Change is all around us – at home, at work, in our communities, across our nations, on our earth. We often talk about how GIS is changing the world, but the world is also changing GIS. How we use GIS, how we interact with GIS, and how GIS interacts with the world are all changing. Some of the change is technology-driven, but the biggest driver of change is you – the GIS user. The challenges you deal with and how you want or need to deal with them are changing GIS. In this talk, I share how GIS is changing in response to our world and the requirements of you – its users.
Can you confidently find your next conference session, the nearest exit, or a restroom? Come learn about options for navigating the venue. Sorry, no cheese… Have a map instead!
We’ll get familiar with the venue while evaluating strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs of this year’s conference maps and apps. Consider it a case study for technology selection, indoor reality capture, oriented imagery, and challenges in human wayfinding.
Bring your critical eye and thinking cap! Your questions and feedback will help improve next year’s experience.
ORURISA Emerging Professionals invites you to a panel discussion with mentors and mentees from our 2024-2025 Mentorship Program cohort. During this session you will hear from current participants about their experiences or projects they are currently working on during this year’s mentorship program. A foundational goal of the Emerging Professionals Mentorship Program is to provide real-world experience in a professional setting with a knowledgeable GIS professional. This is a great opportunity for all those interested in the program to not only learn about interesting projects, but to also hear more about the ins and outs of the experience. At the end of the program outline, we will hold a Q&A session to answer any questions that arise. Please join us to learn more and become part of our network!
Geospatial Lab Coordinator, Portland Community College
Catherine Green is a board member of the ORURISA Emerging Professionals, and a co-founder of the Portland chapter of Women in GIS. She has a BA in Environmental Studies, an MA in Geography, and a certificate in GIS from Portland Community College.
Wednesday April 23, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm PDT Auditorium
An overview of the GIS analyses that are a part of Metro's Cooling Corridors study, which is aimed at understanding the distribution of cool and hot, natural and built corridors in the region, and identifying opportunities for connecting existing cool areas or conversely identifying the hot areas that would most benefit from cooling interventions.
Joe Gordon is a Senior GIS Specialist at Metro (Portland, Oregon) that specializes in demographic and remote sensing analysis. He has worked on equity and environmental justice analyses, including indicator development, vulnerability indices (demographic and environmental), and hazard... Read More →
Wednesday April 23, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am PDT Atrium
In 2023 the State of Oregon updated the Transportation Planning Rules (TPR) to include additional requirements regarding multi-modal inventory and reporting associated with Jurisdiction Transportation System Plans (TSPs). To support jurisdictions in complying with the revised TPR, ODOT launched a Multi-Model Inventory Project in 2024.
The Multi-Modal Inventory Project will develop multi-modal datasets for 48 jurisdictions within the state’s eight Municipal Planning Organizations (MPOs). Datasets developed by the project include roadway, freight, transit, active transportation, and crash datasets with standardized geometries and TPR-compliant attributes.
This effort presents a unique opportunity to develop statewide standards, provide data to jurisdictions that they do not currently have and make their work more efficient.
Every year, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality publishes a general statistical overview of status and tends of water quality across Oregon using the Oregon Water Quality Index. The index, which DEQ has calculated for more than three decades, analyzes a defined set of water quality parameters and produces scores that describe the general water quality within a network of 160 stations located in streams throughout the State of Oregon. GIS plays a critical role in not only understanding where changes are occurring in the State, but also to communicate the overall water quality of Oregon’s rivers in an easy-to-understand, non-technical manner to the public, agency managers, and the Oregon Legislature.
Using geoprocessing tools available in ArcGIS Pro and published layers from ESRI’s Living Atlas and ArcGIS Online, DEQ is able to map wildfire perimeters, land use changes, and watershed boundaries to determine which recent changes are likely negatively impacting the water quality within the OWQI’s network of stations. DEQ uses tools available through ArcGIS Online such as Experience Builder, Story Maps, and Dashboards to communicate the results of the OWQI with members of the public and Oregon Legislators who are interested in monitoring water quality throughout the State.
