2011 Agenda at Glance

Local Government Information Model in Action
Presenter: Christopher Fricke, Geographic Information Services, Inc.

What problem did you solve with GIS? What advantage did you have?
Distributing GIS information can be a real challenge for local governments. Oftentimes it falls on the GIS department to not only compile the data but also distribute it in an efficient manner. The tricky part is that different users have different cartographic and technology requirements, and everyone wants their maps to be up-to-date.

This is where the Local Government Information Model steps in to clean up this mess. Through the Maps and Apps structure, the model decreases the complexity of distributing GIS information not only to internal governmental departments but also to the public.

What types of geospatial analysis did you use? Explain how and why.
By loading data into the information model, GIS departments can download applications for Esri online and start displaying their data on the web almost as fast as ArcMap can be opened.

If the public wants a method for uploading service requests for potholes and downed trees, set up the Citizen Service Request App and automatically push tickets to responsible personnel.

If the board of elections really wants to display election results the night of, set up the Election Results map and refresh the dataset from the Election Board.

What are your findings or results?
Experience setting up the Local Government Information Model a couple of times shows that the largest issue is just pulling off the Band-Aid and making the switch. It requires loading data into a predefined schema. This can be really difficult for organizations with an established workflow. However, like a Band-Aid, after that initial pain, the world is much happier.

How can this project be useful for the audience?
The Local Government Information Model empowers the GIS department by making data ubiquitous across governmental operation. Tax assessors, planners, utility managers, fire, and police can draw insight without the need for special training and additional software.

A few setups of the Local Government Information Model have allowed development of a few tips and tricks to minimize the transition period. This talk will showcase the process and demonstrate a few of these tricks along the way.

Planning 2.0: Facilitating Open Government with GIS
Presenters: Elizabeth Stahlman and Gregory Hildreth, Allegany County, Maryland

Encouraging citizen involvement in the comprehensive planning process can be a challenge for local government. Allegany County, Maryland, streamlined this process with an easy-to-use, public web map interface. This session will demonstrate how GIS can be an effective component of local governments' public outreach and basic communication strategies by using Esri feature services, ArcGIS for Server, and Flex.

Land Records Workflows with the Parcel Fabric
Presenter: William Wetzel, The Sidwell Company

The Parcel Fabric data model gives the user a powerful and efficient way to manage parcel data. This session will start by looking at how the Parcel Fabric data model is organized. It will identify key points that need to be considered to successfully prepare and load data into the Parcel Fabric. Finally, it will discuss and demonstrate simple maintenance workflows using the Parcel Fabric.

ArcGIS Online: A Nonprogrammer's Dream Come True
Presenter: Julie Spangler, GISP, Maryland Poison Center, Baltimore

The Maryland Poison Center (MPC) is a service program of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, providing poisoning and overdose care to residents since 1972. Using the shared resources available through ArcGIS Online, MPC has been able to quickly deploy web maps and share web services relating to call volume analysis with internal and external users, such as MPC public education specialists or health care decision makers working for local governments in our service area. ArcGIS Online provided the tools and templates to replicate and enhance existing static maps and charts used in an annual report for publication on the web. While ArcGIS Online is not a complete substitute for access to a programmer, ArcGIS Online resources and infrastructure give a nonprogrammer the ability to quickly deploy web maps and share data resources while saving time and money.

Survey and GIS Integration for a Large Construction Project Using ArcGIS Server
Presenter: Yongmin Yan, Bechtel Corporation

The boundary between GIS and survey blurred significantly in the past decade. More GIS professionals are now doing survey work thanks to the prevalence of portable GPS units, and more surveyors are using GIS to manage their work.

Located in Northern Virginia, the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Extension project is one of the largest construction projects in the United States. After its completion, Dulles International Airport; Virginia's top two largest employment centers (Tysons Corner and Reston-Herndon); and downtown Washington, D.C., will be connected through a 23-mile extension of Washington's renowned rail transit system—Metro. Construction is currently under way for the first phase of the project, valued at 2.6 billion dollars.

The complexity of the project and the large volumes of survey work requests (SWR) make traditional ways of managing SWR via papers and spreadsheets no longer feasible. A service-oriented architecture (SOA) and a web-based ArcGIS Server application were developed to better manage SWR and provide additional GIS support to streamline survey works.

The data access web services make it easy to interact with back-end enterprise Oracle Spatial geodatabases. The coordinate conversion web services enable coordinate conversions between geographic (latitude and longitude), universal transverse Mercator (UTM), state plane, and project-specific coordinates. The alignment calculation web services translate stations (linear reference system used in railway) into Cartesian coordinates. Map services serve interactive maps.

