Presentations
 

2008 Southeast User Group Conference

The 2008 Southeast User Group Conference Proceedings is a compilation of professional abstracts and presentations delivered April 14–16, 2008, in Jacksonville, Florida. ESRI users contributed a fundamental part to the conference by submitting and presenting their presentations on a diverse collection of GIS applications. The proceeds promote GIS application by stimulating users to share their experiences and knowledge.

Plenary Sessions

ESRI Technical Presentations

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Disaster Management and Emergency Response

Damage Assessment—From ArcPad to ArcGIS Server Mobile
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—Amy Hoyt, Lee County, GIS
With the increase in hurricane and tornado activity in Florida, damage assessment has become critical for county response and FEMA reimbursement. Amy Hoyt, GIS Manager for Lee County, has driven the development of an ArcPad application for collection of damage assessment and human service needs after a catastrophic event that will be used cooperatively by the County and the Cities. This session will cover the initial application design, deployment to the Cities, real world beta testing, lessons learned, and the final re-design, including initial assessment to support State SERT requirements.

Karyn Tareen will demonstrate the next generation of the application, written for ArcGIS Server Mobile. If you have ArcGIS Server, this is the way to get the ‘state’ of your community back to the office ASAP.
EOC Incident Mapper
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—Lee Hartsfield, Tallahassee-Leon County, GIS
Tallahassee-Leon County GIS, TLC GIS, a partnership program between the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Leon County Property Appraiser’s office in Florida, recently rolled out the first phase of an ArcGIS Server software-based incident management system known as the Emergency Operations Center Incident Mapper (EOC Incident Mapper). Released as part of a phased rollout, the system complements existing communication networks in organizing, analyzing, and displaying GIS information in an easy to understand “big picture” format. It supplies electronic display of disaster activities in real time and, Session Descriptions • Wednesday, April 16 23 once in full deployment, will support all phases of the disaster management cycle including preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Establishing and Maintaining a Countywide Critical Facilities Inventory
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—Kenneth Spice, Hillsborough County, Florida
Hillsborough County, FL maintains a “Critical Facilities Inventory” (CFI) to assist the County’s Emergency Operations Center. The CFI is a listing of public and private facilities that are required to be in operational condition to ensure a “sense of normalcy” following a catastrophic event such as a major hurricane. Examples of such facilities include fire stations, hospitals, and schools. This presentation describes the significant cooperative efforts that were required to conceptualize, design, populate, and ultimately maintain such a database. We will discuss the process of defining a critical facility, show the details of the database design we created, and demonstrate some of the higher level GIS capabilities that make this database useful.
Sarasota County Near Real-Time Incident Mapping
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—Evan Brown, Sarasota County, Sarasota, Florida
The Sarasota County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) uses an automated routine to transform tabular work order data relating to emergency incidents into valuable GIS information. A custom UI control allows GIS personnel working in the EOC to automatically geocode new incidents, reclassify the data and display the information while retaining the ability to edit data as necessary. By coding all the steps in the process in VBA in the project itself, the tool allows for consistency between users, control of the display and is a large time saver. The tool not only adds new requests to the GIS data, it also updates the status of existing requests. The current workflow plans for updating the work order data every 15 minutes and having all procedures in one tool allows for the entire process to be run every time the base data is refreshed.

