Txgio

2022 Texas GIS Forum

For over three decades, the Texas GIS Forum has been the can't-miss event for the statewide GIS community. Come to Austin and hear about the latest advancements in the private and public sector and take the opportunity to touch base with long-time colleagues – and make new connections.

Thank you! This year's forum was a great success thanks to our sponsors, speakers, workshop instructors, moderators, and everyone who attended. Be sure to view available presenter slides in case you missed anything, and we'll see y'all next year!

Keynote Speakers

Agenda

Pricing

Keynote Speakers

Wed, Mar 9
Erin Helton

Erin Helton has been working with GIS for fourteen years predominantly in cultural, environmental, and energy industries. Her past work includes predictive modeling, LiDAR analyses, web map development, and automating analysis workflows. Erin has most recently been involved in projects for emergency response, compliance reporting, and even treasure hunting! Last year Erin was featured on three episodes of History Channel's "The Curse of Oak Island" where she used historic maps, enhanced LiDAR data, and triangulation techniques to determine the original positions of lost features.

Thu, Mar 10
Mark McCoy

Professor Mark McCoy is a landscape archaeologist whose research centers on the development of ancient political economies and human ecodynamics. His book "Maps for Time Travelers: How Archaeologists Use Technology to Bring Us Closer to the Past" tells the story of how geospatial technology is revolutionizing archaeology.

Agenda


- Presentation available

Pre-Conference Workshops

$150 each

Certificates

This year certificates will be available upon request and emailed to individuals.

Requirements

Bring your laptop when attending a training session. Read the description for software requirements and the ability to download an additional temporary license.


8am - 12pm

Session Description

Growth in LiDAR, ortho mapping, and laser scanning is making elevation point clouds more accessible to GIS Professionals. This course will demonstrate a general workflow for extracting 3D surfaces and features using industry standard and open source software.

Learning Objectives

Attendees to this workship will:

  • Learn about remote sensing technology and 3D point clouds
  • Georeference, merge, clip, and resample point clouds using CloudCompare 3D point cloud and mesh processing software
  • Symbolize, classify, and process point clouds using ArcGIS Pro GIS software
  • Extract 3D surfaces and features from point clouds
  • Publish an interactive 3D map

Students will get hands-on experience using CloudCompare 3D and ArcGIS Pro to process 3D point clouds and create 3D maps.

Requirements

Students will bring their laptop computer with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online software and install CloudCompare software before class

Sean Moran Headshot
Sean Moran, ACC

Mr. Moran is the ACC GIS 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.

Session Description

ArcGIS Experience Builder helps transform your data and maps into unique and compelling web experiences. ArcGIS Experience Builder's out of the box templates and widgets allow you to configure a wide variety of experiences without writing any code. Build web apps that interact with 2D and 3D data and that look great and run seamlessly on any device.

Learning Objectives

This workshop will introduce the basics of ArcGIS Experience Builder and help you get started incorporating this Essential App into your workflows.

Requirements

Internet browser. ArcGIS Online installed on laptop computer. Named User and organization will be provided.

Kathleen Clancy Headshot
Kathleen Clancy, Esri

Kathleen Clancy is a Solution Engineer in the San Antonio Regional Office. She has been working with Esri’s technology for over a decade. Kathleen’s previous experience includes serving as a GIS and Natural Resource Management Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Mexico’s National Park Service and working as a GIS Specialist and Research Associate for Disney’s Animals, Science, and Environment Team. Kathleen enjoys helping users find new and creative ways to meet their needs through the use of technology.

Session Description

Learn more about the new ArcGIS Field Maps, the only app your mobile workforce needs to complete their map-centric workflows. Field workers will be able to collect data, mark up maps, capture location tracks, complete assignments, and navigate to assets all from one appl. This saves time for the field worker, because they will only have to download, sign in to, and work with one app - and it saves time for you, because you will only hve to configure maps for one application.

Learning Objectives

In this session you will learn how to configure maps to support your field workflows, create your maps for offline use. Utilizing your own mobile device, you will test and deploy your map so it's ready for your mobile workers.

Requirements

Internet browser, mobile device. ArcGIS Online Named User and organization will be provided.

Laura Chapa Headshot
Laura Chapa, Esri

Laura Chapa earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology/Botany in 2009, and a Master of Science in Sustainability in 2014 with a thesis on using drones to map vegetation from Texas State University. While earning her Master’s, she performed environmental research related to water resources for the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State. As she completed her Master’s, she started at Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) as a GIS Analyst for the Landscape Ecology Program, a team that maps the vegetation for the entire State of Texas. She was also involved in various complex GIS/remote sensing projects for floral and faunal species habitat conservation. After five and a half years at TPWD, she joined Esri, a GIS mapping software company, as a Solution Engineer on their State and Local Government team based out of San Antonio, Texas. Laura also teaches at Austin Community College part-time providing instruction in Environmental Science and GIS.

Session Description

This is an interactive beginner's course to learn about and understand the fundamentals of LiDAR data and its applications.

Learning Objectives

This course will cover the basics of LiDAR data collection practices, specification standards, LiDAR data visualization/manipulation, derivative products, and general LiDAR data application.

Requirements

Students are responsible to bring their laptop computers and have approval to install Global Mapper software. Trial keys will be available for installation during class.

Joey Thomas Headshot
Joey Thomas, TNRIS

Joey is an elevation specialist and project manager at TNRIS. He has worked in GIS since 2007 when he began an internship at TNRIS. Since 2015 he has served as project manager for the LiDAR data acquisition across the state and coordination efforts with state, federal and local entities.

Session Description

ModelBuilder allows users to create custom tools in ArcGIS Pro without having to know how to write scripts. A simple model might display lat/long locations from a spreasheet, buffer the resultant points, and calculate the are, in acres, of the buffered polygons. More complex models may involve dozens of steps, saving the GIS professional countless hours of manually running processes.

Requirements

Students will bring their laptops with ArcGIS Pro (Version 2.6 or newer) installed. Students will be provided with a named user ArcGIS Pro login that is licensed for the course.

Jennifer Harrison Headshot
Jennifer Harrison, TeachMeGIS

Jenny Harrison is the founder of TeachMeGIS, a GIS training center based in Houston, Texas. Jenny has been working with and teaching GIS for over 30 years. She holds a Master of Science degree in Geosciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. She and her team have trained thousands of GIS professionals in various organizations across the US and around the world. Jenny is a GISP and is the author of the TeachMeGIS GISP Test Preparation training course.

Session Description

The 2020 Census provides a new set of statistical geography for use with our American Community Survey (ACS). Because the ACS 5-year data are provided using a moving sample, it can be difficult to determine what vintage geography should be used with the data.

Learning Objectives

In this workshop, we will explore ACS data and its application to both the 2010 and 2020 statistical geography and understand the vintages, differences, and relationship between the two. We'll discuss ramifications of switching to the new geography for a multi-year analysis and how to accommodate the shift of census geography is a plus.

Lacey Loftin Headshot
Lacy Loftin, US Census Bureau

Lacey Loftin is a statistician with the United States Census Bureau. In the 18 years that she has been with the agency, she has served as an Analyst for the Economic Census, supervised data collection operations, acted as a congressional liaison during the 2010 Census, and worked to create the Statistics in Schools program. Lacey's time is now focused on outreach to organizations and governments, sharing data, tools and useful applications.


1pm - 5pm

Session Description

ArcGIS Notebooks brings powerful data science workflows to the ArcGIS platform. It allows users to build data sceience models that take advantage of ArcGIS platform capabilities, then automate and operationalize these models. Because ArcGIS Notebooks integrates directly with ArcGIS, it also lets GIS administrators automate their administrative workflows saving time and boosting productivity.

Learning Objectives

Learn how you can work with GIS content in AcGIS Online and the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World inside ArcGIS Notebooks, giving you broader access to the data you need.

Requirements

Internet browser. ArcGIS ONline Named User and organization will be provided.