This presentation highlights the importance of accessibility in GIS and mapping, emphasizing design considerations for users with diverse abilities. It covers practical strategies for creating accessible maps and apps, including planning, color contrast, basemap selection, and symbology.
For GIS analysts, generating walksheds (a polygon representing all the locations a pedestrian can physically walk to in a given distance or time, not just a circle buffer) has often been a cumbersome process involving street network data preparation, pages of network analysis settings that mostly apply to cars, and long processing times. We decided to boil this process down to the basics with two compact, modular Python scripts. The first script uses OpenStreetMap’s Overpass API to quickly download a routable pedestrian walking network for a specified bounding box to a shapefile, GeoPackage, or File Geodatabase. The second script uses the QGIS Network Analysis toolbox to generate walksheds from the downloaded network and an input file of points, with settings for walk radius, detailed walkshed geometry tweaks, and a few extra aggregation options for transit stops. The end result is extremely fast, downloading the pedestrian network for the Portland metro area in a matter of minutes and generating individual walksheds in seconds.
Using ArcGIS Experience Builder, GIS-related web applications can be created by arranging and configuring components known as widgets. Core capabilities are provided by out-of-the-box widgets, while custom widgets can be added to allow for workflows and operations that may not otherwise be accommodated. In this session, the value of custom widgets will be discussed and the process of creating widgets will be explained. A range of audience interests will be served, from offering a general appreciation of the possibilities through to guidance for those who may wish to develop widgets themselves.
In 2024 the Department of Justice issued a new rule on the accessibility of web content and mobile apps provided by state and local governments. This rule updates regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and requires that most state and local government website content meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA standards. In this presentation I’ll discuss LPRO's response upon learning about the rule, as well as how we’re assessing our currently available products and reviewing our processes to create new maps and apps.
GIS and Data Visualization Analyst, Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office
Ariel is a GIS and Data Visualization Analyst with the Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office. She has a BA in Geography and a Master of Science in Public Health. Prior to her current position she worked as a Technical Consultant on the Public Safety and Health team at Esri... Read More →
Wednesday April 23, 2025 1:30pm - 2:00pm PDT Atrium
Do you remember when you were a student or just getting started in your GIS career? Did you have an internship that helped launch you in a direction that led you to where you are today? Internships improve workforce preparedness and at the same time expand the ability of an organization or agency to work on projects that may not otherwise have the capacity to support. This panel will explore the mutual benefits of internships from both organizational and student perspectives, and offer practical guidance on successfully establishing and managing internship programs.
Christina Friedle has been teaching Geography & Geographic Information (GIS) classes at Portland Community College since 2007. She has worked on a wide variety of geographically based projects including Director of a Watershed Education program, Conservation Geographer for a salmon... Read More →
Wednesday April 23, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm PDT Auditorium
The City of Gresham and Dewberry have combined forces to bring the power of GIS to several municipal departments. From the fire department to community services, this collaboration has expanded the use of geospatial technology in ways that have increased awareness of impact and progress of the city's administrative responsibilities. Through the use of tools such as FME and VertiGIS, and the leveraging of ESRI web-based platforms such as QuickCapture and Experience Builder, we have brought creative solutions to longstanding challenges. Join Jacob Mark and Sara Hopkins as they discuss this journey.
The DOJ released new rules to make web applications accessible following the WCAG 2.1 by April 2026. The City of Portland is currently going through the process of developing standards and guidelines to comply with the new rule. We will be sharing our approach, the roadblocks, barriers, take aways, and more.
Recreational Trail Map - An interactive Web Application built with ESRI's Experience Builder: Hood River County (GIS) has developed a user-friendly, interactive web application for accessing recreational trails in Hood River County. Built using ArcGIS Online and Experience Builder, this web application allows county staff to update and manage trail information in real-time. Utilizing digital mapping products improve safety and awareness for all trail users and help with communications in natural disasters.
