2009 ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Conference

The 2009 ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Conference Proceedings is a compilation of professional abstracts and presentations delivered April 27–29, 2009, 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.

Note: ESRI Technical Presentations will be available online by June 15, 2009.

Paper Sessions

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Tuesday, April 28

ENR—Contamination and Remediation: Using GIS to Analyze Environmental Impacts

Spatial Differences in Seagrass Mapping by Different Photo Interpreters
—Samuel Rajasekhar, Idea Integration
View Presentation [PDF]

A primary objective of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan is to protect and restore seagrasses, a key resource. Seagrasses are a good indicator of the overall health of the lagoon ecosystem. For example, expansion of seagrass into deeper water indicates improvement in water quality/clarity/salinity. The IRL SWIM Plan directs the South Florida and St. Johns River Water Management Districts to map seagrasses in the Indian River Lagoon at 2–3 year intervals. Seagrass mapping is based on the interpretation of aerial photographs. Only a single photo interpreter maps seagrass at any given area at any time. In 2006, two photo interpreters using softcopy stereoscopic techniques, each digitized seagrass polygons three times from a sample set of five aerial photographs within St. Joseph's Sound/Clear Water Harbor, and Tampa Bay. From the resultant shape files, variation in polygon area and was calculated indicating variation in area was slight, perhaps due to gains & losses canceling each other. Variation in spatial placement of the individual line segments, especially the deep edge was measured using GIS techniques. Results indicate variation in deep edge was much higher as gains and losses do not compensate for each other. On average, mapped seagrass deep edge can vary by several meters. This could affect the deep edge calculations in locations where the bottom slope is even moderately steep.

PLD—Enhancing Land-Use Planning with GIS

Fort Stewart/HAAF Joint Land Use Study Implementation Project
—Chris Chalmers, Coastal Georgia Regional Development CenterKevin Stewart
View Presentation 1 [PDF]
View Presentation 2 [PDF]

Since the completion of the Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield Joint Land Use Study (FS/HAAF JLUS) in September 2005, implementation efforts of the study have been slow, but steady. Meanwhile, the growth rate in Coastal Georgia continues to climb and land that was once forested or in agricultural use is being converted to more intense land uses. Through an ArcGIS Server application multiple users will have the ability to access the JLUS Implementation GIS data and perform tasks such as editing data, performing queries, and executing geoprocessing functions via the internet. ESRI business partner GISi's BuildOut Simulator™ enables JLUS partners to simulate and visualize developments that embody the overall vision of their communities. This GIS-based tool is used to demonstrate growth alternatives to elected officials, planning commissioners, land owners, developers and the public. It is also used to track potential population increases from residential development.

GIS Applications for a Small Town's Census
—Tyler Caldwell and Mark Curry, Auburn University
View Presentation [PDF]

Spatial technology, in the form of GIS, helps a small, but quickly growing, community in Alabama to prepare for Census 2010. The Town of Pike Road, Alabama, created in 1996 with a legislative act, 300 residents, and goal of a school system, is on the brink of having to delay the creation of an independent school system by 3–5 years if the town does not have the necessary 5,000 residents as of the start of Census 2010. As of Census 2000, Pike Road's population is 1,200, well short of the required 5,000 residents needed for a school system. In order to be assured that they have the necessary number of citizens and in anticipation of Census 2010, the people of Pike Road conducted a door to door survey of the town. Spatial information technology is instrumental in streamlining the efforts of the volunteers on the front end and the spatial interpretation of the results on the back end. Utilizing GIS, every parcel in Pike Road was spatially divided into neighborhoods. Each lot (vacant or occupied) is given a unique identification number. Individual maps are created for each surveyor and have several important features, done quickly and easily with GIS. The maps highlight the 20–25 parcels the surveyor is responsible for, parcels incorporated into Pike Road but to be surveyed by another volunteer, and unincorporated parcels (surveyors were encouraged to present annexation petitions to unincorporated homes). The second function utilizes the data retrieved from the surveys. Fields containing data on the number of residents, age of each resident, tenure of residency, owner/renter occupancy, education and race of occupants are joined to the shapefile, via Microsoft Access. In this case, spatial technology allowed a small town, with a modest budget, and only the help of two graduate students, to be confident that they will be able to move forward with the creation of their school system.

TRA—Flow Modeling and Routing

Commodities Flow: Using AGS to Track Goods Movement
—Mary Stallings, Grimail Crawford, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

With all the major economic crises and the fluctuation of fuel costs, there is an increasing focus on how to continue to make items and commodities accessible to the general public. Many manufacturers are trying to reduce the cost of getting products to market, and in many ways people don't normally think about. For example, did you ever wonder how all those goldfish you see in pet store got there, or where they came from? Did you know that dead bodies are a major cargo shipment on passenger planes? These are but two of the facts regarding the logistics of "goods" that have been identified through the Tampa Bay Regional Goods Movement project. Grimail Crawford Inc. was tasked with developing and maintaining a spatial database of the intermodal features that connect Tampa Bay to the global market. By using our working relationship with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 7 Office of Information Systems, we are able to tap in to the local FDOT Enterprise Geodatabase, create web-based interfaces for field data collection, and organized the project by modules. From this, we created an information kiosk for not only the high-end users, but also the Metropolitan Planning Organization staff and other local governments as well as the general public, developed using the ESRI Developer Network (EDN), and then eventually ported to the FDOT's ArcGIS Server.

