Latest Contributions by DawnWright

Also appearing in Esri Insider... Last week President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, an event co-hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Esri was among many of America’s leading innovators invited to come together to discuss how we can empower people through science, technology, and innovation to lead our communities, our country, and our world in the future. There were five “frontiers” of innovation that kicked off the conference in five separate tracks: personal, local, national, global, and interplanetary. Within the Global Frontiers Track, I was asked to lead off the subsection entitled Climate Information, Tools and Services for Enhancing Resilience. In my remarks (downloadable at esriurl.com/frontiers), I sought to give a broad perspective on how scientists and managers think about and visualize the world for on-the-ground resilience to climate change, what innovative partnerships and opportunities are in this space (including the participation of Esri and others in the President’s Climate Action Plan and Climate Data Initiative), and what is some of the cutting edge in moving the field forward. This set the stage for three lightning talks expanding further on this theme, by our colleague Jed Sundwall, Global Open Data Lead of Amazon Web Services, Brooke Runnette, new Executive Vice President and Chief Exploration & Impact Officer of the National Geographic, and Laur Hess Fischer, Project Manager of Climate CoLab at MIT. Laur and her Climate CoLab group is also in partnership with our colleagues at the American Geophysical Union within its Thriving Earth Exchange for connecting local decision makers with the science needed to optimize community (geo)designs and plans. The track concluded with interactive breakouts and visioning discussions about what the country might look like in 2100. Esri Government Strategist Pat Cummens participated in an urban planning charette. I was in a more traditional breakout on climate data and information that focused on: (1) what science based tools are currently available to support local climate resilience planning; (2) How can we better use visualization tools and technologies at the local level, engaging as many citizens as possible in the process; and (3) Where are the gaps in connecting scientists and decision makers at the local level? At the plenary session that brought the conference to an exciting conclusion, President Obama himself highlighted the progress that his Administration has made on his inaugural pledge to "restore science to its rightful place," while also focusing on the future and what can be made possible through science and technology. The President emphasized how investing in science and technology can help develop new jobs and industries, new discoveries that improve lives, and "that innovation is in our nation’s DNA." His comments are further amplified in a special issue of Wired magazine, that includes his thoughts on artificial intelligence, self-driving cars in smart cities, precision medicine, and more. See also his to-do list for the tech industry, including how to make it easier for citizens to participate in their own government via “data-rich environments.” For more information on the event see: The Frontiers conference web site My remarks at Frontiers with additional articles My Flickr album of the event My Storify of tweets with additional photos and videos . ... View more

New Esri Insider blog post on today's announcement of new release of high-resolution Alaska DEMs as first deliverable of ArcticDEM project. Great story maps too!  https://blogs.esri.com/esri/esri-insider/2016/09/06/gis-makes-the-picture-clearer-on-climate-change/  ... View more

Esri is running an exciting new contest that opens THIS MONTH, called the Global Content Challenge.   Esri is challenging students all over the world to unleash the power of Esri content by way of their own geographic analyses, visualizations, predictive models and more to tell a compelling scientific story. The story must be presented using the Esri Story Map Journal app. We will point contestants to the best of our data and our map journal tips and tricks. They do the rest! Judges will select the best map journals to be awarded prizes. Esri will also share the winning map journals on our Collaborative Resource Portal and feature them at Esri’s Federal GIS and Education User Conferences, as well as Young Professionals Network events.   Esri's Global Content Challenge is open to undergraduate or graduate students at colleges or universities, as well as US high school students enrolled in an Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography or Environmental Science course. To be clear, for undergraduate and graduate students you must be currently enrolled in a college or university program anywhere in the world. If you have already graduated you are not eligible. For high school students, this contest is only open to high school students in the United States and only to those students currently enrolled in an AP Human Geography or Environmental Science course within their US high school. Students! Get creative by using Esri's land, ocean, and population premium content libraries to tell compelling stories that bring about understanding and action.   Prizes: There will be winners in each of three categories (land, ocean, and population) who will receive: First Place: $10,000 or software equivalent Second Place: $5,000 or software equivalent Third Place: $2,000 or software equivalent   Key Dates: August 29, 2016 ---> Competition opens November 11, 2016  ---> Competition closes at 5:00 PM (PDT) December 5, 2016  ---> Winners announced Questions may be directed to [email protected] ... View more

