GIS Tips & Tricks
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The completed Next Generation 9-1-1 network will be national, state implemented, and operated by local entities. These multiple scales and the numerous agencies involved make the complexity of building such a network obvious…This blog endeavors to clarify some recurring areas of uncertainty, by examining both the local impacts of NG9-1-1 and the system rationale underlying NG9-1-1 requirements…
For proper data management, every item should be uniquely identified. Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) offer a truly unique identification method for each feature or table row. In the ArcGIS world, GUID values are commonly interacted with as Global IDs. The term “Global ID” is the official name for GUID values that are generated and managed by ArcGIS software. Is this Global ID value something we take for granted because it is so easily managed in ArcGIS? Maybe. If that is the case, this short read will lessen that chance and at minimum increase and/or refresh your understanding of how they work.
By now, most everyone in the tech world has heard about the Apache Log4j library vulnerability. While we are experts about all things GIS, we won’t pretend to have all the answers to this problem. However, in the essence of transparency and helping to spread the word, we want to share some general takeaways on what we know and some helpful links for more information.
In 2010, ESRI started the Community Maps Program with the goal of enhancing and updating their foundational basemap layers with current and detailed local data. Over a decade later, tens of thousands of updates have been made using the tools available from the program. By contributing data, the community itself benefits from having local knowledge input directly into ESRI maps. This additional data helps power advanced analysis and can be used to create in-depth story maps. Apart from the direct use of updating basemaps, this collection of local data also helps to enhance and power the ArcGIS Living Atlas layers.
When compared to traditional campus and facility management through CAD layers and multiple spreadsheets, ArcGIS Indoors offers a much more streamlined approach. Managing indoor assets through ArcGIS Indoors allows for improved facility maintenance, building operations, and indoor analysis across an entire campus thanks to ESRI’s ArcGIS Indoors Information Model (AIIM).
So much goes into transitioning a 911 system to NG911, from changing state policies to buying appropriate equipment to updating GIS data. This upgrade comes with a large price tag. There are a lot of variables and scenarios were calculated in the report to Congress, but we’re talking in the ballpark of $14 billion dollars nation-wide. Available funding varies widely by state, but…
The State of Illinois is committed to updating the State’s 9-1-1 systems to the standard of The National 9-1-1 Program, created by congress in 2004. NG9-1-1 systems allow emergency number services to quickly receive and load geolocated data via mobile and digital devices such as phones, medical devices, car computers, and building alarms. Cloudpoint has been involved in this work helping several counties and PSAPs to review and transition their 9-1-1 data into the NENA Standard for NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model. Cloudpoint also assists their clients in coordinating data alignment with surrounding emergency jurisdictions in an effort to establish a statewide network, thereby increasing resiliency to call overloading and disaster outages.
The Data Loading Tools are a free solution provided by Esri designed to help simplify and streamline the ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) process from a source dataset to a target dataset. The tools are packaged as a python add-in for ArcGIS Pro and help simplify migration by harnessing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Within the spreadsheets migration mapping from the source schema to target schema can be set up for feature classes, fields, and even coded value domains. This toolbox is most used to assist with migrating data into the robust Utility Network schema, but it can be used for all ETL tasks!
When mobile data collection takes place, there are multiple ways of consuming that data once it’s been collected. Through the use of Dashboards, Web Apps & Maps, and even through desktop applications like ArcGIS Pro, data can be viewed, queried, edited, etc. However, there could be certain data collection workflows in which real-time notifications would be useful to notify other workers, or members of that organization. For example, if I were adding features in the field to a “City Code Violations” hosted feature layer through Field Maps, I could use a process in the feature’s pop-up to trigger an email to be sent to other users in my organization to notify them of the new violation feature I just created. Follow the steps listed below to implement this process in you organization!
By coupling ArcGIS Pro with some creative Arcade expressions, the editing and QA/QC experience can be greatly improved by adding attribute rules to a geodatabase layer. In this article we will focus on how to harness calculation-type attribute rules to perform validation checks on the existing data and…
One of the main benefits of utilizing Esri’s Survey123 application within your organization, is that it is a very powerful data collection tool. Survey123 can be utilized to collect data on just about anything and everything, and the purpose of the form will vary greatly depending upon what kind of data is to be collected. Regardless of what the end purpose of the survey form is, the best way to ensure data integrity and to streamline the data entry process is to have functionality built into your survey forms themselves to assist the end user! In this blog post, we’re going to be looking at how using an JavaScript query can automate the input of data by auto-populating fields in the survey form based on entering the ID of a specific fire hydrant.
Even as most record keeping systems have become digital, there are still some collections of data that are being maintained on paper. We’ve seen plenty of cemeteries with all or some of their records on paper. Paying a third party to convert these to digital can be very costly. Luckily, with readily available…
A client with some old technology-Zip disks, a Zip drive, and a Windows XP machine- asked us to extract the files and compare to the current data. What follows is a general overview of how we “turned back the clock”, detailing the process used to knock the dust off of the old technology and bring it to life in late 2020.
If you still need to upgrade your ArcGIS Online/Enterprise items to HTTPS this article is for you! Starting on December 8, 2020 ESRI will update their security settings to require all items to be referenced using secure URLs with HTTPS prefixes. This blog article will walk you through the basics of the security change, what it means for your organization, and even how to find and fix items needing updated…
We work with a lot of municipal local government clients and have learned over the years that selecting the right GIS asset management solution these days is a critical, time-consuming task. Decision makers can’t afford to make the wrong decision when investing hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of just a few years. So we thought it would be a good idea to review some basic questions to ask yourself when evaluating which option…
Esri provides a vast number of resources and applications that enables their users to collect, update, and analyze their asset management data. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how we can use those Esri apps and resources available to us on ArcGIS Online to manage our PCI (Pavement Condition Index) ratings on our road centerlines layer. The use of the Collector App will allow users to view the road centerline features in the field and which roads need inspected. The Survey123 App enables users to perform inspections to update their road PCI ratings, and Operations Dashboard is used to analyze those PCI ratings and make informed, detailed decisions on how to move forward with future construction projects to improve their roads. Combined, these ArcGIS Online applications make managing PCI ratings a breeze! Let’s take a deeper look into all the aspects of this PCI Inspection workflow.
Of the many deploy able solutions that solutions that Esri offers, The Citizen Problem Reporter Solution is a Crowdsource Reporting Application that can be configured and leveraged for use across organizations. The solution (once deployed) allows the general public to submit non-emergency problems in the community based on problem categories (Animal Problems, Health Problems, Road Problems, etc.) and certain problem types within those categories (Barking or Loud Dog, Standing Water, Potholes, etc.). Like other Esri apps and solutions, the beauty of the Citizen Problem Reporter Solution is highly configurable- meaning it can be set-up to fit the specific requirements/inputs for each individual organizations. In this blog, we’ll take a look at how we’ve utilized this Esri solution here at Cloudpoint Geospatial!
