Fall NEARC 2024

Communities worldwide face increasing challenges from climate-induced inland flood events, necessitating effective flood mitigation strategies. Florida’s Comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan to characterize community asset vulnerability to climate impacted flood hazard is being used to assess the impacts of flooding from current and future precipitation on critical infrastructure in the communities to support development of adaptation strategies.

This study employs hydrological and hydraulic (H&H) geospatial analysis to evaluate the future flood events impact from climate change on critical assets and infrastructure. H&H modeling software Hydrologic Engineering Centers – River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) was used to simulate flood depths for various climate impacted events. Then, ESRI Model Builder was leveraged to analyze and identify vulnerable areas and assets prone to flooding within the community.

The comprehensive analysis provides actionable insights for strategic stormwater management projects aimed at mitigating flood risks. Results identify specific locations and infrastructure most susceptible to flooding, guiding the placement of infrastructure improvements and adaptation measures. To facilitate planning efforts, a user-friendly web application has been developed for planners and engineers to interactively access and utilize the analysis results.

This integrative approach not only improves flood resilience planning but also supports informed decision-making processes for sustainable community development in the face of increasing climate challenges.

Topobathymetric LiDAR has long been a technology available exclusively on fixed wing manned aircraft making it costly and inefficient for smaller targeted surveys. Recent innovations have allowed for the development of more compact systems, allowing organizations to utilize unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to provide more timely, efficient, and affordable topobathymetric LiDAR. On a UAS platform, a topobathymetric survey can produce 200 points of elevation per square meter, capturing microtopography, scours, sediment impoundment and other geomorphologic characteristics. Whiteout Solutions is one of the first commercial vendors leveraging these technological advancements working with engineering firms, scientists, governments, and conservation groups to map ecosystems experiencing the first order impacts of climate change.

The rural community of Lyndon, Vermont has been subject to substantial flooding in recent decades. In 2023, the Town of Lyndon contracted SLR Consulting to conduct a flood study and to identify flood mitigation strategies. Utilizing its topobathy capabilities Whiteout Solutions surveyed roughly six miles of the Passumpsic river and adjacent floodplain. SLR leveraged the topobathymetry data to develop high-resolution 2D hydraulic modeling, allowing them to test and validate the effectiveness of various flood mitigation strategies. The results of this work provided the community with a series of options for how to improve the flood capacity and reduce flood impacts on the community. The high-resolution data not only is providing the engineering firm with more confidence in their models but also results in Lyndonville becoming more resilient to the expected future increases in flood magnitude and frequency.

With technologic advancements in LiDAR and new programs like USGS’s 3DHP, floodplain maps across the nation will benefit from higher accuracy models, better designs and safer communities.

Flooding is a growing concern in the United States and occurs across the country resulting in significant damage to property and infrastructure. Sanborn has been working with Huitt-Zollars and CDM Smith to develop a tool for the City of Oklahoma City to identify a flooding risk score for infrastructure within the city. This was accomplished by aggregating a wide range of information (FEMA and USGS floodplain data, digital elevation models, buildings, roads, and critical infrastructure) to create a score for each drainage basin, intended to identify the risk of flooding to infrastructure during a weather event. The process for building the risk scores was developed using Esri’s ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension. Sanborn configured an ArcGIS Experience Builder application to display the score within each major basin within the city.

Arcade is a versatile expression language tailored for enhancing ArcGIS maps and applications, enabling dynamic and interactive analysis within the Map Viewer. This empowers users with meaningful data driven insights quickly and effectively. Unlike conventional desktop analysis workflows, Arcade expressions provide exceptional flexibility and efficiency in situations where project limits are frequently changing, thereby enabling more responsive and insightful analysis. This presentation explores the use of arcade expressions within a web map and dashboard for conducting desktop environmental reviews to identify extents of environmental impacts along utility project routes. By configuring a custom popup with expressions that reference MassGIS hosted datasets, the project team can efficiently review summary statistics, resource area intersections, and utility routing options to make informed decisions about permitting and construction needs. This presentation details the methodology, challenges, and outcomes of integrating Arcade expressions in utility routing analysis, highlighting their role in optimizing the process for constantly evolving project areas.

ArcGIS Dashboards allow GIS users to create webpages which enable audiences with a range of GIS experience to explore maps and data in an interactive, engaging way. While producing a basic dashboard is not very difficult, the process of arriving at the correct balance of form and function to craft a truly useful dashboard can be challenging and often requires a great deal of experimentation. Determining the “best” use of ArcGIS Dashboards for a specific purpose involves a combination of personal and organizational sensibilities with an awareness of the possibilities presented by the technology. During this session, I will (hopefully) make this process easier for attendees by detailing some of the tips and tricks I have discovered while working on numerous dashboard projects, as well as, unveiling a newly-developed online resource to help GIS more easily start using these approaches in their own work.