Environmental Management

Assessing, Monitoring, and Defending Coral Reefs with GIS
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—Richard Snow, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
A recent inventory estimates that 60% of Earth’s coral reefs are at risk and that bleaching already has damaged 90% of living reefs. Regionally, the occurrence of coral bleaching will be the highest in the Caribbean over the course of the next 30-50 years. The objective of this research is to demonstrate that GIS is an efficient instrument for conducting surveys and inventories of coral reefs in order to assess those ecosystems at higher risk and develop mitigation strategies. Efficient monitoring requires the assessment of various coastal data baselines and the evaluation of subsequent alterations in spatial patterns. Relevant aspects include changes in coastal land use, wetlands, and shoreline configuration. As this study demonstrates, GIS plays an integral role in defending coral reefs from climate change and other threats while providing the collective tool to integrate multifaceted data and transform them into a meaningful medium for informed decision-making.
Challenges of Small Scale Watershed Delineation Using GIS
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—Sean King, University of Florida
Watershed boundaries can be delineated at multiple scales due to the existence of a watershed hierarchy, defined as large watersheds made up of smaller subwatersheds. When using GIS (Geographic Information System) software to delineate watersheds, it is not always apparent which watershed boundaries are appropriate, particularly in the absence of a drainage network. This study explored different scales of watershed delineation using high resolution (1 m2 cell size) LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) maps. Traditional watershed delineation techniques were used to analyze terrain altered by mining, which contained small depressional surface water features. The results show that there is not an optimal watershed scale, but rather each water feature has its own boundaries that may change with water level. Conclusions indicate that a method needs to be developed that allows delineation of watershed boundaries that adequately model the hydrology of surface water features in flat or altered terrain.
Modeling Cumulative Impacts with Spatial Analyst
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—Anthony Myers, Johnson Engineering, Inc.
Determining cumulative impact assessments within the Estero Bay Watershed, Florida has historically been based on individual, often subjective review. This study constructed a model using ArcGIS 9.2 ModelBuilder and Spatial Analyst tools to quantify the five mandated measures of wetland function when assessing cumulative impacts. Utilizing existing definitions for measures of wetland function provided by the Basis of Review (BOR) for Environmental Resource Permitting, a model was created that consisted of 5 sub-models, one for each measure. Each sub-model considered specific positive and negative impacts to wetlands and were weighted accordingly on a cumulative scale of 0 to 100. The final model provided a score for each wetland within the watershed. The model results can be used to identify where cumulative impacts are expected to occur.
Tools for Wildland Fire and Fuels Planning
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—James Smith, The Nature Conservancy
The National Interagency Fuels Technology Team (NIFTT) and the LANDFIRE Project developed a suite of ArcGIS tools that, coupled with LANDFIRE products and/or local data, can support fire and fuels planning for any landscape across the United States. The tool suite includes the Fire Behavior Assessment Tool (FBAT), FRCC Mapping Tool, Multi-scale Resource Integration Tool (MRIT), LANDFIRE Data Access Tool (LFDDAT), and Area Change Tool (ACT) and is publically available free via the web. The presentation will briefly describe the purpose of each tool, explain the data requirements, and show example outputs for an actual landscape.

Law Enforcement

Geographic Case Assignment or an Explosion in a Paint Locker
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—Tony Dukes, South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services
Generally in probation offices, the agent with the lowest case count would receive the next one. The end result was that the agents found themselves running from one end of the jurisdiction to the other spending inordinate amounts of time traveling rather than in contact with the offender.

In South Carolina, a project has been implemented that could result in a 50% savings in travel time and travel cost. With the aid of technology, single agent supervision zones were developed using an algorithm based on travel arteries, offender locations, and contact requirements. In case of staff turnover, zones have been designed to allow for the shifting of caseloads without having to reconfigure zones. Expected outcomes include not only the cost savings but that agents will become more familiar with their neighborhoods which will encourage better interface with local social and law enforcement resources.
Toward a Trooper Advisory System Using Crash and Citation Data
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View Presentation [PDF]
—Dana Steil, University of Alabama–Computer Science Department
We address the problem of reducing fatal crashes by identifying segments on Alabama’s highways that could most benefit from increased law enforcement. We begin by setting the stage with a series of questions we need to address when creating a system aimed at this problem. We then describe our background and progress toward this goal at CRDL, the University of Alabama’s CARE Research and Development Laboratory. Unlike most works that identify hot-spots using only historic crash data, we are also able to incorporate citation data. We look for road segments where citations are under or over represented when compared to crashes. We also consider measuring the influence of citations on crashes in an attempt to find the areas where future citations will be the most effective.

Partner Solutions

An Integrated Land Records Workflow for the Assessment Office
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—Bill Wetzel, The Sidwell Company
GIS and CAMA integration is a lot more than simply establishing spatial joins from CAMA tables to parcel polygons. GIS and CAMA integration is about enforcing business rules at the point of data capture, eliminating duplicate data entry, and ensuring real-time notification of parcel changes between GIS and CAMA. These goals need to be met through a solution that is transparent to the users and is executed without adding tasks to the inherently complex land records workflow.

For this to happen, GIS and CAMA vendors need to work together effectively. Our industry is littered with failed attempts by vendors to prove expertise in all aspects of land records management. Domain expertise needs to be respected, and integration at both the database and application tiers needs to be established.