Using GIS to Analyze People's Behaviors in Hurricane Evacuation
—Lixin Huang, Advanced Transportation Engineering Consultants
View Presentation [PDF]

Analyzing people's behaviors in hurricane evacuation deals with peoples' responses to the threat of an oncoming hurricane. For evacuation, there are two possible responses for people who live in a threatened area. One is to leave their homes and the other is to stay. For people leaving their homes, i.e. evacuees, people's behavior may determine how far they could go. There are many factors affecting peoples' responses, such as socioeconomic and demographic data. Behavioral analysis will provide information on how these factors affect peoples' responses to a hurricane. The data used for behavioral analysis is Hurricane Katrina evacuation survey data funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The original survey data contains a comprehensive list of items. These items include households' experiences during Hurricane Katrina, such as the way households assess their risk level, households' decision-making processes, promoting and constraining factors while making evacuation decisions, hurricane-related knowledge, attitudes before and after Hurricane Katrina, etc. This paper will only focus on how the socioeconomic and demographic data affect people's behaviors. These data items include education, income, occupation, marital status, household size, etc. The survey was done by interviewing the randomly selected household. The survey data contains the longitude and latitude of each interviewee's home location, and the destination city and state information of each evacuee. The destination city and state information can be converted to longitude and latitude data by using geocoding method. The longitude and latitude data makes analyzing the people's behaviors in GIS possible. New spatial statistics tools, Ordinary Least Squares Regression and Geographically Weighted Regression, were introduced in ArcGIS 9.3. And Geographically Weighted Regression is one of several spatial regression techniques increasingly used in geography and other disciplines. With both tools, behavioral analysis in hurricane evacuation could be done against the socioeconomic and demographic data to find out which factors play important roles. Ordinary Least Squares Regression will be used first as the initial analysis to find out the relationship between dependent variable, e.g. the evacuation distance, and the explanatory variables (socioeconomic and demographic data). It may fail to produce the results due to the changes of relationship being analyzed across the study areas. So Geographically Weighted Regression will then be used to do the analysis to overcome the limitation of Ordinary Least Squares Regression.

PSF—GIS for Effective Disaster Planning and Response

Building After the Storm—Lesson: Don't Wait For the Storm
—Daniel Mellott, Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

Plaquemines Parish, LA is a peaceful fishing, orange growing and oil producing community located on both sides of the last 82 miles of the Mississippi River. In June 1998, a comprehensive feasibility study and plan to develop GIS technology was commissioned by the Parish. Despite many positive cost benefits, year after year, implementation of the GIS was out prioritized by other projects deemed more critical. Then, on that fateful day on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina changed the priorities as the Parish became ground-zero for the initial landfall of the storm with the eye wall splitting the Parish in half. Immediately after the storm, FEMA requested information from the Parish to determine the extent and magnitude of damage and loss. Unfortunately, over half of the paper records were destroyed and what little electronic data existed proved inconsequential. Information on structures did not exist and utility drawings were fragmented and outdated. Engineering personnel had to manually survey and plot information to pass on to FEMA. The process was slow and grueling and, in some areas, is still going on. In June 2007, the Parish council revived the idea of developing GIS by passing an ordinance to not only perform a followup feasibility study to make the 1998 study current, but to immediately begin implementation of a comprehensive GIS. In the study, the Parish outlined and prioritized the most critical GIS data needed for emergency response and drafted a phased approach for developing the GIS data over a 4 or 5 year period. The first implementation phase included development of road centerlines for E911 along with critical landmarks that would assist responders in finding locations in a parish that was devoid of more than 50% of its signage. Also included was the start of developing parcel data that could be integrated with the Parish Tax Assessor data. The second phase, which is currently in progress and scheduled for completion in June 2009, includes completing the development of the parcel data, planimetric data such as structures, paved areas, canals, etc., levee data from FEMA survey data, and wastewater infrastructure. Implementation of ArcGIS Server technology to make the GIS data available throughout the Parish has also been completed. Rest assured, if another catastrophic event does occur, the Parish will be prepared to provide comprehensive and accurate information to first responders as well as state and federal agencies.

