Researcher

Position Summary:

Lead effort on externally-funded project to: 1) develop a building inventory for a coastal region of Wisconsin experiencing significant flood-related loss and damage to buildings; 2) conduct outreach to demonstrate the utility of the inventory for flood vulnerability assessment and planning; and 3) develop transferrable tools and cost estimation methods for other coastal communities and agencies wishing to utilize similar methods.

Position Duties:

• 70% Building inventory development. Collect LiDAR, parcel, assessment, critical infrastructure and other spatial data necessary to develop the building inventory. Develop, test and implement new methods to process data using GIS tools to create final building inventory. Ensure inventory meets desired data quality levels.
• 10% Cost estimation. Track time and cost requirements for all steps of the project. Develop final transferrable cost estimation tools for use by other communities.
• 10% Report writing, external meetings, workshops sessions, and travel to disseminate results.
• 10% Work with other project teams working in the same part of the state to exchange ideas and methods.
• In-state travel with some overnight stays may be required.

Requirements:

• Master’s degree in an applied field such as Urban/Regional Planning, Environmental Studies, Geography, Geographic Information Science, Civil Engineering, or Hydrology/Water Resources, coupled with coursework or work experience using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• Three+ years of work experience in a field related to degree/area of specialization.
• Demonstrated experience using GIS databases and tools in support of job functions, including GIS data collection, evaluation, manipulation and analysis.
• Demonstrated experience: using GIS tools for surface water modeling; working with local government agencies to collect spatial data and make final reports/presentations; gathering spatial data from diverse sources; tracking and analyzing project time and cost expenditures
• . Demonstrated ability to apply domain knowledge and skills to develop new GIS workflows and methods to achieve project goals.
• Demonstrated ability to lead research projects to successful conclusion demonstrating comprehensive and independent oversight of project components.
• Ideal candidate will have experience with tax parcel data and LiDAR data derivative products such as DEMs, building outlines and vegetation classification from LAS points.