Latest Contributions by DawnWright

Recent innovations in information, analyses, and science-policy linkages  can help guide the planet towards a more resilient future. For many of us when we think about the ocean, it’s a situation of “out of sight, out of mind.” In our limited awareness of the ocean, we see only the surface and think only of vast expanses of lifeless water, not realizing all of the complexities at play. In fact, the ocean provides over HALF of the oxygen that we breathe. It regulates ALL of our weather patterns, it feeds us, and it provides for our energy and economy. The ocean is a champion at absorbing human-derived (anthropogenic) CO2. Around half of all carbon dioxide produced by humans since the industrial revolution has dissolved into the world’s oceans. Coastal habitats store five times more carbon than do inland tropical forests. This has all helped to slow global warming. So in reality, the ocean is vital to all of us, no matter WHERE we live. See more on Esri Insider at: http://blogs.esri.com/esri/esri-insider/#sthash.qGGHga2D.dpuf ... View more

The launch of the Esri Ocean GIS initiative during the 2012 Esri User Conference Monday plenary. ... View more

November 5, 2014 – See also http://shar.es/10xyqN Redlands, California—Geography is the science of our world, and GIS is a foundational technology for helping us to better understand that science.  To further strengthen the link between GIS and science, today at the Ocean GIS Forum Esri is pleased to announce the integration of SciPy, a Python-based ecosystem of open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering, with ArcGIS. SciPy is a software library that helps scientists, engineers, and GIS Analysts perform custom scientific and technical computing.  It is an open-source library built using Python—an easy to learn, highly scalable, stable scripting language.  SciPy extends the basic functionality of Python by adding modules which perform functions useful to the scientific and engineering communities. Integrating SciPy with ArcGIS will make developing scientific and technical geoprocessing tools and scripts easier and more efficient; GIS users won’t have to ‘start from scratch’ or ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time they start to solve a scientific or technical problem.  In addition, SciPy / ArcGIS integration will ensure that any custom scientific or technical geoprocessing tools GIS users create are easily sharable among the ArcGIS community of users. A Multitude of Potential Uses The possible applications of SciPy / ArcGIS integration are really only limited by the imagination of the GIS community.  SciPy has so many rich functions that it is hard to image all of the creative spatial problems that GIS users with scientific or engineering domain expertise will be able to tackle, but a few potential examples include: An atmospheric scientist may use the image filtering modules to delineate zones of horizontal transport of water vapor. A transportation geographer may use the Markov chain modules to simulate traffic flow. A geoscientist may use the symbolic mathematics routines to trace faults and model crustal movement. An ocean scientist may use the calculus module to calculate ocean dynamics A fisheries scientist or resource manager may use the linear algebra modules to set a harvest quota for a fish stock. Availability SciPy will be integrated with ArcGIS through a staged release.  It will be available initially for ArcGIS Pro with the 10.3 release as an optional install. At the 10.3.1 release, SciPy will be automatically installed with ArcGIS for Desktop. ——————— IN OTHER NEWS: We will also again be producing a peer-reviewed research monograph based on papers presented at the Forum, and that book (including an e-book) will likely appear in the summer of 2016. If you would like to publish your research in the book despite not participating in the Forum, that would be welcome too. Here is the flyer for the current book —> http://esriurl.com/oceansolutions . Please continue to watch and scroll through our Oceans Resource Center, for additional blog posts on 3D resources and formats, upcoming events, and more. ... View more

From the World Wide Human Geography Data Working Group: "To help combat the spread of the Ebola virus disease, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is providing unprecedented online access to its unclassified geospatial intelligence products to lead federal agencies and their partners through a public-facing website dedicated to the crisis. The dynamic site, which uses Esri's ArcGIS Platform hosted in the cloud by Amazon Web Services - both publically available services - features various base maps that provide foundational context for users, who will then have the ability to visually overlay public NGA data, as well as ingest open-source data. NGA's first exposure of data includes geospatial layers relevant to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, including cultural places and structures, and communication, electric power and ground transportation infrastructure. The team will continue to update the site and will provide layers for the other affected countries soon." See https://nga.maps.arcgis.com/home/ ... View more

Given a recent and successful visit by Geoscience Australia to Esri headquarters, as well as a great visit by Esri staff in return, it is timely to announce the completion of a recent effort in collaboration with Geoscience Australia, as well as UNEP GRID-Arendal and Conservation International: The Geomorphic Seafloor Features Map This story map was a great effort coordinated by Esri intern Troy Lawson, working under Mark Cygan and his MAPS team, as well as Clem Henrickson in Marketing. Thanks to Matt Artz and Steve Snow as well. ... View more

A unique new class at Stanford University ! is BIO 128: Geographic Impacts of Climate Change: Mapping the Stories. The capstone of the course is a terrific story map which they have just released, http://stanford.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingTextLegend/index.html?appid=dafe2393fd2e4acc8b0a4e6e71d0b6d5‌. The map has been sent to CA Governor Jerry Brown at his request, and was originally inspired by requests from the Executive Office in Washington, D.C. and a global scientific consensus statement on climate change (http://consensusforaction.stanford.edu). ... View more

