Wednesday, October 23, 10:30 – 11:00AM, Li'l Tex

This presentation seeks to encourage the wide range of knowledge and skills present in the audience that they can utilize programming languages and intuitive IDEs to automate common GIS workflows. Yes You Can! The focus is on PyCharm and Jupyter Notebooks using Python to manage desktop and web GIS. Yes You Can! The audience will learn the advantages of various IDEs, the building blocks of programming languages, tips and tricks based on the presenter's experience and how to easily get started with programming. Programming with GIS?!....Yes You Can!!

Presenter

Stephanie Long, Austin Community College

Stephanie Long comes to the table with over 14 years of professional GIS experience, a Master of Science in Geography and a GISP certification. Currently she delivers the online GIS program at Austin Community College which includes developing curriculum and teaching a wide range of GIS courses. She was recently the GIS Systems Coordinator within the IT Division at Texas Parks and Wildlife where she worked with her team to provide GIS related support and services to over 300 agency users. Stephanie believes that keeping current with GIS technologies is crucial to the industry. Website: Linkedin

Wednesday, October 23, 11:00 – 11:30AM, Li'l Tex

Regional GIS data sets often lack, information about an area of interest below the county level. This is especially true with oil and gas data. How do you identify geographically which wells belong to an operator? Information is available but it is time consuming searching through public data to find out oil field information. Python can generate more meaningful information that can be displayed through GIS from public sources.

The purpose of the python program is to take a shapefile of oil and gas wells for various counties in Texas and determine the boundary of oil and gas fields they reside in for each county. Using search cursors determine the field name provided from the input shapefile. A series of convex hull buffers will determine the boundary of each oil field. According to the Texas Railroad Commission, in Texas wells must be a minimum of 467 feet from a lease line. Between well spacing keeps wells a minimum of 1,200 feet from “any well completed in or drilling to the same field on the same lease or unit.” Statewide spacing is determined by these regulations and amended through the Texas Railroad Commission’s hearing process.

With the boundary of the oil field determined, other information can be calculated like the fields area and oil well production figures. This information can be used to determine how much severance tax an operator pays the state and the county where the oil field resides. The State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery program (STARR) at the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) is dedicated to increasing severance tax income for the State of Texas.

Presenter

Harold Rogers, Bureau of Economic Geology

Harold Rogers is the GIS Database manager for the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery Group (STARR) at the Bureau of Economic Geology. Along with helping STARR with various GIS projects, Harold uses his skills in subsurface modeling, well analysis, animation, and visualization to assist a variety of groups at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the Bureau of Economic Geology. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television-Film and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. Harold also holds a Post-Bachelorette GIS Certification from Penn State University. Harold is currently working on a Masters Degree in Geographic Information Systems and Technology through North Carolina State University and has been working in the field of GIS for 12 years.

Wednesday, October 23, 11:30AM – 12:00PM, Li'l Tex

One of our primary responsibilities at TxDOT to maintain an accurate spatial inventory of roadway assets. We use a set of custom, Python-scripted add-ins developed for ArcMap to manage this process. They allow us to edit geometry, perform QA checks, and finally, to ETL the updates into an Oracle spatial database where assets can be edited.

Beginning in 2020, Esri will no longer support ArcMap version 10.3, moving instead towards ArcGIS Pro. This presented a major challenge to our workflow: ArcGIS Pro is built on the .NET framework, and customization is done using the C# programming language, not Python. We needed a way to migrate our existing toolbars from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro; from Python to C#.

This presentation will serve as how-to (and cautionary tale!) for users migrating custom-built tools from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. We will examine several different scenarios, the challenges we faced, and the solutions we arrived at. Specific Learning Objectives include:

• Rewriting a Python tool in C# using the ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET
• Calling a Python script or a Geoprocessing tool from C#
• Customizing the UI using WPF

Anyone feeling a bit overwhelmed by the upcoming migration to ArcGIS Pro will find our story interesting, entertaining, and hopefully instructive. Come along and ride on the fan-tas-tic voyage!

Presenters

John Phillips, Texas Department of Transportation

John Phillips is a GIS Analyst at TxDOT. He earned his MS from Texas State University with a focus on biogeomorphic response to catastrophic flooding. These days you'll find John hanging out with his wife and two cats or trying to make things easier for himself through programming.

Matt Washburn, Texas Department of Transportation

Matt Washburn has been a GIS Analyst with TxDOT since 2017. He has 7 years of professional GIS experience. Matt holds a BS in Physical Geography and an MS in Geography from Texas State University-San Marcos. He lives in Austin with his wife and son.

