December 2024

The December 2024 meeting featured a tour of the new GIS Innovations Lab at Dallas College and presentations on the following topics.

Welcome & Spatial Data Cooperative Program Update – Shelley Broyles, NCTCOG

Network Management with ArcGIS and Trace Outage and Insights Demo – Jay Hoffman, ESRI
A description of Esri’s strategy around supporting its utility and/or public works customers’ network management needs related to all things water.

Up to Speed on LCRR/LCRI Inventory? What We Know and How Fast We are Moving – Patrick Forrest, City of Irving
Preparing for LCRR/LCRI compliance in Irving led to the creation of a customized Lead and Copper Dashboard using available ESRI solutions to assess and document service line content. After evaluating all services, public and private, the data can be easily published for access and review by anyone seeking service line content information.

AGOL StoryMaps for Board of Director Meetings – Monique Nava, Trinity River Authority 
Every two months Trinity River Authority holds its committee and board of directors meetings. The paper packets they receive are often hundreds of pages long. The GIS team has created a StoryMap for the committees and directors to review the packets on their mobile devices, which helps them to navigate quickly though the packet and know where each project is taking place. 

Making Your Asset Management Data Work for You – Olesya Powers, City of Rockwall
You’ve gotten away from pencil and paper. You’ve even gotten away from the first asset management software package you ever tried. Your asset management system is now a well-oiled machine. It works hard for your organization every day, collecting data with every button click. But what is that data doing? From automating GIS updates to keeping the public informed of the latest health information, the City of Rockwall has put that data to work. Take a peek at the magic behind the apps and learn how to make your data work for your organization.

Photon Counting Lidar: What Is It and How Does It Compare to Linear Lidar?  – Matt Hiland, Sanborn
Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) has become a ubiquitous tool in the geospatial data toolbox. Photon Counting Lidar (PCL) is a new version of the technology that allows collection of denser data at higher altitudes and faster speeds, providing significant cost savings over traditional linear Lidar. This presentation explained some of the differences between the two and when you might want to use one rather than the other.

When Water Doesn’t Flow Downhill: Integration of Urban Stormwater Networks with Elevation Derived Hydrography – Jason Nyberg, NV5
This presentation outlined potential approaches to integrating subsurface networks with surface flow to create accurate and comprehensive representation of hydrography. The focus was on complexities, considerations, and potential solutions for integration. Specific topics included subsurface network data quality, many-to-many relationships between inlets and outlets, implications for catchment delineation, and appropriate applications and limitations of integrated hydrography, with the goal of providing agencies and communities information relevant to planning their hydrography mapping programs in preparation for broad-scale updates.

Leveraging Mapillary’s Object Detection Capability to Update Key Datasets – Alex Young and Dhaval Jariwala, NCTCOG
Mapillary is an open platform that allows users to upload and share their own geolocated street level imagery captured by a wide array of compatible of cameras and sensors. The platform includes feature recognition algorithms that extract and locate useful features and points of interest from this imagery, including signs, traffic signals, fire hydrants, lane markings, street lights, and similar infrastructure. Government organizations have uploaded their own street-level imagery to Mapillary and used the resulting extracted features to update and verify asset inventories. NCTCOG is exploring the possibility of using this data to update traffic control device inventories and other key datasets. Mapillary’s API opens up possibilities for automation of these tasks, though in most cases some QA/QC is still required. We’re curious to learn if other entities around the region have explored this platform or similar technologies to update their asset inventories.

Field Applications to Help Other Divisions Stay Within Compliance and Reporting – Suzanne Whitcomb, Town of Little Elm
This session explored ESRI Field Applications, including Survey123 Connect, and their role in supporting ADA compliance. It also covered manhole inspections and parks maintenance, with a focus on how GIS field applications can help various divisions maintain compliance and enhance their reporting processes.