Latest Contributions by MarkBooks2

A very well done video that provides a reminder about the people fighting fires and the big picture context. All the more reason to apply technology, as appropriate, to keep everyone safe. With Climate Change, a Terrifying New Normal for Western Firefighters by Daniel Glick and Ted Wood: Yale Environment 360 ... View more

Check out this great story map of the convention's tours, attractions, hotels... http://forestrygis.com/saf2015/   Note, it's less than 6 weeks way. Convention website: http://www.xcdsystem.com/saf/site14/ This story map is also found on the convention website: Home - Program - Scientific & Technical Sessions - Interactive Area Map ... View more

What a great turn out! Thank you to everyone who attended the 2015 Esri UC Forestry Special Interest Group. With over 80 in attendance, we'll need a bigger room next year. A special thank you to all the speakers: Keynote: From Resource to Value Baard Hansen, IT Development Manager, Statskog SF Statskog SF is Norway’s largest landowner, owned by the ministry of agriculture. Its main business areas are forestry and resource management, and property management and development. Statskog SF has over the last 6 years had a strong strategic focus on implementing GIS as a natural part of business decisions and production solutions, and the result from the project ‘From Resource to Value' shows how far Statskog has come with its GIS forestry solutions. This talk will focus on how Statskog succeeded implementing GIS in their organization and will provide an overview of forestry solutions available for the management, planners, partners, entrepreneurs, government, and customers. ArcGIS Pro for Forestry Bruce Harold, Product Manager, Esri ArcGIS Pro tasks are preconfigured steps that interactively guide a user through a specific workflow. Tasks make it easy for users of all GIS experience levels to complete standard workflows—from the simple to complex—and efficiently repeat when needed. Hear about the basic principles and options to design well-authored tasks that can be shared throughout your organization. You will also see how ArcGIS Pro tasks can be used to enforce organizational best practices and act as tutorials for new ArcGIS Pro users. Discovering Resources from a Thriving Forestry GIS Community Mark Books, President, Esri Forestry Group Elizabeth Martinez, Esri Forestry Group Connect with the Esri Forestry Group (EFG) and discover some of the latest developments in GIS for forestry as well as connect with other forestry professionals. Presentations will be fast paced and informative. All of which is aimed to increase your return on investment in GIS for managing your forest. Delivering Timber to Mills Pieter Human, GIS Technology Specialist, Sappi Forests Pieter will focus on the implementation of a fixed cost network analysis that simulates the running cost, potential road upgrade costs and depot (landing) construction costs. This analysis application determines the most cost effective way of delivering timber to the mills. Also determining timber catchments, potential extraction methods and generate a cost report on the felling period. Strategic Forest Planning in the Cloud Elliot Sullivan, Product Manager, Remsoft This lightning talk will provide a demonstration of advances in cloud-based strategic forest planning, powered by Remsoft’s industry-leading modeling platform. Deploying Remsoft technology on the cloud allows named users (planners) to adjust the parameters of a strategic forest model, built with Esri spatial data, and solve this model from within a browser window. Both the schedule and key performance measures can then be analyzed and viewed on a map – via an on premises cloud - or on a graph within the web client. So You Want to Buy a Drone? Ron Behrendt, Managing Director, Behron & Associates This talk focus on assisting new comers to the field of UAVs sift through the many details involved in understanding the various technologies, reviewing the tradeoffs, and identifying key considerations before purchasing a system. Topics discussed include an overview of common UAV subsystems (i.e. airframes, auto-pilots, sensors, etc.), various operating characteristics (i.e. flight duration, launch/retrieval dynamics, field serviceability, etc.), and why GIS is likely an important element of any operational system. Finally, challenges regarding buying a UAV will be summarized with the hope of assisting audience members gain an improved understand of the technologies and trade-offs so as to make better buying decisions ... View more

SAF pre-conference Tech Workshop It's time to register for SAF if you haven't already. Early bird pricing ends Sept. 3. One of many highlights is the Pre-Convention Technology Workshop Tuesday, November 3 ONLY • 8:30am – 4:30pm • Includes lunch $75 with full convention registration or $250 one-day rate Join some of the profession’s leading technology providers and discover emerging trends and equipment to improve effectiveness and efficiency. Learn from case studies, field testing, and direct application to help you determine which platforms and tools may work best for your team. • Review advances in handheld data collectors • Learn the latest with ArcGIS training • Compare and contrast mobile technologies • See new software and apps • Increase your knowledge of geospatial resources • Much more Tech Workshop | Society of American Foresters http://www.xcdsystem.com/saf/site14/1573-2 ... View more

