Esri User Conference 2016 – plenary day

The main Esri User conference starts with a plenary day, where all the participants (16,000 of them) join together for a set of presentation from 8:30 to 3:30 (with some breaks, of course). Below you’ll find some notes that I took during the day:

The theme of the keynote was GIS – Enabling a Smarter World. After an inspirational video (emphasising environmental applications of GIS, including dealing with sustainability and biodiversity), Jack Dangermond, opened the conference by covering a range of applications that fall under smart GIS. Examples include environmental monitoring, energy management for renewable energy and grids. Using the management of land information and urban design (green infrastructure plans, corridors for wildlife etc.), transport –  smart routing reduce environmental impacts, and increase efficiency. Engineering and public work, utilities and telecommunication, business analytics (an area that finally is taking off), public safety and also humanitarian support. We have an increasing understanding of citizen engagement through open data, and the UN is using GIS to share open data in data management for the Sustainable Development Goals. Story telling, and story maps are becoming central to the way information is shared.
We’re living in a world that is undergoing a massive digital transformation – how do we go forward in this wired planet? GIS is a language for understanding the world. We need to address the crisis of sustainability – we need to address the problems together. GIS allow integration, visualisation – a framework to design for the future through geodesign. Turn information to action – from measuring to affecting the world. GIS itself is getting smarter – through technologies and tools, sensors, types of data. Smart GIS is a variety of things: ability to connect to real time information – IoT, remote sensing, connecting everyone – assisting communities to understand what they are doing and acting. It mean integrating spatial data and records with system of engagement. This is possible through Web GIS pattern. Earthquake alerting from USGS tell people to get ready, and also flood analytics. There is an emerging ‘Community GIS’

A leading example of this change is the City of Los Angeles GeoHub– Lilian Coral – chief data officer described how she try to ensure that the city is using data for helping the management of the city. To assist with that, they have developed geohub.lacity.org to enable community organisations to do things with city data. It is using open data and open applications to allow new applications to solve problems. From running a clean Street Index to compare the information between different areas. GeoHub helps to unlock data in the city and can provide  support a range of application. People are used for community data collection on Exide Battery Contamination that happened in LA. LA is aiming to reduce death from accidents on the road, and trying to improve performance over time. They even try to explore walking in LA and reduce car dependency. They learn that the GeoHub is foundation for smart cities and develop a range of hubs for generating and using geographic information for residents.

After the GeoHub presentation, Jack Dangermond noted that we have an ability to share geographical knowledge like never before.  The concept of ArcGIS evolved to see it as a hub between a system of records, system or analysis, and system of engagement. Growing important of web services and apps. ArcGIS tools are evolving – collector and Survey123 apps are linking to field workers and data collection. In terms of GIS technology, there is more effort on exploratory spatial data analysis tools (Insights for ArcGIS) and making it possible to analyse Big Data – for example billion transactions – using distributed computations using computer clusters. Application such as Drone2Map can speed up the process of turning drone imagery. There are more development tools for apps, with over 500,000 appearing. The open source apps allow people to developing further. Esri has run 4 MOOCs and may learning resources that are free for use by users of Esri. Esri support 11,000 university and higher education institutions around the world.  The people who are working in GIS, engaged and committed, are the people who are creating a smarter and more sustainable world.

Later in the day, some of the technologies that were discussed include the living atlas which is a whole catalogue of updated base maps, and the use of vector data allow restyling of information in many ways. A growing range of apps for the field, office and for the community support a range of activities. Information for communities include story maps, open data, photo survey, crowdsourced reporter, manager, and polling.

An example for the utilisation of the apps was provided by the talk “Civic Responsibility – Changing Our Approach” from the City of New Orleans (Lamar Gardere, Greg Hymel & James Raasch). In New Orleans they used collector to work with volunteers to coordinate and record a progression of a campaign to raise awareness to mosquito that can be vectors of disease. They also created a very fast survey methods based on images of building, using a crowdsourced image analysis that includes 6 attributes. The photos where collected throughout the city using geolocated wide angle camera. They then prepare the images and created a way of capturing information. They ask people to help in crowdsourcing. An example for geographical crowdsourcing in government, with micro tasks: https://propertysurvey.nola.gov/photosurvey/ . They have also created an application to link people relating to basins and reports from 311 calls. When someone agreed to adopt a ‘catch basin’ (a drain in the street) then they are sharing responsibility to check that it is not blocked before storms arrive and volunteer to clean the drain. They also have a story map, to let people share their pictures and images that are integrated into a story map.

Afternoon session opened with the main keynote “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf. She told the story of Alexander von Humbolt, who spend his fortune on a journey of 5 years in south America, the most famous person in his time after Napoleon. He inspired Darwin to go on the Beagle journey. Many people relate to him and his insights. Died in 1859, and after his death people celebrated him – but he is almost forgotten today. Humboldt invented the concept of Nature, noticing the connection between different aspects of the living world, and geography. He also defined global climate and vegetation zones. Pioneering mapping and visualisation – using scientific data as a basis for fantastic maps. He can also be associated with concepts of environmentalism. Her book explores him and his insights. The journey from Quito to Chimborazo was similar to a journey from the tropic to the arctic, and realised that it’s like movement between different regions of the world. He was capable of linking many things together. Humboldt also created new forms of cartography, and have an appreciation to indigenous knowledge. Humboldt ‘Cosmos’ made a physical description of the universe, linking many aspects of nature together and this was his most popular contribution. The network of GIS and the creation of a living atlases in GIS is knowledge that bring power to people and communities – we can see a link to practices in GIS to von Humboldt.

Another major announcement was the effort of “Designing and Creating a Green Infrastructure” with Arancha Muñoz Criado (City and Strategic Planner) and
Kaitlin Yarnall (National Geographic Society). A common initiative of conservation organisations to create a common set of information about green spaces and wild spaces. Esri and National Geographic are joining forces to create information system for this. The notion is to protect green infrastructure across America – a GIS for the whole country, to define the area that need protection. They will provide extensive information and will provide geodesign tools to allow many people to use the information.

Another important presentation was about “The AmzonGISnet” with Richard Resl and Domingo Ankuash in Ecuador, who use GIS in new ways. 20 years ago, Domingo started to use GIS to help the indigenous tribes that he leads to protect their lands. Many local indigenous members of the community who have GIS skills and who create a self made life plan – their own atlas representing their land and views. He noted that his community “We do not live in the forest, we are part of it”. The are not thinking themselves are poor, but need the support of other people to protect their land – having maps that are strategic and mindful. Using GIS not to navigate the forest but to protect it.

The final talk in the event was about Connecting GIS with Education, noting that  there is more work on GIS in schools across the US and the world. San Andreas High School started only 18 months ago with GIS, with only one teacher getting into GIS, but alrady achieving results through collaboration with GIS Mentors. An area with 98% students who receive free lunches. The GIS is a force for good. They created a story map about teens and drinking & Alcohol abuse, showing analysis and considerations within the process. Students also created data collection for surveying the state of sidewalks using Survey123.