Joseph Bowles Headshot
Joseph Bowles, Esri

Joseph "Brig" Bowles is a Solutions Engineer and works out of the Esri San Antonio office. He has been with Esri for twenty plus years focusing mainly on the technical side of the sales process. His experience is in helping companies and individuals get their data into a spatial format to better find answers to questions. His areas of expertise include web mapping, server based GIS, developer technologies, and making spatial technology available to everyone.

Session Description

Although we live in a digital age, sometimes we still need to print hard copy maps. For maps we take into the field smaller is often easier to handle. However, the smaller the map, the harder it is to see the detail we may require. This is where map books come in handy. They allow us to print maps covering larger areas at our desired scale by breaking the area up into individual sheets which form the pages of the book. In ArcGIS Pro we call this functionalilty a Map Series.

Learning Objectives

In this session we will explore the map series functionality in ArcGIS Pro. We will learn what it is and how to configure it. We will learn how index grid layers function and how to create them. Next we will examine the use of Dynamic Text with a map series. Lastly, we will examine how to print and export your series.

Requirements

Students will bring their laptops with ArcGIS Pro (any license level) installed with a valid login. This should be verified prior to the start of class.

Eric Pimpler Headshot
Eric Pimpler, GeoSpatial Training Services

Eric is the founder and owner of GeoSpatial Training Services (geospatialtraining.com) and has over 25 years experience as an application developer, data scientist, and trainer using ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Pro. Eric is currently focused on data science applications with Python, R, and GIS.

Session Description

Using ArcGIS Survey123, you can deliver the most sophisticated smart form capabilities to your field crews. In this session we explore a handfull of topics to help you get the best out of the Survey123 field app. You will also learn how to take your surveys to the next level with ArcGIS Survey123 Connect and the XLSForm specification.

Learning Objectives

In this session you will gain XLSForm skills allowing you to design sophisticated surveys that include custom data validation logic, form layouts, advanced usesr input controls and much more.

Requirements

ArcGIS Survey123 Connect installed on your mobile device. ArcGIS Online Named User and organization will be provided.

Zena Pelletier Headshot
Zena Pelletier, Esri

Zena Pelletier is a Solution Engineer on the State & Local Government team out of the San Antonio Regional Office with Esri. She has been with Esri 3 ½ years and she works with local governments in the region to make full use of Esri software and technology. She enjoys helping users deploy solutions to meet their business and objectives.

Session Description

Through the use of extensions, advanced capabilities can be added to GIS software. Third-party extensions such as the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension bring additional functionality of products such as FME into your GIS. This includes tools for spatial ETL, data validation, data export, workflow automation, and more. Advantages include automation of workflows, documenting processes, sharing custom tools, saving time in getting the answer to the question, and integrating with a number of systems. The use of an integrated spatial ETL allows for advanced workflows that go beyond the capabilities of built-in tools such as ModelBuilder. Functionality includes: grabbing a zip file and extracting it, reading one of the files in the zip to set parameters, concluding if there is existing data, preparing each file set to be loaded into the existing geodatabase, assigning attribute values, calculating geometry, converting units, cleaning up the data, writing it out to the geodatabase, and looping through to relate the data together in relationship classes. A wide range of options are available to GIS professionals seeking to automate common workflows in their daily lives. This includes Modelbuilder, Python, and FME...among others. Workflows where automation using FME is appropriate include when project data is acquired or stored in several various formats and locations. Not only can FME automation help save time, but it can also ensure data quality through attribute and feature filters and comparisons. What's nice is that FME can even download your project data directly from the source website, extract the ZIP file into your project folder, and visualize the features directly in the application. All of this integration and automation leads to faster completion of the data collection and assimilation tasks of a GIS project.

Learning Objectives

  • Define ETL terminology.
  • List the advantages and uses of an integrated spatial ETL.
  • Compare ArcGIS Data Interoperability to FME Desktop.
  • Explain the steps for using an integrated spatial ETL tool.
  • Create GIS data from a CAD file using an integrated spatial ETL tool.
  • Identify the components of an FME Workbench.
  • Compare an automated GIS workflow in Modelbuilder to an FME Workbench.
  • Explain the steps for creating an FME workbench.
  • Create a GIS workflow automation in an FME workbench.
  • Identify the workflows where FME is appropriate.
  • List real-world applications of FME integration with GIS.
  • Explain the settings for integrating Python with FME.
  • Develop an FME Workbench with HTTPCallers.
  • Create an inventory of data through automation.

Requirements

This workshop requires that you install the ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extension for ArcGIS Pro in order to access an FME Workbench. More information can be found here:

 

  • What is an ArcGIS Pro Extension?
  • What is the ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extension for ArcGIS Pro?
  • What is FME?

Licensing will be provided for the day of the workshop ONLY. Please note that the Data Interoperability Extension requires an "All Users" installation of ArcGIS Pro 2.x If this is not the case on your computer, you will need to uninstall ArcGIS Pro and reinstall it selecting the "All users of this PC" radio button instead of just one account.

Stephanie Long Headshot
Stephanie Long, ACC

Stephanie Long, GISP, is the GIS Department Chair and a GIS Professor for Austin Community college where she teaches GIS courses such as Scripting, Programming, and Advanced Problems. Her presentations at professional conferences have covered topics such as “Python as a GIS Intern” and “The Application of GIS in the Environmental Impact Analysis of Transmission Line Routing” and “What’s New in Automating GIS Workflows” and “Programming with GIS?! Yes You Can!”. Recently the Geography Department of Texas State University presented Stephanie with the Mary Beth Booth Award for Outstanding Service by an Extramural Educator in recognition of her history in preparing students for success. Stephanie was also spotlighted by Austin Community College for her work developing online GIS courses and was announced as ACC eFaculty of the Year for 2020. Stephanie Long holds a Master of Science in Geography from Texas State University in San Marcos and she has over 16 years of experience as a GIS professional in the public and private sectors.

Mike Long Headshot
Mike Long, Capital Metro Transportation Authority

Mike Long, GISP, is the GIS Coordinator for Capital Metro Transportation Authority. He has over 15 years of experience in the GIS industry and 10 years of experience using FME software. At CapMetro Mike integrates FME into enterprise level workflows including an FME cluster that handles over 30,000 jobs per day. He holds a Masters degree in GIS from Texas State University and is a certified GIS professional.

Session Description

This course teaches ArcGIS Pro users how to create and modify GIS data. The student will learn about different editable GIS data types, editing environments, and some tools and techniques used to successfully edit in ArcGIS Pro.

Requirements

Students will bring their laptops with ArcGIS Pro (Version 2.6 or newer) installed. Students will be provided with a named user ArcGIS Pro login that is licensed for the course.

Jennifer Harrison Headshot
Jennifer Harrison, TeachMeGIS

Jenny Harrison is the founder of TeachMeGIS, a GIS training center based in Houston, Texas. Jenny has been working with and teaching GIS for over 30 years. She holds a Master of Science degree in Geosciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. She and her team have trained thousands of GIS professionals in various organizations across the US and around the world. Jenny is a GISP and is the author of the TeachMeGIS GISP Test Preparation training course.

Session Description

The Public Law 94-171 redistricting data was released by the Census Bureau on August 2021 in “Legacy” format. In this workshop we will demonstrate downloading the raw data from the Census website and loading the data it into a Microsoft Access database. We’ll explore the file content and format, discuss how to run queries within MS-Access, and how to export the data in other formats such as .CSV and MS-Excel.

Learning Objectives

This workshop will provide everything you need to know to access, read, and process the entire dataset for your state and get you ready for redistricting or other detailed population studies. We will discuss summary levels, logical record numbers and GEOIDs for linking to TIGER/Line shapefiles. MS-Access experience is helpful but not required.

Requirements

MS-Access experience is helpful but not required.

James Castagneri
James Castagneri, US Census Bureau

James Castagneri is a Denver-based Geographer at the U.S. Census Bureau with over 35 years’ experience. He conducts geographic outreach programs for twelve states from Canada to Mexico. Early in his career, Jim was involved in the creation of the TIGER system. More recently, Jim has played a pivotal role in bringing geospatial analysis to survey management and census field operations. He specializes in census statistical geography and Geographic Information Systems


7:15am - 5pm

Registration


8:30 - 9am

Opening Remarks

Richard Wade

TNRIS Deputy Executive Administrator/State GIO


Presentation

Session Description

Erin King Helton will be sharing her GIS career journey and demonstrating how the skills she has picked up supporting a wide variety of industries have culminated in a wholistic approach to spatial analysis. Erin's combined career experiences have allowed her to think "outside the box" and has resulted in the development of new ideas regarding the mystery of Oak Island. Erin will be sharing in detail how she triangulated the positions of features from a 1939 map across the island's famous "Money Pit" area.