Learn how this web application was built using the developer addition of Experience Builder and why online maps are critical for recreating in a dynamic envrionment.
We developed and tested a method for mapping shade cast on water channels by riparian vegetation using imagery sources that are affordable and regularly available across Oregon. We validated the optical imagery-based results against lidar-based shade estimates that, while more accurate, are not viable for ongoing statewide monitoring due to their expense. This work provides insights toward determining a viable strategy for statewide monitoring of riparian vegetation condition, which could in turn support a data-driven prioritization and assessment framework to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of riparian restoration efforts.
We created a model to predict shade from 1-foot Oregon Statewide Imagery Program (OSIP) imagery and 10-meter Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, trained from shade estimated using solar-path modeling applied to lidar data collected over three disparate study areas. The model explains nearly 77% of the variation in lidar-derived shade across the study areas. NAIP-based models significantly outperformed Sentinel-2 models; we found that multi-scale image textural information derived from NAIP was important in creating accurate shade estimates. Maps of shade from the optical-based model were created over the entire Johnson Creek watershed in metropolitan Portland; visual inspection of the results shows a very high correspondence to photo-interpreted NAIP imagery, including accurate response to subtle and fine-scale variation in conditions.
The majority of stormwater runoff in Bend, OR is uniquely managed via a combination of surface water discharge and dispersed infiltration systems. The City of Bend owns and operates over 7,000 dispersed infiltration systems, ranging from 3 to 100 feet deep. These systems are designed to prevent flooding and keep pollutants from impacting surface water quality in the Deschutes River. The City recently delineated its surface water drainage network that conveys stormwater to the River using rudimentary geoprocessing tools available in ArcPro. The workflow was fairly straightforward; utilize a Lidar derived DEM and overlay City infrastructure while incorporating expertise from field personnel to verify the accuracy of the final product. That work prompted a simple question: what are the isolated drainage basins for the dispersed systems that manage the bulk of stormwater City-wide? It became clear that urban hydrology would not be as simple to analyze as previous efforts. Jurisdictional boundaries, complex drainage patterns, and data limitations were only some of the implications that would need to be addressed to reflect the reality of managing stormwater in the high desert. Workflows identified in ESRI’s Arc Hydro guides were modified to fit the region’s unique hydrologic conditions. Ultimately, a data package was developed that is now available to provide data-driven outcomes that serve the community.
Last year at GIS in Action I presented on updates Metro has made to our RLIS Housing dataset in preparation for the upcoming Urban Growth Report and ended with a game called “What is it?” where we looked at examples of regional housing and tried to agree on a housing type based on available data. This year I’ve been working on a similar project with non-residential data, and am ready for a new round of “What is it? Non-Residential Edition!”.
Another part of our Urban Growth Report is an employment forecast- how much land do we need to accommodate future job growth in the region? What type of buildings do we need on that land? Before we can talk about what we need for the future, we need to understand the types of building we have now and how they are being used. In this talk I’ll walk through a GIS exercise looking at available data sources and my attempts to turn that into a building use. Then we will wrap it up with some fun, crowd-sourced building identification.
As a Senior GIS Specialist in the Data Resource Center, I serve as Metro’s UAS Coordinator and DRC Liaison to WPES. I started at Metro in 2015 doing basic map analysis and visualization for many of Metro’s various departments, including Parks, Solid Waste, and the Zoo. My current... Read More →
Wednesday April 23, 2025 3:30pm - 4:00pm PDT Classroom
What do fish, ecological restoration, and drones have in common? They all play a vital role in the Stage 0 restoration of Wasson Valley! Stage 0 restoration is an innovative approach aimed at returning landscapes to their initial state, allowing nature to restore itself. Using drones to monitor these areas allows for landscape level analysis of the imagery collected, enhancing our ability to track and support the recovery process. This method of monitoring could reduce the amount of field work for future restoration sites. Scientific monitoring of habitat restoration has generally occurred on-the-ground with time-intensive efforts. Monitoring by UAS will allow for landscape-wide monitoring using multispectral, LiDAR and thermal sensors to track environmental changes resulting from the restoration, such as vegetation growth rate, sediment movement, elevation changes, and surface temperature of soil and water.
