Latest Contributions by DawnWright

Dear Colleague, As an attendee of either the 2018 Esri Education Summit or the 2018 Esri User Conference, you are warmly invited to a special event, the Esri Science Symposium.   When & Where: Tuesday, July 10, 2018 4:00-6:30 pm San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) Ballroom 20 D The 2018 symposium will include the following: A keynote address by Dr. Camilo Mora, University of Hawaii, about some of the most important climate change issues of the day, including deadly heat waves   A follow-up conversation by a reaction panel including Tom Cova, University of Utah; Kellee Koenig, Conservation International; Mark Kumler, University of Redlands; Karen Kemp, University of Southern California; and Amber Wittner, US Geological Survey   Audience Q&A and interactive discussion   Networking reception with delicious appetizers and a hosted bar providing beer, wine, soft drinks, and bottled water   This event seeks to broaden the tent of Esri UC participation—beyond the traditional geographers and GIScientists—to include 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 Esri UC who normally attend disparate sessions throughout the week. Please feel free to share this invitation (including the RSVP link) with others who might be interested. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego this July! Best wishes,   Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist Jack Dangermond, Esri President and CEO   RSVP for the Symposium at esriurl.com/rsvp ... View more

See this important blog post by Orhun Aydin‌ of Esri's Spatial Statistics Team where he describes different means of integrating space into scientific problem solving, with an eye toward generic (non-spatial) machine learning, spatial machine learning, and non-spatial machine learning with geoenriched predictors. The Science of Where in a Warming Planet: Spatial vs Non-Spatial Machine Learning ... View more

Esri Chief Scientist Dawn Wright  is an invited speaker for the 4D Workshop: Deep-time Data Driven Discovery and the Evolution of Earth   The 4-D Workshop will be convened June 4-6, 2018 in Washington DC with sponsorship by NASA, the USGS, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Keck Foundation, the Earth Life Science Institute (Japan), the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Templeton Foundation, and others.    The Senior Advisory Council for the event includes the current President of the National Academy of Sciences (Marcia McNutt), the former president of the National Science Foundation (Rita Colwell), the former corporate vice president of Microsoft (Tony Hey), Chief Data Officer of NOAA Ed Kearns, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Margaret Leinen, Executive Director and CEO of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Christine McEntee, Executive Director of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Erin Robinson.    The objective of the event is to “explore ways to advance our understanding of Earth’s complex co-evolving geosphere and biosphere through the collection, analysis, and visualization of large and growing data resources. It is a prelude to a potential long-term program to invent, modify, and apply emerging methods of data analysis and visualization to elucidate our planet’s past, present, and future. Earth’s evolution has been an intertwined succession of increasingly complex physical, chemical, and biological events. Therefore, 4D’s organizing principal is an integrated approach that will enable humankind to achieve a comprehensive picture of the co-evolution of life and rocks, while collaborating with research teams around the world.”   The workshop results will tie into the Keck- and Sloan-supported Deep-Time Data Infrastructure: (http://dtdi.carnegiescience.edu).    Dawn Wright has been asked to speak at the first plenary session on the second day of the event, on "Artificial intelligence and machine learning for Earth surface data and conservation priorities" (with thanks to Omar Maher, David Gadsden, and Nathan Shephard for materials). She has also been asked to participate in and possibly chair breakout sessions, will be presenting a poster on Esri’s phase 2 of the  Ecological Marine Units, and may be contributing content to the Workshop's White Paper. ... View more

Great new story map originally debuted by Brett Rose of the Esri National Government Sciences Team at the 2018 FedGIS Conference, with dynamic particle tracking and "message-in-a-bottle" functions embedded  What Causes Ocean Currents? A companion story map is  How Ocean Currents Impact the World Thanks to Witold Fraczek‌ for creating these extensive resources! ... View more

Next Phase of an Unprecedented Global “Digital Ocean” Project (aka Ecological Marine Units) by # Esri Chief Scientist DWright-esristaff featured in the May/June issue of Geoconnexion International http://p.ctx.ly/r/7pps   Or see attached ... ... View more

