecasted population, housing units, employment, and existing businesses adjacent to project locations, the region’s planners can measure the impact of the investment in real terms. Similarly, by calculating transportation statistics along or adjacent to transportation projects, SPC’s Economic Development Committee members were able to view car, truck, transit, and pedestrian use information to help determine which projects best support the region’s transportation priorities for the long term. In addition, using procedures from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), applying environmental justice mandates, and examining projects in regards to air quality attainment, these custom GIS-based applications produced comprehensive statistics for each project that committee members viewed side-by-side for objective project comparison and evaluation. Finally, each potential project was indexed against the regional priorities from the Long Range Transportation and Development Plan to determine which meet the region’s vision of transportation and land use that supports and enhances the regional economy and the communities within it.

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Applications for Efficiency

SPC has implemented additional processes to aid in mining the agency’s regional data resources to streamline tasks. These new tools process large collections of data in short order, so that planners and public officials can be presented with tailored information and data for their own use and distribution. Due to major enhancements to the region’s GIS road files, staff can quickly process business and home-based addresses and more accurately and assign them to their respective communities. In addition, by incorporating data provided by Pennsylvania’s Geospatial Technologies Office, SPC can now more accurately geocode origin and destination locations in neighboring regions of Ohio, Maryland, and West Virginia, to better identify commuting and freight transport patterns within and across our region. Similar GIS-based tools allow SPC to thoroughly compile crashes along congested corridors, identify concentration areas of employment, assign locally collected traffic counts to precise locations on our region’s highways, and categorize responses from SPC surveys and questionnaires. SPC continues to adjust and expand these processes to provider faster responses and more accurate results to our member governments.

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Mapping Change in the Region

Land use data is an important base map for local government plans and projects. In 2008, SPC built upon past efforts at categorizing the region’s land use that was a foundation in the development of the 2035 Plan, by completing the 2006 Unified GIS Land Use / Land Cover Inventory. Based on 2006 digital aerial photography from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ PAMAP Program, SPC categorized the region using more than forty different land use categories. Statistics at the county level were tabulated, and when compared against land use data from 2000, areas of change can be identified, examined, and measured against recent development activities. This fresh perspective on the region’s natural and built environment has supplied for projects and plans at municipal, watershed, and county levels. A main ingredient in SPC’s modeling and forecasting programs, the 2006 Land Cover will be combined with demographic data on population, housing units and workplace employment for future forecasts.

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Statewide Data for Local Use

SPC continues to foster and improve relationships with state and federal agencies regarding geospatial data to aid local governments and planning partners. In 2008, SPC hosted a free LiDAR Workshop to showcase recently acquired digital data for Western Pennsylvania. LiDAR, an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging, is used to produce extremely accurate elevation data with applications in GIS, surveying and planning. Collected in 2006 as part of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resource’s PAMAP program, LiDAR data supplies detailed elevation information, including 2-foot contours, that meet FEMA specifications for Flood Hazard Mapping. Staff from SPC, PAMAP, Penn State University and aerial photography contractors showcased LiDAR products and techniques to assist local governments, planners, surveyors, and engineers. SPC showcased recent projects that generated highly accurate elevation and slope data at the municipal level, and adjacent to major transportation corridors. Over 100 individuals attended the workshop and participated in discussion about the future of geospatial data across the Commonwealth.

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Supporting Local Partners

In 2008, numerous projects at the local level relied on SPC’s data resources and technical assistance to move projects forward. SPC compiles and distributes data with regional importance that can also be applied at the local level. In 2008, SPC processed route and stop data for all of the region’s transit providers, updated data representing public sewer and water service areas across the region, improved mapping that represents the region’s bicycle and pedestrian trails, refreshed data representing railroad lines and rights-of-way, and helped local partners identify and define existing greenways and natural infrastructure. With SPC lending assistance and providing data to support multijurisdictional plans and projects, communities eliminated data duplication, which helped to reduce their costs, and improved project implementation, saving valuable time and resources.

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