2017 Polis Center Annual Report 2017 Polis Center Annual Report | Page 10

1 0 | C O R P O R AT E A N N U A L R E P O R T
Federal Projects
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA)
>Cooperative Technical Partner: The Polis
Center, through Indiana University, has been
accepted into FEMA’s Cooperating Technical
Partner (CTP) program. The CTP program
focuses on creating partnerships between
FEMA and participating National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP) communities,
regional agencies, state agencies and
universities that have the interest and
capability to become more active in FEMA’s
flood hazard mapping program.
>Mitigation Saves Study: Our research for
this national project, along with the findings
of other agencies, will impact decision making
related to mitigation spending, which will in
turn influence communities’ level of
preparedness and their capacity to respond to
emergency disasters.
• US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
>Non-Levee Embankment (NLE): The
NLE is a mapping initiative and program
developed by The Polis Center that will aid
USACE staff.
>Multi-Hazard Mitigation Planning Platform
for States: The platform (in development)
empowers people with the tools they need to
get information about hazardous risks and
equips them to put knowledge into practice.
International Efforts
• MacArthur Foundation 100 & Change Program:
Polis partnered with several international
organizations including Halo Trust, Mining
Advisory Group, Mapping Solutions, IU Center
for Aerial Unmanned Systems Imaging, Telops,
and Kyle House Group to prepare and submit
a proposal for the 100&Change program of
the MacArthur Foundation. Our proposal to
improve the ability to detect landmines using
advanced spatial technologies ranked 38 out
of 1,901 proposal ideas that competed in the
program. We continue to discuss with the team
how to fund this innovative concept.
Associations/Presentations
• Association of Egyptian Engineers
• Association of American Geographers
• American Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing
• Association of State Floodplain Managers
• Indiana Association for Floodplain and
Stormwater Management
• Advisory Council, Centre for Sustainability
Future Studies, The British University in Egypt
• “Geospatial Platforms for Integrated Flood Risk
Management.” Tarek Rashed, Geoinformatics
Director, for the 2016 NSGIC Annual
Conference. Indianapolis, IN, October 2016.
• Polis Center (projects and initiatives), project
briefing. Indiana Metropolitan Planning
Association. Rashed with Matt Riggs and Lacey
Bannon. October 2016.
• Polis Center (projects and initiatives), project
briefing delivered in the GIS Day organized
by Purdue University. Rashed with Bannon.
October 2016.
• “Indiana Flood Mitigation Planner (IFMP)
Platform: A Silver Jackets Initiative.’ Rashed for
Indiana Silver Jackets Group. February 2016.
• “A GIS Platform Approach to Multihazard
Mitigation Planning.” Indiana Geographic
Information Conference. Rashed with Bannon.
May 2017.
• “Declaring Indiana a Spatially Enabled State:
Challenges and Opportunities.” Panelist at
Indiana Geographic Informat