With a web browser, field engineers can now submit SWR through a user-friendly form; survey teams can get automated e-mail notifications when an SWR comes in and modify it during its life cycle; survey managers can manage thousands of SWRs through advanced search and report functions; and field engineers, surveyors, and managers can use interactive maps to discuss survey work. This enterprise GIS system has significantly improved the efficiency of survey work and is ensuring that construction activities go smoothly and on schedule for this multiyear endeavor.

Incorporating GIS Public Safety Applications into University Curriculum
Presenter: Tom Mueller, Californian University of Pennsylvania, California, Pennsylvania

This presentation will examine the positives and negatives of incorporating several ArcInfo public safety applications into university curriculum including crime mapping, fire fighting, and emergency management. There will be a discussion on the spectrum of these applications, which range from lectures to service learning projects in classes and internships. Specifically, service learning projects from California University of Pennsylvania students will be presented, and some of the successes and pitfalls of this type of collaborative venture will be discussed such as problems encountered with public safety data when outside agents like universities assist–specifically the issues of privacy and availability.

GIS Implementation at an Environmental Education Center
Presenter: David Towsey, The ELM Group

Nonprofit environmental education centers are facing great challenges in today's economic climate. Funding is becoming more difficult to obtain and is presenting stakeholders with challenges just to keep the doors open. To remain relevant and attract funding sources, environmental education centers need to embrace cutting-edge technology and implement this technology within all aspects of the organization. One such technology that brings a huge benefit to this type of organization is GIS. GIS can be used to manage facilities and natural resources and as a tool for environmental education. This presentation will discuss the development and implementation of a GIS for a small environmental education center located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Journalism and GIS
Presenter: John Duchneskie, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer has long been on the forefront in using GIS to analyze, report, and present the news. This last year, the newspaper has used GIS even more extensively with the release of data from the 2010 Census. See how a major metropolitan newspaper uses the power of GIS to spot trends, analyze data, decide which stories to cover and what areas to report from, and present data and geographic information in visually compelling ways in print and online.

Presenter: Tom Swanson, Esri

Mobile GIS extends the reach of GIS from the office to the field and an increasing number of organization are demanding pervasive maps and apps that work on popular Smartphone platforms like Android, Apple iOS, and Windows. Get an overview of different strategies for deploying GIS to Smartphone platforms, considerations for using native Esri apps on smart devices, and an introduction to the APIs for custom development.

Flood Map Web Application for West Virginia
Presenter: Eric Hopkins, WV GIS Technical Center
Coauthors: Xiannian Chen, Frank Lafone

The West Virginia Flood Tool (mapwv.gov/flood) was first launched in 2006 as an ArcIMS web map application, thereby answering a growing question of how to combine the power of GIS and the Internet with the enhanced flood data being produced in the state as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) map modernization effort. This application was the product of a partnership of FEMA, the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (WV DHSEM), and the West Virginia FIS Technical Center, with important data contributions from private sector mapping partners/contractors. The flood tool combines the best available flood data with the latest imagery, elevation, searchable addressed structures, roads, streams, and populated place data. It helps stakeholders quickly find out if their property is in or out of the regulatory floodplain, reducing the need for expensive on-site evaluations. The flood tool has become very popular with users ranging from state and county floodplain managers, insurance agents, developers, and real estate agents to local planners and citizens.

GIS offers advantages for flood hazard data, including effective visual representation of a complex flood information database, and easy updates to basemap and data overlays. Web map services take these capabilities to a new level, providing GIS functions for remote users.

The original application was built for ArcIMS. As Esri moved away from ArcIMS, the WVGISTC adopted ArcGIS Server 2.0. There were challenges associated with this migration but also many advantages, including freedom from the need to maintain an enterprise database server, more cartographic flexibility, and a distinctive look and feel.

Statewide floodplain data overlays were compiled in ArcGIS 10 from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer and countywide Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs) obtained from the FEMA Map Service Center. Data overlays were published as services for use in the application.

The application is served via ArcGIS Server 10 and REST services. Development was done using ArcGIS API for Flex 2.2.

The effort to create an ArcIMS web application and subsequently migrate it to ArcGIS Server was successful. The flood tool remains one of a few state flood mapping applications nationwide. There will be a period of adjustment to changes in appearance and function.

A WebGIS-Based DOT Snowstorm Operations Tracking System
Presenters: Apollo Teng and Yan Gong, DTS-GIS, Rockville, Maryland

Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Technology Services–Geographic Information Systems (DTS-GIS) developed the Iterative New Snow Tracking Platform by working closely with its business partner Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT). During a snow emergency, residents can determine the status of plowing for their area roads and map their travel routes accordingly or stay indoors. eStorm Mapper provides an online tool that makes it easier for residents to decide when to safely venture out following a snowstorm. The online map tool shows the progress of snow plows and indicates when emergency routes, primary roads, and neighborhood streets have been cleared. Using the map's search capability, residents can immediately focus on the plow status of their street and surrounding streets and zoom out to view their entire route. Beyond the front-end features, this platform also comes equipped with back-end tools that will enhance current business flows, such as an integrated system that can be shared by 311, Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), public safety communication centers (PSCC), and utility companies.

