Valley spatial information center new at Fresno State

---

If you'd like to know how many auto repair shops are between Blackstone and Clovis Avenues or whether your home is in a flood zone, then Fresno State can help you - with the new Interdisciplinary Spatial Information Systems Center (ISISC) for the San Joaquin Valley coming this fall to campus.

Put simply, the computer software can dissect and compare a vast array of information according to its location. For example, the computer could show the number of traffic tickets given at a specific intersection, or how many murders have occurred in a certain neighborhood.

Fresno State professors from a variety of disciplines will be working with agencies in Fresno County and hope to have the center fully functional later this semester. The campus has been designated as the regional ISISC. Plans include a website, training classrooms and research workstations. There will be a nominal charge for access and training.

Who would use this spatial information? "Everyone," said Dr. Stephen Lewis, professor of geology and geophysics. "There are thousands of reasons to use it - for marketing, advertising, commercial development, agriculture, emergency response, law enforcement, resource management, the tracking of earthquakes, human services information and a host of others."

The areas of use are endless according to Dr. Kathleen Moffitt, professor of information systems and decision sciences. She is one of the ISISC committee members with Lewis and professor of social work Dr. Mark Hanna, associate professor of geography Dr. C.K. Leung, and agriculture lecturer Mike Speiss.

"Interdisciplinary spatial information is the study of seemingly unrelated things that are related because of where they occur," said Moffitt.

For more than nine months, the ISISC committee members have sought funds from federal, state and private sources.

So far, the response has been positive, said Hanna.

There is one thing all of the ISISC committee members have agreed upon: there will be very few private or public companies that are not using spatial information in the near future. "It's the next cycle of the information wave that will bring us into the millennium," said Lewis.

For more information call Lewis at (559) 278-6956.