GIS Center

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GIS Center Update (March 2020)

Due to Coronavirus-related health precautions, UM-Flint’s Office of University Outreach is taking new steps to protect clients and maintain operations during this uncertain time.

The GIS Center will be virtualizing all work and meetings in the coming weeks.

Staff will NOT be available to meet at our campus offices.

If you would like to discuss potential projects or meet with the GIS Center, please fill out the project request form located at GIS Project/Data Requests.

We recommend using Google Hangouts (https://hangouts.google.com/) or Zoom (https://zoom.us/) video conferencing platforms. Both services are offered at no cost and you do NOT need to create an account to use Zoom. Staff can communicate with you by audio or video, whichever you prefer.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Troy at rosencra@umich.edu.

Welcome to the Geographic Information Systems Center (GISC)

Flint Lead Pipe Mapping Project

Map of Flint's Lead Water Pipes (UPDATED 11/7/16)

UM-Flint’s GIS Center has identified and mapped all known locations of lead pipes in the City of Flint. This information is part of the data Flint officials will use to help prioritize where to begin replacing pipes in Flint as work begins on Mayor Weaver’s Fast Start initiative and subsequent replacement initiatives.

If you would like to request the shapefile version of the data, please click here.

About GIS

What is GIS?

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) uses computers, associated hardware, people, and software to collect, manage, assess, and visualize spatial phenomenon- essentially helping us to better understand and interact with the world around us. It’s no wonder then that Money Magazine lists GIS Analyst among its Top 100 Jobs in the United States and the U.S. Department of Labor reports that employment numbers in GIS are growing and continued growth is anticipated. The types of analysis that can be conducted with GIS include: transportation routing, crime mapping, hazard mitigation, neighborhood planning, biological assessments, demographic trend analysis, environmental studies, historical mapping, groundwater modeling to name a few.

GISC News

GIS Center Provides Interactive Maps to Campus Community

by Bella Biafore | 01/29/19 | The Michigan Times

Not many people are familiar with what GIS is or how it’s important to campus life–or that we even have a GIS center on campus. Since its opening in 2013, the center has been working with students from the Undergraduate Opportunity Program to bring more awareness to the topic.

UM-Flint Trio To Share Mapping Skills in Washington D.C.

by UM-Flint NOW | 7/6/16

A team from UM-Flint is traveling to Washington D.C. Thursday, July 7, to lend their mapping skills and innovative research experience to a federal government initiative.

Troy Rosencrants, GIS Center manager, supervised the day-to-day efforts of the team.

New UM-Flint Research Shows Location of Lead Pipes in Flint

by UM-Flint NOW | 2/22/16

The research analyzed the City of Flint’s hand-written records, paper maps, and scanned images to create a complete digital database of all the information available so far about lead service pipes used in the city. Flint Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver plans to use data to target her Fast Start pipe removal initiative.

Martin Kaufman, PhD at UM-Flint's Urban Alternatives House (UAH)

UM-Flint GIS Center Mapping Flint Water System’s Lead Service Lines

by Robert Gold | UM-Flint NOW | 1/28/16

A team of UM-Flint faculty and staff are working on a project that “will help provide the road map for removing all the lead in the water distribution system” within the city of Flint, said the initiative’s supervisor, Martin Kaufman, PhD.

Mott Grant Advances UM-Flint GIS Center’s Data Mapping Mission

by Robert Gold | UM-Flint NOW | 10/29/15

The University of Michigan-Flint is leading a community-wide online project in which researchers and the public will be able to access a wide variety of data from numerous sources and customize maps.