Esri is updating the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, a vast collection of geographic information from around the globe. The updates include new data and capabilities for users to gain insight for helping in decision making, as well as a more complete and dynamic picture of the world.
The new features were introduced at this year’s Esri User Conference, held July 9–13 in San Diego, California.
The new Earth Systems Monitor app, powered by Living Atlas data, showing Sea Surface Temperature. (Image: Esri)
Earth Systems Monitor. This new app (currently in beta) is powered by Living Atlas data. It allows users to see — on a 2D map or a 3D globe — historical, forecasting and real-time data for depicting land, the oceans and even the human footprint.
Users can see where events or phenomena such as marine temperature shifts are occurring at any time on the planet, or even model global population growth and its effects, the company said.
The configurable app will be released later this year. The app can be used with Living Atlas data layers or with other layers from an organization’s own data or ArcGIS Online.
Wayback Imagery. This digital archive of the World Imagery basemap enables users to access more than 80 different versions of world imagery captured over the past five years.
Each record in the archive represents a version of world imagery as it existed on the date it was published. Users can move back and forth in time and choose the imagery they want to use.
OpenStreetMap Vector Basemap. Moving to a local scale, OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open, collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world, built by a community of mappers who contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, buildings, restaurants and more.
Until now, OSM was only available as a raster basemap in ArcGIS Online. The new vector basemap, introduced in beta, will be available for free to all ArcGIS users and developers.
“The Living Atlas shows how our community of users continues to contribute to the innovations that power our technology,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. “The beauty of these new features is that they transform the data that users are supplying into valuable online services like Earth Systems Monitor.”
Living Atlas can be used to create indexes displaying properties such as vegetation health or soil moisture and quantifying the changes over time, enabling better understanding of the environment.
Earth Systems Monitor, OSM Vector Basemap and Wayback Imagery are all examples of how online GIS technology is transforming traditional mapping organizations into web service providers, Esri said. These innovations are just the latest steps in creating a living digital twin of the systems and processes that help run organizations, cities and even nations.
By fostering the adoption of apps, web maps, and collaborative efforts, Living Atlas is supporting end users who face increasing geospatial data demands, enabling them to be self-sufficient with the application of location intelligence across their organizations.
Wayback Imagery is currently accessible, while both OSM Vector Basemap and Earth Systems Monitor will be available soon in ArcGIS Online.
DigitalGlobe has released pre- and post-event satellite imagery of the areas in India affected by heavy flooding.
According to the company, massive flooding devastated the Kerala state of India in late May and early August. At least 164 people were killed and more than 223,000 were displayed from their homes and are living in relief camps. In addition, Kerala has seen 40 percent more rainfall than normal since June, which has triggered landscapes in several districts.
In an effort to support disaster response and as a part of its Open Data Program, DigitalGlobe decided to publicly release the satellite images. According to the company, its Open Data Program supports the humanitarian community by providing critical and actionable information to assist response efforts.
According to the foundation, this is the largest amount it has distributed to date. The scholarships are distributed annually to doctoral candidates, graduate students, undergraduate students and graduating high school seniors.
In addition to the scholarships, two awards are funded entirely by USGIF organizational members: the $10,000 Reinventing Geospatial Inc. (RGi) Scholarship for Geospatial and Engineering and the $10,000 Ken Miller Scholarship for Advanced Remote Sensing Applications. The RGi Scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate student pursuing engineering and geospatial disciplines who demonstrates financial need, and the Ken Miller Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student studying remote sensing who plans to enter the defense intelligence workforce.
“Scholarship winners were selected following a highly competitive, multi-tiered review of applications by GEOINT professionals who volunteered their time as part of USGIF’s Scholarship Subcommittee,” said Dr. Camelia Kantor, director of academic programs at USGIF. “We were impressed with the quality of applications and very pleased to see the next generation of GEOINTers—from the high school to doctoral level—already tackling major world challenges not just by using state-of-the-art technology, but also by applying creativity, logic, attention to detail, innovation and ethics.”
