Exposing XY Vertices Fields for Precise Coordinate Editing
The genesis of the following idea is documented in my ArcGIS Community post.
In short, I was trying to create a survey to be used by a maritime watch stander or maritime stakeholder to enter maritime/marine navigational warnings. The Survey123 barrier to achieving this goal is that there wasn't a simple/intuitive interface for the form user to enter specific lat/long coordinates for navigation warning geometry. This is a significant limitation because many navigation warnings must have specific coordinates. For example - rocket launch zones (an area) have coordinates that are calculated by literal rocket scientists. Even something as simple as a boat parade can also have specific, pre-determined waypoints (XY coordintes) making up the route (a line) that needs to be communicated to the maritime public. The existing vertex method only allows editing of XY vertices in the geopoint method. It does not allow a user to edit XY vertices in the geotrace nor the geoshape method.
For a recent example, let's pretend I was trying to create the launch hazard area for the unscheduled rapidly disassembled rocket launched from South Texas not too long ago:
These 5 fictitious points are actually listed in regulation, and additional points that make up the warning area are provided by the rocket launch company as the launch time gets closer. The maritime authority then has a duty to communicate this information to warn boaters/maritime interests that something big and hot might fall from the sky in this area. Using the vertex method would require the person entering the coordinates to "eyeball it" and is completely unsatisfactory since this data, after creation, has admiralty law implications - especially in the case of an unscheduled rapidly disassembled rocket.
@IsmaelChivite was kind enough to come up with a work-around that "kind of" gets me to where I need to be (at least to demonstrate the proof-of-concept to some big bosses) and recommended this question be submitted as an idea.
I think it's important to note that thanks to International Maritime Organization, and the International Hydrographic Office's S-100 maritime product specifications, the maritime industry is poised for explosive growth in geospatial data service creation and consumption. This shift is as fundamental and impactful as TCP/IP was for the Internet. I'm betting that @GuyNoll has been hammering this fundamental shift as well. Having the ability to access and edit the coordinates of the vertices created using the vertex method will make Survey123 an extremely valuable tool for global maritime interests in creating maritime data services...which is literally a brand new thing that hasn't existed before. And is poised for explosive growth.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk and for considering this idea.
Sincerely,
Amilynn Adams
