Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The Regional Weather Information Centers Geographical Information Systems/Remote Sensing (GIS/RS) division has a tradition of providing GIS/RS expertise for the general public as well as state, local, and national interests. The GIS/RS division has a dedicated and knowledgeable staff with expertise in the development and implementation of GIS/RS projects and programs.

The philosophy of the Regional Weather Information Centers GIS/RS division is to provide expert support, enterprise wide, of the implementation, use, and maintenance of Geographical Information System/Remote Sensing hardware, software, and data. This is evident through participation in the Geographic Information System Project (GISP). GISP is a consortium of several contributing universities and organizations across the United States whose stated goal is: "to provide collaborative and innovative transfer of geographic information systems technologies to support local government and other public policy development and decision making".

The GIS/RS division also provides an opportunity for students at the University of North Dakota to actively participate in ongoing projects. Utilizing state-of-the-art hardware and software, knowledge and skills necessary to compete for job opportunities in the Geographical Information System/Remote Sensing community are developed.

To provide successful integration of GIS/RS capabilities for general use, it is necessary to provide a broad spectrum of knowledge in GIS/RS software packages and platforms. The GIS/RS division at the Regional Weather Information Center has up-to-date software packages running on UNIX, NT, or Windows 95 operating systems. We provide support from easy to use, cost effective desktop mapping programs to the more sophisticated and costly UNIX based systems. We also provide data capture and conversion capabilities in most formats.

As weather is the focus of the Regional Weather Information Center, we utilize proven techniques to develop, maintain, and integrate weather data into the Geographical Information Systems/Remote Sensing domain. The knowledge base within the GIS/RS division of the Regional Weather Information Center is particularly geared to agricultural weather data and GIS/RS integration.

The Geographical Information Systems/Remote Sensing division of the Regional Weather Information Center is dedicated to providing support to the general public and private industry in developing GIS/RS technologies to solve todays complex problems.