All right.

Hey, thank you guys for being here today.

And we'll start off with a big happy GIS day.

And today is a good day to celebrate.

We'll explain why.

These guys are going to do a great job walking you through what they do.

But I want to say that GIS is widely supported here at Marietta from the city manager to the city council to the BLW.

And they continue to invest in this technology because it does provide a lot of value to the organization.

It helps people improve processes, change processes.

And it's something fundamental that we're doing now.

It's a regular thing for us.

So we're always striving to be a smarter city.

And I would say that GIS enables us to do that because it acts as the connective tissue of smart cities.

It's not just maps.

It's the framework that lets different systems talk to each other.

So if you think about the evolution of GIS.

So we started with static maps, and we've moved along, and these guys are going to walk you through a lot of what they've done.

And they've got us from static maps to you know almost to the point where we can do things like digital twins.

So they'll walk you through a lot of those technologies today.

We have internal viewers, external viewers, they're going to walk through that.

And then if you think about the people who maintain the spatial databases, so the people in this front row, they're going to talk about what they do every day and how they manage that data, help you guys manage that data so that it can be used.

So have any has anybody ever heard this statement that all data has a spatial component?

Like 98% of all data has a spatial component.

That's a widely used term, especially in GIS circles.

I don't really know if it's true.

But I will tell you this, that 80% is probably more accurate.

And so when you think about the data that we have in government, most of the data has a spatial element.

So it's something we can put into some kind of portal, some kind of map, some kind of uh tool that you can use out in the field.

So things like work orders, they have addresses, things like budget line items.

You don't think about financials, but typically those are tied back to facilities or departments or districts.

Um obviously traffic data, transportation data has a special spatial element, planning data has a spatial element.

Umtilities, all the utilities, whether it's a water line, an electric line, an address of a customer, that's all a spatial element.

Um personnel, people work in a location, they do a function, they're moving around different places to take care of it.

So even personnel has a spatial function.

Um here's some of the things that deserve celebration on in GIS.

Um, spatial intelligence that powers everything that we just talked about.

Um GIS can take very complex data and simplify it with a visual picture.

Um then the way GIS provides access to that data, right?

So a lot of times data has always been siloed.

GIS is you know kind of founded on the idea of sharing that data and letting people see it, use it.

Um so that's something that should be celebrated.

Um you're gonna hear some amazing things from Jim, Alexis, Thomas, Brody, and Stephanie.

Um they're gonna talk about what they do, and I hope you guys all walk away thinking about what you do every day, what data you use, and how you could use it better to improve your process and how you connect with the GIS team and let the you let them help you come up with a new solution.

Um so I appreciate you being here, and with that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ronnie.

And thank you all for spending some time with us today to celebrate GIS Day.

Um this is actually the 26th worldwide GIS Day.

It was started in 1999 as a day that was meant to kind of have people in the GIS community share with others that are not a part of GIS and kind of show what we do and you know try to inspire people who don't think about GIS to think about GIS.

Um the purpose of this presentation, yes, it is to show us some things that we've done recently, but it's also really meant to show you all and hopefully inspire you all to think about how you can use like Ronnie was saying, how to use GIS in your daily workflows and how we can try to help with through collaboration to create some new tools and new applications.

It's all about having data-driven solutions, and that's what GIS is good at.

The first documented GIS type of analysis happened way back in uh 1854.

It happened in London, and it was related to mapping cholera outbreaks.

And so what they did is they reported, they mapped out where the reported cholera outbreaks were happening, overlaid it with the locations of the water wells, and they were able to identify a pattern that the water well, that there was a specific contaminated water well where most of the cholera outbreaks were around.

So it was a very, very early use case.

Um but what that did was it solved a problem, the cholera outbreak.

GIS is all about problem solving.

It's about communicating, it's about telling a story through maps or other mediums, and it's about giving decision makers the ability to make informed, educated, and fact-based decisions.

So hopefully you'll see a lot of interesting ideas and you know maps here today, but you're also gonna see a lot of other ways that GIS is used, and maybe you didn't even think of it as GIS.

But before we get started, I wanted all of us to kind of introduce ourselves first, because you might have seen us our names through an email or something, but maybe you don't actually know who we are.

So I want to take this opportunity to do a brief introduction.

So I'll start off.

Uh I'm Jim Carmichael, I'm the GIS supervisor.

I've been with the city about five and a half years.

I've been in this role for two years.

