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Orlando, Thanks for sharing this. I think it’s something our group
will want to consider when options are discussed for displaying and sharing
data. This is an interesting option for presenting the data. It’s simply
a .kml data file, which can be used by the Google Earth program to display the
emission points. This approach has some clear advantages and disadvantages. I think
the biggest advantage is that it would be relatively easy to produce. It also runs
to a large extent on the client side (although Google Earth draws the
background images continuously from the server side), which would offset some
of the speed issues often encountered in online query and mapping and database
query applications. It also uses the very powerful Google Earth for the
geographic display, which is light years ahead of the mapping tools used in the
original CAROL mapping tool. With the satellite images in the background, this
might even be used for fine tuning geographic coordinates. Usually, we’ve
relied on things like a point being over the water to indicate there was an error.
In this case, we could see where actual stacks or buildings are. There are some disadvantages also using a system like this (or
using exclusively a system like this). In particular, I think the ability to
program specific features is more limited than it would be in some other online
mapping tools. For example, this tool is very useful in seeing where the
sources are. It’s a little more onerous to get to the actual emissions
data for each facility (I believe this information needs to be accessible
somewhere else online that can be linked to). It’s also problematic to
limit or alter the points that are shown or how they are displayed, such as
showing only points emitting arsenic, or facilities with a certain SIC or
coloring the points to indicate the magnitude of the emissions. Pete could probably add more informed comments on this than me.
He has, in fact, programmed a system here that manages and interchanges online
GIS holdings in a wide variety of formats including, I believe, the .kml format
used here. I’m belated in getting to him some shapefiles of our data that
he can use in a test run with this system. Jon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jon Dettling 734-274-5183 dettling@glc.org From:
owner-airtoxics@great-lakes.net [mailto:owner-airtoxics@great-lakes.net] On
Behalf Of Cabrera-Rivera, Orlando - DNR This is a
link to the pollutant mapping tool that the Commission for Environmental
Cooperation has developed for its pollutant registry. Is this something like
what Pete had in mind? We may be able to exchange ideas on this. Regards,
Orlando
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