Butler County Engineer
Greg Wilkens announces the hiring of Lydia Thacker to fill the
newly created position of GIS Specialist. GIS is an acronym for
Geographical Information System and has become an increasingly
important tool in the field of engineering. As GIS Specialist,
Ms. Thacker will oversee the development and maintenance of a
GIS for the Butler County Engineer's Office. The GIS will provide
a means for BCEO staff to access, interact with, and maintain
the massive amounts of data used to complete their tasks.
Ms. Thacker comes to
the BCEO from the City of Fairfield where she worked as GIS Analyst
for almost five years. Her background also includes working as
a Survey Technician for Hazlet & Erdal and the City of Cincinnati.
She is also employed as a part-time instructor at Cincinnati
State Technical College.
Ms. Thacker earned
her Associates Degree from Cincinnati State in Civil Engineering
Technology in 1980 and is currently a Surveyor Intern for the
State of Ohio working on earning her Professional Surveyor (P.S.)
license. She is also currently enrolled in the Bachelor Degree
Program at Northern Kentucky University studying Construction
Management.
More About
GIS
Geographical Information
System (GIS) is a computer system for creating "intelligent
maps." What this means is that real life features such as
roads, survey monuments, traffic signals, utilities, and storm
sewers, or, real life events -- traffic crashes, traffic counts,
water testing -- are located and a map of these features is created.
The features and events are represented by lines, points, or
areas on the map and located where they actually are or have
occurred on the earth. The location of these features can be
obtained by a surveyor using survey equipment, digitizing from
an aerial photograph, or using handheld GPS (Global Positioning
System) location devices.
After the location
is established any information or data about that feature or
event can be connected to it by using a database and creating
an "intelligent map." Using an interactive map, the
computer operator can click on a feature or event represented
by a line, point, or area and a data sheet appears with information
about that feature or event.
GIS at the
BCEO
As the Engineer's new
GIS Specialist, Ms. Thacker will create and maintain a web-based
interactive map to be used by BCEO employees, particularly field
crews and inspectors. A special user-friendly interactive GIS
map may also be developed for the general public. This map would
eventually be accessible via the BCEO web site.
# # #
For more information
contact:
Chris
Petrocy, BCEO Public Information Supervisor
Greg Wilkens, P.E., P.S.,
Butler County Engineer
Phone 513.867.5744 • Fax 513.867.5849