The 2018 USGIF scholarship winners include:
RGi Scholarship for Geospatial and Engineering
David Runneals, Northwest Missouri State University
Ken Miller Scholarship for Advanced Remote Sensing Applications
Joshua Michael Turner, North Carolina State University
Doctorate
Katherine Cavanaugh, University of California, Los Angeles
Jaclyn Guz, Clark University
Carolynne Hultquist, Pennsylvania State University
Christopher Olayinka Ilori, Simon Frazier University
Scott Pezanowski, Pennsylvania State University
Graduate
Jacob Fuson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cesar Jhonatan Garrido Lecca Rivera, University of Redlands
Travis Meyer, Pennsylvania State University
Andrew Ryan, George Mason University
Sarah Spalding, University of Texas at Austin
Undergraduate
Jake T. Burstein, University of South Carolina
Milovan Dakic, Indiana State University
Margaret Hackney, Mercyhurst University
Haley Kathryn King, George Mason University
Candice Lee, University of Georgia
Pearl Leff, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College & Lander College for Women
Claire Mercer, Ohio State University & Sijal Institute
Rachel Pierstorff, University of Denver
Graduating high school seniors
Alexander Chrvala, Towson High School in Towson, Maryland; now attending the University of Mary Washington
Srijay Kasturi, South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia; now attending the University of Maryland
Madyson Larson, Xenia High School in Xenia, Ohio; now attending the University of Cincinnati
Christopher Lee, Dripping Springs High School in Dripping Springs, Texas; now attending the University of Texas at Dallas
Keelin O’Hara, Albermarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia; now attending the University of Mary Washington
Adam Wallace Potter, Oak Park River Forest High School in River Forest, Illinois; now attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brandon Staple, Longmont High School in Longmont, Colorado; now attending the University of Colorado Denver
Maxwell Thorpe, David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri; now attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Since the USGIF Scholarship Program began in 2004, the foundation has awarded more than $1.2 million to students with aspirations in GEOINT. USGIF is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community among government, industry, academia, professional organizations, and individuals who develop and apply geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges.
A number of geospatial companies played a key role in the government’s response to the Kilauea Volcano eruption. The volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii began erupting May 3, and while quiet for more than a week, it could resume erupting at any time.
Mapping the flow. As a resident of Hawaii, Brennan O’Neill, Hawaiian branch manager of Frontier Precision, was in a unique position to offer support. Frontier Precision provided free access to technology and expertise to assist in mapping the lava flow.
“I had to help out,” O’Neill said. “It was tearing at my soul. For a geologist, it’s even more powerful than that. The lava flow is like a living mass that has a mind of its own, creeping, glowing — an upside-down conveyor belt surging forward and burning everything in its path.”
Through Frontier Precision, O’Neill offered high-tech mapping equipment, his own expertise, and the help of Nathan Stephenson, an applied geospatial engineer working in the company’s Denver office.
“We used a combination of Trimble R10s and Trimble R8s to gather accurate data points on the ground,” Stephenson said.
This thermal map shows the fissure system and lava flows as of 6 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11. The thermal map was constructed by stitching many overlapping oblique thermal images collected by a handheld thermal camera during a helicopter overflight of the flow field. The base is a copyrighted color satellite image (used with permission) provided by Digital Globe. (Map: USGS)
The mapping team flew UAS drones over the flow to gather visual imagery data, matched it to the ground reference points, stitched the photos together and draped it over county maps. The process was repeated as often as needed — daily, and sometimes even hourly — to show the speed and direction of the flow.
Stephenson isn’t new to mapping lava flows. As a graduate student at the University of Hawaii – Hilo, he worked on collecting data on the Pahoa eruption in 2014, and he’s seen advances in technology in just a few years.
“One thing we have now that we didn’t have in 2014 was a thermal radiometric camera that helps us map more accurately at night and enables us to capture large heat signatures.”
The collected data helps Hawaii Civil Defense and other agencies keep the public informed and safe, and in the long term it also contributes to the store of scientific knowledge about eruptions and lava flow behavior.
Lidar image of the Hawaii dataset showing the Kilauea Calderand the Halena’uma’u Crater and within it. (Image: Quantum Spatial)
Airborne lidar insights. Another technology that aids in volcano response is lidar. High-resolution lidar surveys help first responders, scientists and government agencies monitor Kilauea conditions and predict future lava flows.
Independent geospatial data firm Quantum Spatial Inc. (QSI) has conducted high-resolution lidar surveys of areas surrounding the Kilauea volcano eruption in Hawaii.
The emergency response effort was part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Rapid Response Imagery Products (RRIP) in support of the Kilauea’s 2018 East Rift Zone – Remote Sensing Acquisition Requirement.
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), along with emergency responders, government agencies and academics, will use the data to better understand the conditions and characteristics of the volcano, and help planners model potential lava flows, which may better predict and respond to future flows and enhance safety of residents.
The QSI team, which included GEO1 and Windward Aviation, deployed within days to acquire high-resolution lidar at point densities averaging from 40 to 80 ppsm, with up to 150 ppsm in select areas and 100-mp digital imagery using a Riegl dual VUX-1 LR sensor pod equipped with ABGPS/IMU mounted on a Hughes 500D helicopter.