Esri and the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded initiative known as EarthCube have today signed an informal Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). EarthCube was initiated by the NSF in 2011 to "transform geoscience research by developing cyberinfrastructure to improve access, sharing, visualization, and analysis of all forms of geosciences data and related resources." It is also a "quickly growing community of scientists across all geoscience domains, as well as geoinformatics researchers and data scientists."   As Esri Chief Scientist I have been pleased to serve on the EarthCube Liaison Team since 2014 and have built a "Mapping the Landscape" story map for the team which has been presented at several EarthCube-related meetings. We hope that this project will continue and merge with similar efforts at ESIP (Federation of Earth Science Information Partners), AGU (American Geophysical Union), and RDA (Research Data Alliance). The MOA was developed and signed by way of the Liaison Team and joint activities to be pursued include:  mapping the larger geo/ cyberinfrastructure landscape and community (e.g., the story map) and further updating such a “landscape” map with organizations, initiatives, agencies, data facilities, etc., as well as assessing where EarthCube fits into this landscape; semantic search, data mining-based metadata enrichment, persistent identifiers, geo-ontologies, and where possible, Linked Open Data; more efficient access to data once found within searches, including the building of data publishing and geoprocessing services in the cloud to make data more accessible; and removing barriers to data integration and interoperability, error and uncertainty of observations, spatial and temporal gaps in observations, and the related issues of user involvement and capacity building. Toward this end, there will be the free exchange of emails, literature, computer code, and data where appropriate between Esri and the EarthCube community. ... View more

Esri Product Engineers/Data Scientists Shaun Walbridge, Noah Slocum, and Marjean Pobuda led the charge on a new peer-reviewed journal article about the open-source extension from Esri known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). The paper describes the tools provided with the current release of BTM (v 3.0), highlighting powerful analytical workflows that combine ArcGIS with the Python scientific stack (aka SciPy), and the R statistical programming language (including the R-ArcGIS Bridge). BTM is used by scores of researchers around the world, and has been accessible for some time via ArcGIS Online at http://esriurl.com/btm (nearly 7500 views). ABSTRACT: High resolution remotely sensed bathymetric data is rapidly increasing in volume, but analyzing this data requires a mastery of a complex toolchain of disparate software, including computing derived measurements of the environment. Bathymetric gradients play a fundamental role in energy transport through the seascape. Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM) uses bathymetric data to enable simple characterization of benthic biotic communities and geologic types, and produces a collection of key geomorphological variables known to affect marine ecosystems and processes. BTM has received continual improvements since its 2008 release; here we describe the tools and morphometrics BTM can produce, the research context which this enables, and we conclude with an example application using data from a protected reef in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The paper is open access (#openscience) and part of a special issue on Marine Geomorphometry - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences/special_issues/marine_geomorphometry - featuring other studies that use GIS, including ArcGIS, as well. ... View more

Esri Product Engineers/Data Scientists Shaun Walbridge, Noah Slocum, and Marjean Pobuda led the charge on a new peer-reviewed journal article about the open-source extension from Esri known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). The paper describes the tools provided with the current release of BTM (v 3.0), highlighting powerful analytical workflows that combine ArcGIS with the Python scientific stack (aka SciPy), and the R statistical programming language (including the R-ArcGIS Bridge). BTM is used by scores of researchers around the world, and has been accessible for some time via ArcGIS Online at http://esriurl.com/btm (nearly 7500 views). ABSTRACT: High resolution remotely sensed bathymetric data is rapidly increasing in volume, but analyzing this data requires a mastery of a complex toolchain of disparate software, including computing derived measurements of the environment. Bathymetric gradients play a fundamental role in energy transport through the seascape. Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM) uses bathymetric data to enable simple characterization of benthic biotic communities and geologic types, and produces a collection of key geomorphological variables known to affect marine ecosystems and processes. BTM has received continual improvements since its 2008 release; here we describe the tools and morphometrics BTM can produce, the research context which this enables, and we conclude with an example application using data from a protected reef in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The paper is open access (#openscience) and part of a special issue on Marine Geomorphometry - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences/special_issues/marine_geomorphometry - featuring other studies that use GIS, including ArcGIS, as well. ... View more