Learning Objectives

To demonstrate the versatility of GIS to solve even the most obscure problems, and encourage other spatial analysts to apply their varied skillsets to projects that they are passionate about.


10 - 10:30am

Break & Exhibits


Innovative Initiatives (Big Tex)

Session Description

Join us as we announce some new ideas in the works at TNRIS! We’ll be sharing the inspiration and high-level concepts behind launching a new TNRIS store featuring both historical and artistic geospatial products as well as Texas GIS-centric branded items that our community can show off with pride.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will learn about the background and inspiration behind the TNRIS Store and how it will benefit education and learning for the GIS community in Texas. Attendees will also understand how creating a Texas GIS brand, will unite the GIS community around our common goals and experiences as Texas GIS Professionals in a way that we can take pride in the work we do for Texas.

Laura Sepulveda, Application Designer

Laura is an application designer in TNRIS with a background in GIS and government data. She is passionate about information accessibility and making digital products that are useful instead of frustrating for stakeholders. Her work involves a lot of listening to try and better understand user needs and testing ideas to see what works and doesn’t work for real people. She absolutely loves that she gets to focus on the human aspect of technology solutions through design.

Richard Wade, Deputy Executive Administrator

Richard has over 35 years of experience in GIS and computer mapping. He holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Texas State University. He started his career as an intern with TNRIS in 1986. He helped establish one of the first Statewide GIS systems at TNRIS and the Texas Water Development Board. Richard joined Earth Information Systems Corporation as the Director of Telecommunications. He managed and maintained several high profile data contracts for companies; Qualcomm, Motorola, and Verizon. He went on to co-found the Windrose Data Corporation, which provided GIS data and services to large environmental and energy firms across the country. He returned to TNRIS in 2005 as the Information Services Team Leader responsible for the development and the implementation of the TNRIS website and supporting GIS applications. In November 2015, TNRIS was promoted to a Division within the Texas Water Development Board, taking Richard from Director to Deputy Executive Administrator for the TNRIS Division. Richard also serves as the Geographic Information Officer of Texas.
Presentation

Session Description

Routing involves defining an optimal path in a real-world geographical space through user-defined points of interest subject to user-defined constraints. Although routing algorithms have been around for years, routing is typically implemented at the server level, which can result in significant costs and skilled labor requirements. We present here the development and implementation of a free and open-source software client-side routing library that minimizes these costs and labor requirements. We use a case study to show how to use the library in a demonstration web app. The library and demonstration web app are freely available on GitHub for commercial and noncommercial uses. Our goal was to build an affordable routing solution that would be efficient and useful to people who may have limited funds and development experience. In this presentation, we discuss the routing library functionality and associated algorithms implemented along with any limitations we discovered while using the library. We describe our public domain data sources and how to configure these and possibly other data sources for use in the routing library. Our case study web app is an historical walking tour of Castroville, Texas, that demonstrates one use of our routing library. This web app can help the community catalog historical properties for preservation and inspire tourists to come to Castroville and visit the historical sites. The demonstration web app also can serve as a starting point for other applications. We believe the routing library may be particularly beneficial to local governments and small nonprofits having limited funds for web app development. For example, a local public works department could use the library to build a web app for surveying field equipment. There may be many other applications, and we hope to inspire the audience to identify and discuss other possibilities with us.

Learning Objectives

1) Learn about Route30, a free and open-source software client-side routing library, 2) Understand the benefits the library can provide to organizations with limited funding and development experience, 3) View a case study web app implementation that uses Route30 and understand how this web app can be a starting point for other client-side routing applications, and 4) Understand the challenges of client-side route generation and how these challenges are addressed by Route30.

George Adams, Principal Engineer

George Adams is a licensed industrial and software engineer registered in Texas. He is a principal engineer at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and student in Penn State’s World Campus Master of Geographic Information Systems program. He has developed software applications for decades and is particularly interested in web app development and supporting the efforts of local governments and small nonprofits.

Session Description

A showcase of TNRIS's Historical Aerial Archive history, resources, recent organizational efforts and digitization workflows, and future plans for georeferencing and distribution to the public.

Learning Objectives

The presentation will provide a background of how the archive came to be and TNRIS's plans to publish its resources to the TNRIS DataHub.

Chelsea Sidenblad, Geographic Data Officer

Chelsea is the Geographic Data Officer at TNRIS. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Geography and completed the GIS program with Austin Community College. She has worked in the TNRIS archive since 2018.

Aaron Pearce, GIS Specialist

Aaron Pearce graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Wildlife & Fisheries Science, supplementing with the ACC GIS Certificate program. He worked as a Consultant utilizing the TNRIS archive since 2016 and officially joined the TNRIS team in 2020.

Creative Coordination (Lil Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

It’s time for you to Shine! Take charge of your career by deepening your relationships with your GIS colleagues, students, and mentors. Dig into you niche or find a new geo-love when you join groups for professional development and social events. Let’s look at some volunteer opportunities together and discuss tactics to strengthen your professional and soft skills to broaden your career horizons. You are worth it! Invest in yourself and your GIS Community. Together we are better and can grow to new heights.

Courtney Roe, Civil CAD Designer

Courtney Roe, GISP has been a member of the GIS, CAD, and Survey community since 2013, with her roots in these fields going back to her academic experience at Texas State University and Austin Community College. Courtney is currently employed at Pape-Dawson Engineers as a Civil CAD Designer in Land Development and is both a GISP and Autodesk Civil 3D Certified Professional. She enjoys being on the Board of Supporting Women in Geography & GIS (SWIGGIS) and is always engaged in the GIS and CAD community.
Presentation

Session Description

For 20 years, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) has facilitated the purchase of spatial data for North Texas as a cost-sharing objective for local governments and other interested entities. The program, which began with orthophotography only, has grown to include numerous remote sensing products and derivative data. Most of the program’s growth has occurred over the last decade’s partnership with Woolpert.

Shelley Broyles, GIS Project Coordinator

Shelley Broyles is a GIS Project Coordinator at the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Shelley has 20+ years of geospatial and project management experience. She has managed the NCTCOG Spatial Data Cooperative Program for the past 13 years and is a leader in facilitating large remote sensing acquisitions and coordinating collaborative projects and events with numerous stakeholders.

Sam Moffatt, Program Director

Sam Moffat is a Geospatial Project Director with expertise that encompasses all aspects of the industry, with specialized knowledge of large-scale state, local government, and federal mapping efforts. He keeps abreast of emerging technologies and the benefits of digital data collection, including aerial imagery and airborne lidar, and has successfully managed three statewide mapping programs. In addition to managing and directing projects, Sam is well-versed in fostering sustainable relationships and assisting organizations to leverage geographic information to drive business value and operational efficiencies.
Presentation

Session Description

Leveraging affordable talent and technology, Austin Community College (ACC) is using best practices to develop a comprehensive and accurate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) basemap for all 12 campuses. ACC GIS Students working for the ACC Incubator for Professional Skills (ACC Inc) and supported by ACC's Facilities & Construction, Safety & Operations, and GIS Departments are using leading-edge hardware and software to develop a distributed ACC-wide enterprise GIS while our students graduate with the academic, technical, and professional skills desired by employers.

Learning Objectives

Discover how ACC students, faculty, and staff are teaming up to map our campuses.

Sean Moran, GIS Professor

Mr. Moran is an ACC GIS 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 Urban Forestry from Texas A&M University and an MS in Urban Planning from the University of Texas.