Um I'm a graduate from Kennesaw State University.

That picture you see on the screen, that's uh me and my wife.

That picture was actually taken uh this past summer in Scotland.

Uh we are avid travelers.

Anyone who knows me knows.

I try to take a big trip one or twice, one or two times a year.

Um, and we're very lucky to be able to travel as much as we do.

But I'm also really lucky, I feel like, to have this position here with the city to be able to do a job that I love to do.

Um I love mapping, I love innovating, I love teaching and sharing information with others, and the GIS community allows that.

Um without further ado, let me hand it over to Thomas.

Hello, my name is uh Thomas Chappell, and uh yes, I have been called Dave many times before.

Um yeah, that picture up there is a picture of me and my fiance.

Uh we both love you know, hanging at home with our cat and watching uh Auburn football and everything.

And uh yeah, I've been here about two and a half years now, and uh I've really loved working here doing GIS and uh growing my skills within this career field.

But um yeah, I'm gonna pass it on to Brony now.

Hey everyone.

Um I'm Brody Baer.

Uh I've been a GIS analyst with the city since last January.

Uh outside of my role here, I'm also uh the drone chair for the Georgia Geospatial Association.

Um pictured up there of my lovely fiance, Emily.

Uh, when we're not out and about, we're hanging at home with our three cats and our dog.

Uh before I came to the city, I was a land surveyor in a survey tech.

I worked jobs everywhere from small construction sites to the airfield at Hartsfield Jackson.

After that, I went on to KSU to earn my geospatial sciences degree.

And I look forward to going through this presentation with you all.

I hope you see something cool or learn something today.

I'm gonna pass it off to our water coordinator, Lex.

Hi, good morning, everybody.

My name is Alexis Pierce.

Feel free to call me Lex.

I am the GIS water and sewer coordinator.

Um I graduated KSU in 2022 with a degree in anthropology.

I've worked as an archaeologist.

I worked with telecommunications, GDOT, T DOT, um, a little bit of everything, teacher, nanny.

Um I came here for the city.

I've been here about a year and a half, absolutely love working for the city of Marietta.

Um, they've really taken in the idea of technology and um the way that we use GIS here is absolutely astronomical.

Um, and I hope that we can teach you guys a little bit on not only what we do, but what we can do to serve you guys and also serve the community.

Thank you.

I'm gonna pass it over to our intern, Stephanie.

Hello, everyone.

Uh I am Stephanie Clayton.

I am the GIS intern.

I'm currently a senior at Kinnasol State University, completing the GIS certificate.

And hopefully next semester I will graduate with my degree in environmental science in the spring.

Thank you all for sharing a little bit about yourself.

So now I really want to go, I want to quickly go over just what we're gonna cover today.

Um we're gonna start really quick with uh what is GIS, those of you who may not know anything about GIS, we're just gonna quickly go over what the technology is.

Then we'll talk about what is GIS here at the City of Marietta, how we use it, what our roles are.

We'll do some live demos and some application examples, hopefully to inspire you all to think about oh, how could they make something for me?

Um then Alexis will show us some utility mapping and asset collection.

We'll then transition to show us how we use drones in GIS.

We'll touch on the concept of a digital twin.

We'll talk about the importance of being in the GIS community and giving back to the GIS community.

And then I'll show you really quickly how you all can access all this technology that we have available because it's really uh a couple portals and logging in.

And then we'll touch on a couple of the projects that we have coming up.

And if anyone has any questions at the very end, feel free to think about them now, and at the end, we'll be more than willing to answer anything for you.

But let's start out with like what is GIS.

So, very simply at its core, it's a concept, it's a tool that communicates where things are in relation to other things.

By a show of hands, who here uses GIS every week.

Nice.

That is very good.

A lot of hands went up.

Every hand probably should go up because think about the routing applications you use every day, such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze to try to get from point A to point B the fastest route to and from work to try to find that gas station or that restaurant that you want to go to when you're traveling, all that is GIS.

And it's a technology that you know, think about 30, 40 years ago that just wasn't readily available as easy as it is nowadays.

Really, it's all about layering different information on top of each other to hopefully identify a pattern that you didn't know was there the entire time.

And what I have on the screen here is a video that really does a great job of showing all the different examples that GIS can be applied to with the disciplines as well.

So I'm gonna play that really quick and then I'll jump right back in.

What is GIS?

Great question.

Let's start with just one of probably countless examples we could choose from.

