Geographic information that can better convey the different outcomes for agriculture, forest, or water resource sectors, under different rates of climate change, can improve and inform decisions that potentially reduce the costs and consequences for Arizona and the southwest region. Trees that have survived droughts for over 800 years are crossing lethal thresholds in droughts that are hotter than before. This is one example of how ecosystems are transforming rapidly after repeated severe events or after the most extreme events. The latest developments in understanding of the multiple factors influencing wildfire risks require enhanced and near-real time geographic information to provide reliable decision support. Elevations are shifting as water resources respond to extremes in precipitation variability. Reductions in Colorado River flow occurs with each higher degree temperature increase under what scientists call a hot drought. The associated economic consequences would be substantial for the region. However, economic risks can be decreased across multiple sectors with reduced carbon emissions and adaptation.

In this presentation, Dr. Ekwurzel will share information on how Arizona geospatial professionals can benefit from resources already available in the National Climate Assessment Vol I (The Climate Science Special Report) that addresses global change. Learn about how to access customized county-level maps of over 40 climate variables through Climate Explorer. Practical tools can help plan for the future such as Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA) downscaled projections to see how future global climate scenarios are expected to influence
your region.

Advancements in technology are tasking 9-1-1 systems and 9-1-1 centers to have the ability to do more to support the 9-1-1 caller.  Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) helps to meet those demands through sophisticated databases, networks, and equipment that provide critical functionality including call routing, location validation and, as it does today, 9-1-1 call mapping.  An essential part of NG9-1-1 is GIS.  To meet those demands, efforts are underway with Mesa Community College to determine whether a 9-1-1 GIS Certification program would support those needs.  This session is designed to open discussion on what are the needs of the local 9-1-1 provider (911 and GIS professionals) and how best to meet those needs through a structured certification program.

Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is a tool to help Arizonans learn about environmental hazards in the state that could impact their health. EPHT was built on the idea that health and environmental problems are not always separate issues with unrelated solutions. EPHT has gathered data from national and local sources in order to view both environmental and health outcome data in one easily accessible place. For example, Arizonans can review air quality information and compare the information with respiratory issues such as asthma.

The presentation focuses on the relaunch of the new data explorer, including an overview of the development process, demos, and success stories. Topics such as cloud migration, server configuration, security, and custom built widgets will be highlighted. The presentation balances detailed technical aspects with general lessons learned, suitable for a wide audience.

The Arizona Geospatial Integration and Validation Solution  (AZGIVS) application  will allow authorized local data providers to upload 9-1-1 road network, address points and emergency service boundaries to an AZGEO-hosted web application and receive in return a Next Generation 9-1-1  (NG9-1-1) transformed data set  and a summary, quality assurance (QA) report based on the process.  The application will incorporate at least a subset of the various data QA processes developed by the State 9-1-1 office over the past several years relating to to 9-1-1 data sets.   Presenters will discuss the AZGIVS conceptual design and workflow, the various quality-assurance approaches it will incorporate and a draft user interface for the AZGIVS application.  Audience feedback on this developing application will be encouraged.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) are both similar and very different technologies. Both are part of the built environment all around us. Both radically changed the paradigms of their industries, and while they have many of the same goals, there has been little movement to integrate them.  Yet the idea of integration expands the paradigm of data automation to enterprise systems that may be as ground breaking as their respective components. This presentation will explore the technology, the issues and how to get these disparate systems working together to create a fully modeled enterprise information system. Just What Are We Talking About? We'll define the technologies and critical issues. Why Do I Care? We'll talk about the benefits and potential applications for a blend of the technology. Who is affected? We'll discuss the roles and organizations and the part they play in it. What's Stopping Me? We'll discuss the issues that get in the way and how to mitigate them. How do I get there? We'll discuss and see some methodologies and paths to get to an integrated, enterprise system.

ArcGIS Online and Collector app is used to communicate environmental regulations and avoid impacts to sensitive resource areas, within an existing electrical utility corridor, through multiple agency jurisdictions in both an online and offline environment. Distributing an appropriate level of information to lineman and engineers to aid in company compliance, mitigate impact, and accomplishment the primary job of keeping the lights on.

