Geography 292: Geospatial Analysis with Web GIS

Ben Buroker

Spring 2023

Geograph 192

 

Week 4: Chapters 3 and 4

 

Chapter 3:

The “Experience Builder” function of arc online is one of the things that blows my mind about the webpage. The things that ArcOnline can do are really incredible and useful. I think the web experiences capability is super cool and will be fun to play around with when designing web apps and maps.

Exercise 3.1:

I always get scared having to add data in any GIS setting because it has gone wrong in the past… But I successfully added the 2d sample map so that was good. I had a hard time adding the “Views Navigation Widget” because it didn’t automatically link to my map and there are no options in the right hand tab under “Link to:”.

 

Exercise 3.2:

Screenshot from the preview tab only showing the hurricanes and earthquakes selected on the 2D Map on the 3D Map.

 

Exercise 3.3: 

When I click on the “Dynamic Content” button on the toolbar nothing comes up. This is on page 91 of the book. I can’t complete any of the next steps because I don’t see a “statistics”, “data”, or “operator” button.

 

Exercise 3.4:

This is my map after adding the earthquake table in 3.4. Also this link is a draft view but should still work! (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/85e2290efe0a405da0f13fcabb6ec603/?draft=true)

 

Exercise 3.5:

My map after 5.3 showing the chart function and only the selected earthquakes from the year selected on the donut chart. Creating this went smoothly and I apprecaite the depth of information you can provide with charts like this one. 

 

Exercise 3.6: 

I had a hard time with embedding the image on the new page I created because the Url in the book didn’t have an https and the text box/arconline only supported https. I just added “https://” to the front of the URL and it embedded an image. I don’t know if it’s what it’s supposed to be though.

This is my finished map with the new header from 3.6.

 

Chapter 4:

The mobile apps strike me as a super powerful part of arconline. The introduction section about the “post-PC” era made a lot of sense and it is cool that things like GIS are adapting to the technological developments and are able to be used with the powerful technology my generation has grown up with. The concepts and advantages section on pg 110 and 111 is very compelling and makes it easy to see how the mobile apps could be useful for people using GIS.

 

Exercise 4.1:

On page 127, where the tutorial asks us to pick “Imagery Hybrid” for the basemap of our survey, I couldn’t find an option labeled this. I just chose imagery with labels, hopefully that is what they wanted.

This is a screenshot of my survey preview after this section was completed.

 

Exercise 4.2:

It was entertaining to practice taking the survey I just created and to see how it all worked. I liked how the recyclables question popped up when I selected recyclables as the incident type. I can imagine creating much more in depth and informative surveys using this framework.

 

Exercise 4.3:

At the top of page 136, where the tutorial tells you to notice how the “incidents_layer” has attachments enabled, it doesn’t actually have attachments enabled. I manually enabled it using the toggle buttons. Before I could share my layer/map that I made in this exercise I needed to go into settings and click the “Public Data Collection” box.This might have been prompted earlier in the tutorial and I missed it but I wasn’t able to share until I did it. 

 

Exercise 4.4:

There is no conditional visibility option as mentioned on page 139. I think that the name has changed to calculated value as there is an “add expression” cue under this option. I actually couldn’t figure out what it was asking me to do at this point and wasn’t able to complete this tutorial. This also meant I couldn’t complete 4.5, the Field Map exercise because I didn’t have the Public Works Inspection web map that I was supposed to be able to make in 4.4.

 

Exercise 4.6 and 4.7:

This is the Quick Inspections quick capture map that I created in exercise 4.6 and used on my phone to capture images in 4.7.

 

Exercise 4.8:

This is the test POI that I created in the map for this exercise.

 

Exercise 4.9:

The AuGeo app is super cool and being able to look at the first person camera view of the POI’s you add is really cool. It was also really simple to add a POI and this could be really good for something like making a campus map with street level views.

 

Potential Application:

Exercise 4.9 inspired me to think about the applications of AuGeo and I could really see it being used to make an OWU campus map that included POI’s that would open up to street-level images of OWU buildings. This way, visitors could look at our typical campus map, click on a building they want to see, and then see it from street level. As I mentioned above it is pretty simple to create the POI’s and I believe the photos are already out there so I feel like this is a pretty realistic application of the techniques we practiced.

 

Ben Buroker

Spring 2023

Geogprahy 192

Week 1, 2, 3: 

 

Write-up: 

ArcOnline Exploring: I have previously logged into my arconline account in Dr. Krygier’s earlier GIS class (before the 191 and 192 modules). I enjoy working with ArcOnline and think it is a good addition to the desktop GIS software. I find it relatively easy to navigate and use to view and make maps. Everytime I go on it I am surprised by how many tabs and different buttons/capabilities there are, and this time was no different. I’m excited to hopefully understand the function of all of these tabs at the end of the course. 