Great example of ensuring forest management meets one of it's foundational objectives - clean water! To do so their are using technology i.e. drones/UAV, to assist in the research. This is a very special place to me. Wishing them success. Davis - Division of Forestry & Natural Resources | Media | West Virginia University A Bold Plan: The Story of WVU and the Salvation of a Historic Home for Brook Trout A team at WVU has been working for a decade with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to examine all of the factors that led to warmer temperatures, a wider and shallower stream and other changes that over time threatened the brook trout productivity of this important natural and economic resource. In this new mini-documentary, you can experience the Shavers Fork story from industrial development to current scientific advances, such as drone technology, that are being used to preserve the brook trout habitat: http://forestry.wvu.edu/media ... View more

BETHESDA, Md., March 2, 2015 – The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) is pleased to announce the release of the new Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data. The new standards are available at: http://www.asprs.org/Standards-Activities.html. The new ASPRS accuracy standards fill a critical need for map users and map makers alike. For centuries, map scale and contour interval have been used as an indication of map accuracy. Users want to know how accurately they can measure different things on a map, and map makers want to know how accurate maps need to be in order to satisfy user requirements. Those contracting for new maps depend on some form of map accuracy standard to evaluate the tradeoff between the accuracy required vs. how much time and expense are justified in achieving it, and then to describe the accuracy of the result in a uniform way that is reliable, defensible, and repeatable. The new ASPRS standards address recent innovations in digital imaging and non-imaging sensors, airborne GPS, inertial measurement units (IMU) and aerial triangulation (AT) technologies. Unlike prior standards, the new standards are independent of scale and contour interval, they address higher levels of accuracies achievable by the latest technologies (e.g. unmanned aerial systems and lidar mobile mapping systems), and they provide enough flexibility to be applicable to future technologies as they are developed. Finally, the new standards provide cross references to older standards, as well as detailed guidance for a wide range of potential applications. No prior U.S. accuracy standard comprehensively addresses the current state of mapping technology, which is why the new ASPRS standards were developed. The National Map Accuracy Standards (NMAS), developed in 1947, are still used because they are simple, but there is no scientific correlation between those standards and current mapping methodologies. The ASPRS 1990 Standards were an improvement over NMAS; however, they did not do well in representing the capabilities of Lidar, orthoimagery, digital mapping cameras or other current technologies in wide-spread use today. The National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy (NSSDA) is a reporting standard that references the old ASPRS 1990 standards and is cross-referenced in the new ASPRS standards.  NSSDA provides no accuracy thresholds and does not by itself provide any new or updated guidance on how to select or specify an appropriate accuracy for intended applications. The new ASPRS standards were developed by the ASPRS Map Accuracy Standards Working Group, a joint committee under the Photogrammetric Applications Division, Primary Data Acquisition Division and Lidar Division, which was formed for the purpose of reviewing and updating ASPRS map accuracy standards to reflect current technologies. A subcommittee of this group, consisting of Dr. Qassim Abdullah, Dr. David Maune, Doug Smith, and Hans Karl Heidemann, was responsible for drafting the document. Draft versions of the standard underwent extensive review, both within ASPRS as well as through public review by other key geospatial mapping organizations, prior to final approval by the ASPRS Board of Directors on November 17, 2014. ... View more

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/15/faa-drone-rule/23440469/ ... View more

Great to see the increase presence of forest management. http://www.esri.com/events/federal Check out the videos at: http://video.esri.com/series/223/2015-esri-federal-gis-conference ... View more

http://uavbusinessandtechnologyreport.com/?p=174 ... View more

http://allafrica.com/stories/201502020436.html By Berhanu Fekade The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is set to assess the country's overall forest coverage with the help of Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing technologies, which are set to be procured from companies based in Germany. See Link for the rest of the article. ... View more

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/the-most-ancient-and-magnificent-trees-from-around-the-world/ss-AA8wtLk?ocid=mailsignout#image=1 Because sometimes, it's good just to end the work week reminded that there are really cool trees out There. One my favorite "ice breaker" - "get to know you" questions is "what is your favorite tree and why?" I have many, but one is the Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) trees in the south , i.e. Oak Alley in LA, The Angel Oak in SC because of their size and structural character. What's yours? This would make a pretty cool story map... ... View more

A great venue to tell your story and demonstrate your expertise and hard work. Notice they are specifically looking for our expertise, i.e."Geospatial Technologies." http://www.xcdsystem.com/saf/site14/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/15-Convention-Call-for-Presentations.pdf Conf. home page: http://www.xcdsystem.com/saf/site14/ Many cool trees there to check out, ie. bald cypress and live oaks... xcdsystem.com xcdsystem.com xcdsystem.com ... View more

Just wanted to share this announcement I received today b/c I have always enjoyed this conference and found it to be worth while. "10th Southern Forestry and Natural Resources Management GIS Conference Athens, Georgia Monday, December 7 - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 Potentially 12 CFE of Logger Education Credits (to be approved) "http://soforgis.net/ http://soforgis.net/  ... View more

Thought this was very interesting and worth sharing. History of American Forests: Tree maps made for 1884 census. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/01/09/history_of_american_forests_tree_maps_made_for_1884_census.html ... View more