Latest Contributions by CharmelMenzel

The Esri Federal GIS Conference is returning to Washington D.C. from February 24 to 26, showcasing a variety of engaging sessions. At Esri, we value this opportunity to connect with federal employees, allowing us to better understand how we can support their vital work. This year, we are offering two sessions dedicated to the enhancement of accessibility in Esri applications. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the applicable accessibility standards, explore best practices, and discover ways to improve accessibility in the maps and applications they create. 2025 Sessions Mapping and GIS: Accessibility Essentials Monday, February 24, 3:00-4:00 PM EST, Room 156 WEWCC Are you ensuring that your maps and apps are accessible for a wide range of users? Join us to learn the essentials of digital accessibility to improve your GIS solutions and compliance with accessibility criteria. This presentation includes a brief introduction to accessibility terminology, standards, and guidelines as well as an exploration of recommended practices to improve accessibility in mapping and applications. Additionally, discover assistive technologies and testing tools available to evaluate and remediate according to accessibility best practices. Presenters: @CharmelMenzel and @KarlFrantz  Web Apps in ArcGIS: Accessibility Best Practices Tuesday, February 25, 2:45-3:45 PM EST, Room 144B WEWCC How accessible are your apps? When you design web apps with accessibility best practices, you help individuals of all abilities to interact with and understand your content. Discover how to optimize your support for screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technologies. Obtain tips on improving color contrast, adding alternative text, and testing for accessibility, all while crafting more inclusive web app experiences with web app builders. Presenters: @CharmelMenzel and @KarlFrantz  Esri Showcase If you have questions and would like to discuss accessibility best practices, please stop by the Accessibility booth in the Showcase or reach out to Karl Frantz (kfrantz@esri.com) and Charmel Menzel (cmenzel@esri.com) to set-up a meeting during the conference. Accessibility booth in Showcase   Additional Resources At Esri, we are committed to creating accessible products and services compatible with the latest assistive technology.  Esri Accessibility Site Accessibility Conformance Reports Esri Accessibility Resources Esri Legal Accessibility Esri Community - Accessibility Board   ... View more

Community/Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Esri UC2022 sessions: Community and Youth Engagement Tuesday 12 July 2022, 8:30 – 9:30, SDCC – Room 29 D In this session, the audience will hear from two users who used ArcGIS to support community and youth engagement initiatives centered around equity. "A Community-Based Participatory Process for a Black Healing Retreat Center" will use ArcGIS StoryMaps to share their community engagement process to create a Black-led nature-based healing retreat center for multi-generational BIPOC people. "Steps to Equity" will share how their organization used Survey123 to create a walkability assessment of a Cleveland neighborhood in collaboration with John Carroll University students and neighbored residents. Abimbola Asojo, College of Design, Interior Design Mac Love, Co-Founder & Chief Catalyst, Art x Love, LLC Jennifer Ta, University of Minnesota   Engaging Communities to Restore Nature User Presentation Tuesday 12 July 2022, 1:00 - 2:00, SDCC - Room 25 A Community support can help take restoration efforts to scale by mobilizing community members to monitor and report on conservation topics. Effectively engaging the public in conservation programs however requires appropriate management and communications with volunteer contributors. This session will focus on two community conservation programs and their methods for successfully engaging volunteers and the community at large. Sheridan Finder, University of Georgia Shawnlei Breeding, Audubon Center for Birds of Prey Ariana Kim, National Audubon Society   ArcGIS Hub: Managing and Collaborating with Your Community Members Wednesday 13 July 2022, 8:30 – 9:30, SDCC Room 30B ArcGIS Hub helps organizations collaborate and engage with their communities. In this session, you will learn how to manage the content and apps community members can access, as well as how to control and leverage the ways in which community members can participate in projects and initiatives. The use of ArcGIS Hub sharing controls, teams, sign-up configurations, community identities, and the latest engagement tools will be highlighted. Jay Dev and Harshi Dondapati, Esri   Community Engagement SIG Wednesday 13 July 2022, 11:30 – 12:30, SDCC Room 05 A ArcGIS is increasingly being used to foster community engagement. This work helps improve transparency and data sharing/visualization for organizations of different sizes as they engage their communities. Yet, community engagement is about more than data. This SIG will share community engagement best practices in three ways: Esri staff will highlight core engagement principles, an expert panel will discuss their experiences and lessons learned, and attendees will share their thoughts as well. This SIG will leave you with a better understanding of what it takes to engage your community. Brenda Wolfe, Nick O’Day, Caitlin Smith, Esri   ArcGIS Solutions: Citizen Problem Reporter Expo Demo Theater 05 Wednesday 13 July 2022, 2:30 – 3:15, SDCC Expo Demo Theater 05 This session will help you get started with the Citizen Problem Reporter solution and learn how you can use the solution to solicit reports from the public, manage the response to each report, solicit feedback from the public after addressing a report, and monitor the resolution of nonemergency reports in a community. Daniel Wickens and Chris Fox, Esri   Public Data Collection, Security and Privacy Special Interest Group Meeting Thursday 14 July 2022, 11:30 – 12:30, SDCC Room 03 GIS is increasingly used to collect data from the public through surveys and crowd-sourcing initiatives. After a storm, agencies use GIS to help the community self-report property damage. Citizen science GIS projects allow volunteers to report wildlife sightings. Local governments give citizens GIS tools to report issues and respond to surveys for socio-economic and health studies. Securing data collected from the public and protecting the privacy of respondents is a critical consideration for GIS practitioners.  Join this Special Interest Group to learn from the GIS community about security and private challenges, and how they are being addressed. Jacqui Newell, Ismael Chivite, Michael Young, Brenda Wolfe: Esri   Enabling Transparency and Citizen Science for Water Quality Monitoring User Presentation Thursday 14 July 2022, 1:00 — 2:00 pm, SDCC - Room 28 A Learn how agencies are using environmental modeling and community-based participation to improve collaboration and public understanding and transparency in water quality monitoring for protection and restoration efforts. Kevin Lund, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Kevin Brown, The Mannik Smith Group Estella Smith, USDA Forest Service Mona Dominguez, Alabama Water Watch/Auburn University Water Resources Center ... View more

