Arcnews Summer 2014 Newsletter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ArcNews Esri | Summer 2014 | Vol. 36, No. 2 White House Climate Data Initiative Advances on Many Fronts Coastal flooding. Sea level rise. Drought. The Obama administration says The ArcGIS Platform in 2014 it wants to help communities better prepare for climate change effects like People today expect to access the information they need, collaborate with others, and produce these by using scientific data, technology, and technical know-how from the results at any time, on any device, from wherever they are. The line between the work people do public and private sectors. inside and outside their offices is blurring; analysis and decision making are taking place whenever Esri is joining Microsoft and several other tech companies to provide tech- and wherever they need to occur. In anticipation of these growing trends, Esri has evolved ArcGIS nology and expertise for the White House’s Climate Data Initiative. into a location platform that gives people in any organization the ability to discover, use, make, and “The notion is to create and share knowledge to make communities more share maps from any device, anywhere, at any time. resilient,” said Esri president Jack Dangermond. continued on page 4 ArcGIS Already Supports GeoPackage Esri Leads in Supporting OGC Standards “Esri continues to add support for many open and interoperable data sources,” says Keith Ryden, Esri software development team member, who led Esri’s work on GeoPackage and worked on the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), standard. “Adding GeoPackage support was a natural progres- sion to our previous support of OGC WMS, WMTS, WFS, WCS, and OGC KML. We are committed to making our users successful, and we had users interested in Esri’s early support of GeoPackage, so we ended up supporting even the draft specification prior to its becoming an OGC standard,” continues Ryden. “We will be interested to see how popular the use of GeoPackage becomes.” continued on page 3 Above: Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS makes it easy to configure responsive apps without writing any code. Left: Collector for ArcGIS lets you interact with your Esri to Offer Spatial organization’s maps and data no matter where you are. Analysis MOOC A Platform for Understanding Your World ArcGIS is more than technology for GIS experts. It is a location platform for empowering the entire Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been an educational phenomenon in recent years. enterprise—from line-of-business managers to the mobile work force to top-level executives—with One thing that’s remarkable about MOOCs is that they enable millions of people to explore new timely, accurate information and a means of collaboration. ArcGIS channels location data stored in interests and strengthen skills without enrolling in formal degree or certificate programs. Now, multiple systems across the organization into one system for mapping and spatial analysis. to contribute to the growing body of MOOCs focused on geospatial technologies and methods, This means that people working outside the GIS department can use ArcGIS to pull together Esri is delighted to announce its first MOOC—Going Places with Spatial Analysis. information from many authoritative sources to gain new insights. They can use maps and spa- Spatial analysis is what makes GIS most valuable to decision makers. Spatial analysis is tial analysis to illustrate how circumstances have changed over time and spot important trends the set of skills and techniques that professionals use to make sense of all kinds of data that that impact their business, customers, and assets. Today, ArcGIS is used by organizations in every continued on page 3 can be displayed on maps—from business data to health data to environmental data to data that analysts use to respond to emergencies. Students in the free Going Places MOOC will get access to the full analytical capabilities of ArcGIS Online, Esri’s cloud-based GIS platform. Weekly lessons will familiarize students with spatial analysis following five broad topics: un- Web GIS derstanding and comparing places, determining how places are related, finding the best loca- Desktop Web Device tions and paths, detecting and quantifying patterns, and making predictions. continued on page 4 Apps Portal Manage Geographic Knowledge Control Access Web Services Data GIS Servers Ready-to-Use Authoring tools Case studies help students learn spatial analysis in ArcGIS Online. Content Web GIS, a key aspect of the ArcGIS platform, includes apps, a portal, web services, and data. Taking London by 3D By Rae DeVito Highlights The London 3D city model lends itself neatly to geodesign. CityEngine turns London data into smart 3D city models. Feature attributes in building models enhance a large variety of projects. Cumbria, England, a rural northwestern county, is home to Garsdale Design, Ltd., an architec- tural, planning, and urban design firm housed in a converted countryside barn. Garsdale Design’s address