Wednesday, October 23, 2:00 – 2:30PM, Li'l Tex

Fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) is a major component of atmospheric air pollution in cities worldwide. PM2.5 is highly variable in space and time and there has been an increased demand for accurate and reliable prediction of intra-urban PM2.5 gradient levels. The expanded use of low-cost sensors is recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency as the new paradigm for air quality monitoring. This study monitors and maps the dynamics of PM2.5 concentration at high spatio-temporal resolutions using the portable sensing techniques and explores the driving factors via a geospatial modeling approach. Specifically, mobile monitoring campaigns were carried out by bicyclists surrounding a university campus using a low-cost particle sensor and a GPS data logger. Geotagged 1-minute PM2.5 measurements were collected along a fixed route at 7 AM, 11 AM, 3 PM, and 7 PM every day over a two-week period. Spatial-temporal patterns of PM2.5 concentrations are quantified and the significance levels of within-day and inter-day differences are tested. We further identify the factors influencing PM2.5 dynamics, including meteorological factors, traffic, landscape horizontal compositions (e.g., the proportion of green spaces, building footprints) and vertical structure (e.g., average building and tree height) that are derived from Lidar and airborne optical images. A geospatial model is applied using the above predictor variables calculated within the directional wind sectors to incorporate the relative position of emission source and receptor. This integrated monitoring, mapping, and modeling framework and its findings can provide guidance for urban planning and health research.

Presenter

Lu Liang, University of North Texas

Dr. Lu Liang is an assistant professor at the Geography Dept, University of North Texas. She received her bachelor degree in GIS and master degree in Cartography and GIS from Chinese Academy of Sciences. She then finished her PhD in Ecosystem Sciences from the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, UC Berkeley. Her research expertise extends to geospatial science, environmental health, ecosystem science, natural resources, and landscape ecology.

Wednesday, October 23, 2:30 – 3:00PM, Li'l Tex

Palo Duro Canyon hosted the 2019 Texas Archeology Society annual Archaeological Field School. The 8 day Field School met in early June with approximately 15 adult survey crews collecting site and other feature data on paper forms as well as GPS-enabled devices. In addition to the research, the Field School helps to mold future archeologists, giving younger participants hands-on experience in field archeology techniques through lessons at a known archeological site.

This past year, TAS partnered with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, selecting to hold the event at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. This presentation will share notable archeological findings at the park discovered and will establish a historical narrative about previous inhabitants of the Canyon.

Included in the presentation:

• A display of generalized maps about the research site distribution/findings.
• A description of our data collection methodology, validation techniques, and procedures.
• A comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of paper forms, Survey 123, Avenza, and other technologies.

We will end with “lessons learned” and suggestions for further researchers.

Presenters

Michael Potts, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Michael Potts has previously interned at Washington College and the National Park Service; he then served as GIS Analyst for 5 years at Casey Trees (environmental nonprofit group) in Washington DC. He has been with Texas Parks & Wildlife since the beginning of 2015, supporting the TPWD mission by developing scripting and electronic data collection methods to improve data consistency and currency. He holds a master’s in Geography from Texas A&M University in College Station - 2010

Ceran Hibbard, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Ceran Hibbard has previously worked a combined 10 years in local government for both Bexar and Comal counties as well as a water utility, San Antonio Water System. She has been with Texas Parks & Wildlife State Parks since 2018. He holds Bachelors of Science, Major in Geography from Texas A&M University in College Station - 2007.

Jennifer Estes, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Jennifer Estes started at TPWD as an intern in 1996 as a GIS Technician in State Parks and has been supporting the TPWD mission ever since. She holds a Master’s in Applied Geography, Major in GIS from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos - 2002; Bachelors of Science, Major in Geography from Texas A&M University in College Station - 1997.