Deborah Massaro, GIS/Digital Information Manager

Ms. Massaro is the GIS/Digital Information Manager for the Facilities & Construction department at ACC. She has over 10 years of experience in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) and space management industries. Before ACC, Ms. Massaro was the CAD/Signage assistant at MIT. She has a Bachelors of Science in Architecture from Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Nelson Forternberry, Geospatial Intern

Nelson Fortenberry is currently a Geospatial intern for Austin Community College and the Texas General Land office. While studying history in his home state of Montana, he gained an appreciation for GIS and cartography. He graduated with a BA in History from Montana State University and currently attends ACC where he acquired his Level One GIS certificate.

12 - 1pm

Lunch & Exhibits


Session Description

Demonstration of SURDEX's FlightTracker that was developed as an inhouse flight management tool to efficiently move aircraft from one project area to another to maximize acquisition as weather conditions change. The FlightTracker uses available weather forecasts and other satellite data to assist in aircraft re-locations to avoid downtime during the project fight windows.

Learning Objectives

The FlightTracker demonstrates effective flight operations management and provides real time information to clients on acquisition progress.

Cornell Rowan, Senior Project Manager

Cornell Rowan, CP has more than 35 years in the industry and 14 years at SURDEX where he works as a Senior Project Manager with exceptional management skills specializing in resource allocation, logistics planning and production management. He is a ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist with a B.S. degree in Engineering Technology.

1:45 - 2pm

Break & Exhibits


Workflows (Big Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) began a feasibility study in 2013 for improving travel in Caldwell County, Texas. The purpose of this high-level study was to ensure regional travel needs were met, and considered many factors including travel patterns, future growth and development, environmental constraints, and public input into potential improvement options. As part of the study, CAMPO partnered with BGE, Inc. to develop and investigate potential new roadway corridors within Caldwell County. Each of these potential corridors was subject to a complex and time-consuming suitability analysis that was originally planned to be executed manually by counting constraints such as homes impacted or streams crossed by each route. However, the design of the roadways was fluid, and any resulting changes to the road layout required another round of suitability analysis to be conducted. This left a finite number of iterations possible for the roadway design to meet the project timeline.

Learning Objectives

Converting background data into actionable data that decisions can be based on.

Zachary Lansford, GIS Analyst

Zachary Lansford has been a GIS Analyst with BGE, Inc. for 2 years, and is a graduate of Texas A&M University where he studied Geographic Information Science & Technology. Zachary focuses primarily on providing data driven solutions through the use of tools such as ArcGIS Experience Builder, Dashboards, Collector, Survey123, and Web Applications. He also provides support to engineering staff in Map Exhibit production and Data Collection.

Jeremy Gaskins, Director, Business Solutions and Services

Jeremy Gaskins is the Director of Technology Solutions, and he manages a team of about 20 GIS Analysts and Solution Architects. He has a degree in MIS from Texas A&M University. His team focuses on the power of data that drives the GIS applications to help BGE and their clients make smarter decisions, streamline workflows, and find opportunities through technology. Jeremy helped develop the PMIS for file management, the GIS tool for route analysis, and manage the implementation of the 360-degree camera for BGE’s role in the Surface Water Transmission Program.
Presentation

Session Description

Why can’t it be easier to share data? The basis of the conversation is understanding the user’s needs and the software they use. How can we improve communication between GIS and CAD users to work more seamlessly and provide each other with valuable, useable datasets? Using examples of Autodesk Civil 3D and Esri ArcMap, how can workflows be applied when not using the most up-to-date software? What is on the horizon for newer versions of the software and what will we need to look out for to prepare for a shift in interoperability or lack thereof?

Courtney Roe, Civil CAD Designer

Courtney Roe, GISP has been a member of the GIS, CAD, and Survey community since 2013, with her roots in these fields going back to her academic experience at Texas State University and Austin Community College. Courtney is currently employed at Pape-Dawson Engineers as a Civil CAD Designer in Land Development and is both a GISP and Autodesk Civil 3D Certified Professional. She enjoys being on the Board of Supporting Women in Geography & GIS (SWIGGIS) and is always engaged in the GIS and CAD community.
Presentation

Session Description

This presentation aims to show participants how FME can empower your GIS data through the use of traditional Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processes and custom-tailored tools/applications. Examples of how NCT9-1-1 has used FME to transform, correct, and even enhance regional GIS data will be provided in this presentation. This presentation will focus on the impact that these transformative FME tools have had in the highly demanding environment that is 9-1-1/public safety, while also exploring other potential uses for GIS in general.

Bruno Blanco, GIS Specialist III

Bruno Blanco is a GIS Specialist at the North Central Texas Emergency Communications District (NCTECD or NCT9-1-1 for short). He has a Geography degree from Texas Tech University, with a minor in GIS. Bruno's interest in Geography and related technologies started from his early years in Cuba, and only expanded as he traversed the world of GIS and other modern location-based technologies.

Working w/ Data (Lil Tex)

Session Description

Since the first release of TIGER/Line data in 1990, the Census Bureau has published block-level demographics for redistricting. What can these data show when compared across 4 censuses? What information can and cannot be learned from such data and analysis?

Jim Castagneri, Geographer

Jim Castagneri is a Denver-based Geographer at the U.S. Census Bureau with over 35 years’ experience. He manages census geographic programs for twelve states from Canada to Mexico. Early in his career, Jim was involved in the creation of the TIGER system. More recently, Jim has played a pivotal role in bringing geospatial analysis to survey management and census field operations. He specializes in census statistical geography and Geographic Information Systems.

Lacey Loftin, Statistician

Lacey Loftin is a statistician with the United States Census Bureau. In the 17 years that she has been with the agency, she has served as an Analyst for the Economic Census, supervised data collection operations, acted as a congressional liaison during the 2010 Census, and worked to create the Statistics in Schools program. Lacey's time is now focused on outreach to organizations and governments in Texas, Wyoming and Montana sharing data, tools and useful applications.
Presentation

Session Description

Building Spatial Data Infrastructures is no easy task. From the required collaboration to the workflow and everywhere in between there are evil monkeys, poppies and wicked witches along the way. Organizations must work with local data suppliers, other organizational departments, and even federal partners to support the data supply chain. If you are lucky, you can get the data suppliers to agree on a set of Data Governance standards to help ensure decent quality and data in a format that can be readily integrated. However, this is more often the exception rather than the rule. And often, the most daunting piece of the puzzle is getting all this incoming data to align as well as to keep it aligned as updates are supplied year by year. With pressure to do more with less, support staff to manage these efforts can be hindered by lack of resources to establish, as well as maintain, the implementation. In this presentation, 1Spatial will share the success in thwarting many of the "wicked witches” challenges through automation in support of all aspects of the Spatial Data Infrastructure workflow. This includes our Spatial Data Infrastructure implementation for the State of Michigan as well implementing data supply chains for Next Generation 911 for State of Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, and LA County. We will show how these organizations are helping their partners to easily understand data requirements and are empowering them to correct issues by identifying where there are potential non-conformances in the data while providing valuable metrics on the overall health of the data over time. Lastly, once data meets an agreed upon threshold, the data is integrated with multiple sources of data into seamless organization-wide enterprise databases. Put on your ruby red slippers and join us to learn about how to implement and enforce data quality to support data governance within your organization.

Sheila Steffenson, CEO

As CEO for 1Spatial Inc. (Americas), Sheila has over 30 years’ experience in the geospatial industry, 23 of which were with Esri Inc. During her years there she moved from the initial role of technical/technical sales into management, taking on the role of Regional Manager of the South Central US Esri office. Following 11 years in that role she moved to the Washington DC area and took over management of the Federal Sciences Sales team. During her tenure she also supported numerous international efforts, including support to Esri’s Latin American distributors and support of various open geospatial events around the globe.
Presentation

Session Description

Discussing the collaboration, technologies, and goals of the Texas Disaster Information System program.

Brent Porter

Brent Porter works at University of Texas for the Center for Space Research and as an Associate Adjunct Professor of the GIS Department. He has over 22 years of professional programming experience and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) systems and application development experience. He also has extensive experience utilizing information technology in emergency response activities. His professional accomplishments include: implementing the Texas Geographic Network while at TNRIS; supporting the Columbia Shuttle Disaster Response; first response work on Galveston Island during Hurricane Ike; GIS support during Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through the development of a real-time GIS Web Application; development on and support of the STEAR Application. He continues to build applications, APIs and architecture for CSRs MOVES system and now as part of the Texas Disaster Information System as part of Texas Advanced Computing Center’s implementation team.