So suppose you live somewhere like I do here in San Diego where we are getting more and more floods, and you want to know if your home's at risk.

You would want to know are you in a floodplain?

What about drainage?

How much rain did you get?

How might that change in the future?

When you start to combine and layer all this data with GIS, you can actually see how at risk your home is to floods.

It's very often said that data is the new oil, and GIS is a confluence of all of the different data sources that we have now, whether it's from the sky or from the ground or from mobile devices.

Any time it matters, spatially, how two things are related, and that's just about everything in this world.

You need GIS.

Whether you've heard of GIS or not, it's all around us.

It's used by every major corporation to manage their supply chains and to pick where to build stores.

It's used by utilities, it's used by transportation companies, it's used by every governmental body.

But it's also about what's happening in your neighborhood, what's happening in your community, which is why it's kind of remarkable that so few people know about it.

A community occupies a space in the globe, right?

For city, the city is responsible for that space.

From land parcels to where our utilities are located to the conditions of the roads or the transportation system.

All that occupies the space.

And so I really can't see a way to manage all that without GIS.

With GIS mapping, we can work much more closely with communities that have been marginalized for so long.

It gives you this ability to problem solve with so much more information.

If you think about people are living on this much money, and they have this size of household, and they tend to be working multiple jobs, low-wage jobs.

Being able to see those layers gives you a different view so we can create a different future in those spaces.

So, as you can see, GIS connects location to information.

And it's all about the more data that is collected and placed in a GIS, the more collaboration and analysis that can be done on that data.

GIS can act as a main repository of data to eliminate the existence of data silos so that data within an organization can be shared with throughout the entire organization.

Think about if economic development needs information from Parks and Rec, they're able to access it in GIS.

If someone from Marietta Fire needs to know information that was collected by Marietta Water, they're able to access it in GIS.

It's a very powerful tool that is used for that can be used for sharing and collaborating, and it is through that collaboration that the most powerful GIS systems are born.

So now I'm going to talk about a little bit about what GIS is at the City of Marietta.

So we kind of divide GIS into three main pillars.

We deal with addressing parcel tax data, we have our drone operations, and then we have our mapping.

So I know it's hard to see there, but basically the entire city is under a grid.

And what we use this grid for is to assign street numbers to the various buildings throughout the city.

So depending on what grid you're in, what grid column you're in, they're a range of a hundred numbers from zero to ninety-nine, one hundred to one ninety-nine, so on and so forth.

And it's determined by the direction of the street, which numbers we're going to use as far as like across the top or along the side.

So think about a street like Church Street, it runs north to south.

A street like Roswell Street runs east to west.

So they have that's the basic concept of the addressing as far as how the numbers begin.

The numbers will always increase away from the center of the city.

We consider the center of the city, Whitlock and the loop.

So anything away from that point will increase in numbers.

And the reason that is important is when we are drawing the streets in our GIS, we need to know a beginning and an end point for that data.

Because we need to know what streets or what side of the street even numbers are on.

So as you move away from the city, even numbers are on the right and they increase.

So the whole concept of addressing in general is very important, not only for just having your mail delivered or getting packages, but it's for EMS response.

It's EMS response that's gonna be the most crucial it's addressing that's gonna be the most crucial to EMS response.

It's gonna get you the quickest response time, and when it comes to EMS response, every second counts.

So when it comes to suite addressing, we like to think about it when it comes to multi-story buildings.

If in a multi-story building, we have the first level always begins with Suite 100, 101, 102, 103, second level in the 200s, and so on and so forth.

It's it's this kind of organized schema that enables EMS to know what situation they might be going into before they even get on scene.

So I want to talk about how addressing how people request addresses through us at the city.

So there's a few different ways.

Sometimes we have random citizen or developer just walk into our office, want to have a conversation about addressing a new business that they've acquired or a new parcel that they're gonna split up.

We also get them through SageS.

And if you're not familiar with SageS, it's the city's online kind of application system for reviews and submittals, approvals and disapprovals for all kinds of various things, such as building permits, plats, site development plans come through this portal.

And addressing is a part of it, and so when someone wants to take a parcel and split it into two, well, that new parcel now needs an address.

And addressing in the city limits is always controlled through the city of Marietta and not the county.

Uh so also in SageS what I wanted to point out is we also support a location map that is inside of that application.

It is located on the location tab on the left-hand side, and that is actually our data on this map.