Wednesday, October 23, 3:00 – 3:30PM, Li'l Tex

The federally endangered Houston Toad (Bufo (Anazyrus) houstonensis) is declining due to climatic changes, habitat loss or destruction, and anthropogenic habitat alteration. This species requires a specific breeding habitat of pine and oak woodlands and savannas, specific soil geology, and shallow or ephemeral ponds. The Landscape Ecology Program at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) aims to support the conservation and restoration of B. houstonensis breeding habitat through the development of a high-resolution map of ephemeral and permanent wetlands using a series of GIS technologies. To map potential breeding habitat, available LiDAR within B. houstonensis’ geographic range was acquired. LiDAR was processed using Quick Terrain Modeler to produce a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The DEM was then standardized in ERDAS Imagine, and the landscape sinks were identified using ArcGIS Hydrology Toolset. An object based image analysis was performed in eCognition to extract bodies of water over 400 m2 from satellite imagery to determine which landscape sinks contained water during wet years. The LiDAR derived sink datasets were then modeled with TPWD’s Ecological Mapping Systems, soil types, hydrological features, as well as pond edge slope to produce a final map of potential breeding habitat. Both information gaps and conservation actions identified in the Texas Conservation Action Plan will be addressed by this mapping project including: gaining information regarding ponds within this species historic range, assist biologists with the annual documentation of habitat, and locate potential areas where landowner incentives would enhance connectivity among sites.

Presenters

Laura Chapa, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Laura Chapa is a GIS Analyst for the Landscape Ecology Program at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Since joining TPWD in 2014, Chapa has worked on mapping Texas vegetation statewide, as well as Conservation Opportunity Areas for Texas species of greatest conservation need. Over the past year, she has devoted her time to mapping potential breeding habitat for an endangered species, Houston Toad. Chapa earned a BS in Biology and MS in Sustainability from Texas State University, wherein her thesis involved using an UAV to map vegetation along a riparian corridor.

Wendy Anderson, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Wendy Anderson is a GIS Analyst at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department within the Landscape Ecology Program. Previously as a field botanist with TPWD, she conducted surveys of grassland plant communities throughout the state of Texas. She holds a dual Master of Science in Environmental Science and Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University, where she focused on grassland ecology, and water resources.

Thursday, October 24, 10:30 – 11:00AM, Li'l Tex

ACC, Inc. partners with the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC), the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) and the Texas General Land Office (GLO), securing internships, projects and temporary positions to help provide students with professional skills. In 2018 we proposed a project for CSEC to provide a statewide set of match/control points to ensure that roadways snap or “shake” with each other at jurisdiction boundaries. This presentation will leverage the GIS analytical model to show how our project evolved through iterations and refinement of problem statements and data sets, development of analytic processes and workflows, and completion of the analysis and deliverables.

Presenters

Ken Haenel, Austin Community College Incubator for Professional Skills

Ken Haenel is an Intern at ACC, Inc. and GIS student at ACC pursuing the Level 2 Certificate. As Intern, he is performing data-driven assessments in support of Next Generation 911 systems for the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC), helping train the next generation of ACC Inc. interns, and documenting workflow improvements to drive consistency. Prior to changing his career to GIS, Ken spent 20 years at Dell Inc. where he helped grow Dell’s patent program and portfolio by administering Dell’s patent and invention databases, directly supporting 20+ law firms, 2,000+ engineers/developers, 10+ mergers/acquisitions, and two systems migrations.

Sean Moran, Austin Community College Incubator for Professional Skills

Sean Moran is the ACC GIS and Geomatics Department Chair and Professor. He has over 20 years of professional planning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) experience. He has extensive experience utilizing information technology to facilitate planning, engineering, and environmental projects. Prior to coming to Austin Community College (ACC) in 2009, Mr. Moran taught applied GIS to graduate-level planning students in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas. He has a BS in Forest Science from Texas A&M University and an MS in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas.

Thursday, October 24, 11:00 – 11:30AM, Li'l Tex

NoSQL graph-based databases are widely used in social media applications, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. But they are underutilized in the GIS industry. However, given their ability to model data as links and nodes (sound familiar?), they are actually a very good way to store and model geospatial data, and to represent complex spatial relationships.

In this presentation, we will discuss how a NoSQL graph-based database can simplify otherwise complex data modeling of real world features, such as transportation networks, by storing all of the information about intersections, or traffic circles, at the node level. We will provide an overview of how DDOT (District Department of Transportation, Washington DC) and the AppGeo team leveraged the existing DDOT Linear Referencing System (LRS) based on Esri’s Roads & Highways, to develop the workflow and processing scripts to migrate this data into a NoSQL graph database (ArangoDB), and discuss how the team developed web services, safety data visualizations, interactive queries, and a web application for viewing cross-sections.

The work done in this project will enable the Government of the District of Columbia to improve their roadway safety analysis and visualization of safety data, implement citywide initiatives for safety improvements, and prepare for a future urban landscape that needs to be resilient, sustainable, livable, and safe!

Presenters

Morgen Healy, Applied Geographics, Inc.