ArcGIS Users are participating in the CitSciVirtual 2021 conference organized by the Citizen Science Association (CSA) during the month of May 2021.   The agenda is scattered throughout May to provide time to attend workshops, keynotes, poster sessions and online social events.  Sessions to attend if you want to learn more about ArcGIS usage in the citizen science community. Collaboration and Communication Utilizing ArcGIS Apps Workshop open to all attendees 6 May, 3-4:30 US Eastern Panelists: Karen Klinger (Field Museum), Tim Briggs (New Hampshire Sea Grant), Abigail Krump (National Audubon Society) Moderator:  Charmel Menzel (Esri) Description: Citizen Science project staff have an enormous challenge in collaborating with volunteers,  partners, supporters, scientists, and the general public.  Learn how the Field Museum’s Monarch Butterfly ArcGIS Hub website enables citizens to be more fully engaged by accessing project resources, submitting data, providing feedback, and signing up to attend events.  Hear how ArcGIS StoryMaps created by New Hampshire Sea Grant and Audubon Society enhance organizational communication activities by weaving the message into a story. A story can effect change, influence opinion, and create awareness and maps are an integral part of storytelling.  Open discussion and accessing free training will wrap up this session. Mapping, analyzing and communicating citizen science information using field tools, web GIS, dashboards and story maps Keynote 10 May, 12-1:30 US Eastern Presenter Joseph Kerski Citizen Science Location-based Analytics Workshop open to all attendees 18 May, 3:30-5:00pm US Eastern Panelists: Austin Rosén (Colorado State University), Kristen Hocutt (Citizen Science Volunteer/Esri), Greg Brunner (Esri) Moderator:  Charmel Menzel (Esri) Description: Are you new to GIS analysis, a Data Scientist, or Researcher desiring to learn the latest in spatial analytics?  Join this discussion with a panel of scientists from various GIS backgrounds including a M.S. Biology Student, a Geologist turned GIS/Remote Sensing Analyst and a Data Scientist.  Each accessed data from iNaturalist or GBIF for their project.  Learn how to utilize Python, Jupyter Notebooks, machine learning techniques and other spatial analysis tools within ArcGIS.  These tools provide the means to identify areas missing data, monitor changes over space and time, and conduct suitability modeling.  Following brief presentations from each panelist, tips on accessing these tools and free learn lessons will be provided, plus the floor will be open to live Q&A. Using GIS to Create and Monitor Citizen Science Projects Workshop for attendees that select bundle A.5 Two live sessions: Tuesday, 4 May, 1:30-3:00pm ET // Tuesday, 11 May, 1:30-3pm ET Presenters: Lori Delacruz Lewis (Dallas College), Kelly Albus (University of North Texas), Brittney Beck (California State University, Bakersfield), Michael Jabot (SUNY Fredonia) This collaborative workshop offers a multitude of opportunities for approaching GIS in Citizen Science with several pre-recorded videos, hands-on activities and two live sessions. For instance, create and monitor your own citizen science projects and monitor the results in real time. Design a mobile-ready survey, manage how the data appears and monitor the results in real-time. Then share the resulting data with interactive, multimedia narratives. Learn how to access public data and add to ArcGIS Online, how citizen science contributes to the monitoring of the UN SDGs, how to follow environmental data collection protocols and how to share with students.       ... View more