Um, I wanted to bring this up because if anybody uses this map and thinks that this map needs more data, please feel free to reach out and ask us because we can add our data onto this map with working through SageS.

Um I created this map, I just put on a few different layers that I thought might be helpful.

But if there's any consideration that, hey, we need more stuff on here, please feel free to reach out, put in a help desk ticket, and we'll definitely help you out.

All right.

So that kind of wraps up addressing.

But now we're gonna dive into where a lot of the meat is, and that's in our mapping.

So let me just take a step back really quick and introduce uh ArcGIS.

So, way back in 1990, about under the leadership of Bruce Bishop, who couldn't be here today for other work-related assignments.

He got us on board, he got the city on board with a company called ESRI or ESRI, Environmental Scientific Research Institute.

They're now the worldwide leader in GIS software.

And the software that they've developed over time is called ArcGIS.

And ArcGIS has a lot of different subcomponents to it, products.

I guess you could say we have ArcGS Online, ArcGS field maps, ArcGS Enterprise.

Even this presentation right now is not a PowerPoint, it's actually an ArcGIS briefing because it interconnects with their web maps so well.

And so through ArcGIS software, we're able to create static maps, like you see in the top right.

The problem with static maps is once it's exported, printed, you know, that's it.

The data is the data, and you really can't do a lot with it.

You're also limited by the amount of data you can put on a map before it becomes you know not useful because there's so much information on there, it's not legible.

So what I have in the bottom left is what we call a web map.

And a web map enables a lot more information to be placed on it because you're not restricted by scale.

You're able to zoom in, see more details, more data is populated at those different scales, and you're also able to have more attribute data.

Because when you click on a particular location, you're able to have what's called a pop-up, and various attribute data can be put on there.

Think about then taking that web map and placing that web map in what we call a web app.

This is what I have demoed here.

I've placed this web map inside of a web application, and you're able to see other data that is not inherently visible on the map.

You're able to see how many street center line miles are in the city, you're able to see the city limits square mileage, how many zoned acres there, and the percentage of each.

That kind of information you're not going to be able to see on the map directly, but using web apps and incorporating web maps into them, you're able to see a lot more data than you thought was possible.

So with that being said, we're gonna jump into some web app live demos.

And what I'm gonna start with is a demo of I don't know if everybody here uses it, but it's called the internal GIS viewer.

And I'm gonna demo that, but it's got a little twist to it.

All right.

So on the left here is a picture of if those people who use it, the internal mapping GIS viewer.

It's a very familiar internal mapping application that a lot of different departments use, and I'm glad they use it.

Um, but it will be changing on January 1st.

And so I wanted to take this opportunity to show this.

It's migrating to a different application for reasons of performance as well as security because the current platform it's designed upon is no longer supported.

So it always is a security concern when applications are no longer supported like that.

So what I'm gonna show is a quick little demonstration of the new internal viewer.

I won't go into too much, but just enough to get the point across.

Also, the way that it's shown on the screen right now, it will differ based on the resolution of whatever computer screen you're on.

This particular screen is not that great.

So that the resolution is a little weird up here.

But basically it has similar functionality, and I'll explain this as if you've never used this tool.

So it has a lot of search tools.

You're able to search for an address, search for a location ID, search for a parcel number.

You can search by owner or a business name.

And we're working on trying to add more search capability in here.

So let's just give an example of a parcel owner, last name.

It'll take you directly to whatever you search for.

In this case, I searched for an owner's name and it took me to his parcel.

When I click on that parcel, there will be some information that pops up in a pop-up.

The parcel number, the owner, location ID, a quick little, hey, is this location in the city or not?

Talks about zoning.

Same thing will happen for a business.

If you're able to type in a business name, it'll take you straight to that business name.

This has to be updated uh nightly to correspond with the business license data in the AS400.

I also wanted to show a quick little way to go in and out of the aerial imagery.

In the bottom left here, you'll see a quick button that toggles back and forth from our current imagery to just our static white base map.

I wanted to take a particular moment to highlight the show map layers.

Because again, GIS is all about layers.

I wanted to show that.

All these little yellow symbols indicate a business license.

Is that that location ID?

Same with layers like schools.

Streams, sidewalks.

So we're trying to collect more and more data to put on these internal on this internal viewer.

So the more, like I said earlier, the more data that's on a GIS, the more powerful the more analysis you can do on it.

We have various planning and zoning layers.

Toggling on and off our zoning, future land use.