The Modeling & Simulation Capability for Resource Consumption and Consequence Management
Presenter: Vic Baker, MATRIC, Morgantown, West Virginia

The Modeling & Simulation (M&S) Capability for Resource Consumption and Consequence Management was developed to assist with attack and disaster preparation, recovery, and response planning for a mass evacuation event. The M&S Capability promotes the ability to imagine by enabling emergency planners to design, run, and compare dynamic, what-if, time-aware simulations depicting the impacts of a mass evacuation on critical infrastructure and resource consumption. The M&S tool is an interactive solution that engages users by providing consequences to their decisions.

The M&S tool was developed to enable users to create unlimited user-defined scenarios and response plans; implement, refine, and practice response plans to improve policy; identify resource staging and sharing opportunities and shortages; and improve response times and reduce costs through enhanced planning.

The M&S prototype system simulates the impact of evacuees on the transportation infrastructure and the consumption of four initial resources: fuel, water, first aid, and shelter. Users can activate and deactivate shelters, place barriers, and enforce fuel rationing using the simulation tool's intuitive browser-based interface. Activation of resources (such as shelters) has a startup and per-occupant cost that is deducted from a "war chest" defined by the user for the particular simulation experience. The contents (type of object and number of objects) contained within the war chest are completely customizable by the user. The simulation logic utilizes over 30 subject matter expert-approved scenario parameters that are user defined to model nearly infinite types of situations.

Simulation results including resource consumption and road congestion are visualized using an intuitive time-aware Esri/Adobe Flex-based map that displays the consumption of critical resources over time and provides users the ability to pause, play back, fast-forward, and rewind the simulation. Additionally, users can generate reports for specific resources and their depletion rates over time.

The technical aspects of the capability rely on the Esri ArcGIS API for Flex coupled with custom geoprocessing services housed on an Esri ArcGIS Server 10.

The prototype system was developed for the FEMA Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (FEMA Region 3) administered by the All Hazards Consortium and the West Virginia Division of Military Affairs & Public Safety.

Baltimore Grand Prix
Presenters: Peter Hanna and James Potteiger, Baltimore City Fire Department

Having just completed the Inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore, Baltimore City Fire Department has created a Common Operating Picture web map to help manage the event. Calls for the event that come into the Mobile Command Unit will be updated on the web map for the Unified Command to see. Calls will be stored in a geodatabase, and when a hot or cold wash is required, the data can be used to make decisions that affect how the department responds to the public. The event is scheduled to be in Baltimore for the next five years, and the hope is that the department will learn and improve to make this operation run smoothly and efficiently. The web map has other applications and will be used for day-to-day operations.

Up in the Cloud: Migrating ArcGIS Server to Amazon EC2
Presenter: Vicky Tam, University of Pennsylvania

The Cartographic Modeling Lab at the University of Pennsylvania recently completed a Flex-based online mapping decision support tool for trauma systems planning and evaluation. Originally hosted on a local server running ArcGIS Server 9.3, the team needed to find a hosting configuration that is scalable and can quickly respond to usage spikes during broad media dissemination campaigns. With the launch of ArcGIS Server on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), the team was able to implement a hosting configuration that is flexible and easy to manage. This presentation will share experiences migrating to the cloud.

Geospatial Tools for Field Data Collection in Afghanistan
Presenter: Robert Tetrault, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Washington, D.C.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service supported USDA personnel assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) in Afghanistan with geospatial tools. GIS allowed planning of reconstruction projects, providing an advantage for PRTs that are constricted in their movements due to security concerns. High-resolution, unclassified, NextView-licensed commercial satellite imagery for Afghanistan was obtained through the US Army Geospatial Center (AGC) Imagery Office (AIO). AIO utilizes a web client application, which provides access to the data, called AGCDataDoorsWeb. DataDoors is a product of i cubed, a GIS solutions company under contract with AGC. The imagery source was WorldView-1 (DigitalGlobe) and GeoEye-1 (GeoEye). Esri shapefiles of districts were used to clip, zip, and ship products formatted in TerraGo-enabled GeoPDF.

Results of this project show that the GeoPDF product format allows users to do basic GIS tasks without needing GIS software or high-end computers but lacks the full functionality of a GIS. Tasks include finding coordinates (in latitude-longitude and Military Grid Reference System); measuring area and distance; and adding polygons, which can be annotated with field notes and photos. This product is most useful in disconnected, intermittent, or low-bandwidth environments, which are often the case when doing fieldwork in unstable countries. Field data collection is critical but often time-consuming. This project demonstrates a geospatial tool and product delivery system that increase the efficiency and the accuracy of field data collection.