The team at the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) has decades of experience making maps and geospatial data available to the public in simple and accessible ways. As technology has evolved and advanced, the tools for sharing maps on the internet have also changed. From the early days of web mapping using ArcIMS, Esri Flex Viewer and more recently the Web AppBuilder and others, the CLEAR team has kept up with the changing ways in which maps are delivered to diverse audiences. This presentation will cover how we are working to manage the changing trends as we migrate dozens of viewers and websites to Esri’s latest platform – Experience Builder. We’ll talk about what has worked well for us so far (and what hasn’t) and share ideas about how to make the migration easier for those thinking of taking the leap to the next generation of web mapping.

The presentation will focus on the collaboration between Fugro, a global geospatial company, and Pepperdine University, a private university in Southern California, to create a digital twin of the university’s campus. The presentation will cover the data collection and processing methods used to create the digital twin, including aerial lidar, photogrammetry, and GIS analysis.

The benefits of having a digital twin of the campus will be highlighted, including improved asset management, enhanced safety and security planning, and the ability to simulate and optimize campus operations. Additionally, the presentation will showcase potential applications of the digital twin, such as virtual campus tours, disaster response planning, and energy efficiency analysis.

Overall, the presentation will demonstrate how collaboration between industry and academia can lead to innovative solutions for complex challenges, and how digital twins can improve the management and operation of physical assets and systems.

Last year the state of Connecticut acquired a suite of statewide geographic datasets including 3 inch, tide coordinated aerial imagery, high-density Lidar (minimum of 15 points per square meter), bare earth elevation (2 ft DEM), 1 ft contours, building footprints, and 3D buildings. The data processing is nearing completion and the CT State GIS Office and its partners are implementing plans to make it available and accessible to all interested users. The presentation will focus on the technical aspects of making data available including services, viewers, and download, as well as the outreach aspects including presentations, webinars, help materials, and the ability for any user to have their questions answered.

This project examines street trees planted in 2012 - after the Longhorned Beetle outbreak that prompted the removal of 35,000 trees - that were surveyed in the summer of 2023. Using thermal and multispectral UAV imagery, we examine how UAVs can be used to assess temperature impacts and tree health.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by more than 50% over pre-industrial levels, which has important implications for global biodiversity. Mangrove forests naturally sequester two to four times greater carbon than mature tropical forests and contains the highest carbon density of all terrestrial ecosystems. Geospatial technologies are playing an increasingly important role in mapping the structure and biophysical properties of mangroves, including biomass and carbon stocks, while increasing the range of analysis, lowering expenses, and increasing efficiency compared to typical field surveys. The objectives of this study were to estimate above and belowground carbon stock of mangrove forests utilizing geospatial technologies and publicly available data. High-resolution multispectral and LiDAR data was used for geographic object-based image analysis of mangrove forests to derive mangrove forest stands. We estimated the total mangrove carbon stock for our study area of 225 ha within the Everglades National Park to be 277.45 Mg/ha.

The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) has completed 132 fish passage restoration projects and reconnected 128 stream miles in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness. However, inaccuracies in publicly accessible data resources, such as the USGS National Hydrology Dataset (NHD), prompted the need for a more precise stream delineation model.

In 2020, AMC launched a pilot project using GPS stream field data as a benchmark, referred to as the “GPS Streams,” to develop a model using ArcMap's Spatial Analysis package. This initial model was later refined in ArcGIS Pro using the ArcHydro package, which is specialized for hydrologic analysis within the ESRI suite. The model adheres to ESRI’s ArcHydro: Overview of Terrain Preprocessing Workflows.
The model was tested with one-, three-, and five-meter DEMs. The five-meter DEM provided the most accurate results compared to the GPS streams, as one- and three-meter DEMs overestimated stream lengths and density. Various Stream Definition thresholds were tested, and a threshold of 5000 cells was found to be most similar to the GPS streams.

To assess the model, the lengths of modeled streams were compared to GPS stream lengths using ESRI’s base tools. Errors between the modeled and GPS streams were calculated to determine under- or over-estimation. The model tended to over- or under-estimate stream lengths by at least 10%, likely due to the lack of topographic variability and interference from wetlands and forest types in the MWI area.

The integration of ArcGIS Hydro tools significantly enhanced the accuracy of stream and wetland delineation, supporting the AMC’s mission to protect aquatic ecosystems and aiding resource management agencies in making informed decisions. This initiative underscores the critical role of precise geospatial data in environmental conservation and habitat restoration.

This presentation will focus on GIS project setup and using mind maps as a tool to visualize the flow of data through systems, team structures, and role responsibilities to develop a better mutual understanding of project scope.