Workshops - Monday, October 27th, 2008

Onsite registration is available for Workshops
Monday - October 27, 2008
7:30am - 8:30am
at the Pickle Center

Morning (8:30am – 12:00pm)

ArcGIS and 3D Data
Instructor: Ray Hardy, ESRI  
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Li’l TEX 1.122
Cost: $50.00

This session will provide ideas, insight, and a beginner’s introduction into the exciting world of ESRI’s ArcGIS 3D Analyst Extension.  The presenter will cover the creation of a surface model and give you ideas on how to manage and create three dimensional data.  You will see 3D examples of graphics, text, and symbology.  The session will take a look at ArcScene and ArcGlobe, two very specialized three dimensional visualization applications of 3D Analyst.  3D analysis, querying of data, and examining attribute values on a surface will be demonstrated by the presenter.  To conclude the session an animation will bring together the tools and analysis covered.  If the idea of using 3D Analyst has ever caught your attention, but you didn’t quite know where to begin, then choose this opportunity to acquaint yourself with this fascinating extension of ArcGIS.

Business Geo-Demographic Solutions
Instructor: Dennis Kaplan, ESRI
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Stadium 1.138
Cost: $50.00

Government, utilities, and commercial organizations are increasingly aware of the potential and value locked away in their business data.  While it is well known that 80 percent of all business data has a spatial component, there is less awareness of how to fully harness and exploit this asset. This session discusses ongoing developments in ESRI GIS technology to support spatially extended business processes. 

ArcGIS Business Analyst combines ESRI's leading GIS technology with extensive business, demographic, and consumer data to assist users with critical decisions such as analyzing the market and competition, finding the ideal site for a new business location, targeting direct mail, redistricting, economic development or urban planning.

The first half of this discussion will give you an overview of the commercially available data that ESRI creates or re-sells for many of the most common business functions such as site selection, customer analytics, market analysis, cannibalization, competitive analysis, and target marketing.  In the second half of the discussion, we will dive deeper into examples of some of the business functions as well as describe the commercial sector solutions in the Business Analyst family of products (BA Desktop, BA Online, and BA Server).

John Taylor, PhD from Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) will also present at this session.  TPWD has successfully utilized Business Analyst in many applications utilizing demographic information, integrating SAS with GIS analysis, and in performing site selection.   

Map Projections and Coordinate Systems
Instructor: Steve Shackelford
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Tower Room 1.112G
Cost: $125.00

Map projections us probably the most misunderstood concept in GIS.  They can wreak havoc on a mapping project if not clearly understood or implemented correctly.  This workshop will provide a basic overview of ellipsoids, latitude/longitude, datums, map projections, and plane coordinate systems used in GIS. 

Enabling Geo-referenced PDF Maps for Emergency Response Field Personnel
Instructor: Rob Barron and Tanner Kneese – Texas General Land Office
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Capitol 1.164
Cost: $50.00

This workshop discusses enabling the geo-referenced PDF maps for assisting emergency response personnel along the Texas, Louisiana, and Northern Mexican coastal areas.  Possible uses for merging as well as annotation for meeting federal standards and applying search capabilities.  The GIS mobile solution integrates ICS response forms and the geo-enabled map installed on rugged tablets and/or laptops on land and sea.  The portable maps are accessible in remote areas allowing responders a mapping tool when complex Internet mapping viewers are not feasible.  This solution will further standardize the mapping response between federal, state and local authorities.

The workshop will detail:

• The introduction to the Oil Spill Prevention & Response Program CDToolkit, ICS & Maps.
• How to distribute GIS information to non-technical users in the PDF format.
• Geo enabling PDF maps, merging, geo-mark-up, preserving attributes & import/export shapefiles in the Portable Document Format.
• The standardization for emergency response along the Texas coast.

Virtual Earth & SQL Server
Instructor: Ed Katibah and Mark Merchant, Microsoft Corp
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Longhorn 1.130
Cost: $50.00

Discussion and demonstration on how spatial support in Microsoft SQL Server™ 2008, coupled with the Virtual Earth geospatial mapping platform, can augment visual analysis and understanding of location data, allowing organizations to make faster and better decisions around that data.

