The document outlines various interactive mapping resources and tools available for comprehensive planning in Vermont, highlighting platforms such as the Vermont Center for Geographic Information and Google Maps. It details features ranging from environmental interest locators to street view capabilities, including information on GIS technology and its applications. Additionally, it presents a variety of free geo viewers and GIS software options that can be useful for town planning and analysis.

1. Rutland Regional Planning Commission www.rutlandrpc.org The Data Resources Your Town Needs For Comprehensive Planning March 10, 2010

3. VCGI: Interactive Map Viewer www.vcgi.org Imagery VT State Boundary Deer Wintering Areas Wetlands - VSWI 50 ft contours Mountains and Hills Buildings Buildings Address Labels Airports Rail Lines Roads US and VT Highways Interstates Town Boundaries Cities and Towns Water Features

4. VT ANR: Environmental Interest Locator http://www.anr.state.vt.us/site/html/maps.htm Act 250 Permits Aerial Imagery Deer Wintering Areas Flood Hazards Hazardous Waste Generators Hazardous Waste Sites Indiana Bat Hibernacula (By town) Indiana Bat Summer Range (By town) Hydrography Soils(Prime Ag and hydric) Stormwater Permit Sites Threatened and Endangered Species 1:24,000 Topographic Maps Underground Storage Tank Locations Vermont Dam Inventory Water Supply Source Protection Areas Wetlands

5. ANR and VCGI Both web pages were developed using Geocortex IMF technology. Environmental Interest Locator Vermont Interactive Map Viewer

6. VCGI/ANR: Add Your Own Data Add parcel data View parcel data Identify parcel data

7. Best Things About VCGI And ANR’s Interactive Web Mapping Pages. All work is done in your browser, there is no need to download any software. The data lives at VCGI or ANR not on your computer. The data is the most current available. Upload your own data. Create very professional looking maps. Data is for Vermont.

8. GeoHack http://toolserver.org/~geohack Enter lat & long Returns a list of available free mapping sites, centered on your lat/long coordinates.

9. Google Maps www.maps.google.com Free web mapping service application. Satellite Imagery, mostly high resolution aerial photography Used by the national Weather Service and many TV News Networks. Used for directions, business location Can be added to your website Mobile platform availability Google Maps is “a way of organizing the world’s information geographically”. (Lars Rasmussen, co-creator of Google maps).

10. Google Maps Street View Street View: provides 360 degree panoramic street-level views of various worldwide cities, streets, national parks and even some biking trails. Images are taken with special cameras and then stitched together to create final images. Cameras are attached to cars and to a new trike, to map trails and campuses more effectively. Google blurs faces and license plates with an automated detection technology. Through Google’s Partner Program, you can now request Google to collect imagery of your location. Pegman is your guide through Street View - pick him up and drag him to a street to enter Street View imagery. When not in use, Pegman sits atop your zoom toolbar on the left of the Google Maps window. If he's lit up yellow, that means that Street View imagery is available for viewing within your current map view.

11. Criticisms: Google Maps Various governments complained about this and Google has blurred certain areas. Sometimes outdated imagery is used instead of blurring Data doesn’t match up (align) with satellite images… 2008, added feature to edit the location of houses and businesses. Cloudy imagery. Inaccurate geographic names and/or business listings. Distortion towards polar regions, due to Mercator projection.

12. Google Earth www.earth.google.com Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\Google Earth.lnk

13. Google Earth… Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe. Used globally, available in 37 languages. Includes a flight simulator On April 15, 2008 with version 4.3, Google fully integrated its Street View into Google Earth.

14. Google Earth Historic Maps Historical Imagery allows users to traverse back in time and study earlier stages of any place. This feature is very useful for research purposes that require analysis of past records of various places. For the Rutland Region, historic imagery only goes back to 1994.

15. Google Sky, Moon and Mars Google Sky features constellations, stars, galaxies, Hubble Telescope images and animations depicting the planets in their orbits. Google Earth 5 includes a separate globe of the planet Mars , it also includes 3D renderings of the Martian terrain. There are also some extremely high resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and panoramic images from various Mars landers. Google Moon allows users to view satellite images of the Moon .

16. Google 3D Structures (Google SketchUp) http://sketchup.google.com/ Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like. Dozens of video tutorials, an extensive Help Center and a worldwide user community mean that anyone who wants to make 3D models with SketchUp, can. Change language: Building Maker: Create 3D buildings online Change language: Building Maker: Create 3D buildings online

17. Google Building Maker http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/buildingmaker.html

18. Google Earth Tours You can create and play tours of places and content. Tours are a guided experience where you fly from one location to another, view terrain and content and look around as you wish. You can create tours that record your exact navigation in the 3D window and even add audio. click the Play Tour button The tour begins playing in the 3D viewer and the tour controls appear in the bottom left corner of the 3D viewer.