Now I also wanted to show we have historical imagery on here.

So you would want to click this checkbox, and you'll see we have over 25 years, not consecutive, of historical imagery.

So let's say you wanted to see what a certain particular area looked like in 2015.

2009.

This tile is missing.

That is because these are actually all just scanned tiles.

And this tile was not in the collection, unfortunately.

But you can see in 1974.

City Hall is not even built yet.

But it's a great way.

A lot of citizens actually come in and we take them through this.

We walk them through, they want to see like history of their property, um, what was here, what was there.

So it's a great tool to be able to show them that and give them that firsthand quick look into the past, if you will.

One final tool in here that I wanted to show is the find documents tool.

So a process we have now is we try to collect all the plats that are currently recorded with the county.

Um we then prop put them in a certain folder, and we create a GIS layer.

We have a GIS layer, we create objects within that GIS layer that we can then reference later on.

So let's say turn that off.

We know we're looking, we have a citizen come in, wants to see if there's anything for their particular address.

Using that find documents tool, if we have a recent plat, we're not gonna have everything, but recent plates we do have.

We can select plat from the list.

Click apply.

It's querying that layer that is not even visible on this on this map, but it is there.

And so it found the most recent, it's found everything in that area.

But the most recent plat is what we're interested in.

362 Roselane Street.

We found the path and it links to a folder that is publicly accessible.

And there really quickly you're able to find in this case a plat.

But really, this kind of concept of searching for data in layers that aren't even on the screen can be replicated in very in various other ways.

So I just wanted to show that as an hopefully inspired somebody to think about how we can collaborate with you to create something like this.

So this application is meant for a variety of different reasons.

But I'm now going to ask Thomas to come up and show how an application was designed for a very specific purpose.

Thank you, Jim.

So what Jim just showed you is a map viewer that has everything in our city's data on it.

But what I've been working on and making are map viewers that are specific to an individual department, a project, or a data set, or any area of the city, and it only shows what you want to see on this map.

So like some recent examples I've made for HR, I made a map showing city-owned properties in the city, as well as like Ronnie last year asked us to make a map of all the IT communication equipment at like each substation, water tower, and whatnot.

That's specific to that project or that department.

So this example I have here, I've used another software that we make or use called Vertiges Studio.

It can have its own tools, its own search engines, its own uh look and everything you want.

So it can be very creative.

But for this one, the sanitation department needed to see where parcels are within sanitation, recycle, and brush routes.

So for this app, I created uh a way for them to be able to search for an address and then see what route that's in.

And also it has the live locations of each trash truck in the city, so they're able to see where they are throughout the day.

So this is an example of a very specific map viewer for one specific department.

So as you can see, it has all of the live locations of the trucks in the city with their uh truck number and everything.

But for this, it has a search tool to where when they search for an address, if it'll work interesting.

Yeah, there we go.

So when they search for a specific address in the city, so let's say let's find this one right here.

It'll take you, like what Jim showed, it takes you right to that parcel, shows it to you, but then it also shows you which brush route, sanitation route, and recycle route that's in.

And these numbers and letters are specific to the department and the trash tracks.

So this is like I said, very specific to just the sanitation department.

Um anyone else would probably get no use out of this, but they do uh very easily.

And what's also cool about this one is this app, it has a print function.

So if you need to print like a quick map to take out on the road with you, like a driver, and they need to see okay, what street is this uh part or what routes are these streets in, they can then print it out and do different sizes of what they want, resolution, and give it a title and whatnot.

And they can do this uh as many times as they want.

It's very easy.

So like I said, this is only for the sanitation department, and it has become very useful for them when deciding like what parcels go within each sanitation or recycler brush route.

So this has been very useful and fun to make.

Um another example I have using also Verge Studio is I created a map viewer to see all the graves within the city cemetery.

So citizens and employees can use this.

Uh graves can be found by searching by name, birth and death date, and also plot number.

And it's also capable of making printouts.

And with this one, it's able to make reports like on the specific layer.

So I'll show you.

It pops up with some instructions for any new new people using it.

But as I said, you can search by name, birth date, death date, and section and plot number.

So let's try to find somebody.

So let's type in Thomas.

And find, let's go for Eddie Thomas.

So it searches for it, grabs that person, but then it also gives you an selection to be able to see all the names in that plot.

So I click yes, it selects them all.

Then it gives you an option to run a report on these graves.

So you can give it a title and notes.

So when I press yes, it comes up and you're able to see a report with a table in it.

