Latest Contributions by BrianBaldwin

UPDATES AS OF: December 17th, 2024 HAZUS? X-Tools? GeoRAS? That picture of Jerry Garcia when you typed 'jerry' in a new edit session? We would like to know what add-ons/plugins are preventing you from moving to ArcGIS Pro from ArcMap. The goal of this post/blog is to record and track the add-ons/plugins that the education community has let us know are a roadblock for moving to ArcGIS Pro. In the comments - please let us know about other add-ons that are not on the list and we will work to update the main post. The goal for this post is not to discuss ArcMap/ArcGIS Pro features/functions... that is taking place in many other locations, we want to hear about add-ons, etc. Lastly - almost all of the organizations that are managing or building these plugins have contact forms and message boards. Please use these avenues to let these teams/individuals know about your need for an ArcGIS Pro version. New edit session... type 'j-e-r-r-y'... amazing. HAZUS What/Functionality Hazus is a nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains models for estimating potential losses from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Who FEMA Where https://msc.fema.gov/portal/resources/hazus Latest Supported Version ArcGIS Pro Current Plans HAZUS 7 released - which supports ArcGIS Pro   HEC-GeoRAS What/Functionality Hydraulic engineering software Who Army Corps of Engineers Where https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-georas/ Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.2 Current Plans "HEC will no longer test and verify newer versions of HEC-GeoRAS that is compatible with versions of ArcGIS that are newer than Version 10.2.1." We would recommend that you look at the current functionality in Arc Hydro, which offers selected functionality that is comparable. You can download Arc Hydro for free from here: https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/water-resources/arc-hydro/downloads#arc-hydro-for-arcgis-pro   Community Viz What/Functionality Urban, city, regional planning Who Texas A&M Where https://communityviz.com/ Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.8 Current Plans "CommunityViz for Pro, 2025 release date."   ArcSWAT What/Functionality Soil and water assessment tool Who Texas A&M (TAMU), USDA Where https://swat.tamu.edu/software/arcswat/ Latest Supported Version ArcGIS Pro Current Plans Beta is currently released and available.   TBEST (Transit Boardings Estimation and Simulation Tool) What/Functionality TBEST, or Transit Boardings Estimation and Simulation Tool, represents an effort to develop a multi-faceted GIS-based modeling, planning and analysis tool which integrates socio-economic, land use, and transit network data into a unique platform for scenario-based transit ridership estimation and analysis. Who Florida Department of Transportation, University of South Florida Where https://tbest.org/ Latest Supported Version TBEST 5.0 - supports ArcGIS Pro Current Plans Released TBEST 5.0 that supports ArcGIS Pro. Refer to the 'What's New' documentation here.   X-Ray What/Functionality Schema and geodatabase design Who Esri Where Old Blog: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-desktop/mapping/x-raying-your-arcmap-documents/ Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.8.2 Current Plans Please see the schema reporting tools that are now included as part of ArcGIS Pro: Generate a schema report   DSAS (Digital Shoreline Analysis System) What/Functionality Calculating shoreline change Who USGS Where https://www.usgs.gov/centers/whcmsc/science/digital-shoreline-analysis-system-dsas#overview  Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.4 - 10.7 Current Plans There is a new (6.0) release of DSAS that is 'GIS agnostic' - there is a documented workflow for importing GeoJSON files and working within ArcGIS Pro.   MGET (Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools) What/Functionality Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET) is a free, open-source geoprocessing toolbox that can help you solve a wide variety of marine research, conservation, and spatial planning problems. Who Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab - Duke University Where https://mgel.env.duke.edu/mget/  Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.8 Current Plans "We anticipate that we will eventually release a version of MGET for 64-bit Python 3.x that will be compatible with ArcGIS Pro. However, the work required for this is nontrivial. In early 2023, we were approached by a funder who was willing to underwrite this effort. Discussions are ongoing and we hope to have an update on this initiative later in 2023."   gSSURGO - Soil Data Development Toolbox What/Functionality It allows users to create on-demand thematic maps of soil properties or interpretations with controls for aggregation method and depth. Who USDA Where https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/gridded-national-soil-survey-geographic-database-gnatsgo#guidance  Latest Supported Version ArcMap 10.3.x Current Plans "... they are currently updating the Soil Data Development Toolbox to ArcGIS Pro... hopefully be released later this year."   Others...? If there are items that are not included on this list that are a must have, with functionality that is not found in ArcGIS Pro or the suite of current extensions, please let us know. Again - almost all of the organizations that are managing or building these plugins/add-ons have contact forms and message boards. Please use these avenues to let these teams/individuals know about your need for an ArcGIS Pro version. ... View more