Presenter: Tom Schwartzman, Esri

Learn about the exciting version 10.1 improvements to ArcGIS for Desktop inlcuding new sharing and publishing capabilities, improvements to editing productivity, spatial analysis advancements, and new cartographic tools and techniques. At 10.1, ArcGIS for Desktop makes it easier than ever to put GIS into the hands of more people.

The Northern Virginia Regional Routable Centerline Project Presenters: Michael Smith, City of Alexandria, Virginia, GIS; Brendan Ford, Fairfax County GIS, Fairfax, Virginia

In 2009, five jurisdictions in the Northern Virginia region joined together in developing a single routable road centerline model that could be utilized and incorporated with the region's various E-911/CAD systems. The goal of the project was to analyze the various routing needs of the local Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) and create a single data source that encompasses the independent needs of specific jurisdictions while providing seamless geocoding, routing, and error reporting functionalities across the entire region. Funded through a Virginia E-911 Wireless Board grant, the City of Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudon County, and Prince William County utilized ArcGIS Desktop ModelBuilder and the ArcGIS Data Reviewer extension to translate and QC existing centerline data into the regional data model. Upon successful completion of the data migration task, the committee embarked on creating a web-based application to report data errors throughout the region. This application utilizes ArcGIS API for Flex technology by providing user-friendly tools for flagging, reporting, and responding to errors in the data. Currently in the implementation phase, the five jurisdictions are continuing to work together to identify any necessary adjustments as well as developing a best practice guide. This project was the recipient of a 2011 Esri SAG Award.

This presentation will focus on the overall data model developed, the supporting maintenance procedures and Esri software used, and the cross-jurisdiction error reporting application that accompanied the data model.

Interactive Bikeway Maps for Montgomery County Residents Presenters: Apollo Teng, Dan Sadler, and Yan Gong, DTS-GIS, Rockville, Maryland

The Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Technology Services–Geographic Information Systems (DTS-GIS) team and Department of Transportation have published a detailed county bicycling map application with several unique tools. Additionally, a similarly styled poster-sized paper map will be offered to the public.

Implementing a GIS-Based Pavement Assessment and Management System
Presenters: Candice Ottley-Francois, JMT Technology Group; Erv Beckert, Prince George's County DPW&T

The Prince George's County, Maryland, Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T) has partnered with the JMT Technology Group to implement a countywide pavement assessment and management system (PAMS) for all county-maintained roadways. The project has several goals, including the development of an ongoing and cost-effective maintenance program to provide the largest overall improvement to the road network given available funding levels. PAMS includes the MicroPAVER pavement management system, a custom web application and an ArcGIS Desktop solution for managing and analyzing pavement condition data and formulating roadway improvement projects. MicroPAVER, a single-user desktop application, was implemented to analyze pavement distress data, develop pavement deterioration curves, and assign pavement condition index (PCI) scores to inspected county-maintained roadways. JMT then designed, developed, and deployed a custom ArcGIS Server/Silverlight API solution that provides all DPW&T employees with broad access to the pavement data collected during the condition survey and MicroPAVER implementation, including PCI scores and high-resolution digital photos of pavement surfaces and right-of-ways along inspected roadways. An ArcGIS Desktop solution was also developed to maintain ownership and work history records for the pavement network and track changes to be imported into MicroPAVER. The desktop solution is now being expanded to support the county's work planning efforts by recommending and prioritizing roadways for improvement based on deteriorated pavement condition, citizen complaints, work history records, estimated improvement costs, and fiscal-year budget constraints.

City of Baltimore Utility Dashboard Puts Real-Time GIS in the Field
Presenter: Brad Spittel, KCI Technologies, Inc.

The City of Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW) manages extensive water distribution and wastewater and storm water collection systems. A mature GIS has been implemented, providing high-quality utility data that is accessible to office users with GIS experience and access to the GIS. However, the large DPW water and wastewater maintenance workforce responsible for maintaining and operating the systems had no access to utility locations and details in the field. Up-to-date operational information and customer requests were not available to managers and supervisors.

Due to the size of the workforce, an economical solution for GIS access was needed as well as the ability to manage and transfer operational data between systems and from the field to the central database. Therefore, a solution based on ArcGIS Server that provided interfaces both on a standard Internet browser and HTML 5 devices was needed. Synchronization technologies were implemented to allow real-time data transfers between the call center, laptops in the field, and smartphones. The real-time, or live, data is maintained in a nonspatial, nonversioned database that relates to the core GIS database, thus permitting real-time update by multiple users without impacting the GIS data maintenance and integrity.

The Utility Dashboard that has been implemented provides users with utility locations as well as leak locations and details; customer service requests; and tools for performing water main isolation traces, creating valve shutdown plans, and tracking valve status (open/closed) in real time. The DPW workforce has enthusiastically adopted the dashboard during the first phase of its rollout.