Once it starts loading, you can then click to download that and it shows the map, but also a table with each individual person laid out.

So if you need to go out and verify where people are make sure everything's correct, you can have this all organized for you.

And this can be used for any type of data, not just for uh cemetery graves, but anything we have in the city can make be made into a report.

So I find that very useful.

And this one as well, once you go back, you can then click on an individual an individual person and see a photo that we've collected of that grave.

So this is very useful for citizens, especially people who are out in the field just trying to verify data on a person and their family or anything historical.

So I find this to be very interesting and useful for not just employees but the citizens as well.

So that's a specific map viewer that does one particular thing.

And so another application that we use in the Esri umbrella is something called a story map.

And story maps I say are a great and creative way to get a point across using a map, but also a slideshow with it.

So I'll show you an example here.

The uh Marietta Arts Council and the city website have this posted to where citizens can go in our downtown area and throughout the city and see where art is located within the city.

So if you scroll through, it gives you some instructions, but you go straight to a map that has sort of a slideshow aspect to it.

So we go to the first one, and it's probably one of the more notable pieces of art in the city.

It gives you the name, who it's made by, and the location of it.

So if you're out walking in downtown, consider opening this on your phone, and you can go to each location and see where all the murals and statues are.

So it's all in order.

So if you just want to take a stroll through the CBD, just open this up and see if you can find any.

And what's also cool about this, at the very bottom, if a citizen is out in the field and notices something missing or something new or something broken or anything like that, they can submit to a survey that we have so they can fill it out.

We will see that and see their notes about it, where it's at, and get a lot of feedback from the community on the art in the city.

So that's one example of a story map.

And we also have another one with the cemetery, and it's called Marietta Cemetery, places of grave interest.

It's called that because it shows all the prominent citizens that we've had in our history as a city.

So this one also gives some more detail on like the cemetery itself.

It provides links to the cemetery brochure.

Um, it takes you right to the viewer I showed you earlier, and it has a lot more images, it has a drone uh flyover video, so just more content that you can get across, not just using a regular slideshow.

But like same thing here, it can take you through I guess a stroll of the cemetery to see where all the important people are.

And you might recognize some of these names, like the clay name is very popular here, and we all know the story of Mary Fagan, and yeah, you can just see everyone you need to see.

And this has been a project that I've been doing with the History Center and uh the Parks and Rec department to spruce this, spruce this up and uh really get our history across to the citizens that have uh want to see it.

And so, same thing on this one, or additionally to this, there's a way to see all the trees in the city cemetery.

Um, you can also find information on grave symbols of particular you know historical symbols on gravestones, and same thing here.

If you need to add some more information, you can contact uh Mr.

Deckman and uh Parks and Rec to make any changes to the cemetery.

So like I said earlier, story maps can be very useful, not just to citizens and getting a point across to the community, but also within your own department.

If you need to present a project or any sort of future endeavors, you can just throw it in here, and if there's any spatial aspect to it, this would be a great way to show it off to your employees.

So story maps are very useful.

And I would say map to back to map viewers, they're a great way to make your job easier.

Um they help us to see more into the city's data and help make uh better and quicker decisions and get quicker answers about anything we have, whether it's parcels, assets, businesses, or citizens, you name it, and story maps allow us to present that data in a very clear and concise way.

So now I'll move on.

Brody will come on up and talk about some other ESRI applications like dashboards.

Thanks, Thomas.

That was a great demonstration of the power of specialized map viewers and story maps.

Now I want to show off some more dashboards.

We saw that City Metrics one earlier that showed parcel makeup and uh street composition within the city.

This is one we have that's a public-facing dashboard that showcases population statistics.

This came from ingesting census data and layering it with our data.

Doing that allows you to pan around, select one or multiple block groups, and see a data breakdown of them.

It allows you to look and see college graduation percentage, income, race, ethnicity, age distribution.

With it being public facing, it allows for both internal and external use to highlight areas of investment and other areas of interest within the city.

It also lets anyone curious see some of the makeup of you know where the higher income areas.

Does that correlate with where there's higher age?

What's the household occupancy look like in areas like this?

Insights like these can be unlocked through the power of dashboards.

Now, I want to show off an example of using this tool internally.

We used it to display and analyze information and then empower decision making from that.

So earlier in the year, a couple city councilmen approached us and asked what the certain density of calls or certain types of incidents was within areas of their wards.

