Texas Sunset Commission www.sunset.texas.gov
Earlier this year, for the third time since 2010, the Sunset Advisory Commission of the 85th Texas Legislature has completed its review of the Texas Railroad Commission. It concluded that no major structural changes were necessary but emphasized improvements to the RRC’s oil and gas enforcement program instead. Continue reading
To better serve our customers, we have combined Banks Geomapping Solutions with the Environmental Data division so many of you already know and love. With this merge, we are excited to announce that Banks Environmental Data is now offering a full suite of custom GIS products to meet your project needs.
What does this merge mean? Now we are a one-stop shop for not only all of your environmental data needs, but custom geomapping projects as well. We can design, print and ship custom site and project maps for any number of uses including project planning, presentations, and wall displays for home or office. We are able to print up to 42 sq. in and mount on a variety of materials. In addition to custom hardcopy maps, we can also provide digital data in shapefile or Google KMZ format so you can easily view or analyze the data in ArcGIS or Google Earth.
We are also excited to now offer SWD permit maps for the Texas Permian Basin, a great resource for anyone interested in oil and gas activity in that region. Each of these maps tracks all pending permit applications filed with the Railroad Commission, as well as permitted saltwater disposal well locations and P-18 water/skim volumes. These high quality, semi-gloss wall maps are 42” x 48” so you can effortlessly discern facility locations, and the data is updated quarterly so you can always stay in the know. Our most current update published first week of April. Digital data packages are also available upon request.
Hannah Weaver
Division Director
Banks Environmental Data
hweaver@banksinfo.com
During the 2016 Texas GIS Forum hosted by TNRIS, Dr. Nazgol Bagheri made history as the first female keynote. Dr. Bagheri is a trained architect and urban planner currently serving as an Assistant Professor in Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In addition to being the first woman keynote, Dr. Bagheri is an innovative critical feminist geography scholar who is revolutionizing the field of GIS. In contrast to many of the sterile, data driven practices used in modern GIS, Dr. Bagheri’s work highlights how GIS can offer an alternative visualization of space. She combines geography and gender theories together in order to visualize gender relations and their effect on everyday geographic patterns. Continue reading
In honor of a holiday best known for turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes we decided to bring a bit of history to the table.
The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 – almost four centuries ago. During this time, explorers were actively discovering the Americas and cartographers were busy hand drawing maps from the explorer’s notes. These maps had some serious flaws. For example, they showed California as an island floating in the Pacific and depicted the great lakes as a large river. Despite these and other incorrect assumptions, the early maps were surprisingly detailed and helped facilitate further European settlement.
We’ve collected a few maps of Colonial America from the Library of Congress and provided them below. Now is a good time to pause and take a moment to be thankful for the invention of GPS. Enjoy!
According to EPA, Emergency Response Notification System (ERNS) is the national database used to store information on releases of oil and hazardous substances. Before the establishment of the ERNS program, there was no centralized source of information capable of displaying all oil and hazardous substance releases that were being reported to the various offices of the federal government. ERNS provides a comprehensive, readily available method to collect reports and assess potential hazards across multiple federal agencies.
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s most of us are aware by now, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the omnipresent force that allows our smartphones and other devices to know where we are located on the globe. It is used in navigation, ecology, advertising, city planning, the military, and a variety of other industries. GPS has become such a presence in our lives that, like oxygen, we hardly ever think about how it works.
GPS is composed of three main parts: the satellites in space, control stations on the ground, and the people using GPS equipped devices. The satellites whirl overhead sending out a constant signal to the earth that tells our devices where each satellite is currently located. If one of these satellites moves out of orbit or needs maintenance of any kind, the control station on the ground can make the necessary adjustments. Finally, our phones and other types of GPS receivers interpret the satellite signals and we are given our location in real time.