Geospatial Capital Investment Planning (GCIP) Models
Presenter: Chris Kahn, New Jersey American Water

Subtitle: Water Main Segment Weighted Overlay Analysis

New Jersey American Water (NJAW) has an established tabular capital investment planning (CIP) methodology of analyzing system and regional infrastructure health. This method of reporting provides a valuable and defensible framework to guide, record, and repeat the high-level decision-making process of allocating resources to rehabilitate or replace aging infrastructure. One limitation of the current CIP workflow, however, is its high-level resolution. Currently, after allocation of resources to regions based on system CIP review, NJAW will prioritize water mains at the local level through a method of engineering know-how, institutional knowledge, and opportunity. To formalize local water main prioritization into a scientifically defensible process, NJAW developed several GIS CIP models, collectively known as the GCIP Toolset:

• Repair Model—Rate of repair for each segment
• Remaining Life—Percentage of life spent per segment
• Water Quality—Distance from and density of complaint points per segment
• Critical Points—Distance to hospitals, schools, major meters
• Fire Flow—Areas of low fire flow
• Comprehensive—A user-defined weighted overlay of A–E

Special fields

• Is Critical?—Critical infrastructure
• Is Bottleneck?—Greater than 7 ft/s max day fire flow

Models' attribute tables retain all pertinent raw information, including run dates and user-defined weights, along with a segment grade. Model runs represent a defensible record of the CIP planning process at the local level. The maps also provide visual assistance defining potential project areas. Esri's CIP costing tools can then be leveraged to create proposed project layers, automatically assigning real cost estimates to proposed projects.

Dam Removal Modeling: A Case Study
Presenter: Jean-Paul Bell, Princeton Hydro, Sicklerville, New Jersey

Since the heavy rains of 2004 (and subsequent dam breaches in Medford, New Jersey), the NJDEP has increased its enforcement efforts on dams it regulates. Many individual property owners and lake associations have now come to face a difficult and costly question: Breach the dam for deregulation or make the repairs?

This is the dilemma one lake community is facing in northern New Jersey, along with a few other complications. Panther Lake and Cub Lake, located in Sussex County, are two connected lakes separated by a dam. Panther Lake is a kettle lake, formed by glaciers 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. A dam was constructed over 100 years ago to increase the size and recreational and/or industrial potential for Panther Lake. Cub Lake is a man-made lake, its dam built in 1926.

NJDEP is enforcing regulations on the Cub Lake dam. Due to the fact that Cub Lake backs water up into the Panther Lake impoundment, Cub Lake dam owners feel that the Panther Lake community should pay their fair share of the cost to maintain the Cub Lake dam. The Panther Lake community does not agree and hired Princeton Hydro to investigate. A bathymetric survey was performed on both lakes and triangulated irregular networks (TINs) created in ArcGIS. The modeling and analysis of this data provided answers to important questions such as just how dependent Panther Lake is on Cub Lake and whether Panther Lake would even exist without the Cub Lake dam.

Presenter: Jim Mcabee

ArcGIS for Server provides a scalable GIS server platform and simplifies access to GIS services across your organization. Review best practices for managing an ArcGIS for Server deployment including how virtualization fits into your strategy, managing data access and schema locks, and understanding capacity and performance.

Results of Maryland's Three-Week Statewide GIS Inventory Challenge
Presenters: Ashley Buzzeo and Susan Wooden, Center for GIS at Towson University, Towson, Maryland

The ability of government agencies to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into coordinated action depends on access to data. A national effort is under way to collect and share information about the government agencies that have data and whom to contact to obtain information about their data. The public safety arena has a particular need to know who has the data and how the data can be shared, especially during emergency events. Until recently, the State of Maryland did not utilize a central repository for its wealth of geospatial information. In February 2011, the State of Maryland launched an intense three-week challenge to inventory Maryland's geospatial data. The Maryland State Geographic Information Committee (MSGIC) and the Center for GIS (CGIS) at Towson University led the initiative to inventory a minimum number of framework layers into Ramona, the GIS inventory tool developed by the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). The project team's goal was to encourage data owners to inventory seven specific framework layers into Ramona. The team conducted an outreach and training campaign, provided assistance with entering records, and entered certain records from the Maryland Mapping Resource Guide. The team communicated progress via maps. This presentation explores the approach, the expected and unexpected challenges, the compressed time frame, and the tangible successes.