Morgen Healy has been working as GIS professional for nearly 17 years, and much of that time has been with AppGeo. She manages and leads a wide range of GIS projects, including State and Federal transportation projects, strategic planning, enterprise GIS architecture, website design and development, data development and QA/QC, and GIS implementation assistance. In her free time, she likes to ski (water and snow), and chase her 3 kids around.

James Graham & Osheen Safarian, District of Columbia Department of Transportation

James K. Graham has over 15 years of experience in the field of geography, with a specialization in the areas of historical GIS, planning, & transportation geography. He currently serves as the GIS and Apps Manager for the Columbia District Department of Transportation. He is passionate not only about technology, writing code and the Web, but also about teaching others about the uniquely powerful aspects of GIS.

Thursday, October 24, 11:30AM – 12:30PM, Li'l Tex

The presentation is about an ongoing project with TxDOT that entails the creation of cultural resource datasets in collaboration with Native American tribes. The goal is to create datasets of culturally significant locations such as sacred sites, special plant habitats, etc. that will allow TxDOT to proactively consult with interested tribes.

Presenter

Ryan Fennell, Atkins.

Ryan Fennell is a Senior GIS Analyst for Atkins. Ryan has worked in GIS for 18 years supporting a variety of disciplines including transportation planning, environmental planning and emergency management. Prior to joining Atkins Ryan worked in Cultural Resource Management at the Texas Department of Transportation. Ryan received his M.A. in Geography from The University of Texas at Austin.

Thursday, October 24, 2:00 – 2:30PM, Li'l Tex

Today's dynamic mapping environment finds users surrounded by volumes of highly accurate spatial data. However most users and applications do not capitalize on the full 3D capability available today. Basic change detection provides them with valuable insight but why limit the analysis to 2D viewing and interpretations alone? Come learn about taking your GIS to the 3D level with fully interactive mesh of terrain and imagery to capitalize on data acquired for your next project and how to integrate with historical data already holding the 3D component. Also learn about the various interfaces in which your 3D data can be utilized.

Presenter

Timothy Bohn, SURDEX Corp

Tim Bohn , VP of Business Development, has been with Surdex for 24 years. He is a Certified Photogrammetrist as well as a Project Management Professional (PMP). Tim enjoys advising his clients in the multiple sectors based on a diverse background centered on all aspects of photogrammetric mapping. Prior to his current role, he was the Director of Project Management for 15 years managing four full-time Project Managers. Earlier in his career he spent time as Project Estimator and in multiple photogrammetric production positions.

Thursday, October 24, 2:30 – 3:00PM, Li'l Tex

Historically, the Texas General Land Office (GLO), Energy Resources division, has relied on aerial photography and visual interpretation to monitor and assess lessees’ operations of mine sites on Permanent School Fund (PSF) lands. These mine site operators pay royalties to the agency based on the amount of material mined and sold from the site, and the traditional audit approach provides no mechanism to accurately verify reported production figures. Since 2016, Energy Resources and the agency’s GIS team have been working on procedures to use fixed-wing aircraft or small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS, or drones) to acquire high-resolution aerial imagery and 3D elevation data to meet this audit need. This presentation describes this undertaking, what we have been able to accomplish, lessons learned, and the next step to take.

Presenters

Scot Friedman, Texas General Land Office

Scot Friedman received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geography from The University of Texas at Austin, specializing in physical geography, GIS, and environmental studies. He has been at the Land Office since 1991, first as Coastal Resources GIS team leader, then as manager, and now in his current position as Director of GIS. Scot coordinates a team of professionals to provide GIS services and support to fulfill the agency’s mission to preserve Texas history, maximize state revenue, and conserve the state’s lands and natural resources.

Bill Farr, Texas General Land Office

Bill Farr has been employed with the Texas General Land Office since 1973. For the last 39 years he has worked as a geoscientist, coordinating the leasing of minerals, other than oil and gas, on lands dedicated to the Permanent School Fund. This “hard mineral” leasing program accounts for approximately $3 million in revenue to the Fund annually. Bill has a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Geology form the University of Texas at Austin.

Daniel Gao, Texas General Land Office

Daniel Gao earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geography from Beijing University in China, and his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin. Since December 2000, Daniel has been employed as a GIS Analyst at the Texas General Land Office. His main responsibilities, among other tasks, include aerial imagery, LiDAR, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to support the Coastal Resources program, as well as the Permanent School Fund (PSF) surface mine leasing program.