The project required 11 missions over the course of six days, operating at times as low as 500 feet above the ground and above active flows and nearby erupting calderas. With a need for a quick turn around, QSI deployed an analyst with the flight crew to post process each mission within hours of collection.
The data was uploaded to the Geospatial Repository and Data Management System (GRiD) interface, developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), where additional data products have been developed and provided to the response team that includes FEMA, Hawaii’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Hawaii County Civil Defense.
After data collection, QSI measured topographic shifts during the processing by comparing new data with a 2011 lidar collection from the same area. Survey specialists and USGS experts confirmed within hours of processing QSI’s lidar data that areas within the site had shifted up to 1.5 meters east, 2 meters to the north and 1 meter in elevation.
USGS scientists will continue to examine the new topographic data to better understand the nature of these shifts, and integrate it into lava flow models for more accurate predictive modeling.
The eruption in action. Using small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) together with air-quality sensors, advanced imaging tools and Esri’s spatial analytics and mapping, a team from the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) provided real-time aerial views of the eruption.
The five volunteers armed with drones, advanced sensor systems and GIS technologies joined the response effort May 14-19 at Kilauea Volcano Lower East Rift Zone to assist in tracking and predicting the ongoing volcanic eruption. The team supplemented the University of Hawaii Hilo’s (UHH) sUAS capabilities, allowing UHH sUAS operators to focus on geographical and volcanology.
The CRASAR team identified a new fissure not visible from the ground, projected the lava flow rate during the night when manned helicopters were not allowed to fly, and provided ongoing data collection from new thermal sensors technology.
During the six-day Leilani deployment, the CRASAR team flew 44 sUAS flights, including 16 at night, using DJI 200, 210, Inspire, and Mavic Pro drones. Esri’s Drone2Map for ArcGIS together with Hangar’s Enterprise Platform for 360-degree imaging enabled rapid 360-imaging for situational awareness.
DJI’s new XT2 thermal sensor provided unprecedented drone-based air-quality monitoring. Video and data were shared with local first responders using FirstNet, the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety.
The CRASAR response marks the first known use of sUAS for emergency response to a volcanic eruption and first known use of sUAS for sampling air quality.
The GIS mapping and imaging technologies responders used on the scene at Kilauea Volcano Lower East Rift Zone are available here.
Remote GeoSystems Inc., a global provider of geospatial video recorder hardware and GIS integration software and solutions, has become an official Silver Partner in the Esri Partner Network after successfully building its business as an Emerging Business Partner in the Esri Startup Program.
Esri offers a Startup Program enabling the most promising emerging businesses to incorporate these innovations into their services and solutions.
Now in its third year, the Esri Startup Program provides the ArcGIS software, online services, support, community involvement and training to kick-start product development or enrich existing solutions.
Remote GeoSystems was one of the first early-stage startups accepted into the program.
“As a small technology company bootstrapping the development and innovative product sales efforts, access to Esri’s flagship ArcGIS platform and team support was invaluable,” said Jeff Dahlke, managing director of Remote GeoSystems.
The LineVision Desktop. (Image: Remote Geosystems)
In its three years in the program, Remote GeoSystems was able to successfully develop and go to market with an array of geospatial video solutions. The company’s LineVision Esri ArcMap Add-in and stand-alone LineVision Desktop with Esri Mapping commercial software tools provide georeferenced video playback, analysis, collaboration and reporting using the Esri ArcGIS platform.
In addition, the new Video GeoTagger and Video GeoEditor (coming soon) products, also built with Esri mapping technology, will be available for use on the ArcGIS Marketplace.
These professional geospatial video and integrated GIS Full Motion Video (FMV) software tools are suitable for airborne, drone and mobile mapping surveys, critical infrastructure inspection and public safety applications.
“The Remote Geo team is building some very feature-rich and capable Esri-based solutions and Add-ins while also bringing a valuable mix of GIS, GPS, deep location-based video expertise and multi-industry experience,” said Francis Kelly, Esri Global Partner Programs manager. “We are excited to work with Remote Geo as their business matures and they continue to contribute to the Esri user community as part of the Esri Partner Network.”
“As a company that was once a startup, we understand the early years for any business are hard,” said Katie Decker, Esri Startup Team community manager. “We are impressed with how the Remote Geo team executed on the opportunities provided by the program, bringing the value of geospatial video to a broader audience using the Esri platform. Their experience is what we envisioned when we implemented the program and we look forward to continuing to work with them.”
Remote GeoSystems LineVision Esri-based solutions key features often include:
Play videos from single and multi-camera video data collection platforms
“Click-on-Map” video navigation
Set a custom geo-fence around the moving position marker
Load shapefiles, imagery and ArcGIS Online datasets
Save geotagged video and photo data as geoProjects for simple project reporting, archive and search
Support for DJI Drone Video data.