Authors: @JosephKerski, @CanserinaKurnia, @BrianBaldwin  Evolutions in technology give us time to reflect and reconsider—what lessons should I retain? What content should I delete?  What have I always wanted to include? It’s an appropriate time to think about your program, course, and unit goals—what do you actually want to accomplish?   When you are getting ready to move to a new city, do you pack up your old broken blender? Do you bring the CD-ROM full of Census data from 1998? Over the years, your needs have changed… and so have your students. While it rings true for a move to a new house or apartment, it’s the same for GIS! With the impending retirement of ArcMap – it’s an opportunity to look at your ‘move’ as not just a migration to ArcGIS Pro, but a shift to a new modality of teaching GIS. A GIS that shifts from a disconnected desktop to a cloud-based platform that includes web applications, web services, mobile tools, real-time data, AI, hosted imagery, scripting, coding, etc. To return to our moving analogy for a minute… are you still going to sign up for a land line at your new apartment? Considering the main tool  for introductory courses Building on the above modality shift, we want to make the case that ArcGIS Online, and its associated Instant Apps, data services, StoryMaps, mapping, and spatial analysis capabilities make it quite suitable for an introductory course in GIS.  We the authors of this essay have done this in our own courses and so have many professors in universities, and in community, technical, and tribal colleges.    In fact, with the recent migration of raster analysis and additional vector analysis tools, even the second course in GIS can also be wholly taught using ArcGIS Online. By encouraging students to use web-based applications or StoryMaps during face-to-face courses, in videos, or during discussions in online courses, they can help serve as assessment tools for faculty. Equally as important, with fewer tools than in ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online allows students to easily grasp the capabilities of these tools and get excited about the possibilities that GIS holds for their own futures, without a steep learning curve.  Furthermore, there are fewer technology challenges with ArcGIS Online, especially important to students who are new to GIS. Students can run a web browser on any device, with nothing to install, and no virtualization tools to run.   Current events such as wildfires or flooding can be easily added as real-time layers. One benefit of the hosted nature of ArcGIS Online, is that assignments and modules can be embedded easily into Learning Management Systems.  ArcGIS Online is also the perfect tool for your colleagues in other disciplines (sociology, history, biology, mathematics, and others) to introduce spatial perspective in their own courses. Use Available Lessons & Labs Many of us became instructors because we enjoy creating and customizing curriculum for specific courses and programs.  If you are keen on migrating some of your existing ArcMap lessons to ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, and other tools, we (authors of this essay) have done it and so can you – we will support you.   However, as an instructor, you have a choice of either creating your own lessons or using existing ones.  There is no shortage of existing lessons, ranging from the ArcGIS Learn library and Esri Virtual Academy to shared higher education resources (such as GeoTech Center and iGETT), Esri and university MOOCs, and many others. The point is: you don’t need to create everything yourself.  Think about the best way to spend your time – some weeks, it might be better spent on the reflections and discussions that you add to a course rather than spending 20 hours developing a lesson, 95% of the contents of which is already created and curated by Esri or another library. There is no shame in using a lesson that someone else created in sections of your courses or programs. How can I keep up when the technology changes so quickly? This is a sentiment we hear all of the time – and many of us feel the same way. Rather than fight an uphill battle against the tide of technology, you need to move with the current. If the topic is real-time data, or mobile tools, Esri is constantly building out lessons and resources that can be used as introductory material. These provide ‘step by step’ instructions to get students familiar with the technology – the benefit being that you don’t need to create screenshots or build guides.  And in the future, these lessons will be updated, which can free your time to improve other components of your courses and programs. If you screen to excess and make your lessons consequently long, you will remain in a continuous cycle of having to update and curate your lessons.  Please, don’t do this!  Rather, spend less time updating curriculum, and use that new-found time to create new curricular ideas, teaching techniques, and furthering your own research. Close The significant changes in GIS honestly provide an opportunity to re-think and re-imagine the goals and purpose of your courses. Yes, the times… they are a changing, but you aren’t on your own. There are a wide array of lessons, resources, guides, and tutorials available that cover many of these new topics. Others have already done it and we are here to help as well. While it might be bittersweet to leave the rotary phone behind in your old apartment, I promise you, your new place has great WIFI.             ... View more

