GIS in GRANT APPLICATIONS - 508 COMPLIANCE
Maps have always been an important part of the FEMA grant application process. They help to tell your story in ways that would otherwise be impossible. In this presentation we will highlight some ways you can begin using GIS mapping technology in your grant applications.
Many FEMA HMA grant projects are geographically centric. That is to say there is a location somewhere on the planet where the proposed project is supposed to take place. Using maps and the development of a grant application allows one to very easily show how the project interacts with neighboring properties and nearby resources.
For example the home in this photo is located in a floodplain and has flooded many times before. The local community is applying for a FEMA grant to acquire the property and convert it to open space. Using a map in the grant application makes it easy to show where the home is and what impact it may have on nearby resources.
As we can see on the map it is close to a wetland and a highway. Both of these items may be affected by this project. The wetland by the on the ground activity and future highway development by the restrictions required by FEMA open space policy.Showing all of these things on a map helps others to more easily understand the situation.
GIS is short for Geographic Information Systems. Essentially GIS are maps in electronic form. When you use maps on your smart phone you are using GIS. Maps have been used for centuries to effectively communicate location based information, there is no less of a need for that type of communication today.
One thing GIS can do is layer data. These layers can be turned on and off as needed or styled using unique colors, fonts or icons to make the data easier for you to digest. Google maps for example comes with data layers built in, such as one showing real time traffic congestion. When using GIS applications youcan create your own layers to organize your data in ways that suit you. Even an operation as basic as zooming in and out could not be done with paper maps. This obviously lends a great deal of utility. Zooming is also usually dynamic in GIS, that is to say that as you zoom in details appear that are not available when zoomed out. This reduces clutter making the map much easier to read.
Because maps in GIS are essentially databases, each one can contain data about locations on the map. GIS applications allow you to perform searches on map data. You have probably already used this technology countless times on your phone, such as when searching for a restaurant near your current location. Using more sophisticated products such as ArcGIS you can perform search and analysis on your own data. For example,for your grant application you may have a need to determine the replacement cost value for all homes within a given reach of the flood way. By loading property evaluation data from your tax assessor’s office and floodplain study data from FEMA into your GIS application, you can make a query against this data to easily obtain the number you are looking for.
GIS technology can be incredibly complex. Some aspects of GIS require years of specialized training before being able to effectively use them. In contrast there are many simple GIS products, most of which are free, that can greatly assist you in the grant application process. These products will prove useful after just a couple of hours or even a few minutes of use. We will highlight four of them here for you.
The first BatchGeo.com is a web based geocoder and basic mapper. A geocoder is a computer program that converts street addresses into latitude and longitude data for more accurate placement on a map. Batchgeo is free and very easy to use. You simply copy a list of addresses from excel or a similar spreadsheet program and then paste them into the window on Batchgeo.com. Next you click the Map Now button and in a few moments you have a map of your data. You can then save the web address for your map to include in your grant application or download the map as a google earth file.
MyMaps by Google is more like a traditional GIS application. It allows you to create custom maps by hand. With it you can add points of interest to your map. You can enter a narrative and attach photos to those points. You can also draw polygons to represent areas of interest such as a wetland or a property boundary. My maps can also geocode on demand, just enter an address in the search box and then when the location comes up click on, Add to Map. As with Batchgeo you can also import address data from a spreadsheet. For complex maps you can create layers to help organize the data to make it easier to view and manage. Finally,as with Batchegeo you can share your map as a read only version with anyone on the web. Download it as a KML file or print it out.
The third ArcGIS online by esri comes with a suite of facemaps, high resolution imagery and demographic data. You can access authoritative maps and data on thousands of topics such as businesses, landscapes and the climate, transportation and much more. ArcGIS online mapping tools are powerful yet simple to use so you can make and share beautiful maps. Beyond mapping you can use ArcGIS online to perform data analytics to identify and quantify the implications, consequences and impact of your decisions.
Finally there is Google Earth. Google Earth is very similar to MyMaps in functionality so we won’t explain it in detail here. The big difference is that Google Earth is more of a traditional computer program in that it is installed on your computer instead of running in a web browser. This gives it the potential to run without an internet connection provided you save the data you want to show ahead of time. With that said there are some more advanced features that Google Earth supports such as linking to external data sets like the national flood hazard layer and being able to view historical satellite imagery for some regions.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Maps do the same when it comes to hazard mitigation projects. With the many free and intuitive tools available today there is no reason why you can’t take advantage of them to tell your story more effectively and make the grant application process easier as well.