3:30 - 4pm

Break & Exhibits


Applications (Big Tex)

Session Description

In 2019, the Texas legislature created a new state and regional flood planning process, with flood planning regions based on river basins. The initial regional flood planning groups were formed on October 1, 2020, with the goal of delivering the first regional flood plans by January 2023. The Texas Water Development Board needed to quickly provide the best possible representation of flood risk data statewide for use in upcoming flood planning efforts. Given the size of Texas, floodplain data can be disparate and exist in varying degrees of quality. There were quite a few challenges to overcome to provide a cohesive dataset in a rapid manner, while also maintaining quality. To assist in the development of regional flood plans, the Texas Water Development Board consolidated existing data sources to provide a composite flood risk dataset for the state of Texas. This presentation will describe the process used to consolidate various data sources and provide an easily digestible digitized floodplain dataset for Texas, in the form of a “flood quilt”.

Rachel Forster, Geographic Information Specialist

Rachel Forster is a Geographic Information Specialist at the Texas Water Development Board. After graduating from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Science in Hydrogeology, Rachel began her career in environmental compliance. She now focuses on geospatial analysis of floodplains for planning and mitigation.
Presentation

Session Description

Following Winter Storm Uri, Sugar Land, Texas faced an unprecedented amount of green and bulk waste that required timely collection, hauling, and disposal. To supplement the debris contractor’s efforts in removing waste from 35,000 households, City Staff implemented a Debris Assessment Program, which utilized GIS tools for spatial data collection and representation. The debris survey was used to identify the type and estimated amount of waste throughout the City and fed into a dashboard that allowed City Staff to visualize the waste data. Using the spatial data, City Staff determined the collection capacity, developed recovery timelines, and allocated resources accordingly. This project assisted in minimizing expenses, improving the efficiency of collections, and providing a framework to expand to Rapid Damage Assessments that were then submitted to FEMA. 

Trevor Surface, GIS Analyst

Trevor Surface is a GIS Analyst with over 5 years of GIS experience spanning the private, public, and non-profit industries. After graduating from Texas A&M, he began working for Sugar Land where he enjoys solving problems with spatial solutions, flying drones, and enabling data-driven decision making with various departments.

Erik Schenck, IT Manager

Erik Schenck is an experienced Information Technology enabler with 20 years of demonstrated history of providing innovative GIS and data solutions in the public sector. Highly skilled in project management, cartography, data analysis, policy creation and overall IT operational and strategic planning.
Presentation

Session Description

Outline the importance of government collaboration centered around common goals created one of the most useful and comprehensive flood applications in Texas.

Christine Blickenstaff, Branch Chief - IHDS

No bio provided.

Richard Wade, Deputy Executive Administrator

Richard has over 35 years of experience in GIS and computer mapping. He holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Texas State University. He started his career as an intern with TNRIS in 1986. He helped establish one of the first Statewide GIS systems at TNRIS and the Texas Water Development Board. Richard joined Earth Information Systems Corporation as the Director of Telecommunications. He managed and maintained several high profile data contracts for companies; Qualcomm, Motorola, and Verizon. He went on to co-found the Windrose Data Corporation, which provided GIS data and services to large environmental and energy firms across the country. He returned to TNRIS in 2005 as the Information Services Team Leader responsible for the development and the implementation of the TNRIS website and supporting GIS applications. In November 2015, TNRIS was promoted to a Division within the Texas Water Development Board, taking Richard from Director to Deputy Executive Administrator for the TNRIS Division. Richard also serves as the Geographic Information Officer of Texas.

Working w/ Data (Lil Tex)

Session Description

After the 2020 census, the capital area of Austin saw a dramatic change in the numbering and density of census tracts. This presentation will discuss the process and motivations behind decennial census tract changes.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will learn:

  • Why changes to census tracts are necessary
  • What these changes mean to data users
  • How and why to become involved in the process for the 2030 Census

Jim Castagneri, Geographer

Jim Castagneri is a Denver-based Geographer at the U.S. Census Bureau with over 35 years’ experience. He manages census geographic programs for twelve states from Canada to Mexico. Early in his career, Jim was involved in the creation of the TIGER system. More recently, Jim has played a pivotal role in bringing geospatial analysis to survey management and census field operations. He specializes in census statistical geography and Geographic Information Systems.

Lacey Loftin, Statistician

Lacey Loftin is a statistician with the United States Census Bureau. In the 17 years that she has been with the agency, she has served as an Analyst for the Economic Census, supervised data collection operations, acted as a congressional liaison during the 2010 Census, and worked to create the Statistics in Schools program. Lacey's time is now focused on outreach to organizations and governments in Texas, Wyoming and Montana sharing data, tools and useful applications.
Presentation

Session Description

Accurate mapping of complex heterogeneous landscapes using high spatial resolution imagery is necessary for better land management decisions. However, large-area mapping at this resolution remains challenging due to radiometric differences between scenes, low spectral depth of imagery, landscape heterogeneity and computational limitations. Furthermore, in most land use land cover (LULC) studies, the spatial structure of supervised training data is largely ignored, which often inflates the model's accuracy. In this research, we used the training data on which spatial structures were accounted for to evaluate the effectiveness of spatial blocking in LULC mapping. Specifically, we aim to 1) evaluate the classification performance of two widely used machine learning algorithms (Support vector machine[SVM], and Random Forest [RF]) accounting spatial structure of data, 2) showcase spatial accounting structures of sample data reduces the over-optimistic performance of random cross-validation while improving location accuracy. We mosaiced National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) digital-ortho quadrangle quads (DOQQ: n = 137) over Kenedy County, downloaded LiDAR footprints (2199), and derived surface features. We employed multi-resolution image segmentation on NAIP and LiDAR surface features using eCognition software and several features at the object level. We used 3719 spatially independent sample points on eight identified classes. We found that an RF-produced thematic map had higher accuracy in a grass-dominated landscape than SVM. Although LiDAR information on NAIP improved performance metrics, we concluded that the information contribution of LiDAR over NAIP data was not practically significant in grass-dominated landscapes owing to the large computational cost associated with LiDAR data.

Learning Objectives

  • Evaluate the classification performance of machine learning algorithms on NAIP only and LiDAR products using random cross-validation strategy
  • Showcase accounting spatial data structures reduces the over-optimistic performance of random cross-validation
  • Identify suitable classification methods for improved LULC classification, emphasizing the characterization of small-scale grassland patches that are deemed suitable for certain wildlife species

Mukti Subedi, PhD Candidate

Mukti Subedi is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech University. He completed his undergraduate in Forestry from Tribhuvan University-Nepal (2010) and obtained his master's degree (2016) from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He has been utilizing remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System/Science in several projects, either his work in Nepal or during his time in the US, such as geospatial distribution of drought in Texas drought-induced tree mortality in Texas. His research interest intersects and overlaps with RS, GIS technologies, and management. In his PhD project, he seeks to answer the following questions related to National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP), orthoimagery, LiDAR data, geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA).
Presentation

Session Description

Coordination between Primary Markets and GIS to leverage technology is an effective solution to alleviate cumbersome tasks, opening the way to efficiently winning jobs and performing at competitive rates. The Technology Solutions team at BGE Inc set out in early 2021 to work with the Ecology team to automate the process of generating Wetland Delineation Datasheets. Opposed to having this solution implemented to a single project, we treated the Ecology team as our client, creating a way for those capabilities to become standard business practice.

Learning Objectives

Moving to a digital form collection (Survey123, Field maps, etc..)

