Issue review : executive branch employees, January 2011 and August 2012.

This issue review examines the change in the number of executive branch employees, supervisors and payroll between January 2011 and August 2012. In recent years, a variety of factors have encouraged a reduction in the number of state employees, salary adjustment that pays for contract-related salary and benefits increases has not been funded, limited departments' ability to pay increasing personnel costs. Early retirement packages have been offered, encouraging higher-paid employees to retire. Beginning in January 2011, the Governor set a goal of reducing the cost of state government by 15 percent, which could impact the number of employees.

Audit report on the City of West Branch, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2014

Audit report on the City of West Branch, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2014

Audit report on the City of Center Point, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2014

Audit report on the City of Center Point, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2014

Report on the Iowa Judicial Branch for the year ended June 30, 2014

Report on the Iowa Judicial Branch for the year ended June 30, 2014

Report on the Iowa Judicial Branch – County Clerks of District Courts, a part of the State of Iowa, for the year ended June 30, 2014

Report on the Iowa Judicial Branch – County Clerks of District Courts, a part of the State of Iowa, for the year ended June 30, 2014

Iowa Child Advocacy Board Recommendations to the Iowa Judicial Branch, February 15, 2008

The Iowa Child Advocacy Board (ICAB) is an independent board composed of nine members appointed by the Governor of Iowa and confirmed by the Iowa Senate. This report is about recommendations to the Iowa Judicial Branch.

Comparison of Roadway Roughness Derived from LIDAR and SFM 3D Point Clouds, HR-3001, 2015

This report describes a short-term study undertaken to investigate the potential for using dense three-dimensional (3D) point clouds generated from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and photogrammetry to assess roadway roughness. Spatially continuous roughness maps have potential for the identification of localized roughness features, which would be a significant improvement over traditional profiling methods. This report specifically illustrates the use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and photogrammetry using a process known as structure from motion (SFM) to acquire point clouds and illustrates the use of these point clouds in evaluating road roughness. Five roadway sections were chosen for scanning and testing: three gravel road sections, one portland cement concrete (PCC) section, and one asphalt concrete (AC) section. To compare clouds obtained from terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry, the coordinates of the clouds for the same section on the same date were matched using open source computer code. The research indicates that the technologies described are very promising for evaluating road roughness. The major advantage of both technologies is the large amount of data collected, which allows the evaluation of the full surface. Additional research is needed to further develop the use of dense 3D point clouds for roadway assessment.

Road Safety Audits for County Road X-23 from IA 2 to the South Corporate Limits of West Point and for County Road W-62 from US 218 to IA 27 in Lee County, Iowa, 2010

On October 20–21, 2009, two road safety audits were conducted in Lee County, Iowa: one for a 6 mile section of County Road X-23 from IA 2 to the south corporate limits of West Point and one for a 9.7 mile section of County Road W-62 from US 218 to IA 27. Both roads have high severe crash histories for the years of 2001 through 2008. Using these crash data, the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) has identified County Road X-23 as being in the top 5 percent of similar roads for run-off-road crashes. The Iowa DOT lists County Road W-62 as a high-risk rural road that has above-average crash numbers and is eligible for funding under the Federal High-Risk Rural Road Program. Considering these issues, the Lee County Engineer and Iowa DOT requested that road safety audits be conducted to address the safety concerns and to suggest possible mitigation strategies.

GPS to LRM: Integration of Spatial Point Features with Linear Referencing Methods, 2001

Global positioning systems (GPS) offer a cost-effective and efficient method to input and update transportation data. The spatial location of objects provided by GPS is easily integrated into geographic information systems (GIS). The storage, manipulation, and analysis of spatial data are also relatively simple in a GIS. However, many data storage and reporting methods at transportation agencies rely on linear referencing methods (LRMs); consequently, GPS data must be able to link with linear referencing. Unfortunately, the two systems are fundamentally incompatible in the way data are collected, integrated, and manipulated. In order for the spatial data collected using GPS to be integrated into a linear referencing system or shared among LRMs, a number of issues need to be addressed. This report documents and evaluates several of those issues and offers recommendations. In order to evaluate the issues associated with integrating GPS data with a LRM, a pilot study was created. To perform the pilot study, point features, a linear datum, and a spatial representation of a LRM were created for six test roadway segments that were located within the boundaries of the pilot study conducted by the Iowa Department of Transportation linear referencing system project team. Various issues in integrating point features with a LRM or between LRMs are discussed and recommendations provided. The accuracy of the GPS is discussed, including issues such as point features mapping to the wrong segment. Another topic is the loss of spatial information that occurs when a three-dimensional or two-dimensional spatial point feature is converted to a one-dimensional representation on a LRM. Recommendations such as storing point features as spatial objects if necessary or preserving information such as coordinates and elevation are suggested. The lack of spatial accuracy characteristic of most cartography, on which LRM are often based, is another topic discussed. The associated issues include linear and horizontal offset error. The final topic discussed is some of the issues in transferring point feature data between LRMs.