All Remote GeoSystems Esri-based solutions are and/or will soon be available in the ArcGIS Marketplace.
The startup PlanetWatchers has developed Foresights, a risk management and geospatial analytics platform designed specifically to help clients manage forestry assets quickly, effectively and accurately.
Foresights identifies areas of new or potential risk, and delivers operations tracking and forest damage management services. The company plans to add satellite-driven analytics, inventory data and forest productivity services to the platform. before the end of the year.
The Foresights platform covers larger geographic areas and delivers results faster and more accurately than traditional project-based companies, traditional inventory methods and off-the-shelf processing tools, the company said.
PlanetWatchers combines multi-source satellite imagery data, topography maps, soil maps, meteorological data and near real-time ground input from operational teams to deliver optimized insights. The tool is capable of detecting disturbances as small as 0.1 ha (0.25 ac) related to pest, disease and drought damage.
Foresights will help forest managers “easily access crucial business intelligence and detailed insights and analytics on a regular basis so they can make proactive and informed decisions and take immediate remedial action,” said Ariel Smoliar, PlanetWatchers’ CEO and co-founder. “Without these higher levels of data and improved frequency of information, they could see negative impacts on their forestry management decisions, their supply chains and, ultimately, their profits.”
Reports identifying locations that require immediate mitigation can be viewed in existing GIS systems and are geolocated for forestry field teams, including offline capabilities for teams operating in remote areas without cellular reception.
“Foresights also fills a data gap known as the ‘Last Mile of Analytics’,” Smoliar said. “When we deliver satellite images to our clients, they shouldn’t have to then analyze and extract information. We remove this pain point for them by providing deep analysis of optical and radar satellite images, and compiling actionable insights and reports, including detailed maps of locations of interest. Our clients are shown not only the location of the disturbance, but also the issue and its cause, granting them vital intelligence they can act on with very little lag time. Foresters will no longer need to process or analyze imagery: this is the game-changing value of the Last Mile of Analytics.”
The Forest Operations service provides foresters with insights to track progress of various forest harvest operations such as thinning and clearcutting. This information assists operations managers in optimizing their wood supply chain and efficiently and effectively managing resources.
The Forest Disturbance service delivers location-specific reports to forest owners and managers detailing areas with identifiable disturbances that could degrade the quality, yield, and profitability of forests. Some disturbances that Foresights can identify to help commercial foresters respond proactively include growth and uniformity issues over time, illegal logging, insect infestations and disease, competitive vegetation, storm damage, drought, wildfires and more.
Fairweather crew lower a launch into Puget Sound, Washington, for Hydrographic Systems Readiness Review testing. (Photo: NOAA)
U.S. researchers have completed the first high-resolution, comprehensive mapping of one of the fastest moving underwater tectonic faults in the world, located in southeastern Alaska.
The mapping information will help communities in coastal Alaska and Canada better understand and prepare for the risks from earthquakes and tsunamis that can occur when faults suddenly move.
Since 2015, scientists have been gathering data on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault system, a 746-mile long strike-slip fault line that extends from offshore of Vancouver Island, Canada, to the Fairweather Range of southeast Alaska.
Team members are from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and their partners.
The most recent survey came from NOAA ship Fairweather, with USGS scientists aboard from April through July, when it collected multi-beam bathymetric data in an area along the U.S. and Canadian international border in water depths ranging from 500 to more than 7,000 feet deep.
Researchers aboard NOAA Ship Fairweather collected multibeam bathymetric data in an area along the U.S. and Canadian international border in water depths ranging from 500 to more than 7,000 feet deep from April through July. (Image: USGS)
“Providing scientific information to help protect vulnerable communities is one of our most important missions,” said W. Russell Callender, assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service. “Working with USGS and our state and academic partners, allows us to speed the development of information that can help communities better anticipate and prepare for risks from tsunamis and earthquakes.
“This project has been a great collaboration on an important scientific issue with significant implications for public safety,” said David Applegate, USGS associate director for natural hazards. “We will apply what we learn from this mapping mission to hazard assessments for Alaska’s coastal communities. Partnering with NOAA reflects the importance of addressing earthquake and associated tsunami hazards to both our missions, and it enables the USGS to bring our geologic expertise to bear on offshore fault structures that have significant onshore implications.”
Fault line activity poses a hazard to the growing populations of Juneau, Sitka and other communities throughout southeastern Alaska, as well as more than a million annual tourists and the seafloor infrastructure critical for Alaska’s communications and offshore energy industries.
