Living Atlas- iNaturalist Observations Performance Improvement?

Question

Hi There,

We started working with the exciting new iNaturalist Observation data but we're seeing a lot of performance issues even when trying to filter it down or symbolizing it, the filters just spin or the drawing never stops. I realize this is an extremely large dataset and this may be impossible.

We've tested using Data Pipelines to reduce the number of records to just our AOI but this tool also is seeing limitations. A different post here- https://community.esri.com/t5/data-pipelines-questions/arcgis-data-pipelines-issue-working-with-large/m-p/1612934

Is there any insight anyone can provide me for a way to improve this performance?

(Also side note- I'm unable to reply for some reason in the UI but I also wanted to thank Lisa for her response here: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/announcements/inaturalist-living-atlas-beta-release
We totally missed this!)

Thanks so much for any help in advance.
Best,

Amanda Huber

LisaBerry · Answer

I tried the coordinates you provided and had a successful response, so I'd love to help troubleshoot with you. Can you shoot me a direct message so that we can connect?

Amanda.Huber@threeriversparks.org_trpd · Answer

Hi @LisaBerry,

Thanks so much for the quick response and help! The map workflow you provided is super helpful for understanding how to query this layer in multiple different ways.

I tested in the "Point" workflow in two different maps, the one you provided by updating the Lat/Long and my own map and unfortunately neither worked on my end.

* For my map I duplicated all the parameters you had in your sample map (geometryType, distance, geometry) and changed the coordinates to {"x":-93.434905,"y":45.025415}. When doing so, the map still just pulses the blue dot on the layer and never draws and unable to see anything in attribute table either. 
* For your map, I just updated the coordinates to be what is shown above, and same issue it just keeps pulsing the blue dot and never draws. For this I even tried filtering the layer down to a species common to that area thinking it would reduce the number of records, and still no luck.

Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks,

Amanda Huber

LisaBerry · Answer

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I have sent this forward to our development team and experts. In the meantime, here is a web map that provides a workflow to help filter by AOI: iNaturalist Observations Spatially Filtered - Overview. We are planning to create a step-by-step tutorial around this in the future, but will also continue to look into your feedback.

If you can give us any additional context to where you were running into the issue, we can send this informtion forward as well. Were you in ArcGIS Pro? ArcGIS Online? What query were you applying? This might help us troubleshoot as well.