NEARC Fall 2016

AUTHORS: Jamie Gaynor, Terracon (Moderator); Jason Wise, Terracon; Jon Budreski, AirShark; Chris Poreda, Poreda Aviation Law; Tayler Engel, UVM Spatial Analysis Laboratory

ABSTRACT: Rapid advancements in drone technology enable us to collect accurate and timely data for nearly limitless commercial applications in the engineering and consulting industry. New rules, which took effect in late August, provide the necessary framework to safely integrate this technology into the national airspace. Until now commercial use has been authorized on a case-by-case basis under a Section 333 Exemption. This program will examine the regulatory requirements of Part 107 and Section 333, and discuss innovative applications of UAS technology in the geospatial industry.

AUTHORS: Shane Bradt, UNH Cooperative Extension; Paula Lazrus, St. John's University; Richard Quodomine, NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities

ABSTRACT: Whatever your field, Story Maps can be a powerful way to connect with your audience. A Story Map is a multimedia format that allows for the integration of interactive webmaps, images, weblinks, and video into a single visual presentation. The use of Esri Story Maps is expanding across sectors and disciplines. People have been creating these maps for a wide range of purposes, including: analysis, introducing your employees to colleagues, the public or your customers, outreach and advocacy, highlighting environmental issues, explaining the results of research, and generally sharing maps and the results of geospatial projects. In this panel we will explore the range of applications for Story Maps in different disciplines. Our panel members, hailing from state government, traditional academia, and an outreach organization, have all used Story Maps or helped others to do so. In addition to highlighting how these maps are used by different constituencies, we will also consider how different Story Map formats might best suit specific needs. We will share some of our best practices, as well as, highlight some common pitfalls. We also hope to bring different views into the conversation by learning about the Story Map work of audience members.

AUTHORS: Scott E. Roberts, CGCIO, GISP, MPA, Town of South Windsor, Coventry and Tolland CT; Heidi S. Blank, GISP,Hilltop Northeast Enterprises, LLC; Dan Goodrich, The Connecticut Water Company

ABSTRACT: Have you ever tried to get a Public Works Director or Utility Superintendent to discuss your geodatabase utility template? First of all, you would be lucky if that request did not scare them off completely. Secondly, they are hoping GIS is going to streamline their operations and not require additional meeting time. Sitting in a meeting filled with technology jargon involving field names, relationships and whether a value needs to be an integer, text or blob value is far from anything they would agree to. So, how do you get your utilities into the Esri utility templates? Please join us, in an open presentation format, as we discuss our experiences with and share our tips on making these templates work for DPW and Utilities alike. We hope this forum will foster questions, create dialog and initiate ways to raise local adoption of these valuable utility templates.