GIS Specialist, State of Oregon- Dept. of State Lands; South Slough Reserve NERR
Jennifer is a GIS and UAS specialist for South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Charleston, Oregon since 2002. She works on research that contributes to climate change and coastal management. In summer she contributes to wildland fire support as a GISS. Before her role... Read More →
Wednesday April 23, 2025 4:00pm - 4:30pm PDT Atrium
Many people are familiar with using Arcade in ArcGIS online for visual enhancement but it can also be used in Dashboards. In Dashboards Arcade can be used to create visual formatting and styling elements for a more user friendly and effective format. It can also be used for calculating fields and statistics from data in order to display better fitted information to your uses. This presentation will show examples of how this has been accomplished and show ways that it can be incorporated into many applications.
High-resolution aerial imagery is a game-changer for GIS professionals, providing unparalleled accuracy and detail that supports critical decision-making across multiple sectors. This presentation will explore how advanced aerial imagery enhances GIS data integrity for public safety agencies, urban and regional planning departments, utility providers, and land use managers.
By integrating high-resolution imagery with GIS workflows, professionals can improve situational awareness, conduct precise asset mapping, and streamline operations such as emergency response planning, zoning assessments, and infrastructure management. Case studies will demonstrate how agencies leverage updated imagery to reduce errors, enhance predictive modeling, and improve resource allocation.
Attendees will gain insights into the latest advancements in aerial imaging technology, best practices for incorporating high-resolution datasets, and the future of remote sensing applications in GIS. Whether optimizing emergency response routes, refining parcel data, or enhancing vegetation management, high-resolution aerial imagery is a powerful tool for maximizing the accuracy and effectiveness of GIS-driven solutions.
Debris flows are natural hazards that can damage ecosystems and infrastructure, especially in mountainous areas after wildfires. Debris flow mapping and inventory development provide the groundwork for understanding the frequency, spatial distribution, and key influencing parameters that help identify high-risk areas. This study evaluates parameters associated with post-fire debris flow mapping by analyzing lidar differencing, satellite imagery, and machine learning (ML) applications. The study area includes seven watersheds in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA. The combination of wildfires in 2017, followed by an intense rainstorm in 2021, led to multiple debris flow events in the area. Lidar and satellite imagery datasets from 2018 and 2021 are analyzed using machine learning algorithms: Random Forest, XGBoost, SVM, and logistic regression. In implementing these models, we focus on feature selection optimization and handling class imbalance. Random Forest and XGBoost performed best, achieving an F1 score of 85% to 90% in mapping debris flow locations. Spatial visualization of the results validated the models against historical data. Adding soil burn severity to the analysis highlights its influence on sediment erosion and vegetation patterns. The study showed that the watersheds with higher burn severity areas experienced more significant sediment erosion.
Measuring the Oregon landscape: An update from the Oregon Lidar Consortium on data collection, analysis, and distribution The landscape of Oregon is varied and dynamic, the product of past and ongoing earth system processes. High resolution topographic data characterize earth surface morphology, vegetation characteristics, and the built environment. The Oregon Lidar Consortium (OLC), formed in 2007, is mandated to collect high quality, dense (≥ 8 points/sq m) lidar data across the state and to make these data available to the public. By late 2024 78% of the state had publicly available lidar coverage, while the remainder of the area has been collected and is being processed. Additionally, many areas throughout the State of Oregon have now been covered by one or more repeat lidar datasets, allowing detailed measurements of landscape changes including those driven by coastal, landslide, riverine, vegetation, fire, and urban processes. Opportunities for future collection include targeting known topographic changes as well as to maintain recent observations over wide areas. Another important direction is topobathymetric lidar collection for areas of shallow water including rivers and estuaries to better resolve flood and tsunami hazards and aquatic habitat. This presentation will review the status of lidar acquisition and data availability across the state, example applications to resolve diverse hazards, change detection, and best practices for efficient access to OLC data.