Scientists Gather at Esri UC to Discuss the Impact of GIS in Future and Present Challenges See more on Esri Insider, Inaugural Esri Science Symposium Crystallizes Community | Esri Insider ... View more

Esri Global Content Challenge! Esri is challenging students all over the world to unleash the power of Esri content by way of their own geographic analyses, visualizations, predictive models and more to tell a compelling scientific story. The story must be presented using the Esri map journal app. We'll point you to the best of our data and our map journal tips and tricks. You do the rest! Judges will select the best map journals to be awarded prizes. Esri will also share the winning map journals on our Collaborative Resource Portal and feature them at Esri’s Federal GIS and Education User Conferences, and Young Professionals Network events. Esri's Global Content Challenge is open to undergraduate or graduate students at colleges or universities, as well as high school students enrolled in an Advanced Placement Human Geography course. Get creative by using Esri's land, ocean, and population premium content libraries to tell compelling stories that bring about understanding and action. Prizes: There will be winners in each of three categories (land, ocean, and population) who will receive: First Place: $10,000 or software equivalent Second Place: $5,000 or software equivalent Third Place: $2,000 or software equivalent Key Dates: August 29, 2016                  Competition opens November 11, 2016            Competition closes at 5:00 PM (PDT) December 5, 2016                         Winners announced ... View more

Many thanks to those of you who attended or expressed interest in our first ever Esri Science Symposium as part of both the UC and the GIS Education conferences. Your presence and participation made for a very stimulating and enjoyable time. Here are some resources to visit: Original landing page and blog post Keynote of Dr. Margaret Leinen, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and President of the American Geophysical Union at http://esriurl.com/sci2016. Her keynote was entitled, “What will be necessary to understand and protect the planet… and us?" Some great photos of the keynoter and the discussion panelists at http://esriurl.com/sciphotos A Twitter stream of reactions during the keynote, discussion panel, audience Q&A, and reception at https://storify.com/deepseadawn/2016-esri-science-symposium Next year we will field a new GIScience panel to respond to a new domain science keynote which will be delivered by Jon Foley, Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, possibly in tandem with his new Chief of Science, Shannon Bennett. ... View more

Special keynote address, discussion panel, and reception to engage and enlighten scientists A special Science Symposium will be held in conjunction with the 2016 Esri Education GIS Conference (EdUC) and Esri User Conference (UC). The Science Symposium will include: A keynote address by Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, current president of the American Geophysical Union, and a US State Department Science Envoy. Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, will deliver the keynote address at the 2016 Esri Science Symposium. A conversational reaction panel moderated by Mike Goodchild (UCSB emeritus) with John Wilson (USC), Marco Painho (U. Nova de Lisboa), Ming Tsou (San Diego State), and Cyrus Shahabi (USC). Audience Q/A and discussion. Networking reception: Enjoy stunning views of the San Diego Harbor, delicious appetizers, and a hosted bar of beer, wine, soft drinks, and bottled water. This new event at the UC and EdUC seeks to “broaden the tent” of participation beyond the traditional geographers and GIScientists, to those working in the domain sciences (e.g., ocean science, hydrology, ecology, forestry, climate science, geology/geophysics, agricultural science, conservation biology, sustainability science and/or geodesign, health sciences, and the social sciences). A further aim is to strengthen the links between Esri and the scientific community while (re)crystallizing a community of scientists at the UC normally scattered throughout the week in disparate sessions. The event will be held Tuesday, June 28 from 3:15-5:30 pm in the Marriott Marina Salons F and G and is open to registered attendees of both the EdUC and UC. For more information contact Esri Chief Scientist Dawn Wright. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego this June! ... View more

