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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
The remarkable capabilities of airborne Lidar continue to improve, with scanners now able to emit more than a million pulses every second. Although it has never been easier to acquire high-quality laser data, storing and managing the huge volume of Lidar data collected can prove to be a challenge. Combined with associated metadata such as survey information, environmental conditions and flight lines, data management has now become a critical priority and focus. This article outlines an initiative called the Lidar Management and Analytical Processing (LMAP) that provides an automated workflow for uploading and storing Lidar and metadata into a Geographic Information System (GIS).
Developed in a partnership between RIEGL, a manufacturer of ultra-high-performance Lidar scanners, and Esri, creator of the ArcGIS platform, the LMAP initiative provides an automated workflow to upload and store Lidar and metadata into a GIS. Once organized and managed using standard GIS functionality, LMAP utilizes web applications to visualize the information on a map and perform a range of analysis. As a user of both RIEGL and Esri technologies, North American geospatial-only solutions provider Quantum Spatial Inc. (QSI) decided to implement LMAP to improve project data management and provide a venue for clients to quickly and easily provide feedback on Lidar collection quality and completeness.
Read full story at Hydro International…
first published week of: 02/18/2019
If you ask any two people who work in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) what they do, you will likely get two completely different answers. The world of GIS is boundless, and Southern Utah University offers a dynamic GIS program with many opportunities and options to prepare you to enter a variety of career fields.
A “GIS” is a specifically organized data system that can be analyzed to solve problems. Meaning, the possibilities and opportunities available with a GIS education are endless! Here are eight (out of many) careers you can pursue with GIS experience.
GIS Developer
Developers in GIS create and modify GIS tools, applications, programs, and software. This career has changed drastically in the last 10 years moving from physical maps to digital maps in a cloud-based system.
Conservationist
Conservationists manage and identify natural habitats to preserve by collecting data and utilizing GIS mapping technology. Depending on where you work, fieldwork may be a large emphasis in this profession.
Law Enforcement
Many different areas of law enforcement use and analyze GIS in their jobs to keep cities safe. Helicopter firefighters may use GIS to track and locate large fires to extinguish, and police departments may use GIS to analyze crime patterns.
Cartographer
The field of cartography has been around for a long time and has evolved greatly. Cartography is still a very relevant profession today as many of the maps cartographers create include data in the design of their maps.
Read full story at Southern Utah University…
first published week of: 09/30/2019
Jack Dangermond, President Esri
At the 2019 Esri Developer Summit, attendees learned how to best work with Esri technology and how their creations foster positive change.
In the geospatial world, location is paramount.
“Location has an aspect in every bit of decision-making and analysis and visualization, and it’s just going to become a more powerful tool,” Jim McKinney, chief technology officer (CTO) of desktop development at Esri said in a video welcoming 2,100 geospatial app developers to the Esri Developer Summit (DevSummit) in Palm Springs, California, in March.
Your work is one of the bright lights of the planet. It’s literally building that infrastructure that I think will make positive change on an ongoing and sustained basis. Jack Dangermond, President, Esri
The developers, who came from around the world, attended technical workshops, met with Esri staff, and—for the athletic minded among them—played in a spirited dodgeball tournament. The technical sessions, however, were the bread and butter of the summit, with about 200 sessions designed to teach developers how to best work with Esri technology, including ArcGIS API for JavaScript, ArcGIS API for Python, ArcGIS GeoEvent Server, ArcGIS Runtime SDKs, AppStudio for ArcGIS, Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS Developer Edition, and many other products.
Read full story at Esri…
first published week of: 08/05/2019
(Tribune/Barry Kough
It seems at times as if there are no rhyme or reason to the region’s geographic arteries
The English language is a calamitous, incongruous collection of consonants and vowels.
It only makes sense that our illogical language would run into trouble when trying to conventionally name streets. The geography of a place should be clearly demarcated so even a visitor can navigate.So why, in Lewiston, do we have to send people to the corner of 11th and 11th? Whose bright idea was it to name each road either a street or an avenue? At the very least the streets always run north-south and the avenues run east-west, right? Or is it the other way around, Main Street?By far the most common question City Streets Maintenance Manager Keith Bingman gets asked is why did some historical city planner make the city’s grid so confusing.“Why do 12th Street and 12th Avenue intersect? I can tell you, traveling around to other cities, I’ve seen that in a lot of places,” Bingman said.News reporters by and large rely on the Associated Press as the bible of style for any arbitrary or obscure spelling or syntactical rule to our odd language. Without the rules, newspaper pages’ spelling and grammar would devolve into an entropy of English. But even here, in newsprint’s hallowed hagiography of words, obtuse rules are used or disregarded paper by paper.
Read full story at Lewiston Tribune…
first published week of: 02/25/2019
Due to the hype around big data and artificial intelligence, it can be easy to miss some of the powerful but specific ways data can be truly impactful. One of the most important areas of modern data analysis that rarely gets given its due is geospatial analysis. At a time when both the natural and human worlds are going through a period of seismic change, the ability to throw a spotlight on issues of climate and population change is as transformative as the smartest chatbot (indeed, probably much more transformative).
The foundation of geospatial analysis are GIS systems. GIS, in case you’re new to the field ,is an acronym for Geographic Information System. GIS applications and tools allow you to store, manipulate, analyze, and visualize data that corresponds to different aspects of the existing environment. Central to this is topographical information, but it could also include many other aspects, from contours and slopes, the built environment, land types and bodies of water.
Read full story at PacketPub…
first published week of: 11/25/2019
For lawyers everywhere, search advertising is simply a necessity. The competition in the legal field is fierce, and in 2019, the choice to forgo online advertising is not an option for most lawyers, if they want to continue their practice.
76% of consumers go straight to Google to research their legal options.
With every other lawyer in town fighting for the same keywords, budgets for search campaigns can multiply quickly. However, with the legal industry comes the opportunity for some of the highest margins. Spending a hundred dollars to acquire a lead could still be a great investment, as long as that lead converts into a paying client.
How do you know that the lead will convert, thus making your online advertising investment worth it?
Geofencing
Geofencing allows lawyers a way to maximize their ad budgets by bidding, not only on the correct converting keywords, but also bidding on the right targeted locations, as well. For lawyers, the ability to target potential clients in a very specific geographic area is more important than ever. By eliminating out of area regions from budgets, thus eliminating excess advertising spending, local attorneys can become more efficient. Which in turn will reduce the cost per customer client acquisition.
Read full story at Legal News Line…
first published week of: 05/13/2019