Kentucky GIS Conference 2024

In February, the Kentucky Division of Forestry (KDF) launched a $1.8 million Urban and Community Forestry Grant Assistance Program to enhance urban tree canopies in underserved communities. To help applicants, KDF used an ArcGIS Online Web Experience Build featuring an interactive Eligibility Map (based on Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and Tree Equity Score data), a StoryMap detailing methodology and grant specifics, Survey123 for initial contact, and a dashboard to track applications. Join us to explore this Web Experience Build and see how we communicated this groundbreaking grant program and its eligible areas.

Do you want to win that next job? Do you want to thrive once you’ve landed it?

It’s not about tricking anyone. It’s about building an authentic, servant-leader you. To get there you need to learn how to prepare for and then be effective during the interview process. Once you’ve landed the job, you must be comfortable failing and growing… and preparing for your next position.

This presentation will cover key concepts in preparing yourself to thrive during the selection process as well as daily as you travel down your career path.

Back by popular demand, PDS GIS team members will present about the "BUS Book", job shadowing, automation, and other aspects of building a resilient team. After the size of the GIS Department was nearly halved due to budget changes in 2020, PDS GIS created automation routines to keep providing the same service level to their end users. During this time, the remaining staff also realized they needed documentation for not only these new routines but also for other tasks they performed. As they prepared for future retirements and job changes, they also created a leadership boot camp and strengthened job shadowing for all positions.

Help your organization use GIS technology more effectively by creating a business-oriented geospatial strategy. We'll explore how to get started in defining organizational GIS needs to help plan, develop, and implement a strategy considering both organizational and technological changes. We'll also discuss various ways to achieve your organization's geospatial goals and support end users.

The evolution from desktop-based GIS to web-based GIS solutions represents a transformative trend in spatial data management and analysis. This transition is driven by advancements in web technologies, facilitating enhanced accessibility, collaboration, and real-time data integration across diverse geographic contexts. Web GIS leverages the capabilities of web browsers to deliver spatial information to users on any device, thereby overcoming traditional limitations of desktop-bound systems. KYTC has been working towards this goal over the past few years and continue to push traditional desktop workflows to the web.

This fast-paced session will provide students and early career professionals with tips, tricks, dos and don'ts of resume writing when starting out in a geospatial career. We'll discuss common pitfalls, what to include and exclude, and things to consider in order to maximize chances of getting your resume to the right set of eyes. Designed specifically for students entering the workforce and people with fewer than 2 years of industry experience, these essentials will help your resume float toward the top of the pile.

Although historical mapping exists in the form of tax maps and plats for many cities and counties across our nation, few communities have access to high quality, large scale planimetric and topographic mapping created from aerial surveys in the days before GIS.

Kenton and Campbell Counties in Northern Kentucky count themselves among those with such a resource. Large scale mapping was created in the early 1960's using photogrammetric techniques before GIS was even an acronym!

This presentation discusses the steps needed to turn a hard copy mylar resource into an historical, digital geodatabase, preserving the information for future comparison and analysis with current information.

All young people deserve to have every basic need, every resource, every opportunity to become a successful and prosperous individual with a long and happy life ahead. However, for some youth, they begin life at a clear disadvantage compared to their peers. We know our youth 24 and under are exposed to many forms of violence, such as homicide, shootings, and assaults and it can create negative outcomes for them. To this effect, a webpage was created to help parents find youth engaging events or programs in their area. Also, they can filter based on a couple of preferences like age, program cost or service category. In addition, a robust form was created for providers to submit their events/ programs to the directory. Our work is grounded in the belief that we can reduce violence by increasing and systematizing coordination and collaboration through new partnerships and combining resources. 

This presentation will provide an overview of how GIS, Geospatial, Data Automation, and customized AGO technologies are being used to help Kenton County's cities and counties evaluate appropriate sites and zoning classifications for applicants of medical cannabis business licenses.  Applicants are solely responsible for ensuring that the proposed location for their cannabis business is not located within one thousand (1,000) feet of an existing elementary school, secondary school, or daycare center.  This solution is being used by elected officials, city councils, policy makers, and community leaders to better regulate and understand their communities. 

Creating a Survey123 form can easily streamline field data collection efforts. However, when preparing a high volume of data deliverables, it is often challenging to perform quality control on submitted records. When hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform a retention wall condition assessment at the West Point Military Academy, JMT Technology Group configured a solution using ESRI’s Survey123 app, with the added value of an automated data review communication system - Power Automate was leveraged as a custom connector for Survey123 in ArcGIS Enterprise. JMT engineers were notified of new inspections, then visualized auto-generated final report deliverables stored in SharePoint, and finally sent reports back with comments to the inspectors using Survey123. This integration between Survey123 and Power Automate for report approval solved communication challenges, produced consistent deliverables, and reduced the total time of the retention wall condition assessment by 50%.

GIS is excellent tool for better understanding geographic patterns of accessibility that can provide key information for decision makers, such as city planners, business owners, civil servants, etc. This presentation examines the use of a multi-modal network origin-destination cost matrix analysis to determine the accessibility of supermarkets to Lexington, KY residents using public transportation. The effects of spatial aggregation will also be discussed.