Thursday, October 24, 3:00 – 3:30PM, Li'l Tex

For years, TNRIS is known for collecting and disseminating Lidar data in Texas, a dataset that grows each year. TNRIS has implemented a streamlined, cost-effective, cloud-based repository for Lidar and all other datasets to be accessed directly by users through the TNRIS Data Hub. Adding value to these datasets, TNRIS uses classified Lidar to derive 2D building footprints, Digital Elevation Models, Digital Surface Models, and blocky 3D buildings. Beyond the constriction of defining the 3D buildings with a finite domain of roof forms (Flat, Gable, Hip, Dome, Mansard, etc), a more realistic, higher-resolution 3D building, is possible. Using the DEM, the 2D footprint, and the classified building lidar point cloud to create a collection of squares, rectangles, and triangles to graphically represent each building as a multipatch, while still having just one record in the table per building. 3D buildings can be then be used with other datasets to enrich them, such as address points, parcels, etc. 3D buildings can be then used for planning, disaster response, next-gen 911, etc. TNRIS is evaluating making both versions of 3D buildings available to the user.

Presenter

Miguel Pavon, Texas Natural Resources Information System

Miguel A. Pavon was born in Mexico City. His day job is the Special Projects Coordinator for Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS), a division of the Texas Water Development Board. During evenings he teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin.

His undergraduate degree is in Physical Oceanography from the State University of Baja California, and he holds a M.S. in Environmental Engineering with a specialty in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Monterrey Tech.

Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 4:30PM, Li'l Tex

San Antonio River Authority (SARA) has a Real Estate database and geodatabase for managing and tracking all property assets in their GIS system. They have set up a mapping application for viewing property information and tracking and resolving data issues and discrepancies. Together, SARA Real Estate and GIS staff and the AppGeo team have worked to assess current workflows and processes, and to identify potential areas of improvement for the management of SARA property data. These improvements are related to data creation and maintenance workflows, data structure, technology platforms, QA/QC standards, and documentation. In this presentation, we will discuss the findings of this project, and present progress on the implementation of the various recommendations.

Presenters

Philip Brown, San Antonio River Authority

Philip Brown is a GIS Infrastructure Specialist working at the San Antonio River Authority for the past five years. Previously, Philip was a GIS Analyst at Apple Computer Austin working with the Indoor Mapping Team and since 2005, an independent GIS consultant working on an array of projects from the oil and gas industry to disaster mapping for FEMA. He has worked in many technology related fields over the years including consumer and professional digital image processing, computer field engineering, web design/development, and archaeological data collection, maintenance, and mapping.

Elizabeth Garcia, San Antonio River Authority

Elizabeth Garcia is a GIS Analyst at the San Antonio River Authority. She specializes in creating and maintaining spatial data for the Real Estate Team, but also produces GIS data and applications for other departments within the River Authority such as the Watershed Parks and Operations, Utilities, and Intergovernmental/Community Relations. Aside from her duties as an analyst, she is an actively involved in external GIS organizations, being the Social Media Coordinator for the Alamo Area GIS User Group, a South-Central Arc User Group member, and an Alamo Data Regional Alliance member.

Caitlin Schneider, Applied Geographics, Inc.

Caitlin Schneider is a GIS Analyst for AppGeo and graduated from Southwestern University with a B.A. in Environmental Geographic Information Science. She has expertise in detailed spatial data collection and processing methods, spatial and non-spatial data integration, quality control and data documentation. In her spare time, she is an avid cyclist and enjoys hiking the greenbelts of Austin.

Thursday, October 24, 4:30 – 5:00PM, Li'l Tex

Food safety is critical to the public and the government plays a major role in ensuring that. This research thus aimed at examining the spatial distribution and patterns of food establishment inspection scores in Austin, TX between 2016 and 2018. It also explored socio-economic factors that explained or accounted for the variability in the inspections scores. Some GIS techniques employed in the analysis included kernel density analysis, hot spot analysis, and Geographic Weighted Regression. Findings from the research showed that, restaurants with low scores clustered mostly in the downtown area. Again, population density and percentage of renters were among the significant factors that explained the variability in the inspection scores albeit with low impact.

Presenter

Nathaniel Liang, Texas State University

Nathaniel Dede-Bamfois the GIS Services Specialist at Albert B. Alkek Library at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. He received a Ph.D. in Geographic Information Science from Texas State University. Nathaniel is a passionate academic with over ten years’ experience in teaching and conducting research particularly those involving geospatial technologies. His research interests generally involve geospatial modeling and specifically comprise transportation analysis (spatial accessibility and mobility), land use/land cover analysis, and regional planning. Nathaniel enjoys spending time with his family as well as meeting people and sharing ideas.