Stephen F. Austin State University

Dr. James Kroll's dream of a nationwide system to support regional economic development, natural resource management and emergency response is one step closer to reality following an announcement by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that the Senate has approved the Department of Defense Appropriations bill for 2007.

The bill includes $2 million secured by Sen. Hutchison for the expansion of the Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center based at Stephen F. Austin State University. The legislation has been sent to President Bush to be signed into law.

"SFA has led the way for this unique and important program," Sen.
Hutchison said. "This funding will ensure that disaster response teams have the best and most accurate mapping information available."

Kroll's geographic information system laboratory at SFA drew international attention in February 2003 following the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy by providing immediate geospatial mapping assistance to federal, state and local authorities involved in the recovery effort. The first funding for a regional geospatial service center was awarded in 2005, and the Columbia Geospatial Service Center was established at SFA, with a branch at the University of Texas - El Paso.
The 2007 funding will allow the incorporation of Texas Tech into the partnership.

The Columbia Center system, directed by Kroll, provides details of roads, electrical grids, pipelines and water resources to first responders in the event of a disaster. In addition to emergency response, the center produces maps useful in economic development, natural resource planning, and maps for media purposes.

"This is a significant addition to the Columbia Center system," Kroll said. "Texas Tech brings a completely new set of geographic and sociological issues to the program. While we've been working with forestry issues here at SFA, and UT-El Paso has been working on border and air quality issues, the high plains area of Texas has been facing drought conditions and a declining agricultural industry. There are definite applications for this technology in dealing with those issues."

Kroll said each center has its own set of strengths that it brings to the table.

"UT - El Paso has a strong engineering program with an emphasis on transportation, so together we've been able to do some significant evacuation modeling," he said. "Texas Tech has a statewide map service system with maps of every county in the state. We're in the process of updating the maps for East Texas, and their technology will help us to do that. And we're able to do this at a much lower price because we are doing it as a collaborative effort. There's an economy of scale that is very beneficial."

Kroll said SFA's center will lead the nationwide system of geospatial service centers, which eventually will have a center in each state, except for larger states like Texas and California.

"Because of its geographically diverse nature, there will be six or seven centers within the state of Texas," he said.