Every year in July, some of the brightest minds in the geospatial world, as well as many other industries gather to attend the Esri User Conference in San Diego, California. As one of the most important showcases of geospatial advancements and innovations, attending this conference is a must for any professional using any sort of GIS in their career. Taking place July 15-19, MVPC’s GIS/IT team was fortunate enough to attend virtually. Our four team members took the opportunity learn the new capabilities of GIS software and see how other entities have been using GIS to advance their operations.
ArcGIS 3D Analyst: Working with LiDAR
Those who regularly work with and interact with our staff know how excited we are about recently acquiring an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or a drone as they’re commonly called. Our drone work will rely on an active-source sensor called Light Detection and Ranging, known to most as LiDAR. LiDAR sensors measure the distances and heights of scanned features to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional models. Environmental monitoring and spatial extents can be evaluated from these models
At the Esri UC, they hosted called “ArcGIS 3D Analyst: Working with LiDAR” proved helpful. The speakers went in-depth on best practices for managing, classifying, and analyzing this remote sensing data, showcasing some new capabilities of ArcGIS Pro for this type of work. Through this seminar, our team has a current perspective on how to properly utilize LiDAR. This insight will be paramount in completing drone-based projects, such as Healthy Estuaries Grant work involving tracking marsh edge erosion, monitoring large marsh wrack depositions, and helping identify areas to restore eelgrass. The future of 3D analytics is upon us, and MVPC is fortunate to be a part of it.
Python in ArcGIS: An Overview
As GIS technology advances and becomes more prevalent in a multitude of industries, the ability to write code continues to become more of a valuable skill set for any geospatial professional. Our GIS/IT team is working to elevate our workflows with coding practices, particularly with Python. When they saw the class listing for “Python in ArcGIS: An Overview” signing up was a no-brainer. Streamlining workflows through automation has been a goal of our team for a few years, and having a skillset in Python is the best way to achieve this goal.
A prime example of this is a project currently being worked on would be refining the process of making assessor data for our communities meet the state’s standard. As a part of the yearly parcel update process that MVPC completes for twelve of our communities, our team receives updated ownership data from community assessors which will be formatted to meet the state’s requirement for communities to receive emergency response funding. Traditionally this was a process that required hours of transferring of field and edits to meet standards. With the ability to add the data to an application run through Python that formats everything correctly, hours will be saved when completing these yearly updates.
This workshop emphasized how Python, as well as other coding languages, can be utilized for advancing not only our desktop processes, but it can make our processes in the realm of ArcGIS Online more effective as well. Our online applications will see a boost in functionality like never before as well. MVPC’s Environmental team uses an application called the Early Alert Tool, which predicts CSO events in the Merrimack Valley Region. Although our team worked with outside entities to develop this, we now have greater insights on how to give consultants insight on updates. Automating how data is received in this application will make updates in real time, giving users more time to react to these events.
Field Operations: An Overview
Municipal workers across the Merrimack Valley employ the use of online applications run by our agency when working out in the field. Whether it be a stormwater utility app, a municipal light viewer, or a traffic hazard viewer, these communities rely on these applications. The GIS/IT team understands this, so when they saw a workshop at the Esri User Conference titled “Field Operations: An Overview” they knew that they would need to work it into their schedules.
As with most Esri UC workshops, this overview of field operations did not disappoint. Products showcased included some of the GIS/IT team’s most used, such as Field Maps and Survey123, while demonstrating uses for other less familiar products such as QuickCapture and Navigator. Tools for field map design and configuration have advanced giving more customization options on the backend, with viewing and sharing functionality improvements as well. Our team became more empowered to increase user experience on these applications. Survey123 improvements have been showcased as well, highlighting greater integration with Office 365, as well as more ability to visualize the data collected through surveys. The speakers teased future AI functionality which our team was elated to hear. We’re excited to use what we learned to continue the advancements of our applications.
Our GIS/IT team knows that attending the Esri User Conference is a valuable experience that helps us elevate our skills. We take pride in aiding out municipalities, as well as other departments in our agency with their work that requires or can be elevated by a geospatial component. We look forward to applying what we learned at this conference to our work, in aiding initiatives across the Merrimack Valley.
To see what the 2025 Esri User Conference has in store, visit their website here.
To learn more about the work being done by our GIS/IT team, visit our website here.