Michael Thibodeaux, GIS Lead

Michael Thibodaux is the Houston Regional GIS Lead at BGE Inc., with 3 years of analytics work with BGE and 2 years of technical work for CenterPoint Energy. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, with a Bachelor of Science in Geophysics, and a Master of Science from the University of Southern California in Geographic Science and Technology (GIST). Michael leads his team in projects focused on data-driven analytics and presenting clients with meaningful, usable information, through products such as Notebooks for ArcGIS, Experience Builder, Dashboards, and Insights. Along with his leadership role, Michael has headed and carried out several Asset Management projects for Municipal Utility Districts in and around Houston, as well as larger Asset management with the Port of Houston Authority.

Jeremy Gaskins, Director of Technology Solutions

Jeremy Gaskins is the Director of Technology Solutions, and he manages a team of about 20 GIS Analysts and Solution Architects. He has a degree in MIS from Texas A&M University. His team focuses on the power of data that drives the GIS applications to help BGE and their clients make smarter decisions, streamline workflows, and find opportunities through technology. Jeremy helped develop the PMIS for file management, the GIS tool for route analysis, and manage the implementation of the 360-degree camera for BGE’s role in the Surface Water Transmission Program.

5:30 - 7:30pm

Forum Social



7:30am - 5pm

Registration


Emergency Response/Mitigation (Big Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

During an emergency event, data is critical for decision making. This presentation will review the methodology behind design a GIS based decision making tool followed by a product review of one such product. Utilizing common GIS products, the City of Sugar Land created a common operational picture which incorporated multiple data streams to organize, visualize, and store data before, during, and after incidents. Sugar Land’s Common Operation Picture (COP), gives Sugar Land employees the ability to access and visualize data spatially, allowing for decisions to be made more efficiently and effectively. The data feeds from multiple sources, including automated weather, traffic layers, reports from Field Staff, these combine to create situational awareness needed in the emergency operations center during an event. By employing this model, emergency management coordinators and GIS professionals could create a single source for emergency data utilizing ESRI products.

Trevor Surface, GIS Analyst

Trevor Surface is a GIS Analyst with over 5 years of GIS experience spanning the private, public, and non-profit industries. After graduating from Texas A&M, he began working for Sugar Land where he enjoys solving problems with spatial solutions, flying drones, and enabling data-driven decision making with various departments.

Erik Schenck, IT Manager

Erik Schenck is an experienced Information Technology enabler with 20 years of demonstrated history of providing innovative GIS and data solutions in the public sector. Highly skilled in project management, cartography, data analysis, policy creation and overall IT operational and strategic planning.
Presentation

Session Description

NG9-1-1 systems are being implemented across the country and GIS data is required for location validation and geospatial routing of live 9-1-1 calls. This session will provide an overview of the NG9-1-1 implementations in the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC) 9-1-1 Program, and the 9-1-1 entities’ journey of developing and maintaining this mission critical GIS data to support public safety.

Monica Watt, Deputy for PMO

Monica Watt serves as the Deputy for Project Management Office with the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC). She has been in the 9-1-1 industry for over 22 years and has extensive experience with managing mission critical data and implementing 9-1-1 database systems and services. In 2013, Monica served as the Project Manager for CSEC’s first Texas Next Generation (NG) 9-1-1 Geospatial database project. She then began working with the Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs) to implement Enterprise Geospatial Database Management Services (EGDMS) to be utilized by NG9-1-1 Systems. She understands the importance of having the highest quality data for public safety, and in 2015 she chaired the Emergency Communications Advisory Committee (ECAC) GIS Sub-Committee to develop the first Texas CSEC NG911 GIS Data Standard for adoption by 9-1-1 Entities. Today she continues to work with the RPCs in the CSEC program to complete all NG9-1-1 projects by August 31, 2023.

Heather Barnes, Director of Programs

No bio provided.

Session Description

The Edwards Aquifer is the sole drinking water source for the San Antonio metropolitan area, and more than 2 million people. It is also the source of water for irrigation in the 8 counties whose agriculture and industry it serves. Irrigators depend on their permitted, allotted withdrawal from the aquifer to sustain their crops and Texas depends on them for food. As the population increases, the demand increases. However, only rainfall in the contributing and recharge zones increases the supply of water in the aquifer. Any pollution entering the underground aquifer cannot be removed; it can only be avoided for a time at the estimated affected areas and flushed out eventually by enough rainfall. Aquifer water is the natural resource whose wise management is in our hands to protect and enhance. To help prevent or reduce the discharge of hazardous and polluting materials in water runoff generated at fire incidents, the EAA collected infrastructure feature data and analyzed LIDAR data for 38 regulated facilities on the recharge zone in Texas. A GIS was built by georeferencing site maps submitted by facilities for registration of regulated substances and digitizing infrastructure data. Drainage patterns were confirmed or corrected using LIDAR and water accumulation was simulated to compare water levels at each site. Studying where water flows around features helped identify into which stormwater inlets, channels, or basins the water will drain. The data was published to AGO and field inspectors used Field Maps Mobile to do ground-truthing with disconnected editing. “Protective Areas” are the result of the final analysis, using a flowchart to determine where the water will go, where we want it to go instead, and where the firefighters should place protective boom to divert that water away from sensitive features and the aquifer (at each of the 38 sites). An app was built and delivered to the city for firefighters to access in their vehicles on the way to fires.

Sarah Eason, Lead GIS Analyst

Sarah Eason is a certified GISP and has an MS in Geospatial Technologies from the Institute for New Imaging Technologies (INIT), Universitat Jaume I (UJI),Castellon, Spain, the Institute for Geoinformatics (IFGI), University of Muenster, Germany and the Institute for Statistics and Information Management (ISEGIUNL), Lisbon, Portugal and a BS in GIS from Texas State University. She was the mapping intern for the Water Utilities & Districts Section of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in Austin, Texas from 2008 to 2011. She has thirteen years of experience in GIS, which includes data acquisition, creation and management in addition to cartography and spatial analysis. Miss Eason is the Lead GIS Analyst for the EAA in San Antonio, Texas. She is thrilled to be part of an organization with a mission of stewardship and integrity to “Enhance, Manage and Protect” the future of water in Texas. Her most exciting work is on large projects collaborating with scientists over important questions about environmental processes by analyzing spatial interactions of inputs and outputs to the aquifer.

Water GIS (Lil Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

Presentation demonstrates a GIS tool created to implement Water Benchmarking strategy adopted in the City of Austin’s Water Forward Plan to help reduce water demand in new commercial development projects by helping developments identify water conservation opportunities upfront and encouraging voluntary adoption of water efficiency strategies.

Prachi Patel, Senior Planner

Prachi is a Planner with Austin Water, and enjoys manipulating GIS to find answers and create experiences.

Aubrey Drescher, IT Application Consultant

Aubrey is an application developer with Austin Water who pushes the limits of what's possible, to solve hard problems and deliver solutions to her customers.
Presentation

Session Description

In 2020 TNRIS and the TWDB began a project to better understand Texas water data and the needs of water data users. The goal of the project is to make Texas water data more FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) through the creation of a statewide water data hub. We’ll share an overview of how we approached the project, learnings about how data users search for, evaluate, and access information, and our methods for organizing and preparing data for inclusion.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will learn how to incorporate a human centered design approach into a project, how users interact with open data portals, and methods for evaluating and preparing data for inclusion in an open data environment.

Laura Sepulveda, Application Designer

Laura is an application designer in TNRIS with a background in GIS and government data. She is passionate about information accessibility and making digital products that are useful instead of frustrating for stakeholders. Her work involves a lot of listening to try and better understand user needs and testing ideas to see what works and doesn’t work for real people. She absolutely loves that she gets to focus on the human aspect of technology solutions through design.

Taylor Christian, Water Data Scientist and Coordinator

Taylor is a water data scientist at the Texas Water Development Board working on broad projects across the agency. Her background is in geography and GIS and much of her work at the TWDB has focused on data and outreach. In her current role she is able to work with a variety of stakeholders and projects, but the Water Data Hub is her first love. When she is not thinking about water and data she is making all kinds of ceramics, some even water themed!

Session Description

Parks are prime real estate for the development of water resource-friendly infrastructure. With opportunities for stormwater capture, groundwater recharge, and reuse projects, these public-access spaces also provide an excellent venue for low-cost, passive public education in the form of demonstration areas and interpretive signage. The multi-functional approach to flood control and stormwater management looks to create designs that serve more than one purpose. Low Impact Development and conservation technologies create room for redevelopment that often improves the condition and aesthetic of existing infrastructure.