The  Learn ArcGIS team is pleased to announce the release of a new Learn lesson featuring Ecological Marine Units data: Predict Seagrass Habitats with Machine Learning Seagrasses are an important ally in combatting global warming—these coastal marine plants sequester vast amounts of carbon dioxide. When compared to terrestrial tropical forests, they can store up to 100 times more CO2 per acre. In addition, seagrasses have a large economic value: they provide shelter for marine life such as invertebrates, fish and sea turtles, making them important for local fishing economies. The roots help anchor sediment to the seafloor, decreasing the impact of storms and stopping erosion from affecting coastal homes and businesses. Understanding the habitat of this species is important to drive conservation efforts and map out areas where they disappear due to human interaction. You are a marine ecologist who wants to model suitable locations for seagrass habitats around the world. Though you only have seagrass data for a small region of Florida, luckily seagrasses tend to grow in similar ocean conditions in coastal areas around the world. Using the predictive powers of a machine learning model along with the spatial analysis capabilities of ArcGIS Pro, you’ll find suitable locations for seagrass growth globally. First, you’ll create a training dataset with all the ocean variables that influence seagrass growth. Then, you’ll put the variables into Python and use a random forest prediction model to determine where the ocean conditions support seagrass growth. Finally, you’ll save the prediction results as a feature class and import it into ArcGIS Pro to find where the highest density of growth is likely to occur. Skills: Manipulating and cleaning data, Loading machine learning libraries into ArcGIS Pro, Enriching data to fill missing values, Transferring data between ArcGIS Pro and Python, Performing analysis in Python, Performing prediction using random forests, Using geoprocessing tools for statistical analysis. Thanks to Orhun Aydin‌, Marjean Pobuda‌, Keith VanGraafeiland, and Kathy Cappelli for their excellent work in developing this lesson. ... View more