The latest update of ArcGIS Online just went live last week and there are many blogs related to the update. If you want to read about all of the details, I highly recommend the ‘What’s New’ blog by Bernie. The help documentation also includes a full list of the new functionality that can be found here: What’s New - ArcGIS Online Help  The goal of this short blog is to dive into a couple of the updates that I found to be the most relevant for the education community. The topics I am going to review include: Administration – delete users, review storage, and accessibility improvements Data Pipelines – new data ‘magic wand’ tool for ArcGIS Online Raster Analysis – raster functions in MapViewer Administration The latest release includes a couple of enhancements that should help out administrators, specifically related to deleting users, reviewing storage, and accessibility. Related to user deletion, there are now tools built into the member administration panel that allow for transferring content and managing group membership, which were two of the sticking points that would prevent user deletion. Also, if a user has licenses, they will simply be removed when they are deleted (the licenses will be freed up).     Each ArcGIS Online organization comes with a Standard Feature Data Store by default. This storage is capped at 500GB and some very active organizations are starting to fill up that space. Under the Overview page, the % of storage used is now displayed, and you have the ability to click on ‘Feature Data Store’ to generate an item report.     Lastly, a number of accessibility enhancements were added to Instant Apps and ArcGIS Dashboards to better support screen readers and keyboard shortcuts. Data Pipelines As I have mentioned many times – a modern GIS is about data as services. While this might be true, the ability to work directly with services and create real-time/synced data feeds still requires an ability to work with APIs and scripts. The alternative is to download snapshots of data from an open data website and then republish it. For making this workflow so much more accessible, this is the update that I am the most excited about. Basically, Data Pipelines is a magic wand that helps you pull 3rd party data into ArcGIS Online. The full details can be found on the blog here: Introducing Data Pipelines The short video that I included here, shows how I used an API from the NYC Open Data website, to generate a feature layer of 311 calls. After generating the feature, I could then create a separate Data Pipeline to provide updates to the service. Users can also share their Data Pipeline items with other users, modify them, etc. Raster analysis in the map viewer Lastly, this latest update of ArcGIS Online brings raster functions to the map viewer, in addition to the existing 24 analysis tools. There are 155 raster functions to choose from, and even more when using the raster function templates.   Additionally, there is a new workflow available to work with the raster function editor to create raster function templates as an item in ArcGIS Online.  A new dimension slider tool has also been included for those working with multidimensional data, allowing for improved visualization and animation capabilities. To learn more about these updates, visit the blog post What’s New in ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online. Close As always - if you have any questions or thoughts on the updates, please let us know! I for one would love to see some new 'Data Pipeline' items start appearing in ArcGIS Online. ... View more

Modern GIS is about dynamic, real-time data. Static data is important… but there should be more focus on skills and experience with ‘living’ datasets. When I looked around for datasets to test; querying, visualizing, analyzing, and archiving real-time air quality data sounded like a good plan to me. If you are not familiar with PurpleAir – they build air quality sensors that private and public entities have deployed across the globe. They also provide an API that lets users send data requests to poll their sensors. In this blog – I wanted to run through how I configured ArcGIS Velocity to read the PurpleAir API and then built a dashboard from the data feed (along with historical information!) that can then be combined with your own data, or anything in the Living Atlas. In my short example – I wanted look at real-time air quality and pull in historical redlining data. Then, I added US Census American Community Survey (ACS) data related to poverty. Overall, the ease of use of the ArcGIS Velocity feed configuration, as well as the amazing documentation in the PurpleAir API (as well as the wealth of data) made this a really fun project. PurpleAir Maps and Data First off, thanks to the folks at PurpleAir for their great API and sensors. I have no affiliation with PurpleAir other than an interest in getting their data mapped! The PurpleAir website includes a map to explore sensor locations and data fields.  