NCR Geospatial Data Exchange—Sharing across Boundaries
Presenters: Heidi Hammel, KCI Technologies; Robert Horne, WRTAC-DC Fusion Center

Over the past several years, the use of geospatial information for emergency response has increased significantly due to the development of such initiatives as Alabama's Virtual Alabama and Virginia's VIPER system. These systems use geospatial viewers of one type or another (Google Earth, Adobe Flex) to aggregate reference data and live feeds to support improved situational awareness. Data sharing is the foundation–these systems rely almost exclusively on sharing arrangements with other government and commercial entities. Success depends on overcoming traditional political hurdles, technical issues of file formats and conversions, secure sharing pathways, and integration of external data into home systems. This presentation will explore these issues and present the National Capital Region's (NCR) Geospatial Data Exchange project, which was built on the Virtual USA (vUSA) foundation created by the Department of Homeland Security. vUSA relies on stakeholder-driven design in all its operations, from design of state viewer systems to the development of formal Memoranda of Agreements for data sharing to vUSA's innovative data-sharing environment. The presentation will include a demonstration of the NCR Geospatial Data Exchange, which includes role-based, organization-to-organization sharing of files and data feeds, a secure sharing solution that includes double-proxying of information links, and integration directly into both Flex viewers and the Esri ArcGIS Desktop environment to publish and consume data from jurisdictional libraries.

Four Iterations of Statewide, Detailed Land Use for New Jersey
Presenters: Lawrence Thornton, Lawrence Thornton LLC; Craig Coutros and John Tryrawski, NJDEP, Trenton, New Jersey

From 1986 through 2007, New Jersey captured imagery and contracted with AIS, Inc., to map detailed land use/land cover (LULC) for use in New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's (NJDEP) GIS. Detailed framework data development has proven to be a huge success for NJDEP, the clients of NJDEP, and the public.

Early LULC was interpreted from color infrared photos manually on Mylar. The studies were repeated in 1995, 2002, and 2007 using digital imagery and heads-up mapping. In the 1986 study, 32 classes were defined using Anderson et al (USGS, 1976). By 2007, the Department of Environmental Protection expanded the interpretations to 88 classes and included an estimate of impervious surface for each polygon.

The data has been extremely useful to state government, assisting in watershed studies, runoff calculations, smart growth, housing studies, threatened and endangered species habitat, habitat fragmentation, and many other initiatives. LULC remains the number-one download from the New Jersey state clearinghouse.

Some major results of the 2007 study reveal the following changes between 2002 and 2007, compared to 1995–2002:

• Urban land development increased.
• A large percentage of new urban land came from conversion of barren land. Natural land conversion to urban decreased.
• Loss of natural wetlands to urban or barren land decreased.
• Loss of agriculture to urban land decreased.
• Forest land loss decreased but still accounts for the largest portion of the natural lands converted to urban or barren land.
• Residential development continues to represent the largest part of the new urban land created.

Clearly, a well-defined mission that develops data that can be used by local, county, state, and federal agencies is a win-win situation for everyone, as there is no duplication of effort and the data does not have to be massaged later. For NJDEP, the LULC data layer has been the flagship framework layer. The data was produced to a high quality that has benefitted New Jersey as well as the thousands of users who have downloaded the LULC data from NJGIN.

A remarkable legacy, this four-series layer represents the best of what cooperating levels of government can achieve in a cost-effective manner through cooperation, open-minded discussion, good planning at all levels of government, and good contractors.

Got ArcGIS Server? Part 1: Create a Geodata Catalog without Programming
Presenter: Donald Barker, US DoD, Ridgely, Maryland

Donald Barker was recently tasked to create a low-cost geoportal that would give San Mateo County, California, GIS stakeholders an easy way to view and evaluate any dataset in the county's geodatabase (over 100 feature classes). The county had no budget for programming, and no programmers (including Barker). This presentation will demonstrate a simple approach that begins with authoring a map document and publishing it as an ArcGIS Server map service, then leverages the ArcGIS Server REST and JavaScript APIs without doing any coding. The catalog is built in the Excel table, where the map servicing publishing process is tracked. Simple Excel formulas and auto-fill functions were used to create the HTML table for the catalog. Free map viewers (JavaScript and Silverlight) hosted at ArcGIS Online showed each geodatabase layer (map service). The links in the catalog pass the REST URL of each map service to the free map viewers. They also present the REST catalog items for map layer descriptions. (See the presentation Faking Geospatial Metadata with ArcGIS Server and the REST API.) This is not rocket science but just wiring together existing capabilities and free services on a shoestring.

Got ArcGIS Server? Part 2: Metadata Lite—Faking Geospatial Metadata with ArcGIS Server and the REST API
Presenter: Donald Barker, US DoD, Ridgely, Maryland

Donald Barker was recently tasked to create a low-cost geoportal that would give San Mateo County, California, GIS stakeholders an easy way to view and evaluate any dataset in the county's geodatabase (over 100 feature classes). The county had a very small GIS staff and no resources to set up or manage a full-service geoportal. It also had to deal with legacy metadata. The county's geospatial metadata was stored in customized HTML pages that were not authored with any geospatial metadata editor. This, along with reported problems with metadata authoring/importing in ArcGIS 10, led to an option for a simpler approach–not a full geoportal but a geodata catalog. The team took advantage of ArcGIS Server to create a simple catalog that relies on free map viewers hosted at ArcGIS Online. (See the presentation Got ArcGIS Server? Create a Geodata Catalog without Programming.) First dealt with was how metadata is published through ArcGIS Server. It's not. This presentation will offer workarounds for getting light metadata into the ArcGIS Server REST catalog and into free maps at ArcGIS.com.