 

Get Started: What is ArcGIS Online. Readthrough: I think one of the most exciting things about arc online to me is that you can work on maps collaboratively and virtually with other users and organizations. This is an incredibly powerful tool to connect people and to accomplish projects with people in far away locations. I read about this in the “Get Started” tab in the “Share and Collaborate” section and can see this being super useful when working with a professor or in a professional capacity and not having to go on a desktop machine or share drives/folders. I was interested in the app section of the readthrough, because I haven’t had much experience with ESRI (?) apps beyond ArcOnline and ArcPro, so clicking through them on arconline was interesting. There is a large span of content/ industries covered by the apps, and it really highlights how diverse and powerful GIS can be. I was particularly interested in the GeoPlanner app, and a bit more research showed that it can be used to design and plan buildings and other structures in accordance with the geographic information of the area.

 

Getting Started Course(s): I had already completed the ArcGIS Online Basics course, so chose to do the “Basics of JavaScript Web Apps” because I am anticipating having to make a Web App for an independent study with Dr. Rowley and think this may be useful. My first impression is that using HTML format for web pages is familiar, because of work that I have done with Dr. Krygier in previous classes. That feels good and is making me excited about potentially being able to do this (the coding is a little scary). The section on software development kits (SDK’s) and introducing maps to online apps makes sense and I feel is applicable to what I want to do with Dr. Rowley.

 

Interesting ESRI online training: The “Get Started with ArcGIS QuickCapture” seminar seems interesting. It focuses on how you can use QuickCapture to take images and make them into data to be used in arc. I was interested in this because it includes “rapid data capture from moving ground or air-based vehicles” which could potentially include remotely sensed data. Another course of interest is the “Creating and Sharing GIS Content Using ArcGIS Online“ because I am interested in being able to share maps that I make with other people. I think this might provide some insights on how to share maps in a variety of ways.

 

GIS Application Areas: Making interactive web maps using arc online. I know I’ve talked about it before but this website details how you can make these maps and post them online which is something I’m very interested in doing at the moment. It is a 13 page pdf tutorial of how to do this. This website details how to map flood risk areas with arc online. I think this is an interesting topic and is something that the remote sensing class worked on doing in ArcPro on the desktop machines. I think it would be interesting to see how the online software compares and if there are any major differences.

 

Week 2: Chapters 1 & 2:

 

Assign: Read and complete chapters 1 & 2. Create a new blog entry with comments, notes, and questions on these readings. This is: <Your Name> Week 3

• Include a one-paragraph description of an application based on ideas from chapters 1 & 2, using the Delaware Data. Also, post ideas to Geog 192 Google Group and comment on other students’ ideas.

 

My first impression reading chapter 1 is that the capabilities of Arc online are immense. There is so much powerful stuff that the software can do. It’s pretty amazing. Learning about the five main types of content supported by arc online, data, layers, web maps and scenes, tools, and apps, was really helpful and explanatory. I also found the attachments section, starting on page 17, very interesting because I have never been able to attach a picture of ppt or video to an Arc map before and this could be a super informative and useful addition to a map.

 

Chapter 1: 

This is the Redlands attractions map from Exercise 1. It was kind of tedious to make with the new ArcOnline software but generally pretty straightforward and workable. The others parts of the chapter were also straightforward and easily completed when working slowly and methodically.

Chapter 2: 

I wasn’t able to correctly code in a new expression in chapter 2 and so I didn’t have the growth rate (2010-2020) pop-up  when I clicked on specific cities. The book’s description of the expression generator tab was different from what it actually looked like so this was kinda difficult. 

This is what my map looked like after 2.4. I couldn’t find the “sample chapter2 owner.gtkwebgis” so I was not able to do the tutorial for 2.5 and 2.6.

 

Potential Application: I can see the sort of techniques we used in chapters 1 and 2 being used with the Delaware data for the school districts. I could potentially see us generating a map similar to the map in chapter 2 with the Delaware county school district. We could also use the techniques from chapter 1 in order to make a similar map from subdivision data. Highlighting where all of the subdivisions are in Delaware County.

Ah, two more delightful chapters in Getting to Know Web GIS.

Chapter 3: ArcGIS Experience Builder

Note the increasing functionality (increasing options, complexity, time it takes) as we move from StoryMaps to Instant Apps to Experience Builder (this chapter).