The technical approach featured in this session is to focus on loosely coupled systems that communicate in the applications tier when they need to, while constantly sharing data in the database tier. GIS and CAMA systems are integrated at the user level through workflow management interfaces, which handle real time integration in the background, while allowing mappers to work within comfortable GIS workflows and appraisal users to work within comfortable CAMA workflows. This approach allows both the GIS and CAMA vendors the freedom to enhance their systems independently while minimizing the risk of impacting the overall land records workflow. It also serves to avoid the pitfall of one “all encompassing” GIS/CAMA product that often ends up playing to the lowest common denominator to maintain a “single system” architecture. We’ll show how this technical solution is relatively easy to implement and how this shared knowledge can result in the best solution for the assessment office.
Enterprise Addressing Made Easy
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—Scott Davis, BCS
Effective enterprise address management is imperative for all local governments. This presentation will help you to understand the many local government disciplines affected by addressing and the need for managed processes that assure accuracy.

The Addresser provides all of the tools to standardize and streamline the addressing process. Utilizing your business rules assures compliance of point addressing, block-range addressing, and the capture of common routing attributes.

The Addresser complements the full range of ESRI technologies including personal and enterprise geodatabases as well as ArcGIS Server.
Maintaining the Assets of a City or County Using GIS and Cityworks Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)
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—Brent Wilson, Azteca Systems
This presentation illustrates the possible uses of GIS and CMMS in an overall city or county environment. GIS combined with work order management can be a very powerful tool, and the approach presented in this paper illustrates the long-term benefits of an on-going GIS-centric work order maintenance management program.

The paper also addresses a city’s or county’s need to have a Work Management System with full GIS integrations not only for the everyday benefits of cost savings and better manage13 ment but also for disaster repair and recovery situations and reporting to FEMA or other agencies quickly and accurately.

State and Local Goverment

Address and Street Data Model Implementation— Charlotte County’s Approach
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—Bryon Catlin, Charlotte County, Port Charlotte, Florida
As internal applications become dependent on the address data provided by GIS, Charlotte County faced a variety of issues including legacy application instability, data integrity, as well as inefficiencies in data maintenance. By developing and implementing a customized address and street data model, Charlotte County was able to overcome these issues while keeping the maintenance of the data quick and easy. This presentation will explain the data model in detail as well as demonstrate the application used to maintain and validate the data.
Florida’s Strategic Plan for Effective Statewide GIS Coordination
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—Richard Butgereit, Florida Division of Emergency Management
Florida has long been a leader in the development, implementation, and use of geospatial technologies. In the absence of a formal statewide coordinating council, Florida has primarily achieved GIS coordination through ad-hoc methods involving GIS managers, regional user groups, and academia. Stakeholders recognize that a formalized approach is needed to further establish Florida’s geospatial infrastructure and promote data discovery and access. Using a Cooperative Agreements Program grant, a consortium of Florida GIS managers and users has developed a strategic plan to support implementation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and other objectives of the National States Geographic Information Council’s and the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Fifty States Initiative. This strategic plan is a crucial step in defining the criteria, characteristics, and activities that will lead to coordination. A review of the project and the recommendations made will be presented.
Extending an Enterprise Geodatabase into the Field Using ArcGIS Mobile and ArcGIS Server
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—Todd Pulsifer, Timmons Group
The presentation will focus on case studies of state and local governments utilizing ArcGIS Mobile and ArcGIS Server to seamlessly maintain and extend their enterprise geodatabase (ArcSDE) instances into the field. The presentation will demonstrate how agencies/governments can realize true benefits and return on investment (ROI) through leveraging reusable web service components and utilizing the full functionality of their existing geodatabases. The advantages of using an ArcGIS Mobile solution over ArcPad for an enterprise solution will be discussed.
Extending ArcGIS Server through Tasks and Custom Web Controls
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—Steven Nagle, St. Johns County BOCC
As one of the winners of the ESRI and Stratus Technologies ArcGIS Server Demonstration Project Grant Program, the GIS Division for St. Johns County, FL has adopted ArcGIS Server and begun to extend the out-of-the-box capabilities to suit the needs of the organization as ArcIMS sites are phased out for new viewers powered by VB.NET. This presentation will explore the functionality that has been accomplished through development of back-office components as web services and VB.NET custom tasks and web controls for end users.

Custom tasks were built to perform search operations such as searching for an individual road, address, parcel or finding all road intersections along a selected road. A custom drilldown tool was also developed that displays information specific to an x,y point or a parcel polygon. These tasks utilized web services and incorporated custom JavaScript along with AJAX to provide a rich user interface. Tasks were deployed as DLLs to be added to Visual Studio 2005 for web developers to use when developing GIS Viewers.

