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Esri UC 2012 – My Random Thoughts…

After a geo-action packed week at the 2012 Esri UC here my top 10 observations that I had written down in my notebook:

  1. The spatial stats sessions were great, but for many of the sessions you needed an understanding of basic prob and stats.  Even with a basic understanding of stats all of the OLS, GWR, R Squared, and dependent variable talk may have been a little confusing for the beginner (which is totally understandable).  However, if you were a stats nut, then these sessions were right on the money.
  2. Roger Tomlinson’s speech at the Special Achievement in GIS awards ceremony was awesome.  His one liners were snappy and his overall message was appreciated by the audience.
  3. I always like meeting up with my old UConn grad school classmates and I was able to do that a lot at this year’s UC.  It is great to talk with them about what they are doing now and where they want to go.  At some point we should organize a party…
  4. I focused on spatial analysis sessions this year’s UC and all the raster analysis sessions I attended were great, and I am looking forward to a number of upgrades in 10.1.  I like presentations that progress from a question to a solution and the raster analysis presentations I saw definitely did this.
  5. You can’t beat the weather in San Diego.
  6. Seeing the improvements to the arcpy cursors in 10.1 made me happy.  Huge improvement in performance, so much so I’ll start using them!  Now I have to wait for SP1 when 64bit geoprocessing FINALLY becomes available before I actually upgrade.
  7. It seemed to me that the only vendors on the floor of the exhibition hall were those promoting/selling the cloud or mobile products.  There were a few data vendors out there, but I think they were all pushing cloud services and mobile products as well.
  8. I always like the graphics on the giant screen during the Esri UC plenary.  It must be someone’s full time job to create those “slides”.  I wish my powerpoint slides looked that good.
  9. The “Evening in Balboa Park” was a lot of fun, especially if you got there early and got to the sushi lines quickly. However, if you did have to wait in line for sushi at the Casa De Balboa the unique musician rocking out on the electric cello provided some quality entertainment!   Also, Metalachi rocked the house.
  10. My eight year old stopwatch died in San Diego.  This probably explains my horrible, down right embarrassing time in Esri 5k.  It’s obviously all my watch’s fault.
Roger and Jack
Roger Tomlinson and Jack Dangermond during the SAG ceremony. I bet Roger was thinking about the ways he was going to zing Jack during his speech!

Bonus Thoughts – you don’t have to use your ArcGIS Online credits to read these…

  • One of the biggest criticism of ArcGIS 10, and rightfully so, was in regards to the quality of the software.  If Jack, or any other members of Esri, had talked about efforts to improve the quality of Esri products during the morning plenary I believe you would have seen the hall erupt in applause, because frankly, that’s all we really care about. Reliable, quality software.
  • During the plenary Esri announced full 64 bit desktop in a service pack sometime in 2013. Finally…
  • I know GIS is firmly entrenched in the military and security sectors, but some of the demos I saw regarding drone data collection and creating spatial data from drone cameras was a little too “Big Brother” for my liking.
  • I wish the Padres were in town during the week of the conference.
  • Esri Maps for Microsoft Office could be a big hit, but it requires an AGO account and doesn’t come cheap.  I can see this as pretty powerful tool for organizations, but managing all those accounts, especially if you can’t tie them into your organization’s account system, might make it a little cumbersome to manage.  I need to learn more about EMMO.

Overall, I thought it was a good conference.  I did a lot of networking and learned a lot.  Like any conference, it is about what you make it.  I had a specific agenda that I stuck to and it turned out pretty good.

Were you there?  What did you think of the conference?  Would you recommend it to your cowokers or others in the geo-professions? Leave a comment!

