The State Cartographer’s Office and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin have made great progress in sharpening the framework of the LinkWISCONSIN EBM Parcel Mapping project (EBM). Importantly, the project’s data model and schema are taking form due to findings from an internal pilot project the SCO has been establishing over the last month. With a primary call for data contributions tentatively set to take place in mid-November, the SCO is preparing to handle the various data schemas we anticipate receiving. This pilot project aims to understand the nature and variability of the data that will participate in the larger conflation project by integrating sample sets of Wisconsin county data. Domain knowledge gained from this pilot helps us develop a flexible and sustainable data model that will be applied to the implementation stages in the months ahead. Technical execution is focused around the ArcGIS Spatial ETL Tools and Python, offering an environment for creating comprehensive, customizable and reproducible models.
In addition to headway made on the technical framework of the project, the SCO and the DOA have been furthering EBM outreach and awareness efforts. EBM was presented at the fall WLIA meeting in Eau Claire, providing a chance to receive feedback and acquaint local-level geospatial professionals with the project. A public webinar, set to take place later this month, will give the community another chance to learn about EBM and ask questions.
Visit the EBM site at http://broadbandmap.sco.wisc.edu. For more information, contact Codie See at (608) 890-3793.
Note: This article was edited in January 2014 to reflect updates to the project name and rationale.