Basics 

Using Experience Builder to Create Web Experiences

“Web experiences” (mleh)

Workflow

• Premade template or from scratch
• Theme
• Source data
• Add and configure widgets
• Refine layouts
• Save, preview, publish, share

Basic components

• at least one page, pages and windows are building blocks
• widgets added to pages and windows
• one theme per WE and each page can have a template
• pages have headers footers and body (this is like HTML)
• menu widget can be added to alow navigation between different pages
• windows only have body content
• each page or window has an outline view, showing all widgets

Widgets

• JavaScript and HTML components with specific functions
• basic widgets: app tools. Map, legend, layers, query, filter, edit, chart…
• layout widgets: containers helping to organize widgets. Section, row, column

Settings for Widgets:
• content (data sources, links, etc,);
• style (size, position, color, etc.);
• actions
• message: listens to tiggers and automatically does something
• triggers
• targets
• actions
• data actions: click and do something (export data)

Editions of Experience Builder (EB)

Tutorial 3

• pg. 86: after you add the “Views Navigation” widget, make sure it is not blocked by the white top of the image. It said “please add a section to use this widget”. I dragged the image down and the navigation widget worked

• pg. 89: Preview button is at top, near left, a right pointing triangle in a circle.

• pg. 92: If the Dynamic Content Pane menu is not showing up, move the text block a bit to the right and down.

• pg. 102: for step 9: you have to include the HTTPS: https://bit.ly/3pGylar

• pg. 103: for step 17 “Regular tab” seems now to be “Default”

Well, here it is. The end of chapter 3

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Chapter 4: Mobile GIS

Moblie GIS: Concepts & Advantages
• mobility (devices)
• locational awareness
• ease of data collection
• near real-time information
• large volume of users
• versatile communication options

Requires mobile devices, OS, wireless communication, positioning tech

Feature Layer Issues
• need to make feature layers open to editing, adding, removing data, attachments
• editor tracking
• full access to a subset of editors; fewer access options to public
• Feature Template: what can be done to a feature layer (data integrity & ease of editing)

Mobile App Development Strategies
• browser-based
• native-based: via an app on a phone, tablet
• hybrid:

API: Application Programming Interface

ArcGIS native apps
• suite of native apps provided by ESRI

ArcGIS Field Maps
• Fieldwork, project owner, dispatchers, mobile workers
• map-centric data capture

ArcGIS Survey123
• ArcGIS QuickCapture:
• ArcGIS Indoors
• ArcGIS AppStudio

Other stuff
• LBS, VGI, VR, AR

Tutorial 4

4.1: Design a survey for ArcGIS Survey123

https://arcg.is/0nWrHe0

 The survey.

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4.2 Survey123 to collect & review data

The survey after I added two incidents via my phone using Survey 123

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4.3. Create an Editable Feature Layer with Domains

Step 4: it’s not Blank Layer but instead Define your own layer

Step 13: “Typed text style” should (I think) be Incident Type

Step 17: Change style icon is the tiny icon with the triangle/circle/square under the layer name

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4.4 Configure a web map and a form with conditional visibility

Step 2: no Community Map base map. Choose a different one.

Got stuck at step 13 (see below). It’s possible the “Conditional Visibility” option (which is not there) has been moved to the Logic tab, where you use Arcade to create the expression. Saved and shared. Skipping to next section for now.

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4.5 Collect data using the ArcGIS Field maps mobile app

Just collecting data with FieldMaps app from phone

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4.6 Create an ArcGIS QuickCapture Project

Step 7: the App Launcher is the 9 tiny boxes icon upper right corner. Quick Capture is under this menu.

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4.7 Collect Data using QuickCapture

Just collecting data with Quickcapture app from phone

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4.8. Prepare data for use with AuGeo

Some puttering with augmented reality

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi! My name is Lydia and I am an Environmental Science major!

Account Comments

• I did not have a bio so I added where I go to school and what my major is.
• I did not know about the trainings that were offered and I think that it’s interesting that they seem to know that their program can be complicated but are willing to offer programs to help with the confusion.

Get Started Guide Comments

• After doing Desktop GIS at the beginning of the semester, I think it’s very helpful that Web GIS allows for some more collaborative work because while I appreciate the way that I need to individually learn the skills for assignments, the work can sometimes be tedious, so collaboration could be very beneficial in the future.
• I also think that it’s constructive that ArcGIS has many platforms that can all be used for one project.