The map shows all of the sensors that have been marked as ‘public’, thereby letting anyone see the data getting captured across the world for all of these sensors… it’s an amazing dataset. Based on the PurpleAir documentation, these sensors are recording data every 2 minutes for attributes like air quality, temperature, humidity, etc. (for the full list, just refer to the API documentation). Here are a couple screen shots from the PurpleAir map: Vietnam...   Bosnia...   California... PurpleAir API – Getting Started To get started, you need to send an e-mail request to PurpleAir for an API Key – once you have a key, you can send READ and WRITE requests to the API. You’ll need an API key to do anything going forward from here. The first thing that I needed to do (the best practice in the API), was to create a group, and then add sensors to that group. In that way, I could send one request to poll multiple sensors. In my use case, I wanted to get all of the data for New Haven, CT sensors.   After creating the group (which will generate a unique ID for your group, write this down!), you then need to add sensors to that group. To get the sensor_index for the sensors you are interested in (for a specific geography), you first need to send a request over to the ‘sensors’ API – I ended up using ‘nwlng, nwlat, selng, selat’ to define a bounding box for New Haven.   Here are the bounding box parameters, so you can return the sensor_index IDs for the sensors you actually care about.   After you have your sensor_index values, you can then add them to your group. You can do this using the ‘Create Member’ POST request. You just need to send over your new group ID and the sensor_index values.   Now, we are ready to build your request to poll the sensors! Building the Sensor Data Request We already created a group and added sensors to it, so now we can use the ‘groups’ API to send 1 request and retrieve data for all of the members of that group. I hope you remembered your group ID!   There are a lot of different attributes that you can return, so make sure you select only those fields that you need, to keep the request more compact. You will end up creating a comma separated list of fields that you want to send over in the request. In my example, I wanted to poll for these fields:       name, model, hardware, location_type, private, latitude, longitude, altitude, position_rating, uptime, last_seen, last_modified, date_created, humidity, temperature, pressure, pm2.5_alt, pm2.5_alt_a, pm2.5_alt_b, pm2.5         Diving into ArcGIS Velocity Esri offers 2 different software solutions for real-time data, ArcGIS GeoEvent Server and ArcGIS Velocity. You can read more about both solutions in the links above. The biggest difference between the 2, is that ArcGIS Velocity is a SaaS solution, whereas GeoEvent Server part of an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. In my opinion, Velocity is also a bit easier to configure and get up and running. If you want to learn more about Velocity, or getting started with it, there are some great resources here. The rest of this blog will walk through the PurpleAir configuration. In ArcGIS Velocity, we are going to create a ‘feed’ with the PurpleAir API (with the request we have already built out). ArcGIS Velocity includes a wide-range of different feed types, for the PurpleAir API, we need to use the ‘Web and Messaging’ type.   This feed type provides a lot of different options and it’s where you can configure requests to a wide-array of APIs. To poll the PurpleAir API, we will use the ‘HTTP Poller’.   Since we have already know the parameters for our API request, we just need to put them in the right places in the Velocity UI. This includes the URL, the ‘fields’, and the API key.   If the request worked, you’ll get a response back that looks something like this:   The one issue with this response, is that all of the data for the sensors is found in the ‘data’ field that was returned. This is a place where Velocity makes this really easy. All you need to do is enter in the ‘Root node’ (‘data’ in this case), and then click ‘Derive schema’ to update the field definition. To make it easier to use your data, you can also provide field names that will be applied in the feature service.   If you set names for your fields, it will be easier for you as you assign the key fields, notably the XY, datetime, and your unique ID.   Then we set the interval to send the requests. Make sure that you don’t crush the API with requests! Keep the requests at something reasonable.   Lastly, give your feed a name and specify if you want to create a feature layer to host all of the observations.   Let’s Map this Stuff! The last step is simply building out an ArcGIS Dashboard to display all of your data. In my example, I combined the real-time data with some additional layers from the Living Atlas to provide more context. The one spot that I have been tripped up before, is getting the serial chart to display historical values. Here's a short video that shows some of the settings.   That's it! Thanks again to the PurpleAir team for their great documentation and API. Check out their API documentation here: PurpleAir API. As always - if you have any questions, or if you get something built out, I'd love to see it. ... View more