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Using a Where Statement in a SQL Spatial Join

I had a question the other day about how to incorporate a where statement into a spatial join (STIntersects).  Unfortunately, the examples I had previously posted didn’t cover that topic.  Well, here is an example of querying two tables, using the geometry data type in each, along with a where statement, to find all results that meet the defined spatial conditions:

select PP.*, SP.*
from Populated_Places PP
inner join States_Provinces SP with(Index(geom_sidx))
on PP.geom.STIntersects(SP.geom) = 1
where SP.NAME_0 = 'United States of America' 
and SP.NAME_1 = 'Massachusetts'

Let’s breakdown this query:

  • The query starts by calling all the columns from two different tables, a table with point data called Populated_Places, and a table containing polygon data called State_Provinces.
  • The query then performs an inner join between the two tables, In the inner join I specifically call the spatial index from the States_Provinces table.  I call this index because I want to use it, and because query optimizer may skip it, as it does with many spatial indexes.
  • In the ON statement I set up the STIntersects statement between the point table and the polygon table, only returning the records that intersect.  This is done by setting the Boolean requirement at the end of the STIntersects statement to 1.  I also make sure to set the correct column in each table that contains the spatial  datatype, which in this case is called geom for both tables.
  • Now, here comes the where statement,which is about as vanilla as vanilla can be.  In the where statement I simply limit the polygons that are eligible for the query based on some defined values.

This type of query will also work with line or polygon features, as demonstrated in the following picture.  In this example I query all the roads that intersect a polygon defined in the where statement.  You will notice that I have the spatial results tab open to display the intersecting line features.

This is a pretty simple example, but if you have never worked in this medium it can be a little confusing at first.  Have any more spatial sql questions?  Let me know.  I need to keep sharp.

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You Stay Classy, San Diego

I just wrapped up a geo-packed week at the Esri UC and I’m about head back east.  Once I get settled back into my routine I’ll post my thoughts on the conference (Metalachi was awesome) and discuss some of the major themes and trends that were the buzz this past week (mobile, cloud, more mobile, more cloud). In the mean time check out my twitter, @GISDoctor, for what I was thinking during the conference.

Until then, more Metalachi!

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Sunday Geo-Notes

It’s summertime and I’m not blogging or twittering as much.  Typical.  But, it’s Sunday morning and before I head out to the garden I wanted to share these few items:

  • I’m doing a lot of geo-analysis using MSSQL Server lately and as I tweeted, the spatial index can be the key to a fast query.  However, the spatial index is sometimes tricky to understand.  Check out the “The Black Art Of Spatial Index Tuning In SQL Server” for a good overview of SQL’s spatial indexing.  For other spatial SQL inspiration check out Bob Beauchemin’s blog.
  • Speaking of analysis, the folks at Somerville’e ResiStat, who I am a fan of, did a nice geo-analysis, actually using some real statistics, not just what they saw from Google Earth, to debunk  a “study” of equating tree coverage to income in Somerville, MA.
  • There is an Avid Geo meet-up this coming Thursday (7/19).  If you are a Boston based geo-pro or geo-nerd you should check out the group!
  • The biggest geo-news of the week, GeoIQ being bought by Esri, gota lot of people talking.  Some positive, some not-so-positive.  I just hope the talented folks at GeoIQ are given room to do their own thing and bring positive innovations to Esri’s product line.  Sometimes when the little guy is bought out by the big guy their ideas and creativity may languish in the corporate culture.  I hope this doesn’t happen to them.
  • The Esri UC festivities start at the end of this coming week with the ed and business summit kicking things off.  I’ll be heading out with a few of my coworkers and meeting up with some old grad school friends for the full UC.  Like last year, I’ll be focusing on the analysis presentation tracks.  I hope to see something about speeding up large geo-analyses.  I’ll touch on improving performance in my talk, but I want to see what others are doing, as everyone now-a-days is using huge datasets (whatever happened to the sample?).