WARNING: Last Jedi Spoiler Alert! This is a re-posting of a blog piece by Lou Woodley, Community Engagement Specialist for AAAS's Trellis Science and Program Director of AAAS Community Engagement Fellows. I have posted it here because of the many helpful parallels to GeoNet. 5 things The Last Jedi reminds us about community management by Lou Woodley 1. Get to know – and work with – your biggest advocates As any community manager knows, your community is made up of members with different personalities and activity levels. Your job is to create and maintain a space where they can work constructively together towards a common vision. There’s been much criticism of Poe in The Last Jedi – the headstrong hero who’s so passionate about fighting for the rebellion that he’s prepared to be increasingly rash in his actions, whatever the cost. But most facilitators of well-established communities will recognise at least one Poe in their midst – the regular contributor who reliably dives in to every single one of the discussion threads, or who happily tells you and anyone else on the Internet who’ll listen how you’ve ruined everything with your latest product update/marketing campaign/editorial the minute it disappoints him. Poe’s really a super-user out-of-control – someone who cares so much about the community that his actions ultimately become destructive and detrimental to it. While one response to this as a community manager is to regulate and respond after the fact via the enforcement of community guidelines, an alternative response is to attempt to head off the unconstructive behavior in the first place. Getting to know your super-users via check-ins, structured advocacy programs and other channels for regular feedback can help them to feel empowered but with their energy directed towards things of benefit to the overall community. 2. Communicate clearly and often with all of your community stakeholders – not just in times of crisis One of the most desperate moments in The Last Jedi is towards the end when the rebels are hiding out in their formerly abandoned base, waiting to hear of any offers of help from outside allies – and not a single one comes. A big danger for those running hosted communities is getting so engrossed in the day-to-day work with community members that they neglect to keep other stakeholders up-to-date about the community plans and progress. Just because your senior management or funder is not yet regularly active in the community, don’t forget to keep them updated about how things are going with their investment. Maybe that requires educating them about community lifecycle models and what to expect over the coming months – rather than defensively attempting to justify why communities take time to flourish. Start that dialogue before you hit a crisis when you need money for a software upgrade or when community members are giving difficult feedback that needs a meaningful response. Likewise, while you may be in the habit of celebrating your community members and their activities within your community, don’t forget to let the outside world know about the great work your community is doing too. This can be a source of new community members, as well as building reputation for your community within its niche, maintaining it as the place to be. Depending on the community and your wider audience you might do this through a blog, periodic press releases and news stories, industry commentaries or social media. 3. Don’t get distracted by your origin stories – leadership should evolve Origin stories are an important part of community culture – they create a shared narrative for the community, helping to initiate new members into what the community is for and reinforcing a sense of belonging for existing members. They can essentially be shorthand for some of your community values. But they can also become the target of embellishments and/or be deployed in service of an individual’s personal goals – resulting in the creation of cult hero figures within the community and a growing sense of disenfranchisement among members. This is one of the themes The Last Jedi tackles in multiple places – from unpicking the heroic reputation of Luke Skywalker in Jedi history (and how that contrasts to his tortured reality following failure to successfully mentor Kylo Ren) to Rey exploring whether she really needs a “royal lineage” to be worthy of contributing as a Jedi. Related to this, the initial founders and/or leaders of a community should never assume that they’re going to stay in that role forever. A healthy community thinks about succession early, and makes way for new inputs and new leadership to arise. The Last Jedi is a pivotal point in the history of the resistance because it sees the old leadership and hero figures – Luke, Leah (and to some extent the daredevil behaviour of characters such as Poe), moving aside or being pushed aside, to make way for a necessary rebirth. 