Enrollment in the University of Idaho Coeur dAlenes geographic information systems certificate program has risen rapidly as demand has climbed in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area for GIS-trained employees.


The program trains students in the basics of GIS software and theory, as well as the technologys practical applications in fields such as forestry, health care, and engineering, says Ed DeYoung, an adjunct professor in the program. The program started in 2002 with a class of 15 people, but 35 students are enrolled this spring semester.


There are a growing number of businesses and agencies using the technology, DeYoung says. As a result, the new opportunities for employment, in addition to technological advances in GIS, are driving our increased enrollment.


GIS is a technology thats used to view and analyze data from a geographic perspective. It uses layers of information to display such things as addresses, buildings, parcels, infrastructure, and geological features and to give the user a better understanding of how those elements relate to one another.


Graduates of the UI Coeur dAlene program have used their skills to model how diseases could spread through Kootenai County, to map the location of Coeur dAlenes registered sex offenders and crime hot spots, to study proposed highway corridors in the region, and to map Coeur dAlenes recently redrawn school district boundaries.


GIS is fairly new as a discipline, but its catching on and getting attention for its capabilities in different applications, says Betty Conces, a cartographic mapping specialist in the Kootenai County assessors office who received her certificate from the UI program in 2003. It just helps when youre talking to a potential employer, or even at your current job, to have that added experience.


Employers see the value in the technologyand foot the bill for about 25 percent of the students in the program, DeYoung says. For example, Kootenai County reimbursed Conces for her GIS training, and the City of Coeur dAlene, U.S. Forest Service, Spokane-based Avista Corp., and Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc. are among the employers that have picked up the tab for employees to get GIS certificates.


While they take the classes, students work on projects they can use in their jobs, DeYoung says. Dave Hoagland, a GIS technician in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, with the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, worked with DeYoung on a class project involving a wildlife management study on the impact of the Libby Dam, in Montana, on the Kootenai River flood plain.


Most of the GIS students work in fields related to forestry or local government, but employers in other organizations and industries, such as emergency response and retail, also can benefit when employees are trained in GIS, DeYoung says.


For instance, GIS can be integrated with a 911 system to help responders pinpoint the location of a caller quickly and dispatch the nearest ambulance, helping emergency personnel get to the site faster than if dispatchers relied on paper maps or their personal knowledge of an area to determine the location of a call and send an ambulance, he says. GIS also can be used when preparing for an emergency, because it can track weather and vegetation patterns, for example, to identify high fire-risk areas.


Retailers can use GIS to help decide where to open a new store, he says. These days, retailers are creating maps based on demographic data, traffic studies, and other information to find areas where the people they want to reach live. At the same time, they can study whether potential store sites are easily accessible.


To participate in the certificate program, students are required to take a primer course have at least one year of experience using GIS software, or have completed basic GIS courses online, DeYoung says. Due to rising demand, UI Coeur dAlene now offers a primer class every spring, rather than once every two years, he says. The pre-requisite course is taught at the UI Research Park in Post Falls.


After completing the primer class, students take a cartography and data visualization course and an advanced GIS course, then take two elective classes in fields that often use GIS applications, such as hydrology or forestry, he says. Those classes currently are offered in the evenings at the schools campus in Coeur dAlene, but the school is considering adding daytime classes.


Once students have completed the 15-credit program, they receive a certificate of achievement from the Moscow-based University of Idaho, he says. Program credits also count toward professional GIS certification, which is awarded by the Park Ridge, Ill.-based Urban and Regional Information Systems Association.


The UI-Coeur dAlene program draws students mainly from North Idaho, although some come from Spokane, DeYoung says. Universities in Washington state offer courses in GIS technology that tend to focus on the background and process of GIS, while students in the certificate program focus more on practical applications, he says.


One of the advantages of the program is that students establish contacts with people who work in different industries, which adds to their GIS resources after they graduate, she says.


Conces also is president of the Northern Rockies chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, which offers workshops and continuing-education services to people who are trained in GIS. In addition to teaching at UI Coeur dAlene, DeYoung owns Global InfoSci, of Post Falls, which offers GIS training and consulting services primarily to local and tribal governments. He says hes seen interest in GIS increase in recent years, both through growth in his business and his attendance at annual GIS user conferences.


People are becoming more aware of this technology, he says. It is definitely a trend.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at [email protected].