Until next time, check out my twitter feed @GISDoctor.  I almost have a 100 followers!!!!!!!!!  Only 11M+ more followers until I catch Ashton Kutcher…

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The First Law of Geography – Today’s Geo Inspiration

Ever now and then I look for inspiration when designing a model or writing some code to solve a geo-problem.  Recently, while searching for some geo-inspiration I came across one of my favorite papers.  If you have ever taken any type of  GIS or spatial analysis course you have probably heard some variation of the following phrase, commonly referred to as the First Law of Geography:

“Everything is related to everything else,
but near things are more related than distant things”

This idea, my friends, is what defines the field of geo-analysis.  From interpolation to distance decay, and spatial autocorrelation to gravity models, the idea that locations that are closer together are more related than those that are far apart provides the base for the field of geographic analysis.  Like any great quote, many may know it but few know it’s origins.  So, where did this phrase come from?  Here it is…

A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region
W. R. Tobler
Economic Geography
Vol. 46, Supplement: Proceedings. International Geographical Union. Commission on Quantitative Methods (Jun., 1970), pp. 234-240

Waldo Tobler is very well known geographer (he has his own Wikipedia page!) and if you have ever taken a geography or GIS course at some point the professor probably referred to his work, either directly or indirectly.  A copy of the paper is available here and a reply to the First Law of Geography can be found here.  If you are in the learning mood both are quick reads.

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Esri Dev-Meet Up Boston – This Thursday

Esri’s Dev Meet Up tour rolls into Boston this Thursday at the Bell In Hand Tavern, which is easily accessible through either Haymarket, Government Center, or State Street T stops.  If you are driving in I couldn’t tell you a good place to park since I don’t drive anywhere in this town.

The event’s page is still accepting RSVPs.  If you are available come check it out.  I know there are a lot of GIS professionals and GIS enthusiasts in this town.  We should take advantage of Esri kindly providing free food and drinks!  As usual, there look to be a few good talks listed, and maybe someone’s talk will inspire you or bring you to a GIS “ah-ha” moment.

Event Details: http://www.meetup.com/DevMeetUpNortheast/events/66079722/

Esri Dev Meet Up Page: http://www.esri.com/events/dev-meetup/index.html

See you there.

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Does anyone write code for custom map mash-ups anymore?

Hey geo-folks, I will be updating my mash-up pages this weekend to make sure they all work, but I don’t plan on adding any new ones or updating features unless I am really inspired. One of the problems of using data from a variety of sources and different APIs is that sometimes stuff changes, whether the API is updated or data sources become invalid.  This means that the author of the mash-up needs to keep an eye on their pages to make sure they are up-to-date, which I haven’t been doing lately.

I think the era custom mash-ups is over and has been for a while and I am sure others will agree.  There are so many great options for users of any skill level to create and post maps online that writing custom code for a simple online map is old news.  And that is the way it should be.  I am a big believe that the more people who can create maps and share geo-data and geo-ideas, the better off we will all be!

But…there will always be the need (and market) to create a customized online maps for specific and advanced needs, so don’t go and forget all that JavaScripting you know and love!

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How to Troubleshoot a Slow ArcMap (Story of my Life)

Esri’s Support Services blog posted a good piece today on how to troubleshoot slow performance in ArcGIS Desktop.  As someone who has spent their fair share of time troubleshooting ArcMap performance I will say that there are a few good tips in the article.  The author does make a good point at the end about understanding the realistic expectations of the software, unfortunately, most of us (including myself) tend to disregard realistic expectations and create our own on the fly 🙂

Overall, a good read and worth checking out.

I reject your reality and substitute my own…

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Esri Dev Meet Up, Boston – June 28th!

The folks from Esri will be back in town on June 28th, hosting another Dev Meet-Up at the Bell in Hand Tavern, literally steps away from the Haymarket T stop (a.k.a., easy to get to).

The Dev Meet-Ups provide a great opportunity to meet other GIS professionals and to catch some interesting talks about GIS development projects happening in our neck of the woods.   Another great aspect of these meet-ups is that Esri usually picks up the tab!

Dr. Raj Singh from the OGC will be keynote speaker at the event and they are currently looking for lighting talk presenters.

So, Boston area GIS pros, come on out for a night of GIS fun.  Meet others in the field and listen to some interesting projects.