GISAG - Geographic Information Science and Applied Geographics, UT

Mission

The mission of the Center for Geographic Information Sciences and Applied Geography (GISAG Center) at the University of Toledo is to serve as a focal point for GIS contract research on campus and in the local and regional community, serve as a clearinghouse for GIS research opportunities, and provide sources of expertise to enhance student learning at all levels and across a wide range of academic disciplines.

The GISAG Center will offer GIS graduate certification programs, provide geospatial databases to campus users, and administer system-wide GIS software licenses. In addition, the center seeks to solve complex problems related to regional and community issues, environmental protection, land use planning, economic development, site characterization, resource mapping, and GIS/GPS support.

Goals

The goals of the GISAG are five-fold:

To provide the expertise in the application of GIS/GPS/Remote Sensing Technologies, in both the public and private sector.
To provide outreach instruction and state-of-the-art technology transfer in GIS technologies.
To conduct research grant and contract work for on-campus and off-campus units.
Develop a centrally-distributed GIS and spatial database that can be employed by academic units and researchers across the campus, as well as community groups. Users will have the ability to access the centrally-distributed GIS database via their browser and download pertinent information onto their desktops. Having a centrally-based GIS database reduces potential problems with data replication and redundancy, and thus saves time and money in research and teaching efforts. The GIS spatial database will focus on a number of applications including, environmental planning, land use planning, natural resource monitoring, transportation planning, location-allocation modeling, monitoring, public health, and economic and census analysis.
To promote, improve, and develop interest in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing among members of the Toledo community. To achieve this goal, the GISAG Users Group will have a series of lectures, meetings and training workshops, and discussions on the GIS Mailing List.