The Maine Office of GIS (MEGIS) is pleased to announce that our proposal
for USGS ARRA lidar collection has been selected for full funding, with
the data collection to take place this Fall.  Although we had received
tentative notification of our selection in January, the confirmation
finally came today.  This project will collect new lidar and collate
existing lidar into a single regional dataset stretching from Manhattan
to Cobscook Bay.  The combined area is 13,500 square miles, covers
10,500 linear miles of coastline, and is home to roughly 20M people and
7.5M households.  This is the first phase in what is a larger New
England-wide goal of high-resolution terrain mapping.
 
Note:  For those of you wondering what lidar is - think of radar but
with laser pulses, coming out of a machine mounted in the bottom of an
airplane, pulsing almost 200,000 times per second.  The returns from the
pulses are measured by a sensor in the plane and can precisely map the
terrain of an area. This geospatial technology is very useful for a
number of applications including floodplain mapping, finding sites for
windmills, mapping habitat, modeling sea level rise, etc.  The terrain
data provided come at a resolution 10 times better and with accuracy 20
times better than what is currently available.  These data will greatly
improve the region's ability to deal with climate change, flooding,
erosion, and other coastal issues.  For more details on lidar see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar.
 
This project, led by Maine, included the cooperation of GIS contacts in
each of the partner states - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, and New York, with matching funding from a number of
federal and state agencies, and non-profit organizations.  Over 50
supporting letters were also provided, including two state governors
(Connecticut and Maine), government agencies at all levels, tribes,
non-profits, and commercial interests.  Financial partners in Maine
included Acadia National Park, Maine DEP, Maine GeoLibrary, Maine State
Planning Office, USDA, The Nature Conservancy, and the Maine Coast
Heritage Trust.
 
The total project value is $2.7M, with $1.4M coming from ARRA funds,
$385K from cash match, and $915K from in-kind contributions.  Maine's
portion totals $823K in value, with $487K from ARRA funds, $156K from
cash match, and $180K from in-kind contributions.  Over the next few
weeks MEGIS and the other partners will begin working with USGS to flesh
out the details of the cooperative agreement and contracts for Fall
collection of lidar data.
 
The complete proposal, and a map of the Maine portion, can be found at 
http://megis.maine.gov.
 
*****************
Michael Smith
State GIS Manager, Maine Office of GIS, Maine OIT
Board Member, Maine GeoLibrary
Board Member, Maine GIS Users Group
State Rep, National States Geographic Information Council
  <http://megis.maine.gov/>   <http://www.maine.gov/geolib>  
<http://www.megug.org/>   <http://www.nsgic.org/> 

State House Station 174
264 Civic Center Drive
(207) 215-5530

69o 47' 49.5"W 44o 20' 54.5"N

 

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