Case Studies

Open Source Geospatial Software Powering Department of Defense Installation and Environment Business Systems

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Joel Schlagel, US Army Corps of Engineers

This briefing will highlight the successful integration of open-source geospatial tools into three large-scale geographic information systems within the U.S Department of Defense:

  1. The DISDI Portal. The DISDI Portal assists the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) in meeting its goal of leveraging spatial information across the installation and environment (I&E) business mission areas to better manage global installations and bases.
  2. Army Mapper. The Army Mapper supports the the U.S. Army Installation Geospatial Information & Services (IGI&S) program office by ensuring the availability of data and services that support the overall management and resourcing of Army installations worldwide.
  3. USACE CorpsMap. CorpsMap is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) nationwide enterprise GIS implementation. CorpsMap supports a single USACE common operating picture and provides secure integration of geospatial data across business lines and secure access to this information within and beyond the Corps.

Tools such as GDAL, MapServer, OpenLayers, and MapFish have proven to be well suited to the task of supporting these large, complex, highly available systems. We will also highlight our general use of open-source software principles including code sharing and re-use, which increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Speaker Bio: 

Joel Schlagel is an environmental scientist with twenty years experience in design and deliver of geospatial information systems. He serves as the technical lead for multiple agency scale geospatial information systems including the USACE CorsMap and DISDI Portal. Mr. Schlagel is a leading proponent for the integration of open source software and open source principals in the development of standards based information systems for the US Government.

Schedule info

OpenStreetMap for Network Analyses in ArcGIS

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Eva Peters, 52North

The usage of free geodata like OpenStreetMap (OSM) is becoming more and more popular because there are many fields of application. For the first time, there is an application which converts OSM data to ArcGIS transportation networks. These transportation networks can be used in ArcGIS to perform network analyses with the extension Network Analyst. This application was developed by Eva Peters for her bachelor thesis in Cartography and Geomatics in collaboration with ESRI Deutschland GmbH.

This program “OSM2NetworkDataset” was designed to generate transportation networks for any mode of transportation and any region. The generated networks use OSM attributes such as restrictions, one-way roads, turn restrictions, point barriers, and maximum speed. The path can be chosen with user defined average speed settings based on the shortest distance or shortest time. The user can generate network datasets based on individual settings, which is a big advantage and opens many fields of application.

First, the application builds a geodatabase which contains a network dataset. Then a map document is created. This map document is ready to perform network analyses.

The application was written in Java and uses the Java library ArcObjects. It can be used on ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 10.

By using the Network Analyst of ArcGIS, a route can be calculated on the generated transportation network. Furthermore, service areas and location studies can be performed.

The created networks are comparable with other network analysis services. The data is adequate for applications like car, bicycle, and pedestrian routing. This is due to the fact that the data is collected in the perspective of motorcar drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Speaker Bio: 

July 2010: Bachelor of Science in Cartography and Geomatics (Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences)

Since Oct. 2010: Student in the Master's program in Geoinformatics (Institute of Geoinformatics, University of Muenster)
Working student at con terra GmbH

Schedule info

Mixing It Up with OpenLayers, ArcGIS Server and JavaScript Widgets

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Allan Glen, City and County of Denver
David Youngerman

The rise of RESTful services and lightweight data formats allow us to easily pair open source software with commercial closed source software. Organizations that are invested in commercial software can still obtain many of the benefits of open source software by implementing a hybrid approach.

In this talk we will discuss how the City and County of Denver is using OpenLayers, ESRI’s ArcGIS Server REST API and JavaScript widgets to deliver spatial information to our constituents.

We will discuss our reasons for choosing OpenLayers, the steps required to integrate OpenLayers with ArcGIS Server, and demonstrate how JavaScript widgets can be used to create mapping applications that can easily be embedded into websites.

Speaker Bio: 

Allan Glen manages the GIS development team at the City and County of Denver. He also happens to write some code. David Youngerman is a senior developer on the team.

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Use of Google Fusion Tables for a public floodplain interface

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Bruce Rindahl, Ventura County Watershed Protection District

In 2010, Ventura County applied for inclusion in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Community Rating System. This program allows a reduction of flood insurance premiums in return for a comprehensive ongoing effort to reduce flood risk. A part of that comprehensive program includes conveying current flood risk to the public. In order to provide a simple yet accurate interface for the public to view the latest floodplain boundaries, flood zones and flood depths in the county, a Google Maps interface was created using Fusion Tables. The details of this interface, along with the automated scripts and procedures developed to maintain the data from FEMA download, storage on PostGIS, and KML conversions for Fusion Tables is the subject of this paper. Topics will include tips, tricks, lessons learned and example code for the interface and upload procedures. Future directions will also be discussed including inter-agency cooperation and collaboration.

Speaker Bio: 

A registered professional engineer, Mr. Rindahl has more than 30 years of experience in a wide variety of water resource disciplines.  Much of his experience is in the area of water supply planning and flood warning systems.  He also has extensive experience in optimization of water resource systems, design and integration of computer models, geographical information systems and their use in water resource applications and floodplain analysis.

Schedule info

Designing a better SDI

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Sebastian Benthall, OpenGeo
Rolando Peñate

Beyond the substantial hurdles of actually developing software, a successful project requires organizing a community, aligning partners around a shared mission, and investing in user experience. Learn more about how OpenGeo, along with partners from the World Bank, the United Nations, Harvard University, and others around the globe have been building a better spatial data infrastructure on top of some of the world's best open source software.

Speaker Bio: 

Sebastian manages GeoNode--the project, the product, and the development team. GeoNode is the next generation of spatial data Infrastructure, combining GIS, cataloging, and Web 2.0 functionality in a single package. Parallel with his managerial role, he is a GeoNode committer and Project Steering Committee member.

Rolando works as OpenGeo's lead interaction, graphic, and web designer and as such is responsible for much of the interaction design and user workflows underpinning GeoNode.

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