With a slip rate of more than 2 inches per year, this fault may be one of the fastest-moving strike-slip faults in the world. (For comparison, the San Andreas fault in central California slips about an inch to an inch-and-a-half each year.)
Movement between the tectonic plates at the fault line has generated six earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater within the last century. One of those earthquakes, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake near Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 triggered a landslide that sent water 1,720 feet up an adjacent mountainside, one of the highest recorded run-ups of a tsunami — a rapidly rising turbulent surge of water often choked with debris.
A NOAA survey ship uses its multibeam echo sounder to conduct hydrographic surveys. (Image: NOAA)
A series of large-magnitude earthquakes and associated aftershocks in 2012 and 2013 spurred research cruises in 2015, in the first systematic effort to study the offshore Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault system in U.S. territory in more than three decades.
A similar effort led by the Geological Survey of Canada has been underway along the portion of the fault located in Canadian territory.
The 2018 Fairweather survey built on five previous USGS-led marine geophysical and geological surveys between 2015 and 2017 in southeastern Alaska aboard a number of research vessels, as well as two cruises led by researchers from the Geological Survey of Canada, Sitka Sound Science Center and USGS.
During these surveys, researchers used an array of instruments to collect data on seafloor depth and texture, to profile sedimentary layers beneath the seafloor, and to derive sediment ages.
NOAA Ship Fairweather underway in Alaska. (Photo: NOAA)
NOAA nautical charts will be updated with the Queen Charlotte Fault data within a year once the data goes through a standard quality control process — although the fault area is too deep for any obstructions to pose a threat to marine traffic.
This research is part of a larger two-year effort between the NOAA Integrated Coastal and Ocean Mapping Program and USGS to map large portions of the Cascadia continental margin in federal waters offshore of Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington.
Under the grant, TCarta will enhance and automate multiple techniques for deriving seafloor depth measurements from optical satellite imagery.
The Project Trident research seeks to transform existing satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) techniques by using machine learning and computer vision technology to enable accurate depth retrieval in variable water conditions.
If successful, these enhanced bathymetric techniques will improve operations related to oil and gas exploration and production, coastal infrastructure engineering, environmental monitoring and geointelligence activities, the company said.
“Our goal with Project Trident is to expand the geographic scope of SDB in shallow coastal areas,” said Kyle Goodrich, TCarta president. “SDB technology currently derives water depths only in calm, clear waters, which limits its applicability.”
Beta testers sought
TCarta is seeking beta testers for participation in Project Trident research. If you are interested, contact Project Trident Principal Investigator Kyle Goodrich at [email protected] or complete the online Project Trident survey.
TCarta won the grant for Project Trident in partnership with jOmegak of San Carlos, California, and DigitalGlobe of Westminster, Colorado, in Phase 1 of the NSF Small Business Innovation Research program.
The one-year research project will be carried out at the TCarta facility in Denver.
In 2014, TCarta successfully commercialized a proprietary technique for digitally extracting water depth measurements down to 20 meters from high-resolution DigitalGlobe WorldView satellite imagery.
The SDB products became popular with organizations operating in shallow coastal waters because the technology is more cost-effective and timely than traditional airborne and ship-borne bathymetric methods — with no adverse effects on the environment, the company added.
“In the current SDB process, we use manual stereo photogrammetry methods to measure seafloor ground control points in digital satellite imagery, but this is extremely time consuming,” said Goodrich. “We are developing an automated photogrammetric process to extract a greater number of ground truth points from high-resolution WorldView imagery.”
Project Trident aims to integrate wave kinematics, a technique patented by jOmegak to calculate water depths in shallow waters by analyzing the patterns and speed of waves detected in satellite imagery. Wave kinematics has been applied successfully using Sentinel-2 and WorldView satellite imagery.
“Thanks to the NSF grant, we are taking a giant leap forward on TCarta satellite-derived bathymetry methodologies and aim to exponentially accelerate them with the latest in machine learning and computer vision technologies,” said Goodrich.
Looking southwest towards Leilani Estates with Fissure 8 erupting in the background. (Image: Ron Chapple/GEO 1)
High-resolution lidar surveys help first responders, scientists and government agencies monitor Kilauea conditions and predict future lava flows.
Independent geospatial data firm Quantum Spatial Inc. (QSI) has conducted high-resolution lidar surveys of areas surrounding the Kilauea volcano eruption in Hawaii.
The emergency response effort was part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Rapid Response Imagery Products (RRIP) in support of the Kilauea’s 2018 East Rift Zone – Remote Sensing Acquisition Requirement.
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), along with emergency responders, government agencies and academics, will use the data to better understand the conditions and characteristics of the Kilauea volcano, which has been continually erupting since May 3.