Training Comments and Screenshots

• This training really made me look at the ways that GIS can be used and the reasons why different levels of privacy are useful in different situations.
• I also found this training useful because it pointed out the locations of the basic functions that were different from ArcGIS Pro.
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Articles

• A Web-Based GIS Waste Data Management System (Claudia Attard and Sergio Tartaglia): using Web GIS to track waste management and the systems regarding it
• Web-mapping of environmental pollution of the surface waters of the Lviv region (Sohor A.R., Fys M.M., Brydun A.M., Sohor M.A.): using Web GIS to observe surface water pollution

Data Inventory

• I already completed this during GEOG 191 🙂

HWA on a Hemlock tree 🙁

Hello, my name is Evelyn VanderVelde. I am a senior from Holland, Michigan majoring in environmental science and minoring in botany.

• for my assignment this week, I already have a account made from the 191 class with Krygier and my Intro is above. I updated my Bio so now y’all can know some basic things about me.
• In my blog I found all of my assignments from 191 as well as that the website format has updated and these knew posts are bugging me. I liked the last formatting of the posts to be much easier because they were more simple.

Things I learned from the ArcGIS webpage, Get started: what is ArcGIS online ->

• Share and Collaborate – I learned that sharing your maps on ArcGIS online is easier with the groups that are private. I have some experience with groups with my job with the Michigan DNR this past summer. As well as making collaborations with other groups to share each others maps and work on each others content.  Other ways to share maps and other content include embedding them in web pages, on blogs, in web apps, and through social media. Use focused apps to collaborate with colleagues in the field, office, or community.
• Be mobile in the field- On arcGIS online you can also access your maps in your mobile device whether this be a tablet or smart phone. Meaning that data can be collected directly from the field onto the map itself and updated to the entire crew in real time.

Training course:

• I found that I learned about exploring a 3D scene
• I also learned that when you move to a different bookmark in one of the tutorials that the base-map changes from Topographic to Imagery

Two articles:

• for the first article i looked up arcOnline hemlock because that is one of my favorite trees.  In THIS article they used arcOnline to create a spot map of the home range for a species of bird that nests in Eastern hemlock trees.

• For my second article I looked up ArcOnline Michigan coast and found THIS link from a Michigan state grad students thesis project. This article did not include any of the maps that they used to collect their data besides an image from one of their Arial images collect by a satellite about the declining coast of lake Michigan in correlation to human infrastructure.

Delaware data Inventory is already completed.

Hi! My name is Jonathan Munroe. I’m a junior from St. Louis, Missouri majoring in geography and minoring in music performance.

I already completed the first few steps in this week’s posting during the last course and have had an Arc account since freshman year. Two things I noticed when looking through my account were:

• I didn’t have a bio. I decided to create a brief bio including my hometown and major/minor.
• I went through all my old projects to review what I’ve completed in the past. I had forgotten how many storymaps I’ve made through the years, creating projects for Urban Geography, Geography of Pop Culture, Science Behind Climate Change, Cultural Geography, and The Power of Maps and GIS.

Two things I learned from Get Started: What is ArcGIS Online

• Slides. I learned that slides let you capture the state of the scene. This is helpful when needing to tell a story through your map, especially when needing to show the difference between factors like camera position, daylight settings, etc. To do this, click slides on the designer toolbar, click capture slide, name it and hit save. This will capture the scene of your map at this moment, and allow you to return to it as it has been successfully saved. 
• Floor-aware maps. These maps contain GIS data from inside buildings and organize it into floor-aware layers, good for visualizing indoor spatial data. To do this, click map properties on the contents toolbar and find the indoor layers section. From there, turn on enable floor filtering and select the layers that correspond. You can also specify additional line, point or polygon feature layers. Click save and it will be added to the map.

Training Course

• I already completed the web course for ArcGIS Online Basics so I found a course titled Create a Web App in ArcGIS to Share Digital Exclusion Data. This course utilized ArcPro and ArcOnline to show how the two programs work together. Two things I learned were:
  • How to utilize pop-ups with graphs to better display data for specific counties
  • How to create and apply web apps onto my online maps.

Two Articles:

• Yolanda F Wiersma and Randolph Skinner: Predictive distribution model for the boreal felt lichen Erioderma pedicellatum in Newfoundland, Canada
• This application took forestry data from Newfoundland and information regarding boreal felt lichen habitat suitability and applied it together to create a map highlighting the expanse of where this species would grow in Newfoundland

• Phil Flentje, Darshika Palamakumbure, Jack Thompson: Assessing Rockfall Along the Illawarra Escarpment
• This application mapped rockfall data from the Illawarra Escarpment surrounding Wollongong, where I studied abroad in the fall semester, using 2D and 3D modeling.