Learning Objectives

This presentation will provide strategies for addressing infrastructure challenges that meets mandates and earns public approval.

Ryan Hoskins, Certified Environmental Scientist

Hoskins, a Certified Environmental Scientist, performs various environmental and technical services. As a scientist, Hoskins has led and assisted in projects of regulatory compliance, hazardous materials, air quality, management, stormwater, geographic information systems, emergency management, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and solid waste characterization. In addition, Hoskins has conducted environmental research, provided professional opinions, and helped develop many technical reports and environmental compliance plans.


Hoskins received a Bachelor of Science Degree from St. Mary's University (St.MU) in San Antonio, TX, excelling in Environmental courses. Prior work experience includes major industry partners on various projects nationwide and internationally, including USAF, US Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Corps of Engineers, Italian Air Force, and major consulting engineering and environmental players. Each project Watearth completes ultimately has some sustainability factor, which improves or offsets our surrounding environment, which keeps Hoskins motivated. In addition, Hoskins is adept at communicating complex environment aspects of projects to people with various backgrounds and is an effective conduit between clients and the Watearth team.


10 - 10:30am

Break & Exhibits


Gold Presentations (Big Tex)

Session Description

Our work at AppGeo exposes us to a lot of the new ideas that are shaping the future of the geospatial discipline. We also see how the needs of our clients across the US intersect these new ideas, so we have been able to see patterns and trends that matter for state and local government GIS practitioners. This presentation will take you on a journey to explore these trends, highlighted with actual project examples from some of our recent work. This talk will not be focused on technology or the “nuts and bolts” of geospatial solutions, but rather a higher-level exploration of broad themes that include resiliency, equity, and safety that we are seeing on the rise and that you can expect to be dealing with in your future geospatial work.

Kate Hickey, Chied Operating Officer

Kate Hickey, Chief Operating Officer, AppGeo. Kate has over 20 years of experience as a GIS professional at AppGeo with responsibilities in business leadership, program development, project management and hands-on strategic consulting. Kate is a certified PMP and has a Masters degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Bill Johnson, Carpe Geo Evangelist

Bill Johnson, Carpe Geo Evangelist, AppGeo. Bill had a 31-year GIS career in New York State government, and was named NY’s first Geographic Information Officer (GIO) in 2013. After retiring from the state in 2016, he spent two years in Washington, DC as GIS Director at the Universal Service Administrative Company. Bill Joined AppGeo in April 2018, where he is applying his carpe geo philosophy of building trust through collaboration in geospatial endeavors.
Presentation

Session Description

Fugro to present on the recent TNRIS lidar classification project. Fugro deployed machine learning techniques for adding building, vegetation, and culvert classifications USGS lidar data covering approximately 83,000 square miles in Texas.

Keith Owens, Technical and Business Development Manager

Keith Owens has over 25 years’ experience in Remote Sensing and Mapping. He builds 3D mapping solutions that meet the highly technical product specifications required for emergency management, coastal-zone monitoring and flood protection for Fugro – unlocking insights from Geo-data for a safe and livable world.

Gold Presentations (Lil Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

For decades, Sanborn has been in the forefront of data collection involving building information. Details specific to buildings are vital pieces of information related to both urban and rural populations and are fundamental to planning and policymaking. Critical infrastructures, such as public transport, electricity, water distribution networks, and emergency services, rely heavily on accurate building maps. It is a natural progression for our GIS data to evolve to a 3D representation. Esri’s newest software technology enable Digital Twin visualization-based GIS system integration. This presentation discusses the development of 3D models that are the genesis for creating a Digital Twin base map. Digital Twin models are paramount in building sustainable Smart Government and will become more and more relevant in our industry. This webinar will focus on the evolution of Building Information Modeling and will include a live demo within Esri software providing examples of Digital Twin base map products created by Sanborn.

Kimberly Nale, Director of Strategic Accounts - Southeast

Kimberly is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Geography with an emphasis in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing. Though being a new team member to Sanborn, she has been in the geospatial industry for going on 15 years.
Presentation

Session Description

The field of aerial imagery has exploded in the last two decades. Advancements in technology and capture methodology have made aerial images better, cheaper, and more accessible to a wide range of users. Today aerial imagery is used in a number of diverse sectors including engineering, construction, transportation, energy, state and local governments and many more. In this presentation we will provide an overview of the aerial imagery Industry, insights into photogrammetry derived data, and multidimensional data applications, all while showing how Nearmap has been able to adapt and evolve with these changes and improvements.

Tyler Behle, Senior Account Executive

Tyler is a member of Nearmap’s Enterprise Government sales team helping cities and counties across the country realize and harness the power of Nearmap. Hi passion centers around empowering organizations with creative ways to add value through the use of aerial imagery.

11:30 - 1pm

Lunch & Exhibits


Session Description

Gary Waters and Jeff Eisman will present emerging trends in the discipline of GIS and how GIS has evolved to accelerate decision-making across all organization levels. Not just confined to a mapping function, GIS offers a spatially enabled foundational system which can improve business processes and promote transparency across all tiers of the organization.

Learning Objectives

Learn about technical advances in GIS.

Gary Waters, Transportation Practice Team Lead

Gary is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematical Sciences with a focus in Computer Science. Gary has held a variety of positions from programmer to leadership in local government, GIS-oriented software companies, and Esri across a variety of vertical markets. He is currently a Team Lead for the Road & Public Transit markets at Esri.

Jeff Eisman, Solution Engineer

Jeff Eisman is a Solution Engineer in the Transpiration Practice. He has 23 years of GIS Experience, and has been with ESRI for 3 years, where he focuses on building innovative solutions in the Transportation space.

1:45 - 2pm

Break & Exhibits


Statewide Applications (Big Tex)

Presentation

Session Description

Tabular join, spatial join, simple enough GIS operations when doing one to one. Things get a little more complicated when you have several polygons within the corresponding joining polygon, or one polygon spread into three or four. That is the case with buildings and parcels, now try that for 10M+ polygons and 253 appraisal districts! This presentation will talk about the problems encountered (so far) and how they can be solved. "Wise is the one who learns from another´s mistakes." and that is why you may attend this session, to learn from my mistakes!

Miguel Pavon, Special Projects Lead

Miguel is the Special Projects Coordinator at the Texas Natural Resources Information System, a Division of the Texas Water Development Board. His undergraduate degree is in Physical Oceanography from the State University of Baja California, and he holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering with a specialty in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Monterrey Tech. His current research interests are Geographic Information Systems applied to Public Affairs, U.S.—Mexico relationships and environmental health, water quality-quantity issues, and sustainable development. Bi-lingual (Spanish, English) and Bi-cultural (Mexico, United States), on any single day you can find Miguel working on carpentry projects on his driveway, working on special projects at TWDB, or teaching at The University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Presentation

Session Description

The empowerment and capabilities maturity work we are doing statewide. It would include overview of enterprise tools that have been released, training initiatives, resources, etc. to empower our users statewide and grow our overall GIS capabilities as an agency.

Jennifer Lash, Statewide GIS Program Manager

Jenn Lash is the Statewide GIS Program Manager for TxDOT. She chairs the TxDOT GIS Work Group and represents geospatial initiatives through the agency’s enterprise governance program. She has worked for over 15 years in GIS in both the private and public sectors, with 10 years with TxDOT. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin and is a Project Management Professional (PMP). She is committed to advancing the role geospatial technology plays in the everyday business of TxDOT.

Chris Bardash, Mapping Branch Manager

Chris Bardash is the Mapping Branch Manager in TxDOT's Transportation Planning and Programming Division. He has been with TxDOT since 2013, has more than 14 years of experience in GIS, and holds a GISP certification. Chris is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and previously worked with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Chris is proud to have helped create the GIS Work Group. He served as chair for it's first two years and continues to serve as a member of the work group.

Session Description

This presentation will discuss the current and future iterations of the Texas Hidden History project. This project showcases the application of ESRI ArcGIS web applications, StoryMaps, Hub, and the use of ArcGIS Online as a collaboration environment with remote employees and customers.