4. Use your powers with kindness – and examine your motivations regularly One of the most striking scenes in the Last Jedi is Kylo Ren ordering the slaughter of Luke Skywalker by directing all of the Empire’s firepower onto the lone figure standing unarmed in front of the rebel base. Looking increasingly maniacal, Ren is over-run by his hatred to destroy the person he sees as his greatest enemy, prompting even his colleague, Hux, to declare “Enough!” We’ve all seen a variant of this online – discussions that rapidly escalate without any kindness where polarization of beliefs seemingly justifies inhumane behaviour. As community managers we have the ability to create spaces where we can influence the social norms in a variety of ways – from modeling good behaviour and rewarding constructive contributions to punishing bad behaviour by implementing the consequences of our community guidelines. It’s important at every stage to examine our own motivations to ensure that we’re behaving fairly and proportionately in our responses. The related lesson in The Last Jedi is that breaking the community guidelines doesn’t always have to result in outright expulsion from the community (although of course, in some situations that is necessary). Sometimes deploying kindness and seeking cautious forgiveness and reintegration is an appropriate response to mistakes – something that has to be decided based on the circumstances and individuals involved. For initially disobeying orders during a mission, Poe is demoted. But desperate and dissatisfied with new leader Holdo’s seeming lack of action, Poe then leads an outright mutiny. And yet, tellingly, the response of a recovered Leah and Holdo is to restrain and restrict Poe, without outright banishing him, knowing that he still brings something to the resistance. It’s going to be very interesting to see how his role as “difficult community member” evolves in the next Star Wars installment! 5. You don’t get to define the community’s vision alone – it gets co-created by community members One of the ways we define a community is a group of people with a shared vision and thus shared sense of belonging. The key word here is shared. It’s not up to the community manager or their organisation or even a funder to define the ultimate vision for a community – it’s something that has to be evolved as a process between members of the community, including the community manager. What this also allows is for members to step up or step back as their circumstances require, making for a fluid set of interactions. Different people have the capacity and desire to step up at different times – and different community members will be at different stages of commitment to the community and with slightly different interests. Can you create a space that’s flexible enough to accommodate that? This is illustrated in The Last Jedi through the continual relighting and sharing of the beacon of hope throughout the film. Faced with impending failure, Finn loses all hope and attempts to flee in an escape pod – yet later in the film he’s the one championing the fight from the rebel base. Rey persists in persuading Luke to teach her about the Force, while at the same time confused and questioning its role in her life. Even fearless Leah loses hope at the lack of response to her call for help, then the crystal foxes point out a possible exit route. No single character is responsible for the survival of the resistance – Poe doesn’t save them all in an act of heroic violence, Holdo’s plan for escape partially fails, Rey doesn’t dissuade Kylo from his plan, Leah doesn’t draw in any external allies, Luke doesn’t physically defeat Ren in a grand showdown… It’s their collective inputs and how they play off one another that ultimately move them towards a chance of survival – the incremental tick, tick, tick of progress rather than a single, grand gesture. And to me that’s why the final scene with the boy wearing Rose’s ring with the rebel insignia is really about the role of community in the continuation of the rebellion and all it stands for – whatever its next iteration. Yes, the child is playing with a figure of Luke, but Luke’s role as a returned hero is just the visible face of a much bigger story that any community manager knows – your community is what it is because of the contributions of everyone in it. ... View more

