An in-depth tour of St. Albert’s art in public places will be just a click away come the end of January.
The public art tour is one of two new mapping applications using geographic information services technology the city will launch at the end of next month. The second, called Landscape, is an interactive mapping application that allows people to research property values, mill rates and even distances.
“It’s cartography on steroids,” Tammy Kobliuk, the city’s GIS co-ordinator, says of her work. “In addition to the visual display, you can actually take that data and do a lot of analysis with it.”
That’s why the public art tour won’t just be a map on a website. Besides locations, Kobliuk, in concert with St. Albert’s visual arts co-ordinator, Heidi Alther, has built a slick program that also offers high-resolution photos of all 30 of the city’s outdoor, permanent art installations, as well as information on the work itself and the artist or group behind it. Building it cost only staff time, as the city already had the necessary software, and took about three months.
“We are the first in the region to roll out applications like the public art tour, so we’re very proud of that,” Kobliuk said.
The information won’t be helpful just to people wanting to know more about the city’s murals and sculptures – Alther said it will make it easier to conduct maintenance on each piece, as well as raise awareness about the fact that the public, not the city, owns the art. By doing so, Alther hopes to reduce vandalism on the public works.
“We’re hoping that will help to get some more positive eyes on the work in terms of protecting it,” Alther said.
Residents will also hopefully find the second application, Landscape, useful, Kobliuk said. The interactive mapping program incorporates not just city data, but also the city’s aerial photography and Google Street View.
Interested in the assessed value of your home or your neighbours’ homes? Just enter the address and the application will tell you. Wondering what you’ll have to pay in property taxes if you move into that new house in Kingswood you want to buy? Just enter the address and you can generate a slick-looking report that will tell you all you need to know.
But there’s more to Landscape. Users can create maps with the addresses they have – even just the GPS co-ordinates if need be – they can then print off or e-mail to guests so they can find their way. Users can also enter text to give better directions. Runners and cyclists will be interested to know you can also use Landscape to measure distance.
“There are a lot of little tools we hope residents can find useful,” Kobliuk said. Landscape took closer to a year to build and cost $11,000.
The next projects on Kobliuk’s desk include making Landscape workable on mobile platforms – it will work at first on only Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. The city might also start mapping all its outdoor recreation amenities, like rinks, basketball courts and parks.
“Almost every sector of the city uses GIS,” Kobliuk said.