Dynamic Generation of Hurricane Evacuation Routes
—Jon Jones, GeoDecisions
View Presentation [PDF]

Hurricane paths can be predicted with reasonable accuracy to allow time for affected populations to evacuate. However, changing conditions during the approach can change evacuation routes or make evacuations risky. In this talk, I describe a tool I developed to provide alternate evacuation routes immediately before a storm strikes. The tool combines path and condition data to identify barrier points on a road network that would impede evacuation at a given time. Condition data for future time intervals is used to apply exact predicted condition values to each segment of the route at the time it is being traversed. Finally, updated predicted paths and conditions are created by the tool at regular intervals and will change and eliminate available route options as the hurricane nears landfall. This tool will provide assistance in planning both an evacuation route and a time of departure.

SYS—Meeting Real Needs with an Enterprise GIS System

GIS Fire Mobile Solutions (GFMS): GIS to Support Incident Preplanning and Response
—Bruce Bishop, Geographic Information Services, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

The City of Marietta's GIS Department completed a GIS needs assessment and implementation plan for the Fire Department in July 2008. One of the immediate requirements identified in the implementation plan was to make the GIS data readily available in the Fire Trucks with the new ROCKET system (laptops and wireless network). The City developed the GIS Fire Mobile Solution (GFMS). Powered by ESRI's ArcGIS Server mobile technology, the GFMS will accomplish the primary objective of providing the Fire Department with immediate access to up-to-date information, regardless of their location, and offers a range of mobile GIS field mapping solutions that apply these current technologies to help users make sound decisions in the field. Additionally, the GFMS will provide routing, preplan tools and build the foundation for future field edits that can be synchronized to a command center, like an EOC, real-time edits from the field providing command and control with information to make effective decisions. Some of the key features of GFMS include:

1. Geocode Search
2. Identify
3. Standard Map Navigation—Zoom, Pan
4. Synchronization—Sync mobile devices with ArcGIS Server
5. Global Positioning System (GPS) Enabled—Real time tracking
6. Routing—Will support two forms of routing: Origin to destination and Multiple Destinations
7. Preplan Tool—Access all documents associated to an incident's location (building plans, HAZMAT, etc.)
8. Multi View Service Tool—Provide access to Google Street

View and Microsoft Virtual Earth Birdseye will be very valuable for preplan analysis.

Moving Forward from CAD to GIS with Utility Data
—Daniel Johns, Clay County Utility Authority
View Presentation [PDF]

The presentation will show the attendees how to organize their CAD data for an easy transition into GIS, using basic commands or custom scripts (free), organization and set standards. We'll also describe how this process assisted Clay County Utility Authority's migration into GIS. We'll explain how a massive number of blocks, layers and other needless objects can overload CAD files and make it difficult to import into GIS. We will show users how to do this manually or with custom scripts. Additionally, we'll detail how Clay County Utility Authority had no set standards for blocks, layers, etc. when we started our GIS project. Once the data is prepped, our attendees will learn how to create a database and easily import their CAD information into GIS.

SLG—How GIS Applications Work with Existing Workflows

GIS for Efficient Government (Or, Let's Sweat the Small Stuff)
—Lakshmi Sankaran, Seminole County Government
View Presentation [PDF]

Enterprise GIS has been touted as a key path to efficiency in an organization. However, as in Seminole County, where there are over 150 GIS layers, just creating a geodatabase or an enterprise geodatabase has been a challenge. It is a challenge in a department like Public Works, where there are over 3 dozen GIS layers, numerous (personal) databases, a Work Management System, a Pavement Management System, and diverse requirements from different programs and people. At Seminole County Public Works we have found it efficient (and easier) to deploy smaller and focused applications that simply make someone's or some 2 person's jobs easier—by making databases GIS compatible, providing the linkages and creating simple web maps that can reach a wider audience.

Standards Based CADD Data Integration with GIS
—Jeffrey Engerski and Ian Watson, Photo Science, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

The Florida Department of Transportation is a creator and consumer of CADD data. These data are built and maintained using COTS CADD software packages and there are strict workflows associated with the development and management of these data assets. However, the ability to view and interrogate those data from within a GIS environment has become critical to business functions across District 7. The District 7 Development Team enabled wide use of these CADD data assets by integrating those data into the District's enterprise geodatabase. The Data Interoperability extension for ArcGIS proved to be the key tool in creating an Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) model that automated the translation of CADD data into the existing enterprise geodatabase. ArcObjects coding was used to wrap the ETL model into a 'CADD Interoperability Application' or CIA. The CIA is a console application that is spawned each evening and retrieves available CADD data for inclusion in the enterprise geodatabase. During the automated translation to feature classes, the CADD data are classified based upon their initial layer types and a set attributes including color, weight, and line style. Once posted to the geodatabase, the data are accessed by District users through a browser-based ArcGIS Server application that provides viewing, querying, and analysis capabilities. District users are able to view these data within the appropriate spatial context and with access to a multitude of thematic data layers overlaid with current aerial photography.