Presenter: Rachel Weeden, Esri

Community Analyst is a SaaS mapping solution that allows users across your organization to quickly discover and explore important facts about any area to help develop the right policy strategies, convey important information to those who need it, and ultimately improve communities. Discover how combining thousands of demographic, health, economic, education, and business data variables with instant reports and interactive color-coded maps can help you make better policy decisions and recommendations.

Pennsylvania Historic Mine Map Preservation and GIS Implementation
Presenters: Patrick Jaquay, Samuel Steingrabe, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) is participating in a preservation and GIS implementation project of historic underground mine maps. Abandoned coal mines are littered across the state. These abandoned mines create environmental challenges, including mine subsidence. To help homeowners deal with the burden of structural damages caused by surface subsidence of abandoned mines, the state created the Mine Subsidence Insurance Program in 1961.

Hard-copy maps of these abandoned mines are stored at many public and private locations around the state. When a policyholder files a claim, the investigator starts his/her investigation by examining all the mining records and maps available for the site. It previously would take up to several weeks to search the records in multiple offices to compile the necessary information to determine if the area under the claimant's house was undermined, when mining took place (to determine which particular laws were in effect), and the depth of overburden (to determine the type and size of subsidence that can be expected).

PA DEP currently has cooperative agreements with the Department of the Interior, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania to restore damaged mine maps, scan the maps to create a digital image archive, georeference the images, and digitize the mining features. Coal seam elevation points displayed on the maps have been interpolated into coal seam elevation rasters. When they're subtracted from surface elevation rasters, overburden rasters are created.

The georeferenced map images, digitized vector features, and elevation rasters have been incorporated into the Mine Subsidence Section's GIS. Insurance investigators now have access to thousands of mining records and maps at their desktops. They can perform spatial queries in ArcMap and quickly access the information they need to conduct a subsidence investigation. What once took several weeks now takes only minutes.

The audience can take away from this project a good example of how multiple agencies can work together to take large, separate collections of physical maps and convert them into useful digital information that can be accessed quickly and efficiently. Some of the digitized feature vector data is available for download online.

Implementing the Esri Parcel Fabric—A Migration from Coverages
Presenter: Tim Abdella, JMT Technology Group

The City of Gaithersburg has had GIS applications in place for over 13 years, with the primary focus being maintenance of the resources, not growth. The primary GIS push happened at the end of the last century, when Permit Plus and Parcel Plus were developed to integrate GIS-based parcels with extracted tax record data. This initial push and strong application provided a solid foundation and the fundamental elements to build from.

Parcel Plus utilizes Esri's ArcInfo coverage model with tiles and regions. The coverages were successfully maintained using ArcEditor and well-established workflows including many ARC Macro Language (AML) scripts. The city also maintains an address dataset comprising approximately 29,000 front-door address points and some custom tools that simplify the novice GIS user's experience by providing direct access to data and templates used in map production. Most of the basemap, planimetric, and supplemental layers are provided to the city from the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).

Recently, the City of Gaithersburg purchased a platform from EnerGov requiring modernization of the current GIS systems and applications. The EnerGov solution relies on the Esri ArcGIS Server REST API and associated geometry services. To fully support the EnerGov platform, the City of Gaithersburg migrated its GIS platform to Esri's ArcGIS 10, which includes ArcSDE, ArcGIS Server, and ArcGIS Desktop, and utilized the geodatabase by implementing the Esri Parcel Fabric data model and template.

The City of Gaithersburg partnered with JMT to provide support through the migration and configuration process of ArcGIS 10 and the implementation of the Parcel Fabric Data model, which involved the migration from the Esri coverage model.

At a high level, this presentation will include the project background, methods, best practices, and lessons learned of the final architecture and configuration of ArcGIS Server in a virtualized environment; implementation of the Esri Parcel Fabric data model; and data conversion efforts from coverages to the new geodatabase based on the Esri Parcel Fabric data model.

Bus Accident Mapping and Analysis Application
Presenters: Leo Fothergill and Doy Miller, AECOM, Baltimore, Maryland

AECOM and Towson University's Center for GIS (CGIS) partnered with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) to create an accident mapping and analysis application. Prior to the application, MTA stored bus accident data in a SQL Server database with no spatial component. The team developed a web-based application using ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE, and ArcGIS Desktop (ArcInfo).

The GIS application allowed MTA to see where the accident hot spots were, including the types of accidents that were occurring at a given location. The application allows users to query the data by date, accident type, bus division, and accident preventability.