ORURISA Board MeetingORURISA Friends and Members Meeting
The Chapter was founded in 1992 and serves as a forum for geospatial professionals and students to meet, share ideas and encourage the advancement of Geospatial and Open Source technologies.
The vitality of the organization is in its local Sections and Special Interest Groups. Local sections are geographically disbursed throughout the bi-state area and meet to discuss local geospatial topics and technologies. Participants include public sector and private GIS professionals, educators, and students. The chapter also has Special Interest Groups that serve varied topics and areas of interest.
Our mission is to inform, educate and promote the geospatial industry to support and strengthen geographic diversity in our community. We offer legitimacy with other organizations, authority of knowledge, leadership development and career support. We encourage you to participate in local and statewide events and to get involved in the organization.
To learn more, join us, visit our table at the Vendors area or at our website www.orurisa.org
From Point Clouds to Web Maps: Utilizing ESRI ArcGIS and Autodesk ACC technology to create a seamless 3D digital twin of the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant (CBWTP) facility.
Disasters don’t wait—so why should we? While many organizations rely on GIS for post-disaster response, the real power of geospatial technology lies in proactive preparedness. By leveraging ArcGIS and Esri Disaster solutions before disasters, agencies can predict risks, optimize response strategies, plan evacuations, and mitigate damage, ultimately saving lives and resources all this while having Business continuity. This session will explore the transformative role of ArcGIS in disaster resilience, showcasing possible scenarios where predictive analytics, real-time data, and spatial modeling can empower agencies to stay ahead of emergencies. We’ll discuss best practices in risk mapping, scenario planning, and evacuation mapping. From government agencies to utilities and emergency management teams, organizations that shift from reactive to proactive ArcGIS strategies gain a critical edge. Join us to learn how to future-proof your operations and build a smarter, more resilient response framework—before disaster strikes.
Instant Apps offers a set of purpose-driven templates that can be quickly configured into powerful tools for engaging citizens in your community. Learn how Instant Apps can help you share information about local points of interest, collect and manage reported issues, and provide critical updates during disaster scenarios, all from within your ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise organization.
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) provides a valuable means of assessing ground and structural changes using satellite-based radar imagery. This presentation walks through the workflow of acquiring, processing, and preparing coherence data for use in a building damage assessment study.
We begin with data acquisition using the Alaska Satellite Facility’s Vertex tool, selecting and downloading InSAR coherence products. Next, we outline the use of ArcPy to automate key preprocessing steps: applying masks, clipping coherence rasters to building footprints, and structuring the dataset for statistical analysis. Challenges in handling large datasets, dealing with null values, and ensuring spatial alignment are discussed.
With processed coherence values linked to individual building footprints, we then explore initial statistical methods for assessing damage patterns. The goal is to establish a foundation for classification, setting the stage for more advanced spatial and statistical techniques. This workflow provides a replicable approach for integrating InSAR data into disaster impact studies.
Well, it finally happened. ESRI has retired JavaScript 3.X API, and with it goes a whole suite of highly successful tools and applications. JavaScript 4.X is nothing new, but how does it stack up? Can you replace your Web Appbuilder apps? Should you replace them? This session is a look at the complexities of Experience Builder, and how to replicate common workflows from Web Appbuilder.
In today’s fast-paced technological landscape, GIS leaders are increasingly finding themselves trapped in a reactive cycle—managing mounting technical debt while barely keeping pace with relentless technological advancements. This presentation is designed specifically for those at the helm of GIS operations who face the dual challenge of maintaining legacy systems and adapting to rapid innovation. Attendees will gain insights into practical strategies that not only address the immediate pressures of technical debt but also pave the way for a robust, forward-thinking GIS strategy. The session will explore methodologies for balancing urgent operational demands with long-term planning, enabling leaders to reclaim time and steer their organizations toward sustainable growth amidst continuous change.