Winter is upon us and the best OCEAN models show that this year's El Nino (now in progress) will be one of the biggest in recent memory. Weather and climate are indeed having a bigger and more substantial impact on everyone. Once again, we should not wait for people to ask if GIS can help. There are two new Esri Press books to proactively share insights and practical solutions with your fellow GIS users, to help them visualize, analyze, and mitigate against the impacts of ocean, weather, and climate. Please check out: Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions (including Chapter 5 on how El Nino - which starts in the Pacific Ocean - and similar climate impacts affect us all, and globally) https://medium.com/@Esri/ocean-solutions-earth-solutions-bcc97c1d235b#.3gfokth0s Mapping and Modeling Weather and Climate with GIS http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=271&moduleID=0 Neither of these books are just a science textbook or heavy-duty technical manual. They are both designed to be practical, insightful guidebooks for many different audiences. They both include Python scripts to give readers a starting point in their GIS work. Ocean Solutions... also includes a separate online gallery of additional scripts, data sets, map packages, story maps, and videos to further aid the reader http://esripress.esri.com/bookresources/index.cfm?event=catalog.book&id=14 ... View more

In a prior blog post, I mentioned that for the 2015 Esri Press research monograph Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions, we encouraged the chapter authors to prepare a story map as another way to communicate their work. The story map is a new Esri medium for sharing not only data, photos, videos, sounds, and maps, but for telling a specific and compelling story by way of that content. This is all done with sophisticated cartographic functionality that does not require advanced training in cartography or GIS. Therefore the beauty of Esri story maps is that, depending on the chosen complexity, they can be built in anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, using the free public accounts and data available within ArcGIS Online. Story maps are essentially applications built from web maps which in turn are built from web-accessible data (including OGC WMS, WFS). With the beauty and utility of underlays such as the Esri Ocean Basemap, as well as a small tsunami of ocean content percolating up through free public accounts on ArcGIS Online, and on premium subscription accounts, it’s no wonder that we are seeing an “ocean” of interesting story maps. See the January 2015 webinar An Ocean of Story Maps. A small catalog for your enjoyment is available at An Ocean of Story Maps | ArcGIS Blog ... View more

It is Earth Science Week! Since October 1998, the American Geosciences Institute has organized this national and international event to help the public gain appreciation and understanding of Earth Sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. We want to join in by sharing how ArcGIS brings Earth science information to life for geoscientists, geo-educators, and geomentors to analyze, map, and ultimately share their knowledge with the world. This year’s Earth Science Week theme is “Visualizing Earth Systems”. The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is a vast collection of authoritative and ready-to-use content and a great resource for Earth Science geographic information. For ten of what we think are the most interesting earth science layers and applications in the Living Atlas, see http://blogs.esri.com/esri/esri-insider/2015/10/14/living-atlas-resources-for-earth-science-week-and-beyond/#sthash.IqKs81EY.dpuf ... View more

Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions, a new book from Esri Press, chronicles how more than 50 ocean and coastal science researchers use geographic information system (GIS) tools and other technologies to study, manage, and protect the ocean and precious marine life. “The mantra of the book is essentially that if the ocean is in crisis, the earth is in crisis,” said Esri chief scientist Dawn J. Wright, the book’s editor. “The solutions that we devise to help the ocean will be important in helping the entire Earth.” According to David G. Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a healthy global ocean is critical to human health. And keeping the ocean healthy requires scientifically sound management policies. Developing those policies greatly depends on the knowledge gained from analyzing, modeling, visualizing, and sharing observational data that’s collected via sensors from ships, satellites, gliders, autonomous undersea vehicles, and other platforms. Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions includes 16 peer-reviewed papers presented in chapters that showcase the latest and best ocean and coastal science using spatial analysis and GIS. “All of this data combined, complemented by new GIS analytical and modeling technology and techniques, has provided humanity with a new view of Planet Earth. In doing so, it is becoming easier to recognize and observe the relationship between humanity and the sea,” Gallo wrote in the book’s foreword. Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutionsincludes 16 peer-reviewed papers presented in chapters that showcase the latest and best ocean and coastal science using spatial analysis and GIS. For example, one chapter describes how web GIS applications are being used to study Alaskan fisheries, while other chapters focus on the pivotal role that GIS now plays in managing coastal and marine habitat restoration and studying the effect of climate change on the ocean. Other chapters describe web and mobile mapping apps that help scientists and volunteers monitor and map sightings of marine mammals, such as whales; the creation of a GIS tool to calculate a pollutant exposure risk to oceans from treated wastewater and runoff; and the development of a map viewer to manage Archipiélago de Cabrera National Park in the Balearic Islands of Spain. The book, aimed at professionals in oceanography and marine science and research as well as students in those fields, includes an extensive digital supplement with datasets, geoprocessing workflows, GIS tools, mobile apps, story maps based on Esri Story Map apps, and Python scripts. Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions is the first Esri Press book to use digital object identifiers (DOIs) for citation of both the book and supplementary datasets, which is useful for research and global library cataloging purposes. Esri Press | Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions | VIDEO ... View more

Highlights from 2014 Climate Data for Climate Resilience: Esri's support of the The White House Climate Data Initiative and related resources + the Climate Resilience App Challenge + the Global Disaster Resilience App Challenge Release of The First Ecological Land Units Map of the World Integration of SciPy into ArcGIS. See also the video Python: Working with Scientific Data. Increased use of story maps for science communication and spatial analysis, particularly with the release of the Map Journal app New partnerships on a range of projects, for example with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and into 2015 with the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) And Speaking of 2015... Three new science books from Esri Press: Mapping and Modeling Weather and Climate with GIS, already out, features leading climatologists, meteorologists, and other experts sharing approaches to advance atmospheric and ocean science through GIS. Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions, due out in the summer, is an externally peer-reviewed research monograph based on papers presented at the inaugural Esri Ocean GIS Forum. It is about use-inspired science and realistic solutions for mapping, monitoring and protecting the ocean, hence the entire Earth. It will be the first Esri Press book to employ Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for citation of both chapter text and supplementary datasets (further reading on citations). In addition, GIS Research Methods: Incorporating Spatial Perspectives shows researchers how to incorporate spatial thinking and GIS technology into research design and analysis. It should also be incredibly useful in the classroom. Citizen science taking more center stage, including Esri participation at the inaugural Citizen Science Association Conference, a range of apps to support citizen science projects, and exciting implementations, including at the White House Science Fair. Apps include Collector for ArcGIS, Geoform Web App Template, Survey123, Crowdsource Reporter for Citizen Science, Water Quality Status, My Hazard, and for your own customized apps from scratch, Web App Builder for ArcGIS. The Story Map Crowdsource Builder for citizen science is due for release in December 2015. Continued progress with SciPy and multidimensional scientific datasets including the new Scientific Data Workflows package and the Dimension Explorer. New Python Raster Functions, a curated set of lightweight but powerful tools for on-the-fly image processing and raster analysis in ArcGIS. Available from Esri's open-source community on GitHub. Improvements to both the Ecological Land Units map, as we are currently seeking improved and higher-resolution land cover layers, and to our Global Population Map. See info on Esri's new World Population Estimate layer. To complement the Ecological Land Units, we have begun scoping a new Ecological Marine Units (EMUs) map. An initial advisory includes scientists from the USGS, Duke University, GRID-Arendal, the Marine Conservation Institute, NatureServe, and NOAA. The environmental stratification approach will involve creating an empty, volumetric column-based mesh as a global, spatial reference standard and analytical framework, populating the spatial framework with relevant marine physical environment data including water column variables and seafloor geomorphological features, and clustering the abiotic data into ecologically meaningful, 3D regions represented as volumetric polygons. The EMUs will subsequently be analyzed against species distribution data to assess strength of relationship between distinct abiotic environments and species biogeography. Initial results expected at the end of 2015. Closer integration with R: Stay tuned for more information an open source bridge library on GitHub that will facilitate the passing of data between ArcGIS and R, with an aim toward build a community of people who develop R-based geoprocessing tools that are shared freely and openly, along with sample data. See also this comprehensive video on integrating open source statistical packages with ArcGIS. In addition, see Python: Working with Scientific Data. The open source Esri Geoportal Server continues to be a popular and valuable contribution. The latest version, 1.2.6, includes increased support for the Project Open Data catalog format, various search and publication enhancements, and further integration options with ArcGIS Online/Portal for ArcGIS. You can access the release at github.com/Esri/geoportal-server/wiki. A new site license (also known as the science kit) for standalone research organizations in the US. Many are still unaware of our Visiting Faculty/Sabbatical Program. If considering an extensive time in residence at Esri headquarters, please see these guidelines. Always refer to the main site: esriurl.com/scicomm ... View more