Data also will assist planners in modeling potential lava flows, which may better predict and respond to future flows and enhance safety of residents.
The USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) selected QSI to perform the first of two planned surveys over the active volcanic area. The QSI team, which included GEO1 and Windward Aviation, deployed within days to acquire high-resolution lidar at point densities averaging from 40 to 80 ppsm, with up to 150 ppsm in select areas and 100-mp digital imagery using a Riegl dual VUX-1 LR sensor pod equipped with ABGPS/IMU mounted on a Hughes 500D helicopter.
Five distinct locations, covering an area of 57 square miles, were targeted:
Kīlauea Summit Caldera
Pu’u O’o Crater and flow
Chain of Craters Road / Kaoe
Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV)
Western Leilani Estates lava field.
The project required 11 missions over the course of six days, operating at times as low as 500 feet above the ground and above active flows and nearby erupting calderas. With a need for a quick turn around, QSI deployed an analyst with the flight crew to post process each mission within hours of collection.
The data was uploaded to the Geospatial Repository and Data Management System (GRiD) interface, developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), where additional data products have been developed and provided to the response team that includes FEMA, Hawaii’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Hawaii County Civil Defense.
After data collection, QSI measured topographic shifts during the processing by comparing new data with a 2011 lidar collection from the same area. Survey specialists and USGS experts confirmed within hours of processing QSI’s lidar data that areas within the site had shifted up to 1.5 meters east, 2 meters to the north and 1 meter in elevation.
USGS scientists will continue to examine the new topographic data to better understand the nature of these shifts, and integrate it into lava flow models for more accurate predictive modeling.
“Airborne lidar and imagery remote sensing surveys are invaluable tools for understanding the effects of active volcanic eruptions, which change the topography as fissures emerge and lava flows extend to the ocean,” said Michael Shillenn, vice president at QSI. “We were honored to work with the USGS and others on this critical project. We believe that data and analysis provided by the QSI team will provide insights into future scenarios, enabling emergency responders to protect the surrounding community.”
A voter enters a polling place. (Image: iStock.com/YinYang)
With the mid-term elections coming ever nearer, states are turning to geographic information systems (GIS) to help manage them.
Digital geographic representation of precinct boundaries within a GIS allow for transparency and ease of use for voters, candidates and electoral management, according to the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC).
GIS also enables the optimal siting of polling places for both voter access and the cost efficiency of operating polls.
Finally, GIS provides a platform for automated quality-control processes that ensure accurate voter precinct assignments.
“An electoral system with integrity — enhanced by accurate, authoritative geographic data and presented clearly and transparently — has never been more important,” said NSGIC President Andy Rowan.
Why GIS is an improvement over address files
NSGIC’s Geo-Enabled Elections project brings together geographic information systems (GIS) leaders in state government, local elections officials and state elections offices, national GIS and elections organizations, and federal partners to identify opportunities to integrate GIS into elections systems across the country.
The overall goal is to strengthen elections management and citizen engagement. The project aims to provide the impetus for replacing non-spatial “address file” tables with the visual and analytical advantages of election precinct and voter data in a natively GIS format.
Geo-enabled elections overcome the four fundamental challenges with the existing address list approach to precinct management, according to Rowan.
In the address list approach, Rowan said,
No actual boundaries are stored explicitly in the systems,
Quality control is difficult without a method to visualize precinct assignment using aerial photography and boundary information that can change frequently,
There is no efficient method for applying large-scale precinct boundary updates, and
The process is usually not aligned efficiently with other state and local address or boundary-management processes.
To this end, the project conducted a nationwide survey on elections data in the first half of this year. More than two-thirds of states responded.
Here are key takeaways from the baseline survey.
Addresses
The survey found that 55 percent of responding states confirm voter registration addresses against a database of known addresses such as a driver’s license or state ID database, a statewide point address set, a master address database used for 911 call routing, or a commercially available address database.
“The results indicate a need to advocate for coordination between state agencies (such as the state elections department and the department of motor vehicles) and encourage integration of the voting system and other systems,” said Jamie Chesser, the Geo-Enabled Elections project manager.
Election Precincts
More than half of responding states indicated they maintain statewide mapping of precincts. Within this group, 40 percent also maintain a layer of sub-precincts in digital mapping systems.
“There remains a need to develop local precinct data content and procedural standards to examine the relationship between precincts, local and state boundaries, and residential structures,” Chesser said.
Other Data
In all, 82 percent of states keep up-to-date spatial data of city and county boundaries, which is essential for computer-based mapping of precincts.
“Statewide spatial data — especially city, county, school, and special district boundaries – are essential to mapping precinct boundaries across the state,” Chesser said. “The survey reflected, however, that accuracy of current city and county boundary mapping varies
considerably.”