ENR—Environmental Awareness with GIS

Wetland Sensitivity to Potential Reductions in Surface Water Flow
—Sandra Fox, St. Johns River Water Management District
View Presentation [PDF]

Demand for water in central Florida may soon exceed available groundwater sources, necessitating consideration of alternative sources for water supplies. Among these are surface waters from the St. Johns River. Multiple working groups at the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) are addressing the potential effects of these withdrawals on a diverse set of environmental resources. The wetlands working group is assessing the potential effects of reduced stage and flow on a disparate set of wetlands using a GIS modeling approach in ArcMap. To restrict the domain of the model, a boundary was created using elevation data (both raster and vector), beyond which effects were not expected. In addition, to facilitate analyses, the river was segmented into nine regions based upon existing divisions (SJRWMD Major Basins), geomorphology and water resources character such as tidal influence, local springs, river shape, soils, and wetland types. Using a custom ArcMap spatial data summary tool, each of the nine river segments was summarized for soil characteristics, wetland community and drainage area land use in order to first describe the resource. The diversity along the river's 475-plus kilometers is considerable, suggesting that this regionalized approach will help by focusing the analysis on manageable units. The GIS model identifies wetlands that are susceptible to changes in stage, flow or water quality by using a “decision square approach” incorporating soils, wetlands and hydrological characteristics. Additionally, because wetland/water body edge is important habitat to many species, the wetland community at the river edge was measured using a SJRWMD wetlands dataset. Model results to date will be presented.

WWS—Water Utility Asset Management and Data Sharing

GIS—Setting the Foundation for a Water & Sewer Utility
—Mike Pappas and Chris Bagby, Gwinnett Co DWR
View Presentation [PDF]

GIS is a solid foundation for the operations of a water and sewer utility. It plays an integral part in the operations at the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources (GCDWR) including Engineering & Construction, Customer Service Billing, Long Range Planning, Planning & Development, Maintenance, and Treatment Facilities. This presentation will illustrate the dependence of GIS for the operations of individual divisions within our organization and how they utilize it in their workflows. GIS allows a positive use of shared data and improves the operations of the entire department.

Opelika Utilities use Mobile and Web GIS to Streamline Workflows
—Dan Hilyer, City of Opelika, AL
View Presentation [PDF]

Opelika Utilities (Water Board) migrated into an industry standard data model, as well as deployed automated tools to streamline the translation of GPS data into the geodatabase, last year. The success of that project created a demand for the provision of GIS access to a broader audience and the integration of GIS into more workflows. To address this demand, Opelika Utilities adopted an enterprise architecture strategy and migrated into ESRI's ArcGIS Server technology. A web application was developed powered by ESRI's ArcGIS Server that enables authorized Fire Department users to view and edit hydrant flow data from an Internet browser. Previously, these edits were done by GIS personnel with a desktop license. Additionally, an ArcGIS Server mobile solution was developed to equip the mobile workforce with the ability to edit and view hydrant data in the field adding efficiency to an existing workflow.

Pasco County Storm Water Inventory Master Plan
—Matthew Terella, Derek Robinson, and Brian Rosenfeld, Jones Edmunds
View Presentation [PDF]

In 2007, Pasco County, Florida began the process of determining the best solution for inventorying their stormwater infrastructure to meet the requirements of the NPDES MS4 Phase 1 Permit which states that the County must properly maintain and operate their stormwater system. Before beginning the inventory it was important to develop a Stormwater Master Plan to ensure that the data collected in the field would contain all of the information needed for the County's current and future business practices which includes the implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management System. The master plan consisted of identifying any existing stormwater data in the County, understanding how stormwater information is created in the County, developing a plan for inventorying the infrastructure using the county's existing RTK network, and determining the cost and schedule of the inventory. The County hired Jones Edmunds to assist with the master plan. The tasks of the master plan included an existing data evaluation, stormwater geodatabase design, hardware/software configuration evaluation, workflow analysis, development of standard operating procedures for the field and office personnel, pilot project, training, and the implementation plan with the costs and action items to complete the inventory over a ten-year period. With the master plan the County will be able to develop a complete, 3 dimensionally accurate, and up-to-date stormwater GIS database. The GIS database will enable the County to meet their goals of locating and understanding the total number and condition of their structures, understanding how the system is connected, modeling their system, developing a maintenance program, more effectively responding to citizen concerns, and ensuring compliance with environmental regulations.

LND—Appraisal Support and Cadastral Management

Improving Landbase Accuracy with Cadastral Editor
—Kristy Capobianco, William Mann, and Donald Terrell, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. (RS&H)
View Presentation [PDF]

The City of Jacksonville Beach, FL has teamed with Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. (RS&H) to create an accurate GIS landbase of all the parcels within the boundaries of Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach. The City had significant accuracy problems with their existing landbase, including having parcel boundaries and right-of-way lines that do not correspond to their known dimensions. RS&H designed and implemented a solution that takes the existing landbase data, control points and high-resolution aerial imagery and manipulates it using the Cadastral Editor, part of the ArcGIS Survey Analyst extension. The presentation will discuss the needs for an accurate landbase, the challenges encountered while building the cadastral fabric, data and software issues overcome during the project and editing the data within the cadastral fabric.