Working with Lidar Data
Instructor: Brian Shirley, Hugh Bender - Third Coast Geospatial Technologies, Inc. (3cGeo)
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Mustang 1.162
Cost: $50.00

Explanation of LiDAR technology and data characteristics, how to use it and how the products can be integrated into existing mapping and GIS applications. The basic fundamentals of aircraft based LiDAR technology will be discussed; data acquisition, calibration and validation procedures, post-processing, filtering and end user QA-QC methods.

Afternoon (1:30pm – 5:00pm)

Accessing TNRIS Data
Instructor: Ryan Mitchell, Eric O’brian - TNRIS
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Campus 1.210
Cost: $50.00

This workshop will provide instruction on how to find and use data accessible through the TNRIS web site including DOQs and component datasets of the National Map. The instructors are full-time TNRIS staff members responsible for these datasets and can help the user become much more efficient in their access and use.

Getting the Most from ArcGIS Server
Instructor: Adam Pittman, ESRI 
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Li’l TEX 1.122
Cost: $50.00

ArcGIS Server is a Web GIS that helps you take your geographic information and make it available to others. Perhaps you've already had some experience using GIS software to create GIS resources, which are the maps, geodatabases, and other tools that you need for storing and using your geographic information.  In this workshop you will learn about taking the GIS resources on your computer and making them available to a wider group of users throughout a network of computers.  Along the way tips and tricks as well as best practices will be discussed.

The GIS Tool Bag
Instructor: Devon Humphrey
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Stadium 1.138
Cost: $125.00

This session will demonstrate various GIS hardware, software and data resources that are essential during an emergency response. In recent years, GIS has been growing in importance during disaster situations of all sizes and types. The reason is that GIS is a naturally visual medium and it provides a Common Operational Picture for those planning and managing the response.

Topics covered include: Integration of real-time weather to GIS, HAZMAT plume modeling, using GPS photo maps for damage assessment and the production of GIS graphics for Emergency Managers, the press and the general public. The expanding use of tools such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth as a GIS data viewer will also be discussed.

UPDATE:  Recent examples from Hurricane Ike will be included!

Exploring NHD and More
Instructor: Daniel Pearson - TNRIS
Location: TCEQ - Austin Headquarters, Building A, Rm. 234
Cost: $50.00

This workshop will provide an overview of surface water, ground water, and water quality-related geospatial data resources in Texas.  We will discuss data availability, common-use practices, and demonstrate basic analytical capabilities such as hydro network navigation, linear referencing, watershed delineation, geodatabase querying concepts and more.  ArcGIS tools to be used include Spatial Analyst, ArcHydro, Network Analyst, and other data-specific custom tools.

Understanding the National Flood Insurance Program
Instructor: Manuel Razo 
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Tower Room 1.112G
Cost: $50.00

Learn how the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is utilizing the latest GIS technology and data resources to accurately determine the flood prone areas in Texas today.  Discover what data elements are important for making these determinations, where to get them and how to use them in real-world flood determination process.  Discussing will include:  What is being done to update the current flood plain maps and how new advances in data such as LiDAR will greatly enhance the usefulness of these maps.  

All Day Event 8:30am – 5:00pm

The Texas Hydrologic Information System (HIS) Seminar
Instructor: TWDB/UT Panel
Location: J.J Pickle Center – Big Tex Auditorium 1.102
Cost: Free

This seminar will discuss the development of the Texas Hydrologic Information System developed by the Texas Water Development Board and the UT-CRWR.  The goals of the Texas HIS are to provide the seamless identification and delivery of water data for Texas.  The morning session on the Texas HIS will include discussion of the motivation behind the project, a high-level description of the technical underpinnings, description of the data sets currently targeted for the project,  and a demonstration of a beta version of the Texas HIS.  The afternoon session will focus more on technical details and will demonstrate various approaches to making your data available via the Texas HIS.