For many ArcGIS users, exporting an attribute table to a .csv file or excel format file is a common part of their workflow. Unfortunately, exporting to either of these formats directly from the attribute table has never been a core functionality of ArcGIS. To overcome this you typically have had two choices: write a …
September is National Emergency Preparedness month. Every year throughout the United States there are fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, industrial accidents and even explosions. Sometimes these situations are contained to a small locality where they are easily managed. Other times, emergencies cover large geographic areas and impact the lives of thousands of people. Maps, imagery and …
If you are a GIS professional there is a good possibility that you are slowly shaving time off your lifespan. What is this malady you might ask, and can it be prevented by moving to open source? If only it were that simple. Several studies have shown that sitting for long periods of time can …
The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving military, government, academia and private industry. The association’s name centers on communications and electronics but under this broad umbrella are many varied disciplines and professional fields represented. One such field is information systems technology. The April 2012 issue of SIGNAL, …
I just got back from a week-long trip to one of the last corners of Colorado without smoke filling the air. It was a great time of rock hunting, gold panning, hiking and just spending time with family. In a typical work-week I will be on the computer for around eleven hours a day, however, …
Globes are fascinating geographic instruments. They give a proportionately accurate view of the earth allowing for a better understanding of the relationships between various land areas and water bodies. While paper maps and on-screen digital maps can give much more detail about large scale areas of the earth, the globe gives an accurate representation of …
The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has been working for over a year now to adjust the NAD83 datum with what is called the National Adjustment of 2011 or NA2011. How much adjustment are we talking about here? If you guessed only about two centimeters, you would be right on the money. So why are the …
Read more “National Adjustment of 2011 – What Does it Mean For You?”
I finally got around to playing with National Geographic’s MapMaker Interactive application on the organization’s education site. As a GIS analyst with two young boys I am always interested in tools that can help teach them about geography or GIS. The MapMaker tool helps teach both of these. The interface is built on the ArcGIS …
Read more “Another Tool in the Box: National Geographic’s MapMaker Interactive”
There are nine core academic subjects in the No Child Left Behind Act. Of the nine, only geography doesn’t have its own federal funding stream. Since 2008, geography advocates have petitioned the federal government for just such a stream, in part by supporting what is called the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act. There is a …
Read more “Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act is Misguided”
Geospatial technologies do not exist for their own sake. The real power of geospatial technology is in its ability to solve problems in other disciplines. GIS is not a tool that is applied to the GIS industry. Rather, it is a tool to be applied to geology, engineering, aviation, logistics, gardening, personal navigation, intelligence, real …