Through the use of the GIS, along with other programs, MTA has reduced preventable bus accidents by over 60 percent at key hot spots. The application has proved a powerful communication tool when presenting to MTA's administrator and upper management.

Best Practices and Options for Interactive Mapping on the Web
Presenter: Steve Anderson, Applied Geographics

In August 1991, the public was provided its first access to the Internet. Over these past 20 years, technology choices and the launch of a number of high-profile websites have shaped the growth and adaptation of the use of the Internet for business, government, and consumer applications including web-based mapping. This talk will cover the highlights and changes in web and GIS technology to understand the current potential for web mapping applications and solutions. The talk will review some of the leading practices and options available today, such as tile versus dynamic caching, plug-ins versus no plug-ins, and the cloud versus physical server architecture and discuss how these decisions affect what and how GIS is deployed on the web.

Powering Web, Mobile, and Desktop Applications with ArcGIS Server 10 and Flex
Presenter: Michael Haggerty, Geographic Information Services, Inc.

Ever since the release of ArcGIS Server 9.3, web developers have been able to tap into the massive power and functionality of ArcGIS using a simple REST API. Any application that can issue HTTP requests and interpret the JSON response format can communicate with ArcGIS Server to display maps, query spatial data, and perform geoprocessing tasks. A number of popular web programming languages also have their own language-specific APIs to make interaction between client and server even easier. Adobe Flex is one such language. Flex code is compiled into an SWF file, which can then be deployed to the web via the Flash Player or to desktop and mobile environments via the Adobe AIR runtime. Thanks to the power of ArcGIS Server combined with Adobe Flex, it is now possible to develop a single code base and deploy applications to virtually all modern web browsers, operating systems, and mobile platforms.

Geographic Information Services, Inc. (GISi), was recently tasked to develop applications targeting both the web browser and a PC-based kiosk machine by a large Department of Defense client. Using Flex, GISi was able to accomplish this goal using a shared code base. Users can use the same application from their home PCs via their web browsers as they would when visiting a kiosk located on-site.

There are many alluring aspects of using a single code base to power multiple applications. Organizations can reduce the number of programming resources needed to complete a suite of applications. Deployment and maintenance costs are driven down. Organizations can utilize web development staff to create desktop and mobile applications, reducing the number of skills a developer must master. For the end user, a continuity exists across the applications that share a code base. A user who first uses a web-based application can easily use the sister desktop application since the colors, iconography, and workflows are identical.

Imagine the possibilities. A citizen can use the same application at home to see how much a neighbor paid in property taxes, from a kiosk at city hall to request a building permit, and from a mobile device to report a code violation. Same application. Same code base. Multiple platforms. This is possible now thanks to the power of ArcGIS Server 10, the ArcGIS API for Flex, and Adobe Flex.

Web Editing—The Transition to Workflow Efficiency and Collaboration
Presenter: Tim Lesser, URS, Germantown, Maryland

Visual orthophotography QA/QC analysis often takes place in more than one office location and typically involves uploading image data to external hard drives and then shipping the drives to and from each of the offices. Each delivery often contains one or more corrupted files that need to be redelivered; as a result, production time is lost every time a redelivery is shipped. Additional time is lost if the client is conducting an acceptance review and files have to be shipped back and forth. To mitigate the need to upload, ship, and download massive amounts of data; provide a streamlined workflow; and facilitate more efficient office collaboration, a web-editing tool based on ArcGIS Server 10 and the ArcGIS Viewer for Flex API was developed to analyze and identify QC edit calls for all project orthophotography. The orthophotography is served up through a secured web service and is readily available to approved users via user name and password. Multiple QC technicians in multiple locations have access to the data and edits, diminishing the duplication of effort. There are several advantages of utilizing GIS web technology. The orthophotography is cached, allowing rapid zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities without sacrificing image fidelity. The user-friendly tool enables the ortho QC technician to quickly pan and flag image errors and anomalies by creating centroids (points) or polygons. The tool further allows the QC technician to attribute the centroid or polygon using standard annotations from a drop-down menu. Nonstandard errors may be documented using the comment section. This information, along with the edit session date and image tile number, is automatically stored and written to a SQL geodatabase for rapid retrieval and query. The resultant orthophotography QC tool has been extremely useful in saving time and effort while enabling the increase of user collaboration and access to the data. The production workflow for the analysis and editing of the orthophotography has been made easier by eliminating unnecessary steps and assisting in better project status to all users.

ArcGIS for Desktop lets you make great maps for a variety of uses including digital mapping, print production, and web publication. While ArcGIS offers many tools for creating high quality cartographic output that suit all of these needs, it is important to distinguish which techniques are appropriate for each medium. Learn more about a variety of cartographic tools and techniques, as well as best practices for creating maps for the web.