Attending the Esri User Conference (UC2020) and seeking sessions related to Citizen Science or Crowdsourcing.  Here are a few sessions you should check out. On-Demand Sessions: Best Practices for Geospatial Validation of Flood Forecasts via Citizen Science  'Catch the King' Tide is a successful citizen-science GPS data collection effort that maps king tides in Hampton Roads, VA. Hundreds of volunteers map maximum flood extents using their phone's GPS to validate and improve high-res. inundation model predictions. 150,000+ geotagged high water marks and photos have been captured using the Sea Level Rise and ArcGIS Collector Apps to trace floodwaters in VA since 2014: https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/blog/mapping-virginias-highest-tide/ 1:Many | Leveraging the Gamut of Esri Products to Restore a Species With over 600 Eastern Bluebird boxes spread over 27,000 acres of land, Three Rivers Park District innovated a way for citizen scientists to collect critical habitat information through an easy to use application while managing the restoration of a species. Learn about how GIS staff capture real time information leveraging related record collection in Survey 123, arcade visualizations, and distributed collaboration to power their solution. Esri ArcGIS-based Submarine Cables of the World Interactive Map 98% of the world’s internet runs on subsea cables, but as an industry, we have not had a suitable, free mapping tool of systems. STF used a managed crowdsourcing effort for data collection – all system information is derived from the public domain by an analyst as well as update recommendations. STF’s online map was built with the industry-standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the STF Submarine Cable Database. Systems are linked to STF’s News Feed for current news about the system. Live Fire Map: Crowdsourcing Early Detection of Wildfires for Public Awareness The Live Fire project uses crowdsourced monitoring by trained volunteers to identify new wildfires and quickly map them on a public information map. Fire reports are identified from sources including social media, camera networks, radar tracking of fire aircraft, radio scanners, and official sources. After validation for accuracy and geolocation, each report is added to the Live Fire map, including a link to the official responding agency to enable public users to obtain additional information. Leveraging ArcGIS & StoryMaps to Communicate Shelter Locations During Disasters For all major US hurricanes since 2018, CEDR has gathered shelter locations from county emergency management & other local sources via crowdsourcing and automated techniques. Our shelter feature layer is relied upon by FEMA and included in public maps from organizations such as NAPSG. Additionally, in 2019, CEDR documented location issues with Puerto Rico shelters via a Story Map, which provided a rich way to communicate a detailed data analysis effort clearly in a compelling visual format. Crowdsourcing Real-Time Real Estate Data Through GIS Commercial real estate markets are large and complicated, making it difficult to engage and educate audiences. Linking 3D buildings within Esri Portal to a CRM system creates a platform where users can easily explore markets and instantly access crowdsourced data in a real-time, two-way communication exchange. We will explore everything from linking extruded buildings with dynamic backend datasets across geographies to ensuring users have access to the best crowdsourced content. User Conference‌ user conference 2020‌ ... View more

If you are attending the 2020 Esri User Conference this year and want to know more about Accessibility, attend these sessions: User Conference On-Demand Session: Understanding Accessibility: Learn How to Design, Test and Develop Accessible Apps Learn the basics of inclusive design and why accessibility matters. We will share tips on how we design with accessibility in mind, and then demo how we test to see if an application is accessible. Finally, we’ll cover techniques on how developers can ensure their maps and apps meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Link to on-demand session available starting July 13 to attendees with full registration. Live Session: Esri Accessibility Special Interest Group (SIG) link to agenda Thursday, July 16, 9:15 am - 10:15 am PDT User Conference‌ esri user conference 2020‌ ... View more

“At Esri, our goal is to make GIS accessible to everyone,” said Dirk Gorter, Esri’s director of product management. “To that end, we design and implement our GIS products to be accessible to people regardless of their abilities.” Read the full article in the ArcNews Fall 2019 edition. ... View more

Special Interest Group - "Accessibility (Section 508, WCAG & ADA)", Wed 2/12 from 11-12pm room 158A agenda link: https://federalgisconference2020.schedule.esri.com/schedule/1838578853 Workshop - "Improving Accessibility with ArcGIS Web Applications" workshop, Wed 2/12 from 4-5pm room 144B, agenda link: https://federalgisconference2020.schedule.esri.com/schedule/1642326785 visit Agenda | 2020 Esri Federal GIS Conference for more information. ... View more