News Release

Geospatial Information Systems Conference May 14, 15

March 19, 2008

Registration is under way for the 16th annual Pennsylvania Geospatial Information Systems Conference at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center in Camp Hill May 14 and 15.

An outreach service of Penn State Harrisburg’s Institute of State and Regional Affairs, the conference theme this year is “Sustaining and Leveraging Our Geospatial Investment.”

The 2008 conference will explore the challenges and benefits of continuing trends as geospatial technology moves ahead, offering more methods and tools for analysis and information management. Geospatial assets continue to grow as local governments and private industry invest in data, people, and services and as the Commonwealth continues to build the framework of a Spatial Data Infrastructure through programs such as PaMAP.

The keynote speaker on May 14 will be Dr. David J. Harding, geophysicist at NASA’s Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory in Greenbelt, Md.  He conducts research in the measurement and analysis of neotectonic landforms, vegetation canopies, and continental water storage and discharge. He will speak on cutting-edge Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) applications at NASA. LIDAR is a remote sensing system used to collect topographic data. This technology is being used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA scientists to document topographic changes along shorelines. These data are collected with aircraft-mounted lasers.

Online conference registration and information is available at www.pagisconference.org.