The CAMA Oriented Cadastre
—Frank Conkling, Panda Consulting
View Presentation [PDF]

GIS has traditionally been implemented in Appraisers' Offices to replace the mapping requirements. However, to obtain the greatest return on investment, the GIS must be used to augment all aspects of the appraisal process. This presentation will discuss how GIS can be integrated into the workflow, including additional features that should be part of the standard cadastre.

SYS—Implementing ArcGIS Server

Implementation of ArcGIS Server 9.3 for the City of Tamarac, FL
—Ben Dwinal, BAE Systems
View Presentation [PDF]

The City of Tamarac's Community Development department has a GIS system that was implemented in 2003 and is in need of upgrade. The current enterprise GIS is built using ESRI's enterprise components, Spatial Database Engine (SDE) and ArcIMS. While the implementation has worked well for the City to this point, it has been difficult for the Community Development department to make changes to the current ArcIMS web map and maintain the SQL 2000 Database over long periods of time. Also, the IT infrastructure has modernized during this time period leaving the GIS capabilities isolated from many other department databases within the city government. The Community Development department wanted to implement ESRI's ArcGIS Server 9.3 system. This move will provide several advantages including 1) easier updates to web map applications; 2) move maintenance of GIS database to the IT department's main database server; 3) increase web based applications and utilization by other city departments. BAE System's Geospatial Systems Engineering (GSE) team was tasked with providing an assessment and a design plan for the implementation of the ArcGIS Server system that would meet the needs of the City of Tamarac. This paper will discuss the details of the plan and highlight the challenges and success of the implementation of ESRI's ArcGIS Server suite.

Migrating from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server—Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta, GA
—Brock Kingston, Latitude Geographics
View Presentation [PDF]

Help, my web-GIS developer left! Custom code to perform database linking, reporting, search, dynamic symbolization and more—how do we port this over to ArcGIS Server? Learn how the Atlanta Regional Commission made the careful move from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server while maintaining full consistency with a legacy application combining demographic, transportation, land use and environment planning components.

Wednesday, April 29

SYS—Building an Enterprise GIS System: Real Examples

Developing an Enterprise GIS and Web Application with CAMA Integration
—Matthew Bryant, Bruce Harris & Associates, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

The goal of every GIS department is to create an enterprise where geographic data and related data appears seamless and is accessible to interested parties and the public through simple controlled means. Often it is difficult to quickly share current data with the public because the data is fragmented and spread across multiple formats, departments, and even networks. Creating an enterprise GIS and a web application requires a vision and can take many years and many phases. This presentation recounts the history of the Lorain County Auditor's GIS Department and their strategies for integrating CAMA data in its internal workflows as well as sharing geographic and CAMA data with the public. The presentation will explore the challenges and decisions made at every phase of building an enterprise, from the county's first CAD based system with a MapObjects web application, to the conversion to a seamless multi-editor SDE geodatabase, to the implementation of ArcGIS Server and a new ASP.NET web application, and finally the decision to move away from an externally housed mainframe based CAMA to an internal SQL Server based system. Issues to be explored will be designing an enterprise GIS, data integration, determining how to present data to the public, software and hardware considerations, and custom application development. This presentation will be valuable to managers looking to plan and implement an enterprise that can provide CAMA and GIS data to the public through the web.

Mobile Data Collection Integrates with ArcGIS
—Linda Hughes and Jack Tortolano, Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure
View Presentation [PDF]

Vast quantities of information are collected by field personnel during Time Critical Removal Action projects for removal of Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC). Government agencies have implemented standard data collection requirements, most of which must be recorded by Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) experts during field work. Mobile data collection devices are used to enter pertinent information as removal actions are performed. These data are synchronized daily into a centralized SQL Server information management system for use by project management to track production rates, status and project costs. These data are also integrated with ArcGIS tools for real-time data display. ArcGIS Server is used for spatial visualization of project status tracking and to assist in the planning of safe and effective field operations. This integration of field data with the project GIS has resulted in substantial cost savings, both in labor hours and enhanced decision support.

SLG—Addressing the Business Needs of Government with GIS

An Investigation into Employee Drive Distances to Work
—Albert Hill, Volusia County GIS
View Presentation [PDF]

In July 2008, with gas prices fast approaching $4 a gallon, Volusia County Environmental Management asked whether the GIS Team could use its tools to analyze and portray the over 3000 County employee's current driving routes to and from work. Employing existing databases in both the Human Resources and Finance Departments we were able to accurately depict employee start and stop locations and, by employing ESRI's Network Analyst extension, show what would be the employee's shortest path from their home to their workplace. These commuting routes were then compared to other information such as existing Park & Ride lots, natural traffic choke points, and current bus routes. The employee "distribution on the landscape" was also analyzed for commonalities. This provided Environmental Management with several potential options for combating the high cost of getting employees to work. This presentation will investigate the approach, the problems found in the source data and the corresponding workarounds, and the compelling results of this analysis for encouraging changes in employee commuting practices.

