Latest Contributions by NathanHeazlewood

GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT: This is one of the most famous acronyms in the history of computing. What this means is that it doesn’t matter if you have the most brilliant software and hardware: if your data is rubbish then your outputs or analysis will be rubbish as well. When I am working with data, particularly migrating or loading data between systems I check the accuracy of that data as part of the process (rather than loading it and then trying to work out why I am getting strange results later).   GIS data requires many more checks compared to standard ‘text and numbers’ data so I recommend working through a checklist of tests as I have provided in the list below. It should be noted that different GIS/CAD etc software has different rules for things like how topology works. The following list is slightly targeted towards ArcGIS but should also provide some hints for users of other GIS/CAD software: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gis-gigo-garbage-out-30-checks-data-errors-nathan-heazlewood? ... View more

I am currently working with a client who has a large collection of current and old aerial photography. We are currently indexing and organising this collection. Although many users are primarily interested in the most current imagery available, there are some important uses for old imagery, and in particular being able to compare what is visible in old orthos compared to the situation in more modern orthos. I am interested in good ways to present this data so that it is easy to compare different orthos.   I have managed projects to implement 'side by side' viewers (mainly of vector data) as in the example here: http://gisviewer.hcc.govt.nz/Templates/PropQueryCompare/ .   The useful function with this is that you can pan/zoom etc to different areas and both views continue to mirror the geographic extents but with different data being looked at. I am particularly interested in how people have organised the orthos to support a viewer in this type of configuration.   What I am interested in is whether anyone has done something similar, but with the ability to change each of the windows to different orthophotos of different ages? I think that this could be a good way of presenting the historic imagery that we are currently working with.   Any suggestions/examples please? (hyperlinks to publicly available sites would be great) ... View more

I have considered what individuals can do to plan for their future careers in GIS and have found some hyperlinks to resources that you might find useful.   Finding the right job is a complex problem. Whenever I face any complex problem I like to break it down to it's basic components and then re-assemble the pieces to generate a solution. At the core of this problem are two very simple parts: What is important to you? What are employers looking for?   "What is important to you?" can be further broken down into these questions: How much do you want/need to get paid? Is job security important to you? Are there some jobs that interest you and others that you would definitely avoid? What kind of people/team/customers do you want to work with? How much value do you place on contributing to 'social good'? Is professional recognition/respect/fame important to you? How important is ongoing personal development/training etc to you? "What are employers looking for?" can be extended to these questions: Someone willing to work for $X salary Relevant previous work experience and evidence of the application of skills Personality traits Education in GIS concepts Knowledge of specific software packages Skills in complementary disciplines Someone who is willing to work in Y location and perhaps is willing to travel to A/B/C locations.   I have detailed some tips on how to plan for the above topics in my blog post here:   https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/plan-your-gis-career-nathan-heazlewood ... View more

Are there issues with the GIS employment market? In the past few weeks I have had discussions with some recent graduates (and also a few older geospatial people) who said that there is a lot of competition for GIS jobs, while at the same time some employers are saying that they can't attract the right job candidates. At first glance this doesn't make much sense- so I became intrigued about the underlying issues. If the comments above are both true then there is an imbalance of 'employer demand' against 'employee supply’. This does not indicate a healthy GIS employment market. This is particularly surprising given that there is plenty of evidence that the geospatial industry is growing, so I had thought that there should be more than enough jobs to go around. A related consideration: is there is an equitable distribution of jobs, pay and progression opportunities across genders and across minority groups. I became interested about the proportion of males to females in the industry and whether this is changing. My thoughts and research into this can be found below- including some original analysis from conference attendances: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141022053852-64183500-gis-jobs-too-many-or-not-enough-spatial-women-also-skille… ... View more

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140811092507-64183500-gis-vs-it-the-ultimate-battle ... View more