For the first time the City of Clovis celebrated Geography Awareness Week with an event geared towards educating the public about Geographic Information System, which is a computer system used to capture, store, check and display data related to positions on the Earth’s surface.
GIS Day took place Wednesday, November 13th at City of Clovis Civic Center.
Students including seventh grade honors science students from Clark Intermediate took part.
“This is a real cool experience for them,” said Alison Rangel, a school counselor at Clark. “We are learning something that I didn’t know a lot about.”
GIS Day gave the Clovis GIS department a chance to show off what they do and how it helps others, like the Police and Fire Departments, do their jobs better.
“I learned that GIS is a mapping system that a whole lot of people that work in the city use,” said Alise Dodd, a seventh grade student from Clark. “It makes garbage collection easier because it helps them know where to go and when to pick up the different kinds of trash.”
Rangel said the students asked the city employees a lot of good questions, especially ones geared towards technology.
“They’re really interested in coding and programming,” she said. “This gives them exposure to a lot of different careers they can have.”
Mark Faulconer, has worked for the City of Clovis for three decades in Public Utilities. He showed off the GIS system that is part of the street maintenance trucks.
He’s been using GIS for about 20 years to track street signs within the city. It allows the work crews to see what signs have been replaced and when.
“It helps us with maintenance,” Faulconer said. “That way we can be ahead of the game and proactive.”
Faulconer said he especially enjoyed exposing the students to GIS technology. “GIS as a whole is a growth industry,” he said. “There are a lot of people that don’t know what GIS is or how it is used.”
Maps that were produced using GIS technology were on display in the Council Chambers and in the lobbies of Planning and Development Services, City Hall and Police and Fire Headquarters.
People could study maps about where property crimes were committed, the response times to police calls and reported traffic accidents. There was even a map that showed where the popular Pokemon Go game could be played in Old Town Clovis.
Stephanie Andersen is the GIS Analyst for the City of Clovis. She said she’s happy that city employees, the public and students showed interest in GIS Day.
“I am feeling really excited,” Andersen said. “It makes me want to get started in planning GIS Day for next year.”