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Camp Pendleton promotes Geography Awareness Week

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Written by Sgt. Vitaly Rusavskiy Scout Staff

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Camp Pendleton will host it’s 2nd annual Geographic Information Systems day, Nov. 19. The GIS day is a part of Geography Awareness Week, Nov. 17 through 21. The program was designed to encourage Marines, sailors and civilians to learn about the importance of geography and GIS technology. “Geography Awareness Week started in 1987 and is held annually during the third week of November,” said Alexandra Hall, business analyst, GeoFidelis West, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The event will include 15 booths and applications including interactive games. The Provost Marshals Office, Range Control, Environmental offices and other branches will be providing information on how they implement GIS services. We are planning to have several civilians and over 90 middle-school students participating in the event, said Hall. This year’s theme is “Diversity in GIS”, which will help Marines, sailors and civilians understand computer operations and mapping technology.  GIS is promoting its information to all on Camp Pendleton to showcase real-world applications and how it helps during emergency situations. During last year’s wildfires, we were able to coordinate with emergency services and input the fire data into our systems, obtaining live data for Camp Pendleton and San Diego County, said Hall. Through the Marine Corps GIS program, Camp Pendleton established the West Coast Regional Geospatial Data Center which provides geographical information in a browser-based map viewer.  The application includes map layers that customers can modify. Some of them are constraints, land use and utilities services. Users can adjust the layers, allowing them to see only the services they wish to include, said Hall. According to the Marine Corps GIS report during the 2007 wildfires, the GIS server successfully facilitated a common operational picture for the Marine Corps and proved versatile enough to support rapidly changing requirements. The dependency on geospatial awareness was highlighted during the wildfires and GIS is now a permanent component to all planning and crisis-management operations on Camp Pendleton. Col. James B. Seaton III, commanding officer, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, proclaimed Nov. 19 GIS day and encourages all Marines, sailors and civilians on base to participate in GIS day activities and to recognize the importance of geographic education.

 

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