Tracking ongoing development projects is a cross-organizational challenge for local governments. The town of East Gwillimbury is a small but rapidly growing municipality with multiple areas being developed simultaneously. The town needed to visualize, monitor and report on the progress of these development projects thereby assisting staff to effectively manage workflows such as the commence of road patrols for maintenance, garbage collection, fire break allocations as well as monitoring parks and construction.  In this presentation, we will demonstrate how developing a flexible ETL solution allowed the organization to gain operational efficiencies.  ETL processes automate data flow across enterprise systems which allowed integration of information into a centralized development status tracking map on ArcGIS Server as well as other reports. At an enterprise-level ETL system, the city achieved data synchronization, sharing to stakeholders, and automation through scheduling and triggers.

Getting a major Field data Collection effort underway is a challenge.  Particularly one on approximately 250,000 acres of Open Space.  What are we collecting?  Why are we collecting this data?  Who is collecting the data and with what?  These are some of the questions any field data collection project needs to answer before it begins.  However, even the most strategic and well-planned effort can encounter a host of problems ranging from problems with the devices and data collection strategy to lack of staff and organizational (management) understanding.  Recognizing that obstacles will occur and more importantly being able to apply creative solutions is an important element of any project.  I've been involved in the development of Pima County's Natural Resource GIS program from its beginning stages.  I'd like to present some of the challenges we've encountered and successes we've had along the way, particularly as it relates to data collection.  Those challenges and successes include not only technological components but people components as well.

Subtle use of cartographic techniques can make your work not only more aesthetically pleasing but help convey the information you are trying to present.  This presentation will touch briefly on some effects all using ArcMap such as the Buffer Wizard, gradient fills  and the appropriate use of text halos to highlight your work.

Arizona DOT has been providing quality control feedback to data providers on roadway centerline issues in recent years as part of the statewide centerline data supply chain project.  Recently, ADOT has added a "change detection” data comparison mechanism as a service at the AZGEO Clearinghouse.  E-9-1-1 data custodians can now submit their data to the AZGEO servers and have a data comparison, as well as a quality assurance, report returned in an unattended fashion.  This presentation will contain a quick refresher of the original effort followed by an introduction on how data providers can get an assessment of change between a dataset of 2 differing vintages.

Northwest Fire District has been an early adopter of Esri mobile applications to enhance the collection and delivery of key life/property saving information to our public safety responders.  Can you benefit from some of the things they have learned and done with ArcGIS?

Previous efforts to create land  use/land cover classifications have often been limited in either spatial resolution or extent and are frequently conducted using proprietary datasets. This effort aimed to create a repeatable, state-wide classification of basic land cover types (open water, roof, dense vegetation, etc.) utilizing open government data (NAIP and Landsat imagery) and open source software. Part of a larger effort by the Arizona Game and Fish Department to develop a comprehensive riparian classification layer for the entire state, this intermediary product is itself useful for a variety of disciplines and research fields. This presentation will address the methodology employed, the issues and challenges in analysis imposed by large datasets, and the benefits in repeatability and access with model development using open source utilities. As well, we'll touch on the technologies used including python packages rasterio (raster processing), scipy (machine learning), and geopandas (vector manipulation), and QGIS (preliminary data preparation/post-processing inspection).

With Drone2Map for ArcGIS, drones have become more than just image capture devices. They are enterprise GIS productivity tools. In this session,  you will learn how to create orthomosaics, point clouds and 3D meshes with Drone2Map.  This will then allow you to bring into ArcGIS Online and other applications to quickly deliver content to other people such as phones in a 3D display.

Don't let the desert climate fool you! Nearly a million anglers fish Arizona waters every year, resulting in a billion dollar industry. The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) manages over 355,000 acres of reservoirs and close to 3,000 miles of rivers for 27 sport fish species . To help spread the message that Arizona is a great place to drop a line, the AZGFD GIS Program worked with fisheries biologists, PIOs and the boating program to develop Fish&BoatAZ, Arizona's newest boating and fishing guide. Using customized Esri configurable application code, anglers and boaters can now easily plan trips based on their own preferences, and refer to regulations from their mobile device while out on the water.

Blockchain technology, which enables Bitcoin and other secure transactions, has significant potential for GIS. In this presentation, current geo-related blockchain initiatives such as the Crypto-Spatial Coordinate open location standard will be explained. Also, an overview and programming example of a GIS-focused blockchain architecture will be proposed that could serve as a decentralized "digital title company" to insure the integrity and reliable location of survey property corners over time. GeoBlockchain® you'll hear about it first at AGIC 2018!

The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management (DFFM) utilizes multiple geospatial platforms and web based applications to enhance situational awareness. They also aid in decision support, publish reports, dispatch firefighters, and track resources in the field.  There is a public facing web based program for sharing information with the public about community wildfire risk. There are also applications that allow firefighters to gather information prior to and during incidents for enhanced situational awareness in real time. These systems will be discussed and demonstrated in this session.