Jack Dangermond will be keynoting at the Second International Conference on CyberGIS and Geodesign (CyberGIS'14) at Esri headquarters, Redlands, CA. The conference (Aug 19-21) will provide a forum for sharing cutting-edge research, education and training experiences ranging from new theories, methods, and applications of cyberGIS and geodesign to related industrial relations and partnerships, and international collaborations. CyberGIS'14 will include an international research symposium that will bring together foremost thinkers, researchers and educators to discuss leading research and education activities in cyberGIS and geodesign as well as related areas. Possible topics include: ·         Python and building geoprocessing tools ·         Big data / Hadoop ·         AGOL content overview/highlights ·         AGOL analysis ·         GeoPortal Server ·         A features/licensing discussion about AGOL for Orgs and Portal for ArcGIS related to academic site licenses. For more information see,http://cybergis.illinois.edu/events/cybergis14/http://cybergis.illinois.edu/events/cybergis14/ ... View more

As was shown at this year's Esri User Conference, ArcMap now incorporates multidimensional data into GIS workflows to further the advancement of science (see Philip Mielke's excellent plenary presentation). This is a very important concept that we at Esri would like re-emphasize. With all the attention and focus on ArcGIS Pro, it is imperative that we do not forget that ArcGIS Pro will not do everything that Desktop can do, and that we continue to improve and enhance Desktop as well. ArcGIS for Desktop is still being enhanced and remains one of our most powerful GIS products (i.e., bigger than an app), providing much of the capability to fuel the ArcGIS platform. Our goal is to ensure a long term commitment to Desktop. ArcGIS Pro is just a complementary application to what our users already know about Desktop. While there are a number of enhancements to Desktop at 10.3, the multidimensional improvements are very important as we seek to advance science, and to position ArcGIS to always focus on advancing geographic information science in particular. Key messages from Philip's demo: In addition to lightweight apps, enhancements abound in the more powerful and comprehensive ArcGIS desktop. Earlier in the morning plenary, the audience saw the new ArcGIS Pro app. But this demo represents a highlight of the powerful ArcMap with ArcGIS for Desktop. Advancing science. Users can consume scientific multidimensional datasets. Users can symbolize them with Vector Field Symbology. The Python Adapter Function gives users the ability to use Python to model their data. Users can animate Time-enabled data in ArcSceneTwo. ... View more

I would like to share an important article written by two of my colleagues, @Konstantin Krivoruchko and @Kevin Butler. This is a must read for those working with DEMs, especially those seeking an additional/alternative DEM-creation approach with considerable explanatory power. To whet your appetite from the article: "Raster based digital elevation models (DEM) are the basis of some of the most important GIS workflows: hydrologic modeling, site suitability, and cost path analysis. While there are several techniques for generating digital elevation models (DEMs), none of them can produce a true elevation surface. Locally varying measurement error and the inexactness of the interpolation methods contribute to the uncertainty of the model’s estimate of the true elevation value. Kriging models and geostatistical simulations available in the Geostatistical Analyst extension for ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop to quantify the spatially varying uncertainty of a DEM derived from lidar data. ... An alternative to deterministic algorithms, probablistic statistical interpolation methods such as kriging, have several advantages over deterministic methods. “Empirical Bayesian Kriging: Implemented in ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst,” an article in the Fall 2012 issue of ArcUser magazine discusses these advantages in detail." To read further and to contact the authors directly, please find the attached. Happy kriging! ... View more

At the 2014 Esri Education User Conference, I was honored to participate in a plenary panel on the future of higher education. Here is the description: EdUC Session description: Sunday, July 13, 2014 Plenary Session II: The Future of Higher Education Scott L. Thomas of Claremont Graduate University presented Sunday's plenary address. Scott is professor and dean of CGU's School of Educational Studies and editor in chief of the Journal of Higher Education. Scott discussed how factors such as public concerns about costs, graduates' career readiness, and educational technology are challenging conventional notions about the university's role and purpose in society. Penn State educator Anthony Robinson and Esri Chief Scientist Dawn Wright joined Scott in a conversation about opportunities to increase awareness of spatial thinking and geospatial technology in this evolving milieu. Scott Thomas’ keynote focused on higher education at the broad, 30,000 foot level of higher education (particularly its high cost and how to remedy that). Anthony Robinson focused on students and the content that we provide to students, especially via MOOCs. In my remarks I’d like to focus on those in the trenches with the students: the instructors, professors, post-docs, even the graduate teaching assistants at colleges and universities worldwide. These remarks may also apply to instructors at the high school level, preparing students to enter college. Access the slides at The Future of Higher Education - Dawn Wright's EdUC plenary slides‌ ... View more

EdUC Session description: Sunday, July 13 Plenary Session II: The Future of Higher Education   Scott L. Thomas of Claremont Graduate University presented Sunday's plenary address. Scott is professor and dean of CGU's School of Educational Studies and editor in chief of the Journal of Higher Education. Scott discussed how factors such as public concerns about costs, graduates' career readiness, and educational technology are challenging conventional notions about the university's role and purpose in society. Penn State educator Anthony Robinson and Esri Chief Scientist Dawn Wright joined Scott in a conversation about opportunities to increase awareness of spatial thinking and geospatial technology in this evolving milieu.     Scott Thomas’ keynote focused on higher education at the broad, 30,000 foot levels of higher education (particularly it’s high cost and how to remedy that). Anthony Robinson focused on students and the content that we provide to students, especially via MOOCs. In my remarks I focus on those in the trenches with the students: the instructors, professors, post-docs, even the graduate teaching assistants at colleges and universities worldwide. These remarks may also be useful to instructors at the high school level, preparing students to enter college. These presentation slides include 2 short papers from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Esri Education Team‌ ... View more

Some very important steps forward for 3D visualization and analysis. Thanks to John Meza for this great post, and right before the UC! ArcGIS Pro in virtualized environments | ArcGIS Blog‌ ... View more