Science at Esri continues to be an exciting initiative where we are concerned with supporting both basic and applied science, while also recognizing that there are many major themes of compelling interest to society that will drive scientific research for the next two decades. Thus we view science as helping us to understand not only how the Earth works, but also how the Earth should look (e.g., by way of geodesign), and how we should look at the Earth (i.e., by way of Earth observation in varying forms and the accompanying data science issues of analysis, modeling, developing and documenting useful datasets for science, interoperating between these datasets and between various approaches). In addition to supporting the science community, we seek to do good science at Esri ourselves, as it underpins much of what we do as an organization. This is helping us to evolve ArcGIS into a comprehensive geospatial platform for science; a platform that supports research project management and collaboration, spatial analysis, visualization, open data, and communication of science, all at multiple scales (i.e., from individual researcher to lab workgroup, to multi-department, multi-university, university-to-agency collaboration, to citizen engagement). You can always track the totality of the Esri science initiative at esriurl.com/scicomm, but in this post I’ll share some highlights from 2014, and as we near the end of 2015′s first quarter, talk about the immediate road ahead. Highlights from 2014 Climate Data for Climate Resilience: Esri’s support of the The White House Climate Data Initiative and related resources + the Climate Resilience App Challenge + the Global Disaster Resilience App Challenge Release of The First Ecological Land Units Map of the World Integration of SciPy into ArcGIS Increased use of story maps for science communication and spatial analysis, particularly with the release of the Map Journal app New partnerships on a range of projects, for example with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project(SCCWRP), the National Ecological Observatory Network(NEON), and into 2015 with the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) And Speaking of 2015… Two new science books from Esri Press: Mapping and Modeling Weather and Climate with GIS, already out, features leading climatologists, meteorologists, and other experts sharing approaches to advance atmospheric and ocean science through GIS. Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions, due out in the late spring, is a peer-reviewed research monograph based on papers presented at the inaugural Esri Ocean GIS Forum. It is about use-inspired science and realistic solutions for mapping, monitoring and protecting the ocean, hence the entire Earth. It will be the first Esri Press book to employ Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for citation of both chapter text and supplementary datasets. Citizen science taking more center stage, including Esri participation at the inaugural Citizen Science Association Conference, a range of apps to support citizen science projects, and including the White House Science Fair. Continued progress with SciPy and multidimensional scientific datasets including the new Scientific Data Workflows package and the Dimension Explorer. Improvements to both the Ecological Land Units map, as we are currently seeking improved and higher-resolution land cover layers, and to our Global Population Map. To complement the Ecological Land Units, we have begun scoping a new Ecological Marine Units (EMUs) map. An initial advisory includes scientists from the USGS, Duke University, GRID-Arendal, the Marine Conservation Institute, NatureServe, and NOAA. The environmental stratification approach will involve creating an empty, volumetric column-based mesh as a global, spatial reference standard and analytical framework, populating the spatial framework with relevant marine physical environment data including water column variables and seafloor geomorphological features, and clustering the abiotic data into ecologically meaningful, 3D regions represented as volumetric polygons. The EMUs will subsequently be analyzed against species distribution data to assess strength of relationship between distinct abiotic environments and species biogeography. Initial results expected at the end of 2015. Closer integration with R: Stay tuned for more information an open source bridge library on GitHub that will facilitate the passing of data between ArcGIS and R, with an aim toward build a community of people who develop R-based geoprocessing tools that are shared freely and openly, along with sample data. A new site license (also known as the science kit) for standalone research organizations in the US. Stay tuned for more information on Esri’s new research grant program to motivate innovative research around the ArcGIS platform by both computer scientists and domain scientists alike. Many are still unaware of our Visiting Faculty/Sabbatical Program. If considering an extensive time in residence at Esri headquarters, please see  these guidelines See more at: http://blogs.esri.com/esri/esri-insider/2015/04/01/esri-and-the-scientific-community-year-in-reviewthe-year-ahead/#more-4718 ... View more