Mara Stoica is the CEO and majority owner of dymaptic, an award-winning GIS Service Provider. In addition to having more than a decade and a half of technical GIS experience under her belt, Mara possesses extensive leadership experience within project- and staff management. Prior... Read More →
Thursday April 24, 2025 1:00pm - 1:30pm PDT Auditorium
High-accuracy GNSS corrections are more accessible today than ever before. Accuracy levels from sub-meter to sub-foot to centimeter, with some being free as a public service. These corrections enable users to achieve down to centimeter horizontal and vertical accuracies in real-time, and be utilized on any iOS/Android/Windows mobile device.
GNSS correction providers in the Pacific Northwest include; ORGN, WSRN, Galileo HAS, Point One, Atlas, WAAS, and self-hosted RTK base stations. Understanding the capabilities of each service is important to achieve the desired level of accuracy and productivity. This presentation will begin with an overview of the GNSS landscape, then dive into the correction options available in the Pacific Northwest, summarizing the tradeoffs of each service.
GNSS/GIS Solution Engineer, Discovery Management Group
Tyler Gakstatter is a GNSS consultant and software developer based in Portland, Oregon. Having been in the industry for over 10 years, Tyler has gained extensive experience in GNSS, GPS, RTK and base station solutions. In addition, he is well-versed in the entire Esri ArcGIS suite... Read More →
Thursday April 24, 2025 1:00pm - 1:30pm PDT Atrium
The Hillsboro Public Works Department’s robust GIS program has managed publicly owned underground sanitary sewer assets for decades. While the public system is mapped accurately, the location of private lateral service pipes is often unknown beyond the point of connection with the public system. Prior to the 1990s, developers did not indicate where laterals crossed into the right-of-way en route to the public sewer system making accurate utility locating difficult or impossible. In 2021 the Public Works Department began the Lateral Accuracy Project (LAP) to address these issues. Contractual services have been enlisted to inspect and locate private laterals and install permanent curb tags. Public Works staff collect tag location data with GNSS equipment and integrate the information into GIS with the help of ArcGIS Field Maps. This multi-year project brings Hillsboro into adherence with state utility locate law, ensures laterals are not damaged during excavation or direction drilling, and increases lateral condition awareness.
The Marbled Murrelet is an endangered seabird that relies on forests for nesting. Traditionally, a species survey crew would be sent out to see if the species is present. However, that is labor and time intensive. This project explores using high resolution LiDAR data to determine the possibility of Marbled Murrelet habitat in the area. Using characteristics derived from the LiDAR data such as canopy height, density, etc. we can make calculate the probability of habitat in the area and confirm in person. LiDAR technology can be used to speed up the environmental analysis process in what is presently a costly and timely endeavor.
The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive pest first detected in the United States in 2002. Since then, the Emerald Ash Borer has spread, killing over 100 million ash trees in the eastern U.S. alone and causing over $2 billion in damages. EAB was first detected in Forest Grove, Oregon in 2022 and is has now been detected in Marion, Yamhill, and Clackamas counties.
With EAB spreading in Oregon, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) Forest Health group wanted our GIS team to build an interactive map to give members of the public a place to view and interact with Emerald Ash Borer data in Oregon. The map needed to combine data from multiple agencies, allow users to turn reference layers on and off, change basemaps, and have a quick way to display information about layers on the map, all in a publicly accessible location.
To meet these goals, we used ArcGIS Experience Builder to create an interactive web application. This application utilizes a web map with all the layers we needed as feature services, with custom pop-ups to show information that was requested and obscure fields that aren’t needed. This application also allows users to turn layers on and off, change basemaps, provides links to more information, and more. This presentation will show an “under the hood” look at the Experience and webmap, focusing on the settings and widgets we used to build the Experience and how the pop-ups were built using a combination of HTML and Arcade scripting.
