Notes: Texas GIS Community Meeting 2nd Quarter 2017

The 2nd quarter Texas GIS Community meeting of 2017 was held on Tuesday, April 18th, 2017.

Project Updates

Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS)

Since we last met...

Richard Wade, State Geographic Information Officer

• Texas Imagery Service will begin charging participating entities (now over 370 participating public agencies) beginning September 1, 2017.

• The Statewide Parcel Study, a study conducted to understand the availabilty of digital parcel data at the county appraisal district level, is in version 3 draft. Final study release expected by May 17, 2017.

• The 2017 GeoRodeo, an annual gathering of geospatial developers, is set for Friday, May 19, 2017.

• The 30th annual Texas GIS Forum is taking shape with a new special format to commemorate 30 years of geospatial education, GIS professional networking, and real-world GIS application sharing. The 2017 GIS Forum will take place October 23-27, 2017. The special format will include an additional 1/2 day of activity on Friday and two social events.

• TNRIS training opportunities are open to the public year around. We constantly look for training topics to better serve GIS professional development and encourage suggestions for addtional training classes.

85th Legislature Update

Felicia Retiz, Deputy State GIO

TNRIS shared the bills we are gkeeping tabs on in the current legislative session.

Related to taxing districts (special purpose districts):

• SB200

  Relating to public access to boundary, financial, and tax rate information of certain political subdivisions.

• SB 625

  Relating to public access to financial and tax rate information of certain special purpose districts.

• HB 1343

  Relating to public access to financial and tax rate information of certain special purpose districts.

Related to unmanned aerial vehicles (drones):

• HB 638

  Relating to the prosecution of the offense of operation of an unmanned aircraft over correctional facility or critical infrastructure.

• SB 395

  Relating to the prosecution of the offense of operation of an unmanned aircraft over correctional facility or critical infrastructure.

• HB 1424

  Relating to the operation of an unmanned aircraft over certain facilities or sports venues; creating a criminal offense. (amended to add “stadiums of over 30,000 people”

• HB 1643

  Relating to the prosecution of the offense of operation of an unmanned aircraft over certain facilities.

Lidar for Texas

Joey Thomas

• Central and East Texas Projects were awarded grants from the USGS 3-D Elevation Program(3DEP) totaling almost $600, 000.00

• Central and East Texas Projects were acquired by Fugro with third-party QAQC by AECOM Technical Services. Expected Delivery October 2017 and January 2018.

• Coastal Lidar Project was acquired by Sanborn with third-party QAQC by AECOM Technical Services. Expected delivery September 2017.

Ongoing Planning for the 2017-2018 Winter acquisitions. TWDB funding currently planned for a winter coastal acquisition to replace portions of 2006 FEMA data. Partnerships are needed!

Imagery for Texas

Gayla Mullins

Imagery products from the 2016 NAIP acquisition are available now!

• 1-meter
• 4-band
• DOQQs (.jp2)
• Compressed County Mosaics (.sid)
• Public domain
• Status: COMPLETE

2017 Brazos County Acquisition

• 6-inch
• 4-band
• DO4Qs (.jp2)
• Status: COMPLETE
• Availble Now! https://tnris.org

Upcoming orthoimagery projects

• GLO Coastal Beaches - to be acquired Summer 2017
• Capital Area - to be acquired Winter 2017/18
• Smith/Gregg Counties - to be acquired Winter 2017/18

Texas Statewide Parcel Update

Jennifer Sylvester, AppGeo

The statewide parcel study is in the final review stage. Final study delivery expected by May 17, 2017. The study itself will contain the following:

• Status of digital data in Texas
• Other state approaches
• National context/initiatives
• Recommendations/next steps

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Agency Roll Call

Many representatives of government agencies and city governments from across the state were in attendance and shared updates on key projects and initiatives their organizations are working on. We'd love to see you or your organization at the next meeting.

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Office of the State Demographer (OSD)/State Data Center (SDC)

Jeff Jordan

Annual Texas Demographic Conference coming up. Census Bureau will be there and TNRIS presenting on parcel study and next steps. Census workshops – how to find data, addresses, housing unit count review.

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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)

Tom Nueraberge

BLR project for Homeland Security to help them monitor air sampling units. Wrote application for Super Bowl.

Raj Nakdarni

Projects as usual. Major study for San Antonio area. Corpus to pass SA during month of May infrastructure. Water study in East TX. Devistation levels and security issues.

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Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG)

Craig Eissler

Program used to be GeoMap to purchase lidar and orthoimagery products. Transferring mechanics over to StratMap. Thinks it will be value added. Craig will still be playing a coordinating role to get partners together and determine costs. Kick-off next Friday April 28th at 9:00am at CAPCOG. Local partners should attend if interested.

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Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)

Chris Bardash

Who makes raster based image services? Enormous to construct. Moving into using vector tiles. Standing up a GIS Steering committee within TxDOT. Travis Scruggs – txdot.gov/opendata to download all txdot data from their shop. Trying to get other txdot groups data into this. Also Project Tracker to look up any txdot project that is planned or about to go into construction. TxDot Project Tracker

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Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)

Jeremy Nobles

In middle of data transfer process to send over to new reservation vendor. They want more info such as distance to restroom from each site, etc. Using network analyst.

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Sam Houston State University

Jack Hill

Loves the TPWD Ecological Systems statewide map. Mapping endangered species. Study funded by Comptroller. Rasterizing the VegMap. TPWD does have the rasters – 10m pixels. Also have a WMS of it now. Building grid of all estuaries along the bays to look at trends and biodiversity along the coast. Mental health - telemedicine project for where to put the clinics for PhD students to get training on mental health. Mosquito in the Valley, Zika, starting working with UT in the valley to map spraying effort. Mosquito databases to use new ArcGIS Pro/ Community Analyst from Esri. SulRoss Texas State tied to University in Austin. TX Imagery Service would make sense at higher range for State agencies.

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Presentations

Esri Products and Services via the StratMap Contract

Traci Tracey, Esri State Government Practice; Tiffany Weintraub, Esri Professional Services; Tamara Adamson, Esri Training

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Long‐ and short‐term subsidence at the Wink Sinkholes, West Texas

Jeffrey Paine, Ph.D - UT Bureau of Economic Geology

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Next Meeting

2nd Quarter 2017 - July 18, 2017 - Location TBD