Originally posted on Esri's main blogs.esri.com space by Dave Johnson, Esri Applications Prototype Lab Dimension Explorer, an addin tool for ArcMap, has just been released by the Esri Applications Prototype Lab! Dimension Explorer 1.0 makes it easier to work with time-aware and multidimensional data in ArcMap 10.3 and above by providing slider controls for navigation. It works by retrieving dimensional information from a map layer to build an interactive dimensional model that can be edited and saved in the map document. Dimension Explorer is the successor to the Timeliner addin for ArcMap, which also works in ArcMap 10.3 and can be downloaded here. Click http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=7f9f6185681a4be08f899feb5673a264 to download Dimension Explorer. With the 10.3 release of ArcGIS, the mosaic dataset now supports multidimensional data in NetCDF, GRIB, and HDF format. Dimension Explorer supports map layers based on mosaic datasets and image services which are time-aware or multidimensional, and time-aware feature classes. In terms of data that might be used to test the add-in, try: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Division for multidimensional and time-aware climate datasets in NetCDF format. You’ll have to add the data you download from here into a mosaic dataset in order to use it with the addin. ArcGIS.com: Try any of the image services published by Esri (e.g., Landsat or MODIS). Most of them, if not all, are time-aware. ... View more

Proceedings and videos of the 2014 Esri Ocean GIS Forum are available at: proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/oceans14 and video.esri.com/series/217/2014-esri-ocean-gis-forum. In addition to the excellent papers, maps, apps, and lightning talks presented by over 100 users, the Forum featured: the exciting announcement of the integration of ArcGIS with SciPy, a Python-based ecosystem of open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering the growing world of Ocean Content (Ocean and Arctic Ocean Basemap) demos of the latest Esri offerings in multi-dimensional visualization and analysis bring science into maritime operations, including Common Operating Picture templates for offshore energy, ports, and defense applications The Forum also witnessed the start of the Ocean GIS GeoNet community. This is one great way that YOU can speak to us and to each other. Please feel free to join this community now. All you need is your existing Esri Global Account or you can easily create one (free of charge, no sharing to 3rd parties). Please check it out! We look forward to seeing you on GeoNet. Point your browser to geonet.esri.com/groups/ocean and look to the upper right to join. The 2013 Esri Ocean GIS Forum proceedings are also still available at proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/oceans13. And stay tuned for the imminent release of the peer-reviewed research monograph Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions which is based on those 2013 proceedings and in final preparation by Esri Press. It will be out before the 2015 Esri User Conference. ... View more