Carl Swanson is a GIS Specialist with the Oregon Department of Forestry in Salem, Oregon, where he has worked since 2018. Carl developed a love for cartography through studying field geology in graduate school and has been in the GIS world ever since. In summers Carl works on ODF’s... Read More →
Thursday April 24, 2025 2:00pm - 2:10pm PDT Classroom
Arcade is a portable, lightweight, and secure expression language used to create custom content in ArcGIS applications. In particular, it can replace the standard toolbox in ArcGIS Pro to perform on-the-fly calculations and keep field values up to date dynamically as feature geometries change. This presentation includes a high-level overview of Arcade’s capabilities and syntax and several examples of how to include it in a spatial analysis workflow, based on real-world examples from my GIS work at Oregon Metro.
Cloud GIS is transforming how organizations manage geospatial data, offering scalability, accessibility, and cost efficiency. But what drives this shift, and what lessons can we learn from those who’ve made the move? This session explores the benefits of Cloud GIS—real-time data access, automated updates, and seamless integrations—while diving into key cloud migration models: hosted (ArcGIS Online), non-hosted, multi-tenant, and hybrid. We’ll compare their pros and cons, including administration, security, and performance differences. Real-world case studies from government, utilities, and private enterprises will highlight successful migrations and how organizations overcame regulatory compliance and data governance challenges. Whether starting your cloud journey or optimizing an existing deployment, this session will provide technical insights to help you make informed decisions. Don’t just adapt—lead the change.
This study explores land cover classification methods using high-resolution UAV imagery collected at Lakeside Farm, Oregon in July 2024, with a focus on mapping land cover types. The goal is to assess the effectiveness of multiple supervised classification techniques: K-Nearest Neighbor, Maximum Likelihood, Random Trees, and Support Vector Machine. Object-based and pixel-based classification methods were applied to RGB imagery collected using the Parrot ANAFI drone. The study area provided a unique array of land cover types, including varied vegetation, unvegetated areas, water, and wetlands, which help provide insight as to the advantages and disadvantages of the different classification methods when dealing with each land cover type. This research provides insights into the optimal conditions and methods for UAV data integration in agricultural land cover mapping, contributing to enhanced precision agriculture practices.
This study assessed the accuracy of spatial data collected through a simplified PPGIS tool that uses circles as the sole input method to mark points and areas on a map. A survey of 59 participants completed mapping exercises to locate buildings, parks, and geographic regions.
Results showed participants successfully marked point locations with 90% accuracy and area locations with 95% accuracy. Areas typically exceeded target size by a factor of 1.5 when boundaries were visible on the basemap. Statistical analysis revealed a significant relationship between map zoom level and data accuracy. Users entering data with phones also had higher error rates approaching statistical significance.
These findings validate the simplified PPGIS approach for collecting reliable spatial data with minimal participant training, while suggesting interface improvements like enforcing minimum zoom levels for data entry to enhance accuracy.
In this lightning talk, I will delve into the latest updates to Metro’s online mapping application, MetroMap. I am the lead cartographer for the MetroMap project and we have some new functionality that I think would be really important to share with the GIS in Action attendees. The primary focus on this lightning talk will be on the new enhancements that have been implemented to improve user experience and accessibility. Key updates include the addition of a Print tool, Spanish translations, and new map layers. I will also discuss the significant changes made to meet WCAG Accessibility requirements, ensuring that MetroMap is more inclusive for all users. Additionally, I will highlight improvements related to SEO and findability with hopes that it will make it easier for users to discover and utilize the application. My hope is that this presentation will help showcase an important tool for our region but also inspire other jurisdictions to consider sharing this application to help answer important questions from the public.