Custom web controls were built to replicate other capabilities of the existing ArcIMS sites such as spatial bookmarks and predefined map scales. Traditionally this information has been hardcoded in the page as lists, but with ArcGIS Server the solution has been to store the lists in XML files and build a custom web control that can simply be dragged and dropped on the web page.
Leveraging the Investment in ArcGIS Server
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—Jason Gregory, Nassau County, Florida
The deployment of ArcGIS Server in local government is revolutionizing how data is collected, analyzed and distributed between departments and to the public. This presentation is a case study of our progress in rolling out ArcGIS Server at Nassau County and how we are leveraging ArcGIS Mobile to facilitate rapid data collection for both the Building and Utilities Departments. We will discuss our geodatabase design for mobile deployment, authoring maps for mobile deployment, designing the mobile application, deploying the mobile map service and technology used to keep data synchronized between the office and field. We will also touch briefly on future projects for Tracking (AVL), Routing and Permitting with ArcGIS Server.
Scheduled Task Applications for Data Migration with Enterprise Geodatabases
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—Raphael Coutin, Photo Science, Inc.
The development of large enterprise geodatabases for several Florida government agencies has increased the demand for data handling tools to perform data migration, version upgrades, format conversions, and data linking among different data platforms. These processes consume network and data processing and storage resources resulting in system congestion during typical office hours. Photo Science, Inc. developed tools for the South Florida Water Management District and District 7 of the Florida Department of Transportation to migrate, convert and store large amounts of geospatial data in their respective enterprise geodatabases. This was made possible by implementing console applications, using ArcObjects 9.2 and the .NET 2.0 Framework. These applications can batch process massive amounts of data during non-business hours with no human interaction by relying on a task scheduler and preset configuration variables. Several helpful features are built into the tools, e.g., portability, stored connection parameters, activity logs and e-mail summary reports. Source datasets include ESRI Feature Classes and CADD files.
Cobb County GIS: Beyond the Map
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—Charles Fail, Cobb County Government, Georgia
Cobb County, Georgia embarked on a program to bring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into its information systems inventory in 1999 to better manage geospatial information and enhance decision making. From the humble beginnings of a small staff and a couple of file servers, Cobb County GIS now encompasses multiple database and application servers, separate development and production environments, and dozens of geodatabases. Using both desktop clients and Web applications, GIS provides data and mapping services to thousands of users in County departments and the public at large. With support of the County Manager, the investment of capital from the Board of Commissioners, and the advancement of technology, Cobb County GIS is poised to develop more sophisticated applications using ArcGIS Server and seamlessly integrate GIS with other major business applications within the County.
Low Cost GIS Solutions for Local Government
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—Joseph Bendis, South Georgia Regional Development Center
Daily, our local governments are charged with delivering vital services to their citizens. They, of course, take these tasks seriously and require the best information available in order to make the best decisions. The Valdosta-Lowndes-Regional (VALOR) Geographic Information System (GIS) is a means in which our local governments and their departments create, manage, and share geographic information about our community which results in more accurate and timely decision making. Access to geographic information is a click away on many desktops around the Valdosta and Lowndes governmental offices, however real world budgets often create challenges for some departments, or even rural governments as a whole. This presentation describes methods for allowing these decision makers access to the same geographic data within a real world budget.
OWR: Using GIS to Help Create Disaster Resistant Communities!
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—Wardell Edwards, State of Alabama
The State of Alabama’s Office of Water Resources is a division within the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. OWR utilizes GIS applications on a statewide scale for a number of purposes. This study focuses on how OWR uses GIS techniques to maintain and enhance the quality of life of the communities in Alabama. Our Floodplain Management Branch uses GIS applications to update the states’ flood maps and to initiate a state-wide safe dams program. In addition to this, OWR maintains an aerial imagery program for quality data collections to help assist in natural disaster preparedness. With GIS, OWR is able to help create and maintain disaster resistant communities! Topic Areas:

  1. GIS and Water Management
  2. State Government
The Assessment Tool Box
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—John Bausola, St. Lucie County, Property Appraiser
Integration of CAMA data with geospatial data is now commonplace for many government agencies. Assessment offices are demanding spatially enabled assessment analysis and data maintenance tools for their day-to-day operations.

St. Lucie County has developed a set of interactive real time tools designed to assist appraisers and assessment analysts. Sales ratio, time series and comparable sales analysis are key tools that have been created using .NET and VBA. Oblique imagery has added a new dimension to desktop analysis and has been incorporated into the tool box.