A substantial majority, 79 percent of respondents, confirm their mapping of state-level district-based elected offices are accessible online in a digital mapping format.
Survey responses were coordinated by state government representatives who focus on the development and deployment of mapping data and systems across state agencies and local governments.
Later this year, NSGIC will release the results of a study probing the spatial approach to elections management from the perspective of state elections officials.
The two-year Geo-Enabled Elections project, underwritten by the bipartisan Democracy Fund Voice, convenes a wide variety of stakeholders to explore ways geographic information systems and related processes can enhance elections management and citizen engagement across the U.S.
Who better to know about connections than a GIS professional whose very job is discovering them? Weaving a thread through time from decades ago isn’t a typical geospatial connection, but this one is, and it is connected by a person.
Let’s reflect on who we are as a profession and how we, the geospatial community, has made the world a better place.
Let’s also take a moment to learn about one of the leaders who led the way and what he had to overcome to help us appreciate who and what we are. It is an oft-repeated refrain: “Those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat it”, and, my personal favorite, “The future flows through us becoming the past so that we remember it and do not repeat it.”
Jack Maple. (Photo: Newsday Photo, 1986 / Bruce Gilbert)
In 1961, the trend in crime began climbing. Many people lived in fear, especially in big cities. New York captured many of the nation’s headlines in a long, tragic list of brutal, horrible crimes. Hope was bleak. It was expected to get worse. But, it didn’t. The fever had broken. It peaked in 1991. The crime spree lasted 30 years.
By contrast, the Vietnam War lasted 20 years. The total number of troops serving on active duty during Vietnam was 9.1 million troops and 58,318 lost their lives in combat, yet fewer people died on the streets of America during the same period. In fact, on average, during the 30-year crime wave, every 22 days the number of victims of violent crime in the United States equaled the total number of soldiers killed in Vietnam. America was a battlefield and ground zero was New York City.
What happened in 1991? What stemmed the tide? That year, a new type of hero emerged, a crime fighter, unlike any before.
It began at ground zero, in the most dangerous areas of New York City — the subways, referred to as the “caves.” Thugs, rapists, murders and thieves roamed the depths. Police could do little. They were outnumbered and operated under strict rules. It was preferable to be a regular police officer, above ground, dealing with routine crimes, even the murders, rather than be a transit cop covering a beat in the dark, rough, unforgiving underworld of the subway. Only four types of people dwelled there: criminals, victims, transit cops, and those who got away.
Sometimes, transit cops or criminals were the victims. Transit cops were difficult to recruit, but New York needed more of them. This provided an opportunity for those with few other choices. Sometimes, those who have no other options are the ones who make the most of an opportunity. They work the hardest because it is their only way out. Success lies with the willing — those incendiary hearts waiting to be ignited by a challenge that gives them purpose. Life is too often fraught with peril and strife. It is vision and the courage to pursue them that manifests dreams into reality.
This new hero didn’t fit the caricature. He was short, balding, overweight and lacked a high school diploma. He was street smart, cocky, unpolished and would rather fight than prove his point. He didn’t come from a privileged background. He just had his wits. He knew right from wrong and had the courage to stand his ground. He took on the criminal element lurking in the subterranean worlds. He worked hard, earning his GED at night. It served him better that way like a badge of honor, the hard way being its own reward.
His name was Jack Maple, the crime fighter, and he understood the streets in ways others didn’t. He knew, like a hunter knows, to find the deer trails. Animals are creatures of habit. They prefer to stay where they know the area, the smells, the rhythms, the sounds, where the food is, and where to run for cover. Criminals measure their risks too. They prefer familiar places. They are territorial and keen to their surroundings. Jack knew if you look for their patterns, you’ll find them. He covered his walls with subway maps, placing pins where and when the crimes happened.
The criminal’s habits and behaviors began taking shape. With this knowledge, Jack had become the hunter. Knowledge is power, but real power is action, and Jack took it. He would not have become the hero otherwise. He staked out their patterns of place and time, setting traps and luring them in with their weaknesses.
One by one, and group by group, he reclaimed New York’s subways. Crime dropped by 69% over the next five years. Putting that in perspective, two of every three victims were spared. Unfortunately, 629 people were still murdered in New York City, but it was a drastic departure from the peak of 1,946 just five years before, meaning 1,317 men, women and children did not suffer a violent crime that year or any other year thereafter.
