GIS in Action 2025

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.