In this presentation the Assessment Tool Box will be examined. You will be presented with a discussion of the technical development along with a demonstration of each of the tools as used in the ArcGIS environment.

Systems Implementation

ArcGIS Desktop Implementation for 500 Users Via Citrix
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—Axel Griner, Southwest Florida Water
The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) has published ArcView and ArcInfo for over five hundred users across the WAN and via the Internet through Citrix. The Citrix GIS users have access to the enterprise GIS databases, licensed extensions and customized tools. The users are able to print to a variety of networked color printers and plotters. Having the application available via Citrix relieves the desktop support group from having to maintain local installs of ArcGIS on over five hundred PCs.

Citrix was originally implemented for ArcGIS and has become a broad range Enterprise tool with over ninety applications for seven hundred and fifty users. There are currently nineteen production Presentation Servers, a Web Interface server with Secure Gateway, a three server test farm and a dedicated GIS file server for user data storage.
Building an Accurate Base Map for the Enterprise with Hansen Asset Management Integration
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—Kevin Hardester, Bruce Harris & Associates
There are several ways to implement a multi-purpose GIS system, depending on the goals and objectives of the people who will use the information. However, many government jurisdictions have implemented GIS without understanding all the issues to properly implement an Enterprise GIS to serve future as well as current needs. There is a greater demand today for better quality and accuracy for digital maps than ever before. This presentation will take the audience through the issues and steps needed to build a highly accurate geodetically controlled land records base map for an Enterprise GIS and integration with the Hansen Asset Management System for Citrus County, FL. Issues to be explored will be the request for vendor qualifications (RFQ), the selection process, the enterprise goals and objects to be achieved, the system and data development and integration process, maintenance and training, selected applications, and the foundation for an enterprise GIS that all departments can use.
City of Marietta, GA Leverages ArcGIS Server Success to Extend Additional Functionality (Data Download and Map Book) to a Wide-Variety of Users
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—Bruce Bishop, City of Marietta, Georgia
To build upon the success of the Public Map Viewer, the City of Marietta identified two of their most commonly requested and time consuming tasks:
  1. Create copies of their data (by layer, by area, by selection).
  2. Produce map books.
The City asked GISi to develop ArcGIS Server solutions that streamline both of these workflows. Working closely with the City, GISi developed a data download and map book ArcGIS Server applications.

The data download application is open to the Internet and will streamline the entire data request and production process. Users will be able to download by layer, map extent, or selection and have the choice of downloading in 3 different formats:
  1. File-level Geodatabase
  2. Shapefile
  3. DXF (for CAD users)
Once the data has been downloaded and packaged on the City’s ftp server an email will be sent to the user notifying them that their requested data is ready for download.

The map book application is available via the Intranet and automates the entire map book generation process, removing the GIS Department from the paper production process. In this application, users can select which layers they would like to see in the map book. They also have the choice to print the entire map book or a selected set to a network printer or a PDF document. The city usually produces these map books in two different sizes, both of which will be options for the users.

Staying consistent with the theme from the first project, Marietta GIS Department has realized an immediate return on their investment by leveraging the power of ArcGIS Server to automate repeatable workflows and commonly requested tasks and all the while empowering their user community with meaningful geospatial tools.
From MapObjects to ArcGIS Engine-An Application Conversion Adventure
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—Anne Payne, Wake County GIS, Raleigh, North Carolina
In 1999, Wake County, NC and the City of Raleigh GIS units developed a general viewing and analysis interface for using MapObjects. The interface was very popular and used by nearly 200 staff from the two agencies. Over the last year, the interface has been rewritten in ArcGIS Engine. This presentation describes the application methodology employed, the techniques used for assessing the migration and/or enhancement of features, the strategy used for soliciting user input and buy-in, and the application training and support plan.

Transportation

Utilizing GIS Tools to Develop Preliminary Highway Corridors
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—Carl Furney, Mulkey Engineers and Consultants
Development of spatial analysis tools has increasingly assisted decision making in all facets of transportation planning. In this example, the ArcGIS suite of software was used in the development of preliminary corridors for the US 17 Corridor Study in North Carolina’s coastal region based on a least-cost model utilizing two constraining layers: natural environment and human features. The least-cost GIS model determines the alternative path that will have the least overall impact, combined with the shortest physical distance, from select project termini. A least-cost path was calculated and secondary or multiple paths (corridors) were interpolated from the resultant output. These paths served as the basis and guide for determining the least constrained area for a new location roadway and which potential alternatives should be studied further.

Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater

ArcGIS HSPF Registration and Visualization Tools
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—Chun Chen, St. Johns River Water Management District
Hydrological Simulation Program - FORTRAN (HSPF) is a U.S. EPA program for simulation of watershed hydrology and water quality for both conventional and toxic organic pollutants. St. Johns River Water Management District engineers use this model extensively to simulate hydrologic and water-quality processes. Existing HSPF visualization tools require some understanding of model input and output, which may be difficult for those not familiar with the model. To enable District staff and management to identify modeled areas and extract and visualize targeted data from model binary files, two tools were developed. The first is an HSPF registration tool, which copies model input and output files to a central repository and registers their contents against an Arc Hydro geodatabase. The second tool is an ArcMap HSPF visualization tool, which works in tandem with the registration tool. Users can select parameter hierarchies and combinations, and then view result data (time series) in a graph or export the results to a text file.
Estimating Net Irrigation Requirements for Utility Service Areas Using ModelBuilder
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—Corey Denninger, Southwest Florida Water Management District
A recent initiative to expand water use per capita reporting requirements throughout the Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) has intensified the debate over which factors exert the greatest influence on this water use efficiency measure. Per capita water use is the average number of gallons per day used by a utility divided by the population served. Per capita water use is used by the District and public supply utilities to estimate the level of water use efficiency for each utility.

The above mentioned study is being expanded to add additional utilities and years of data. The process for calculating net irrigation requirements (NIR) for these 45 water use service areas was very inefficient in the first phase of the study, requiring the use of three different software platforms! Moreover, if the water use service area mapped changes, the whole process had to start from scratch. There is clearly a need for a faster and better way of calculating available water capacity and net irrigation requirements for all water use areas in the District.

The presentation will focus on model mechanics using ESRI’s ArcGIS ModelBuilder, including custom Python scripting. The model output demonstrates the estimation of soil available water capacity and net irrigation requirement for all the service areas using GIS. These estimates will advance the discussion of the effect of soils and weather on per capita water use. More specifically, this model may assist in the forecasting and analysis of water use Districtwide.
Sarasota County Base Flood Elevation Viewer
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—Tracy Toutant, Sarasota County, Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota County Water Core Service GIS has employed ESRI’s ArcGIS Server to report base flood elevations and to visualize parcel flood zone status. Prior to ArcGIS Server, county staff relied on a combination of Avenue scripts and paper maps for base flood elevation reporting and FEMA flood zone determinations. In the application, the user enters a Parcel Identification Number and 3 feature classes are automatically queried for the required base information. An ESRI sample control, GridResults, returns query results in a user-friendly, tabular format. This control contains built in functions for selecting and zooming to records, eliminating the need to code those functions separately. All custom coding is done in VB.NET. Lastly, the application is lightweight, reducing the number of software installations and license requirements county-wide.
Savings through the Implementation of GIS at Gwinnett County DWR
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—Chris Bagby, Gwinnett County DWR
Gwinnett County covers an area of 438 square miles and is located in the Atlanta Metro Area with a population of over 750,000. With the size of Gwinnett County and the growth we continue to experience, we have a vast water and sewer infrastructure to manage and maintain. Since the implementation of GIS at Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources we have realized savings in a variety of areas. This presentation will provide a brief summation of our existing water and sewer infrastructure and a detailed description of what and where we have experienced a savings over previous methods. We will discuss savings associated with our maintenance crews, customer service and financial benefits by comparing our previous methods versus our current GIS methods.
Probable Maximum Precipitation HMR52 Tool Powered by ArcGIS
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—Dan Vogler, CESA/CNI
The advent of Katrina and other storms throughout the United States have caused greater scrutiny for our nation’s dams and levees. Will they hold back surging tides, extreme rainfall and wind driven waves from future storms? This paper shows how the Jacksonville District Corps of Engineers (CESAJ) uses ArcGIS to deal with one of these deadly elements—the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) event. CESAJ uses a computer program, HMR52, to estimate PMP for a given watershed. HMR52 computes the storm area and size, representing them as concentric elliptical rings, and develops rainfall intensity for each ring. These rings are “referenced” with a storm center, axial orientation and basin boundaries. Through Python scripting, ArcGIS will: 1) geo-reference the storm center with real coordinates, 2) compute basin boundaries, 3) sub-areally “clip” the elliptical rings to the basin boundary, and 4) create a grid of this PMP rainfall ready for hydrologic model input.

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