The values of crime are most often represented as a 1:100,000 scale ration; however, this chart shows three different categories, each represented by a different order of magnitude. (Data from Disastercenter.com)
Rudy Giuliani, then mayor of New York, recognized the value of what Maple had developed. Maple called his maps the Charts of the Future. His colleagues called it wallpaper. The mayor called it amazing and gave Jack Maple his full support, praising him by saying, “One of the truly great innovators in law enforcement, who helped make New York City the safest large city in America.” Maple was promoted to Deputy Police Commissioner of Crime Control Strategies.
Maple founded CompStat, Computerized Statistics, calling it his electronic pin maps to support his four precepts: accurate and timely intelligence, rapid deployment of forces, effective tactics, and relentless follow-through.
New York’s CompStat program for the NYPD.
CompStat changed policing to a data-driven business. GIS professionals will recognize CompStat as a geographic information system, and Jack as a self-trained geospatial developer and analyst. Geospatial science was still a very niche technology at the time.
Jack Maple’s success continued to grow. Two men, William Bratton and John Timoney, both police commissioners and senior to Maple in the police hierarchy, became evangelists of Maple’s CompStat, spreading it to other cities throughout the world, and through those two men, predictive policing and crime mapping evolved.
Maple, Bratton and Timoney became independent consultants helping cities worldwide establish their own CompStat programs.
His success did not end there. Based on his experiences fighting criminals on the streets and fighting change in the antiquated police system, he wrote the book, The Crime Fighter: How You Can Make Your Community Crime Free. The book is an excellent read and readily available online. He also co-wrote the TV series The District, based on his exploits in the book.
If you haven’t seen the series, the show is worth watching. Season 1, Episode 3, shows a 1990s projector screen with a large GIS display and the city’s police chiefs being held to account for telling their district’s crime stories in accordance with the map.
Jack Maple was a modern-day rags to riches story and a pioneer of the GIS profession. When he passed away in 2001, he had become a beloved character in New York. When he died, each of the major New York City publications covered the story of his life crediting him for reducing crime and giving the citizens back their city. The CompStat room at 1 Police Plaza CompStat, New York, was renamed after him in tribute. Craig Horowitz, writer for New York Magazine, penned a worthy tribute.
CompStat would be further developed with more advanced crime mapping and crime analysis methods, predictive analytics, environmental criminology and geographic profiling. Kim Rossmo coined the term geographic profiling, based on his patented Rossmo Formula, which is a form of predictive analytics that takes location, time, social behavior and the psychology of criminals into account and turns it into a mathematical equation that can be fed into a GIS. This narrows down the probable location of a suspect, allowing investigators and police to better focus their resources.
Geographic profiling was used during the D.C. sniper case. The Rossmo Formula was featured on the TV series Numb3rs. I hope to write a future article on Dr. Rossmo complete with interviews.
The trend in crime has continued decreasing ever since the peak in 1991. Crime in New York City has now dropped back to 1940s levels as of 2017 and continues to decline.
The power to change the world lies with those fervent, intrepid souls — the unrelenting dreamers, who seek a better world and through innovation, creativity and courage, and manifest it into reality.
It is a great time to be in the geospatial profession. The United States leads the world in geospatial science. Take heart, because opportunities abound in this industry. I hope you become a hero in the field, and someday I have the opportunity to write about you.
Geotab has released an interactive infographic depicting the evolution of America’s iconic Interstate Highway System.
The interactive timeline allows users to watch the network expand over the years, providing a detailed look at the development of the infrastructure that has supported transportation and trade across the America for several decades.
Today, the Interstate Highway System accounts for 25 percent of all highway traffic in the United States. As the system nears a major milestone, with the total network approaching 50,000 miles in length, Geotab created the interactive infographic to highlight the development of the highway system in the U.S. throughout the years.
Since its inception in 1956, the Interstate Highway System has been regarded as the backbone of U.S. commerce and infrastructure, playing a vital role in America’s economic growth. The map highlights major developments over the last 60 years, such as the 1974 completion of the I-5 that now connects Mexico and Canada with a singular route and the opening of the I-80, the country’s first coast-to-coast highway.
Geotab’s “Evolution of the Interstate” infographic provides the public with the ability to watch the Interstate Highway System expand over the years, enabling them to engage with particular dates and sections of the extensive network. The interactive map also includes relevant details about the city each highway serves, the length of that specific highway, and provides the total mileage covered by the entire network in any given year.
“As America’s Interstate Highway System approaches a major milestone, we wanted to pay tribute to this intricate and expansive network,” said Maria Sotra, vice president of marketing at Geotab. “Connecting people, enabling business and providing a straightforward path across one of the largest countries in the world, the nearly 50,000 miles of highway that makes up the Interstate Highway System has played an undeniable role in transportation and trade in the United States.”
His success did not end there. Based on his experiences fighting criminals on the streets and fighting change in the antiquated police system, he wrote the book, 