may be remote, but the business boasts a global reach, with projects spanning from its backyard to locales as exotic as the Middle East. With substantial experience in 3D visualiza- tion and a variety of other GIS mapping services over the years, Garsdale Design continues to look for cutting-edge technologies to set its services apart. A smart 3D city model, featuring augmented data and more accurate buildings, London flood mapping analysis and visualization in CityEngine. Featured in This Issue proved to be the answer. The company targeted integration into CityEngine. Once there, it can London, England—an internationally promi- be modified as needed and exported as web nent metropolis steeped in history, commerce, scenes for viewing on a modern web browser 7 “The Relevance of 8 “Train the Trainer” and finance—for the project. An iconic city rich without requiring an additional plug-in. In ad- Cartography” by John Schaeffer in old-world style coupled with architecturally dition, the model works seamlessly, not only in progressive modern design made it the perfect CityEngine but also in ArcGIS and most other by Georg Gartner— and Karen Beardsley showcase for precision geometry and adaptive commercial formats and platforms. A New Regular Column modeling. Garsdale Design opted to offer its As Garsdale Design worked with its new 25 Measuring Risk London clients an advanced, enterprise-level, partner to build the London model, concentrat- 3D turnkey solution. ing on the London City Centre, the company and Resilience Geodesign veteran Elliot Hartley, a Garsdale faced a key challenge: could the complete mod- Design director, focuses on the use of 3D urban el of this dense, highly detailed area be surfaced modeling technologies. When researching the in one CityEngine visualization scene? The an- Regular Columns and Departments London project, Hartley explored ways to speed swer? A resounding yes. the workflow while improving the quality of 3D Soon Esri (UK) Ltd. joined the project. Sales buildings and the information they contained. in the insurance and facilities management are- 5 More Top News 33 URISA Announces He also wanted the flexibility to bring 2D and nas immediately resulted from that strategic 3D data into the model. partnership. 6 GIS Hero—Sterling Harris 33 New Training and Hartley ultimately turned to Esri Silver The London 3D city model lends itself to a Certification Offerings Tier Partner CyberCity 3D, Inc., of El Segundo, variety of applications, especially in the arena 10 Start-up Apps California, a leading geospatial modeling com- of geodesign. Innovative solutions sit at Esri us- from Esri pany specializing in precise 3D city models (up ers’ fingertips, and the data the model provides to six inches accurate) that include an array of at- enhances projects involving urban planning, 11 GIS Product News 34 “Geo Learning” tributes, such as roof, facade, entity, and solar roof visualization, solar evaluations, urban analysis, measurements. The company’s patented model- line-of-sight, shadow analysis/right-to-light, 11 ArcGIS Online: by Daniel C. Edelson ing technology utilizes stereo imagery to extract floor modeling, and real estate analytics. This What’s New? point clouds, providing the source data to produce extensive GIS information availability leads 35 “Managing GIS” models. These models can be converted into Esri to faster workflows, better communication of from URISA CityEngine models, streamlining the workflow. complex proposals, and ease of data distribu- 14 GIS in Action [CityEngine is the stand-alone software product that tion via web services. 36 Esri Partner Solutions transforms 2D GIS data into smart 3D city models.] The build-out of the London model contin- 30 Community News This sealed the deal, as Hartley works extensively ues—extending out from the City Centre—with with and offers training in Esri products. Garsdale Design now partnering with CyberCity 32 “Crossing Borders” 37 Esri T-shirts Worldwide “These technologies are transformational,” says 3D to market it through future cloud services. by Doug Richardson Hartley. “They’ve enabled us to make dramatic To date, the model encompasses more than 38 Career Opportunities time savings while allowing us to communicate 13.7 square kilometers and 5,700 structures. As stories and information by combining 2D and 3D the model grows, the interest does too. 32 Interesting ArcGIS Services data from a variety of sources. For our business, “London’s City Centre and the city in general it’s raised our ambitions, so we are inspired to re- are undoubtedly one of the most popular areas evaluate processes we took for granted.” in the world, making it a perfect place to cre- ArcNews Subscription Additions or Deletions and Changes of Address Before moving forward, a challenge confront- ate a 3D model,” says CyberCity’s CEO, Kevin Editor in Chief To subscribe to Esri publications, visit esri.com/subscribe. To unsubscribe from Esri publications, visit esri.com/unsubscribe. Requests for back issues, missed issues, ed the project: securing the aerial imagery nec- DeVito.