Yuma County ITS GIS utilized a GIS Platform (ArcGIS) to develop a management software solution to improve the accuracy and efficiency of data collection and compliance reporting for the Smoke Free Arizona Program.  The Smoke Free Arizona Act was passed by Arizona voters as an effort to limit exposure to second hand smoke.  The law allows for a few exceptions, but as a rule prohibits smoking within 20 feet of entrances, open windows, ventilation systems and most enclosed public places as well as places as employments.  The Yuma County Health District, was seeking a GIS solution that allowed them to map inspected sites and keep records of sites visited throughout fiscal years.  The project priorities included the following: create point locations to visualize data, create electronic forms, store data in secure environment, ability to transmit data quickly and securely and have the ability to generate reports.  Yuma County ITS GIS staff utilized ESRI's Survey123 to develop a management software solution to improve the accuracy and efficiency of data collection and compliance reporting for the Smoke Free Arizona Program.

Come and learn about the new Arizona Educators' GIS User Group (AZ EdG). Our mission is to facilitate the use of geospatial technologies in the classroom through the establishment of a network of stakeholders and a structure that promotes collaboration and exchange of pedagogical and technical knowledge and skills among its members. If you are someone who works in geospatial technology and you'd like to inspire the next generation of practitioners, come meet educators who use GIS to expose students to the power of geospatial technology. We'll share how the AZEdG User Group came to be and what we've been up to and then lead a facilitated discussion about GIS in education. We want to hear from you. Would you like to reach out to high school or early college students, in what capacity? Would you like to mentor teachers as they learn about and teach GIS? Would you like student help in collecting crowdsourced data? If you teach GIS or use GIS as a teaching tool, come find out about and join the AZEdG User Group.

Have you ever felt undervalued as a GIS Professional?  There is no question that GIS data is a vital resource for government, but all to often it is underutilized.  With GIS technologies, teaching the Fire Department how to measure building heights can be a game changer.  Giving a property assessor the ability to see a north, south, east and west view of home from their desktop puts time and resources back into their pockets.  With the right tools and communication resources ,you can help your current sutlers and departments increase their usage, streamline their workflow and create an overall appreciation for the value associated with spatially orientated data.  To some a picture is not just worth a thousand words; it makes their job easier.

In the summer of 2018, the Kaibab National Forest collected Quality Level 1 LiDAR data for the Williams and Tusayan Ranger District.  During the presentation, we will cover the tips and tricks for navigating the USGS 3DEP program, as well as the different LiDAR outputs and how those will be integrated into the different Kaibab National Forest programs.

Pima County Regional Flood Control in cooperation with the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy and the Chesapeake Conservancy have recently completed a Land-Use/Land-Cover dataset for ~3700 square miles of eastern Pima County. The presentation will discuss the challenges inherent in producing this dataset in a landscape where earth tones are predominant, the limitations of the data,  and the projected benefits and uses for the data now that is completed.

Open source software, toolkits and development platforms have transformed the nature of software development and use and the fields of forestry, remote sensing and natural resource management are no exceptions. Recently, packages for the R Project, the statistical programming language and environment that boasts millions of community members, have been developed for the applications of LiDAR, remote sensing and GIS; high-performance and parallel computing with big data; and various machine learning and statistical modeling techniques. This talk presents a broad overview of R packages relevant to LiDAR processing and analysis and demonstrates a workflow in the R environment to provide enhanced forest structural and compositional information in support of forest resource decision making.

Lidar data is increasingly used in environmental sciences and natural resource management. Three-dimensional point cloud data, including both light detection and ranging, and Structure-from-Motion data, can be acquired from several different sensors. In this presentation, I will introduce how ground-based and airborne lidar data are obtained to estimate topographic surface height as well as vegetation height. The various lidar data sources have different levels of details and errors associated with them. These also lead to specific limitations and opportunities for the final products that can be derived from lidar data including DEM and vegetation canopy height models. I will introduce these concepts and their implications for the lidar data users.

Discussions on How to manage imagery on a personal level,  for a group, or for large scale operations? and how to share Imagery using mosaic datasets/image services, Image Services,  and Cloud resources

In this session you will see how to set up Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS using a Windows app or browser-based application to create executive dashboards that integrate maps, lists, charts, and gauges for real-time operation views.  Learn about the upcoming plans for the Operations Dashboard by getting a sneak peak at the Beta release of the next generation of Operations Dashboard.