Learning Objectives

How to apply ESRI ArcGIS web applications, StoryMaps, Hub, and ArcGIS Online as a collaboration environment with remote employees and customers.

Kelsey Williams, GIS Analyst

Kelsey Williams received her Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Texas and is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Applied GIS from Sam Houston State University. She began her career in GIS working with the United States Air Force where she served in a variety of airbases in the U.S., Japan, and Afghanistan. She has worked as a planner and GIS analyst for the Texas Department of Transportation. Finally, she has worked as a GIS analyst with the Texas General Land Office's Geospatial Technology Services team since 2020.

Lila Rakoczy, Education and Outreach Specialist

Dr. Lila Rakoczy joined the Texas General Land Office’s Archives and Records Division in 2019 in the role of Education and Outreach Specialist. Prior to that she served as the Military Sites and Oral History Program Coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission, and previously held a three-year position as Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. Her public history experience also includes six years working in museums, as well as creating and curating a traveling exhibit, No Man’s Land: East Texas African Americans in WWI, which showcased the names of over 11,500 African American veterans in World War I. Lila holds a bachelor’s degree in history from King’s College London, and master’s and doctoral degrees in historical archaeology from the University of York. She enjoys touring battlefields and castles.

Monitoring the Environment Around Us (Lil Tex)

Session Description

This presentation will discuss recent research into environmental factors associated with the presence of pathogenic organisms and vectors of infectious disease that have typically been thought to be restricted to specific tropical environments but are now emerging in new parts of the world. It will show how GIS software can be used for processing, analyzing, and mapping data pertaining to disease occurrence and environmental factors like climate and soil conditions to identify regions where diseases like melioidosis and Chagas may currently exist undetected or where they might be able to spread and become established in the future. A key focus of this research is to integrate various modeling approaches used to understand how climate-related events might influence the dissemination of pathogens and disease emergence. The automation of the research workflow through the use of Python will also be highlighted to demonstrate the benefits of using scripted processes to work with datasets like reports of disease occurrence that are regularly updated. Maps generated through this work, including maps of Texas, will be shared so that attendees have the opportunity to learn more about the local implications of changing environmental conditions and potential emergence of new diseases that have typically been confined to tropical locations. This work has benefited from and continues to be supported by the University of Texas at Austin Grand Challenge, Planet Texas 2050.

Michael Shensky, GIS & Geospatial Data Coordinator

Michael Shensky is the GIS and Geospatial Data Coordinator for the UT Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. He has a BA and MA in Geography from California State University, Fullerton and over a decade of professional GIS experience. Prior to starting at UT Austin he worked as a lecturer, GIS lab manager, and GIS research assistant in roles at other universities where he gained expertise in GIS education and training as well as the applied use of GIS in research. In his current role at UT Austin he manages content shared through the UT Libraries’ Texas GeoData portal and provides geospatial research support for the university community.

Katherine Brown, Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Katherine Brown is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK. She obtained a B.A. in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Chemistry from UT Austin and a PhD from the University of London as a graduate student in the Physics Department at Imperial College. Her research interests have focussed for many years on the development of translational medical applications to diagnose and treat infectious diseases. Recent studies have included the development of maps as predictive tools to provide new insights about the potential spread of neglected tropical diseases beyond the tropics.
Presentation

Session Description

The Geospatial team of the Texas General Land Office, in conjunction with experts from the Texas Colonial Waterbird Society (TCWS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS), Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP), Audubon Texas, the Harte Research Institute (HRI) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and others, has developed an updated rookeries polygon layer for Texas coastal zone. The layer incorporates bird sighting data derived from the TCWS annual census and previous rookeries mapping data by various entities spanning the last four decades. This layer delineates the land boundaries of colonial waterbird nesting sites or colonies based on the most recent aerial imagery and Lidar elevation contours. This updated rookeries dataset assists with the management of coastal leases on submerged state-owned land, oil spill response, coastal erosion, habitat protection and restoration, among other applications.

Learning Objectives

To learn about the history and current status of colonial waterbird nesting sites or rookeries along the Texas Coast; the threats and efforts to protect and restore this unique and valuable wildlife habitat, and its accurate geospatial mapping.

Daniel Gao, GIS Analyst

Daniel Gao graduated from Beijing University with a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Geography. He also earned a Ph.D in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a veteran GIS analyst and a member of the Geospatial team of the Texas General Land Office for more than 20 years.

Session Description

Caves have traditionally been found in one of three ways: 1) following a lead given by a friend or acquaintance, 2) informally walking the woods looking for caves, or 3) conducting a formal, systematic karst walk to survey a specific area. This involves lining up every 15 meters and walking together to comb the area and make sure nothing is missed. Formal karst walks can be very effective with good coordination and available manpower, but can require extensive hours in the field.

Richard Zarria, Owner

Rich Zarria holds a degree in horticulture from Purdue University and is a consultant specializing in the native plants of the Edwards Plateau. He is an expert in the field of landscaping, water use and the integration of native plants into our public spaces and has spoken on the subject at venues including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. An avid cave explorer in Texas and Mexico, he enjoys the search for new cave entrances along with the subsequent digging and restoration efforts required to access open passage.

3:30 - 4pm

Break & Exhibits


Session Description

The invention of radiocarbon dating fundamentally transformed how time was approached by archaeology. It has been argued that the adoption of geospatial technologies such as GIS, high-definition remote sensing, laser scanning has had equally significant consequences. This presentation explores the intended and unintended consequences of the geospatial revolution in archaeology.


5pm

Closing Remarks

Richard Wade

TNRIS Deputy Executive Administrator/State GIO


8 - 10am

Registration


Town Hall: State of the State

Presentation

Session Description

Overview of the GIO report, GIS Solutions Group and Community Meetings, the GIO Report, and other outreach initiatives.

Session Description

Introduction of the new IS team and an quick overview of future plans.

Session Description

Program overview including recent changes, visions of the future, SM Contracts update, and more. This will be an interactive session so we encourage all to participate!


11:45 - 12pm

Forum Closing Remarks

Richard Wade

TNRIS Deputy Executive Administrator/State GIO

Pricing

The Forum will begin with one day of Pre-Conference Workshops, followed by two and a half days of sessions. Conference passes include all sessions and meals provided on the purchased day(s). Pre-Conference Workshop passes are sold separately and do not include Conference sessions or meals. The Evening Social event will be held on Wednesday, March 09.

Full Conference Registration

Government Rates

Early-Bird

through 2/18/22

$350

Regular

2/19/22 - 2/28/22

$395

Late/On-Site

3/1/22 - 3/11/22

$495

Industry Rates

Early-Bird

through 2/18/22

$425

Regular

2/19/22 - 2/28/22

$475

Late/On-Site

3/1/22 - 3/11/22

$525

Student Rate

Flat Fee

$50

One-Day Only Registration

Government Rates

Early-Bird

through 2/18/22

$275

Regular

2/19/22 - 2/28/22

$300

Late/On-Site

3/1/22 - 3/11/22

$325

Industry Rates

Early-Bird

through 2/18/22

$300

Regular

2/19/22 - 2/28/22

$325

Late/On-Site

3/1/22 - 3/11/22

$350

Student Rate

Flat Fee

$25

Pre-Conference Workshops

Single Workshop

Flat Fee

$150

Sponsors

Platinum Sponsors

Surdex geospatial logo and link Esri logo and link to website Hexagon logo and link to website

Gold Sponsors

Sanborn logo and link to website Aecom geospatial logo and link
Fugro logo and link appgeo logo and link to website Nearmap logo and link

Exhibitors

  • NV5 Geospatial
  • Intrado
  • GeoComm
  • Resource Data Inc.
  • Miller Imaging & Digital Solutions
  • Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas
  • VertiGIS
  • Tyler Technologies - Plano, TX
  • Texas A&M University Master of Geoscience - Online
  • South Central Arc User Group
  • Data Axle, Inc.
  • Geospatial Training Services, LLC
  • TeachMeGIS
  • Vexcel Data Program
  • AllTerra Central, Inc