There are a number of tools built into ArcGIS Pro: geoprocessing, networking, and wide number of other analytical tools that give ArcGIS Pro the power to do so many things. Did you know that you can publish these tools to consume in a web app? GeoBlazor harnesses the power of the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JS to connect and bring the capabilities of these tools to your .NET web applications. We will discuss the capabilities and limitations of 'publishing' ArcGIS Pro tools and their usefulness in web applications. We will then demonstrate how GeoBlazor can connect to a published tool with minimal code to create a customized routing capability in a .NET web application.
Street signs are one of the core transportation assets the City of Hillsboro Public Works department keeps track of, however, due to new development, replacements, and evolving technology, it has been challenging to keep an accurate inventory. A partial street sign inventory and workflow had existed for several years, but due to staff turnover and challenges field staff had with the data collection technology available at the time, the extent of missing or incorrect asset records was uncertain. In early 2020, there was a focused effort to improve the data entry process, along with implementing more user-friendly technology. As a result, sign replacements and new installations since then have been more consistently and correctly entered. We will be sharing how we are leveraging various tools and services that we already have access to (such as Cartegraph, FieldMaps, ArcGIS Dashboards, and PowerBI) in order to complete an accurate street sign inventory, and how we will be maintaining accuracy and quality moving forward.
Recent federal actions have disrupted access to key datasets, raising concerns about the long-term availability of some essential public data sources. In response, Metro has launched an internal initiative to track changes, assess impacts, and share knowledge across departments. This lightning talk will outline our approach, which included the creation of a Public Data Watch SharePoint site and Teams channel to facilitate collaboration. We will share key takeaways, challenges, and resources, including archives and data preservation efforts. Attendees will gain practical strategies and access to a one-pager with links to helpful resources.
Since we have seen a lot of climate change around the world with snowfall being one of them it brought up the question of how snowfall has changed for the Contiguous United States. In this project I was looking at snowfall trends for the Contiguous United States over the last 10 years from 2014 to 2024. Using NOAA’s National Weather Service’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center’s National Gridded Snowfall Analysis to collect the data needed to analyze the snowfall trends for the last decade. There has been a rise in snowfall over the past decade with each year increasing in snowfall amount. Using state boundary lines showed changes in the amount of snow a state has gotten over the last decade. The results have shown that with the uptick in snowfall over the last decade, there are states that do not necessarily get snow are receiving snow like Georgia and Alabama. The effects of this uptick in snowfall can mean that states that normally do not get any snow will receive snow over the following next years. There is also the concern that there will be severe flooding depending on how fast the snow melts and the terrain of the areas that have received snow. Potentially looking at temperature patterns over the last decade will help provide an understanding of the reason for the uptick in snowfall.
The submitted StoryMap considers the construction of solar panel canopies over parking lots at Portland Community College's Sylvania campus, analyzing drone imagery to measure area which used to estimate both potential kilowatt hours of solar panel generated and also estimated construction costs.
In a world where AI has become as ubiquitous as towels are to interstellar hitchhikers, Christopher Moravec stands ready to guide you through the galaxy of possibilities and pitfalls.
"Don't Panic, It's Just AI: A Developer's Handbook" is your essential guide to navigating the often bewildering landscape of artificial intelligence. More controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy "Where AI Came From," "Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes," and "Who is this Siri Person Anyway?", this handbook is for any developer looking to harness AI without resorting to Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters to cope with the absurdity.
Through real-world examples, Christopher will show you how to use AI as a practical tool—from writing code with chatbots to generating sensible map names—while also revealing what AI excels at, where it falls short, and when to leave it out of your toolkit entirely.
Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, join us and, remember: Don't Panic, and always know where your towel is.
Christopher Moravec is the CTO and founder of dymaptic, where he leads a team of skilled professionals in creating innovative GIS and AI solutions. With years of experience in software development and a deep understanding of geospatial technologies, Christopher is known for his ability... Read More →
Thursday April 24, 2025 3:30pm - 5:30pm PDT Auditorium
