HOUSTON (Dec. 19, 07) Whether you are pro billboards or against billboards in Houston, nothing can be effectively discussed on the topic without accurate and detailed information. It is often the public perception that higher education is more about theories than practical application. However, Peter Price, associate professor of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at North Harris College (soon to be Lone Star College-North Harris), has brought the real world to his students with hands-on experiences and projects that impact the community and Houston's quality of life.
One recent example is the GIS maps generated by Professor Price and his students for the non-profit organization Scenic Houston. Through a series of GIS maps produced to show the sizes, locations and concentrations of billboards in Greater Houston, Scenic Houston and others have been able to visualize the density and impact of billboards on the community.
"Last spring, we were asked by Scenic Houston if we would take data supplied by Clear Channel and map it out," said Price, who has 30 years experience in the GIS field. "We produced the last maps in August, just before the beginning of the fall semester, but much of the work was done over the summer."
Price, who uses the billboard projects as well as other requests to teach students how to use the various GIS techniques, counts these assignments from the community as invaluable learning exercises. "The information supplied for the billboard project was in the form of tables with coordinates, so our students were required to create geographic elements from it and provide quality control because some of the data was found to be flawed," Price explained, "plus the students had to use symbolization and map design skills to make the maps really understandable."
Price said the ultimate goal of the project was to provide unbiased, accurate information for people to draw their own conclusions from the data...and while the maps were originally requested by Scenic Houston, they also were seen by the mayor's office and the city council.
Debra January-Bevers, executive director of Scenic Houston when maps were made, has high praise for Price and his GIS students. "We've worked together for several years on various projects," she said, "so when I went to Peter with the spread sheet obtained by the City of Houston from Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the larger outdoor advertisers in Houston, I asked for GIS maps to be developed from more than 20 columns of data. I wanted to know the number of billboards and wanted to see them as dots on a map, along with the other data," January-Bevers added.
Adding the task was no small job, January-Bevers is quick to add she sees Price as one of the top five GIS experts in the country. "Peter and his team of students do a phenomenal job," she said. "He's the only person who generates maps you can look at actually see what's happening. He knows what data to overlap and what color schemes to use to make any situation easily understood by all parties.
"I've had people tell me they couldn't make GIS maps because of the size of the data or the territory, but whether you're dealing with one county or five counties, Peter Price is amazing. He can make it work," said January-Bevers who is now public policy director at the Center for Houston's Future. "Once those maps were completed, our board and the city wanted additional maps, including amortization time lines, where certain billboards were scheduled to come down in 2008 and 2013."
Twenty years ago, somebody might have picked up a map and tried to hand-plot all the billboard location, age and size information or they could have sat down with a spread sheet and tried to visualize where these thousands of billboards were located.
"Without GIS, it would have taken five times the effort and time it took us," Price admitted.
Price sees projects from the community as invaluable opportunities for students studying GIS technology. "As a community college, we do this extensively," he said. "We have a strong relationship with our community through a variety of partnerships that we view in two distinct ways. First, we're serving our community and this is a point of real pride with our students. As a result of their work, they make a contribution to their community through these projects.
"Secondly, the community provides relevant projects to our students so they can learn real-life application...and it also gives them something to include in their professional portfolios and on their resumes. Participating in the GIS mapping of the billboards, as an example, gives them a tangible achievement to take with them when they move forward into real world careers."
GIS students at Lone Star College-North Harris currently are working with a variety of organizations on a project that involves updating a greenway trails maps and they have recently completed a project where they contributed mapping to the Ryan White Clinics as they use the data for future planning.
Price and his students also are working on a project to identify the Dallas Heat Island. "Heat islands come from a combination of reflected heat with car exhausts and other pollutants causing ozone problems," Price explained. "We're mapping tree cover, impervious surfaces and by using satellites that collect thermal data, we can create a map of actual surface temperatures in a city. This will be incorporated with other data to identify hot spots, what's creating the heat and where the cool spots (greenbelts and parks) are located."
The GIS program at Lone Star College-North Harris was begun by Price in 2004 and it continues to provide students with the best hands-on learning opportunities possible.
January-Bevers said she could brag on Peter and his students "'til the cows come home. Peter is one of the best," she said. "He's extraordinarily thorough-and provides background data with every map.
"He's also very committed and seems to quickly grasp public policy. GIS people have a knack for understanding their technology, but Peter can understand both...to the point he could see ahead to what our needs would be, based on the direction our policy is going.
"I'm very grateful the college allows Peter Price and his GIS students to interface with the nonprofit and civic community," January-Bevers said. "They have provided invaluable resources to improve the community as a whole and the students must know their work impacts their community today as well as in the future."
For more information about the college's geographic information systems program, call Professor Peter Price at 281.765.7764.
Lone Star College-North Harris is located at 2700 W.W. Thorne Drive, one-half mile south of FM 1960 East, between Aldine-Westfield and Hardy Roads. For more information about the college, call 281.618.5400 or visit http://www.northharriscollege.com/.
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including Cy-Fair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, and Tomball, six centers and Lone Star College-University Center. With 49,250 students, it is the largest college system in the Houston area, and third largest community college district in Texas. To learn more, visit www.nhmccd.edu.
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