PSF—Making GIS Work in Complex Public Safety Scenarios

Establishing a Geospatial Information Management Framework for Emergency Management in the Commonwealth of Virginia
—Brian Crumpler, Virginia Dept of Emergency Management
View Presentation [PDF]

Over the past year, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) GIS Branch has implemented an applied framework for geospatial information management within the emergency management context. Providing geospatial awareness and support to emergency managers is at the core of GIS Services for Disaster Management. At the core of emergency management lies the protection of lives and property from the impacts of natural and manmade hazards. Traditionally it has been hard for GIS to keep up in the fluid situations presented in the emergency management field. In the dance that occurs during incidents, GIS can appear to have two left feet when an incident causes emergency managers to change direction in an instant, leaving GIS professionals scrambling to catch up. By incorporating themes from both fields, VDEM has effectively created a common operating framework that addresses primary themes in emergency management (real-time/operational resources, facilities and demographics, operational planning, and hazard identification). This framework also incorporates existing GIS workgroups and projects (NSGIC, HIFLD, HSIP) as well as existing training material for emergency managers (NIMS, ICS, Emergency Planning). By implementing the framework described in this presentation, VDEM has created an environment through which GIS professionals are now able to better anticipate the "next step" in the dance, thus improving our level of service to our customers in emergency management.

First Responder Mobile Application Using ArcGIS Mobile and ArcLogistics Navigator
—Jeffrey Volpe and Scott Burton, Bergmann Associates
View Presentation [PDF]

Broward County is the largest accredited Sheriff's Office in the nation with 6,000 employees, 800 fire rescue vehicles and over 1,500 Department of Law Enforcement (DLE) vehicles serving over 1.7 million residents within 11 Counties. Broward County required a standardized cost efficient and cost effective mobile mapping application that suited the needs of a full-service public safety agency. This presentation will outline the steps and processes which Broward County used in designing, developing and implementing a customized mobile solution for First Response. Included in this presentation will be how Broward County leveraged their investment in ESRI software and technology to deploy a mobile solution using ArcGIS Mobile and ArcLogistics Navigator technology.

GI-What to GI-Yes!
—Keith Sandell, Florida Department of Corrections
View Presentation [PDF]

From start-up to success in about a year and the can do attitude. When the State of Florida enacted its first sexual offender residency restriction law in 1995 no one knew that it would become a model for local government ordinances currently numbering more than 130 throughout the state. As the number of sexual offenders, sexual predators, and incidences of sex crimes against children increased, so did the prevalence of local ordinances restricting the places in which they could live. At the same time that these solutions gave the appearance of increased public safety they also increased the difficulty of managing the appropriate residential placement of sexual offenders and sexual predators. The Florida Department of Corrections needed a solution and found it in GIS, but not having had any previous experience with an enterprise GIS the Department faced a very steep learning curve. Through staunch perseverance and the use of the ArcGIS Server architecture (SDE and Web Application SDK) the Department populated its database and began serving out the more than 21.4 million features, including statewide parcel data, daycares, schools, and parks, that are necessary to effectively and efficiently manage the lawful residential placement of more than 7,400 sexual offenders and sexual predators throughout Florida. Please join us as we discuss the trials and tribulations of our ascent to success in doing what many thought was impossible—creating the United States first statewide GIS for managing Sex Offender Residential Restrictions.

ENR—GIS: An Effective Tool for Environmental Research

Automatic Classification of Southern Pine Stands Using LiDAR and Timber Cruise Data
—Mitch Koyle, Milliken Forestry Company, Inc.
View Presentation [PDF]