19. Things to Try in Google Earth Add a photo Add an image overlay Create a tour Go back in time Flight Simulator Create a tour Sky, Moon, Mars StreetView

20. Planning Examples Definition: A mashup is a Web site that combines content data from more than one source to create a new user experience. Adding parcel data to VCGI or ANR viewer looking at natural resource constraints for a property. Add transportation data to Google Maps Add parcel data to Google Earth 4. Add other data to Google Earth

21. Planning Solutions Planning and zoning boards can view and react to a proposed development in a real world context, very visual. First responders and emergency planners can familiarize themselves with unknown, perhaps remote areas. Marketing tool for economic development. View development issues using 3D structure scenarios

22. Google Earth Planning Links “ How Google Earth Ate Our Town” – (TIME Magazine) http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1720932,00.html CRD Regional Planning (Victoria, British Columbia) has released data from its transportation model, using Google Earth to show the 100 busiest bus stops; bicycle, pedestrian and vehicle counts from various points around the region; and congestion levels on major routes for the afternoon peak period. http://www.crd.bc.ca/regionalplanning/ Google Earth Dissemination of Soil Survey Derived Interpretations for Land Use Planning – (Journal of Extension) http://www.joe.org/joe/2009october/a3.php “ The wonder of Google Earth” - (Urban Planning Blog) http://urbanplanningblog.com/2006/08/22/the-wonder-of-google-earth/

23. 60 Free Geo Viewers and GIS Software A Google search for “free GIS viewers” returned 767,000 links.

24. http://www.geogenesis.net/geogenesislite.htm GeoGenesis Lite http://www.geabios.com/html/services/maps/PublicMap.htm GeaBios http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth Fourmilab www.flashearth.com Flash Earth http://www.flamingo-mc.org Flamingo http://www.forestpal.com/fgis.html FGIS http://exploreourpla.net ExploreOurPla.net http://www.anr.state.vt.us/site/html/maps.htm Environmental Interest Locator http://www.diva-gis.org/ DIVA-GIS http://cartoweb.org/ CartoWeb http://www.cartoworld.com/ CartoMap http://www.capaware.org/ Capaware http://www.blue-marble.de Blue Marble Navigator www.bing.com/maps Bing Maps http://maps.ayna.com Ayna www.arcwebservices.com ArcWeb Explorer http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index1.html ArcExplorer http://www.agismap.com/index.html AGIS for Windows http://mapper.acme.com ACME Mapper http://www.accuglobe.net/ Accuglobe

25. www.navitraveler.com NaviTraveler http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/java/ NASA World Wind http://www.multimap.com MultiMap http://maps.msn.com MSN Maps http://mapyrus.sourceforge.net Mapyrus http://www.mapwindow.org/ MapWindow GIS www.maps-for-free.com Maps-for-free.com http://mapserver.mytopo.com MapTech http://atlas.mapquest.com Mapquest http://www.mapmaker.com Map Maker http://www.mapfish.org MapFish http://link2.map24.com Map24 http://www.gvsig.gva.es gvSIG http://grass.itc.it/ GRASS GIS http://www.gpsvisualizer.com GPS Visualizer http://maps.google.com Google Maps http://earth.google.com Google Earth www.geonames.org Geonames http://www.pcigeomatics.com/ Geomatica Free View http://www.geomajas.org/ Geomajas

26. http://maps.yahoo.com Yahoo Maps http://www.worldkit.org/ WorldKIT http://www.wikimapia.org/ WikiMapia http://www.viamichelin.com ViaMichelin International www.vcgi.org VCGI Interactive Map Viewer http://udig.refractions.net/ uDIG www.trails.com Trails.com http://www.topoquest.com TopoQuest http://www.microimages.com/products/tntatlas/index.htm TNTatlas http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/ The Generic Mapping Tools http://www.terraserver.com TerraServer http://tatukgis.com/ Tatuk GIS http://www.dpi.inpe.br/spring/english/index.html SPRING https://sigisco.com/ SIGIS http://www.codeplex.com/SharpMap SharpMap http://www.shaded-relief.com Shaded Relief http://www.randmcnally.com RandMcnally http://qgis.org/ Quantum GIS (QGIS) http://www.openstreetmap.org OpenStreetMap http://openjump.org OpenJUMP

27. “ There seem at present to be two distinct groups of humanitarian practitioners: those who are already, albeit tentatively, exploiting Google Earth and related geospatial methods in their work, and those who will be, as soon as they see their first demonstration of its potential.” (MapAction, 2008:9) Steve Schild Rutland Regional Planning Commission [email_address] 775-0871, ext. 206 www.rutlandrpc.org THANK YOU!