WARNING: Last Jedi Spoiler Alert! This is a re-posting of a blog piece by Lou Woodley, Community Engagement Specialist for AAAS's Trellis Science and Program Director of AAAS Community Engagement Fellows. I have posted it here because of the many helpful parallels to GeoNet. 5 things The Last Jedi reminds us about community management by Lou Woodley 1. Get to know – and work with – your biggest advocates As any community manager knows, your community is made up of members with different personalities and activity levels. Your job is to create and maintain a space where they can work constructively together towards a common vision. There’s been much criticism of Poe in The Last Jedi – the headstrong hero who’s so passionate about fighting for the rebellion that he’s prepared to be increasingly rash in his actions, whatever the cost. But most facilitators of well-established communities will recognise at least one Poe in their midst – the regular contributor who reliably dives in to every single one of the discussion threads, or who happily tells you and anyone else on the Internet who’ll listen how you’ve ruined everything with your latest product update/marketing campaign/editorial the minute it disappoints him. Poe’s really a super-user out-of-control – someone who cares so much about the community that his actions ultimately become destructive and detrimental to it. While one response to this as a community manager is to regulate and respond after the fact via the enforcement of community guidelines, an alternative response is to attempt to head off the unconstructive behavior in the first place. Getting to know your super-users via check-ins, structured advocacy programs and other channels for regular feedback can help them to feel empowered but with their energy directed towards things of benefit to the overall community. 2. Communicate clearly and often with all of your community stakeholders – not just in times of crisis One of the most desperate moments in The Last Jedi is towards the end when the rebels are hiding out in their formerly abandoned base, waiting to hear of any offers of help from outside allies – and not a single one comes. A big danger for those running hosted communities is getting so engrossed in the day-to-day work with community members that they neglect to keep other stakeholders up-to-date about the community plans and progress. Just because your senior management or funder is not yet regularly active in the community, don’t forget to keep them updated about how things are going with their investment. Maybe that requires educating them about community lifecycle models and what to expect over the coming months – rather than defensively attempting to justify why communities take time to flourish. Start that dialogue before you hit a crisis when you need money for a software upgrade or when community members are giving difficult feedback that needs a meaningful response. Likewise, while you may be in the habit of celebrating your community members and their activities within your community, don’t forget to let the outside world know about the great work your community is doing too. This can be a source of new community members, as well as building reputation for your community within its niche, maintaining it as the place to be. Depending on the community and your wider audience you might do this through a blog, periodic press releases and news stories, industry commentaries or social media. 3. Don’t get distracted by your origin stories – leadership should evolve Origin stories are an important part of community culture – they create a shared narrative for the community, helping to initiate new members into what the community is for and reinforcing a sense of belonging for existing members. They can essentially be shorthand for some of your community values. But they can also become the target of embellishments and/or be deployed in service of an individual’s personal goals – resulting in the creation of cult hero figures within the community and a growing sense of disenfranchisement among members. This is one of the themes The Last Jedi tackles in multiple places – from unpicking the heroic reputation of Luke Skywalker in Jedi history (and how that contrasts to his tortured reality following failure to successfully mentor Kylo Ren) to Rey exploring whether she really needs a “royal lineage” to be worthy of contributing as a Jedi. Related to this, the initial founders and/or leaders of a community should never assume that they’re going to stay in that role forever. A healthy community thinks about succession early, and makes way for new inputs and new leadership to arise. The Last Jedi is a pivotal point in the history of the resistance because it sees the old leadership and hero figures – Luke, Leah (and to some extent the daredevil behaviour of characters such as Poe), moving aside or being pushed aside, to make way for a necessary rebirth. 4. Use your powers with kindness – and examine your motivations regularly One of the most striking scenes in the Last Jedi is Kylo Ren ordering the slaughter of Luke Skywalker by directing all of the Empire’s firepower onto the lone figure standing unarmed in front of the rebel base. Looking increasingly maniacal, Ren is over-run by his hatred to destroy the person he sees as his greatest enemy, prompting even his colleague, Hux, to declare “Enough!” We’ve all seen a variant of this online – discussions that rapidly escalate without any kindness where polarization of beliefs seemingly justifies inhumane behaviour. As community managers we have the ability to create spaces where we can influence the social norms in a variety of ways – from modeling good behaviour and rewarding constructive contributions to punishing bad behaviour by implementing the consequences of our community guidelines. It’s important at every stage to examine our own motivations to ensure that we’re behaving fairly and proportionately in our responses. The related lesson in The Last Jedi is that breaking the community guidelines doesn’t always have to result in outright expulsion from the community (although of course, in some situations that is necessary). Sometimes deploying kindness and seeking cautious forgiveness and reintegration is an appropriate response to mistakes – something that has to be decided based on the circumstances and individuals involved. For initially disobeying orders during a mission, Poe is demoted. But desperate and dissatisfied with new leader Holdo’s seeming lack of action, Poe then leads an outright mutiny. And yet, tellingly, the response of a recovered Leah and Holdo is to restrain and restrict Poe, without outright banishing him, knowing that he still brings something to the resistance. It’s going to be very interesting to see how his role as “difficult community member” evolves in the next Star Wars installment! 5. You don’t get to define the community’s vision alone – it gets co-created by community members One of the ways we define a community is a group of people with a shared vision and thus shared sense of belonging. The key word here is shared. It’s not up to the community manager or their organisation or even a funder to define the ultimate vision for a community – it’s something that has to be evolved as a process between members of the community, including the community manager. What this also allows is for members to step up or step back as their circumstances require, making for a fluid set of interactions. Different people have the capacity and desire to step up at different times – and different community members will be at different stages of commitment to the community and with slightly different interests. Can you create a space that’s flexible enough to accommodate that? This is illustrated in The Last Jedi through the continual relighting and sharing of the beacon of hope throughout the film. Faced with impending failure, Finn loses all hope and attempts to flee in an escape pod – yet later in the film he’s the one championing the fight from the rebel base. Rey persists in persuading Luke to teach her about the Force, while at the same time confused and questioning its role in her life. Even fearless Leah loses hope at the lack of response to her call for help, then the crystal foxes point out a possible exit route. No single character is responsible for the survival of the resistance – Poe doesn’t save them all in an act of heroic violence, Holdo’s plan for escape partially fails, Rey doesn’t dissuade Kylo from his plan, Leah doesn’t draw in any external allies, Luke doesn’t physically defeat Ren in a grand showdown… It’s their collective inputs and how they play off one another that ultimately move them towards a chance of survival – the incremental tick, tick, tick of progress rather than a single, grand gesture. And to me that’s why the final scene with the boy wearing Rose’s ring with the rebel insignia is really about the role of community in the continuation of the rebellion and all it stands for – whatever its next iteration. Yes, the child is playing with a figure of Luke, but Luke’s role as a returned hero is just the visible face of a much bigger story that any community manager knows – your community is what it is because of the contributions of everyone in it. ... View more