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data has a wide range of applications in the world of GIS. One of the areas that LiDAR has been used extensively is in the field of forestry. One of the most basic applications is acquiring tree canopy heights. Aside from location and elevation, LiDAR sensors typically collect intensity information as well. The intensity is measured as the "peak voltage of the return signal" of the laser from the LiDAR sensor. Laser light is monochromatic and thus has an extremely small bandwidth. Because of this, atmospheric influences and other concerns, the intensity data is sometimes difficult to interpret without extensive calibration. This difficulty, in many cases, has led to the intensity data largely being ignored. However, research has shown that intensity values can be related to biophysical characteristics of forests. This research deals specifically with southern pine stands in the coastal plain region of South Carolina. The focus of this study is a 2,700 acre tract of land in the coastal plain region of South Carolina. The LiDAR data used in this research is obtained from NOAA's digital coast website. It was collected in March of 2007. The timber cruise data was collected in July of 2007. The tract has a variety of loblolly pine age classes. The goal of this project is to use data collected in the field coupled with LiDAR data to determine if LiDAR alone can be used for determining some forest characteristics. This is accomplished by correlating the location, elevation and the intensity data acquired by LiDAR with timber cruise data collected in the field by foresters. Extensive analysis is performed using the intensity data as it is correlated with specific age classes of basal area and tree density. It is expected that certain metrics will be discovered which will provide an accurate way to estimate height, basal area and tree density using only LiDAR data. This would be a valuable tool for forestry applications, as it would greatly increase the efficiency with which the data normally acquired in the field timber cruises is collected and analyzed. It would also have a positive impact on how consulting foresters assess timber values across large land holdings. It would at the very least provide a valuable verification of measurements collected in the field by foresters. Results would undoubtedly vary greatly in different regions. The results of this research will apply specifically to the coastal plain region in South Carolina.

Population Distribution of Harbor Seals in Southern Massachusetts
—Nicole Cabana, Gordon Waring, and Elizabeth Josephson, NOAA
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The Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) population in New England is poorly understood. Harbor seals inhabit the waters of Maine year round. A portion of the population moves south in the winter to the waters off of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. The majority of seasonal harbor seals are found in Massachusetts. The overwintering population of harbor seals is thought to be increasing. Since 2005, aerial surveys have been conducted in southern Massachusetts to obtain harbor seal abundance and distribution data. Aerial surveys were conducted roughly once per month between October and April from 2005 to 2007 when tides and weather were suitable for surveying. Data from these surveys were analyzed to obtain counts for harbor seal haulout sites in southern Massachusetts. GIS was used to determine population trends of harbor seals in this region. Environmental variables were also analyzed to further aid in understanding harbor seal distribution.

WWS—Water Resources Management Systems

ArcHydro and Watershed Management—An Integrated Approach to Water Resources Data Management
—Mark Nelson, Jones Edmunds
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Florida's water resources are under a great deal of pressure and watershed modeling has become increasingly important for the future of our water resources. Watershed modeling has become much more detailed and accurate as more geospatial data has become available. Our approach to watershed modeling has also seen a significant shift over the past several years as our engineers and scientists have grown to rely heavily on Arc Hydro tools and geodatabases. This presentation will give an overview of the GIS-centric approach and how it has and will change the landscape of watershed modeling.

City of Jacksonville GIS Based Illicit Connection Inspection System
—Mike Hines, England-Thims & Miller, Inc.
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Since 1972, the Clean Water Act and its amendments have prohibited the discharge of any pollutant to a water of the United States unless it has been authorized by a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit. The NPDES program is designed to track point sources that discharge pollutants into the environment and the implementation of controls to minimize the discharge of pollutants. In 1987 Congress amended the Water Quality Act requiring increased monitoring and the assessment of water bodies to ensure that water quality standards were not just on paper, but were actually being realized in the nation's waters. The City of Jacksonville Environmental Quality Division's Water Quality Branch is responsible for water quality monitoring and related sampling of the St. Johns River and its tributaries within the Duval County. The Water Branch routinely receives calls from the public and other agencies regarding Potential Illicit Connections (PICs) to the City's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4). Existing PIC investigation workflow and databases were developed over time and as a result did not optimally address NPDES and newly required Lower St. Johns River Management Action Plan reporting and water quality monitoring requirements. It was determined that the City's NPDES GIS coupled with GPS based field inspection tools would enable Water Quality Branch inspectors to more quickly locate, investigate, report, take enforcement actions (if required), monitor ongoing compliance and analyze illicit connection trends related information. In 2007 the City authorized England-Thims & Miller, Inc. (ETM), under the firm's existing NPDES Program Support Services contract, to review current workflow, recommend improvements thereto, and develop a PIC Inspection and Reporting Tool. This presentation opens with an overview of the City's NPDES Program and how the GIS database is being applied to support PIC inspection and reporting requirements. It will then shift focus to discuss ETM's use of ESRI's ArcGIS and ArcPad software to develop the PIC inspection toolset and how the NPDES GIS and PIC Inspection toolset is serving as the framework for development of additional inspection tools and reports required by NPDES and the Lower St. Johns River Tributaries Management Action Plan.

SYS—Implementing an Effective GIS System

Enterprise-wide GIS Implementation in Tamarac, Florida
—Trevor Feagin, City of Tamarac
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The City of Tamarac Florida, after several failures, began to develop an enterprise GIS in 1995. Currently the city has and shares planimetric, parcel and utility maps throughout the City. Tamarac appears to be ahead of the majority of cities that are working on GIS development. The GIS effort used a cooperative approach within the city's departments and funding sources. Presently the City is working on a major 5-year update that includes a new internet application for the employees and the public, new color digital orthophotos and over 56 planimetric features. The City uses ESRI's GIS software, providing support for 4 power users, 18 intermediate users and provides internet based access to all employees and the general public. The GIS was used to provide support to Community Development, Public Works and the Utilities departments on a daily basis. The GIS provides as needed support to specific programs like disaster planning and recovery and flood plain management. Using ArcGIS Server, the City now serves fifteen GIS maps to city employees and the public. The city estimates a net financial benefit of between 319 and 489 thousand dollars a year. Mr. Feagin will discuss the steps including mapping accuracies, costs and benefits to developing a similar GIS.

Integration into Aviation Operations Using ArcGIS Server
—Bryan Dickerson, Woolpert
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This presentation will focus on the lessons learned in implementing an enterprise GIS, and specifically ArcGIS Server for the City of Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport, the nation's ninth busiest. Topics covered will include information on establishing ArcGIS Server in a business continuity architecture, utilizing ArcGIS Server within a Services Oriented Architecture to support integration with key systems such as SAP, data development challenges related to interior data development and presentation, and tips and tricks for configuring the system to obtain optimal performance.

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Technical Workshops

Tuesday, February 28

Working with ArcMap—Tips and Tricks
—Artie Robinson, ESRI
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Become more productive in your daily workflows by learning more efficient ways of performing your regular tasks. This presentation will offer tips and tricks for working with ArcMap.

Getting Started with ArcGIS Server
—Matt Still, ESRI
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You will learn how to make your maps, globes, and other GIS resources available to others by publishing them on a server. Audience: Beginning ArcGIS Server users or anyone interested in learning how ArcGIS Server works.

Understanding ESRI's Enterprise License Agreements and Training Options
—Robyn Peverill, ESRI
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ESRI has developed two separate enterprise license agreements (ELAs)—one is the Small Governments Enterprise License Agreement (SGELA) and the other is the Small Utilities Enterprise License Agreement (SUELA)—to take advantage of enterprisewide GIS solutions that would otherwise be cost prohibitive. The ELA program gives authorization to make unlimited deployments of ESRI ArcGIS software to internal users during the term of the ELA. Small governments or small utilities will have access to the GIS technology they need in a straightforward, tiered pricing schedule. There are more than 200 courses in the ESRI Course Catalog—where do I start? This session will help you navigate ESRI's training solutions for utilizing GIS technology. We will suggest guidelines for designing and implementing a detailed training plan. ESRI offers several options for training, which are geared toward a specific learning style or delivery method. We'll teach you how to incorporate the different methods into a specific plan that works best to suit your organization's needs. You will leave this session with a clear picture of ESRI training and feel more confident selecting ESRI training courses.

Editing with ArcGIS—Tips and Tricks
—Artie Robinson, ESRI
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ArcGIS offers a multitude of tools for creating and maintaining your GIS data. This session will provide useful tips and tricks and time-saving techniques for working with editing tools, creating sketches to construct vector geometry, editing coincident features, and adjusting data.

ArcGIS Server Administration, Configuration, Tuning, and Optimization
—Michele Lundeen, ESRI
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This session will discuss how to identify and avoid typical performance bottlenecks with an ArcGIS Server deployment. This session is appropriate for both Java and .NET deployments.

ModelBuilder—An Introduction
—Kevin Armstrong, ESRI
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This session will introduce how to create, edit, and run model tools and how to use many of the features of ModelBuilder such as working with intermediate data, using variables, documenting and sharing models, and setting diagram properties.

Building Mashups Using ArcGIS APIs
—Nikki Golding, ESRI
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This session will show you how to build applications with each of the new ArcGIS Server APIs by walking you through the online samples in the SDK and covering best practices. This session will cover the JavaScript API along with its Microsoft and Google extensions as well as the new Flex API.

Geodatabase Editing Workflows—An Introduction
—Jonathan Fisk, ESRI
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This session will present the three editing options available in geodatabases: versioning, versioning with the option to move edits to base, and nonversioned editing.

Wednesday, February 29

ArcGIS Explorer: Going Beyond the Basics
—Jonathan Fisk, ESRI
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This session will take ArcGIS Explorer beyond the basics and show you how you can leverage some of its more advanced capabilities.

Designing, Deploying, and Using Cached Map Services
—Nikki Golding, ESRI
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The fastest way to serve maps with ArcGIS Server is through a cached map service. Audience: All current or potential ArcGIS Server users Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of ArcGIS Server or attendance of Getting Started with ArcGIS Server workshop recommended.

ArcGIS Mobile—An Introduction
—Matt Still, ESRI
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This session will provide an introduction to ArcGIS Mobile, covering the out-of-the-box Windows Mobile applications and the software development kit provided with ArcGIS Server.

Introduction to ArcLogistics 9.3
—Mike Sweeney, ESRI
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This session will step you through a typical workflow as well as cover important new functionality available in ArcLogistics 9.3.

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