And there wasn't a good way for us to pull that information out quickly and show it to them in a way that really made sense and painted the picture the way we wanted.

So we approached GIS and we were able to take our incident data and overlay it with a map to paint a really clear picture.

Once Assistant Chief Garner came to me with the need to show fire response data visually.

I saw it as a great opportunity to be innovative with the power of our GIS technology.

We put our heads together to be creative in developing a custom dashboard to view the city in a dynamic and interactive format.

Now, using this dashboard, our fire department is able to sort things such as fire districts, call nature, and property or incident types in any combination and in any time frame.

We had the know-how and the applications already within the city to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.

So it was just a matter of reaching out to our IT department and GIS to help us really craft this dashboard that's continuing to evolve to help us make strategic decisions down the road.

Recently, yeah, meeting with other organizations.

We were comparing data.

They were impressed with the speed at which we could gather information in territories, along interstates, and call volume in certain areas.

Once we started breaking down how we receive that data, we were explaining to them our GIS department developed a dashboard for us along with our live data.

The new dashboard is faster and more accurate than the data we were previously receiving.

Because of the data sharing, other organizations have reached out to our GIS to develop a similar dashboard to display their data more effectively.

This customized solution has now empowered the fire department to better analyze their response data and use that analysis to more effectively allocate resources and to serve our citizens at the highest level.

So as mentioned in this video, this initially came as a request from a council member to view fire response data in their ward.

After the initial hurdle of ingesting the fire CAD data into our GIS software, I realized that there was a lot more that could be done with this tool.

This led to many meetings with assistant chief garner, showing him the progress of the dashboard and asking him how it could best be adapted for his uses.

This is a key part in making any of these applications.

Combining your experience with our expertise to create the best product we can.

Through these meetings, many of these filters were added, such as fire district, wards.

Incident and property type.

And through these filters, you can do some really great analysis.

Let's do a little example.

You wanted to see how rowdy people got on Halloween weekend.

So you can see after selecting the dates, there are 66 calls on that Friday and Saturday.

As you can see with this, using dashboards allow you to display all sorts of metrics that are tied to geographic location and using city-specific information.

These metrics empower leaders to make data-driven decisions.

Now I want to toss this over to Alexis, who's going to go over some examples of utility mapping and asset management.

We've touched a good bit on dashboards, mapping and with parcel data, our cable, our cable records and reports, but I will be discussing the importance of actual GPS locating and the process of how we do that here at the water and sewer department.

So the amazing thing about Esri is the cross-compatibility, cross-compatibility between each app and software.

So how does it work?

We use an um uh couple of different software to locate and develop maps based on the city of Marietta's water and sewer system.

Have a little flow chart for you.

So first of all, um typically we create our map in ARC Online.

Um that's usually created by our GIS person, which is me, so I will create create that for you.

Um but since I've already created my maps, I use field maps, which is an amazing data collection tool, and I'm gonna be going um more into detail about that in a couple of slides.

From there, we um pull that information into Arc Online, which is then uploaded to ArcGIS.

That is where all of our points are given symbology and attributes, such as pipe materials, um, any asset numbers or anything of that sort.

The information is then uploaded to our asset management, which is Lucidy.

I call her Miss Lucille.

Um, all of that information is used there, and that is accessed by the rest of the water and sewer department and our service crew.

Here I have a quick video that shows you a couple of key um features of Arc Maps.

Um, this is really one of the best um apps that um Ezri has for us.

Field mapping and data collection is very, very important.

Without people going out to GPS and locate these addresses, these streets, um, water water valves, water main sewer valves, um, this information cannot be accurate enough.

And so field maps is essentially what we typically use for data collection.

So a good thing about um SREFILD Maps is that it is used for numerous positions and is very customizable.

Um, I've used it in archaeology, I've used it for telecommunications, also when I work in T Dot and GDOT as well.

So the usability of it, the customability of it is astronomical.

So I'm gonna touch a little bit about how this interconnects with Arc Online and ArcGIS Pro.

So we make our maps in Arc Online.

So when you go out in the field and you create your dots, your points, these points are automatically uploaded to Arc Online, which is amazing.

You don't have to go back to your you know computer and upload them on anything, they're gonna be already connected for you.

Then the best thing about field maps is it's location tracking and sharing and the use of templates.

So when I worked out in T DOT, we worked in a lot of areas with no service.

Um that way, let's say you're somewhere and you can't remember how to get back home.

Um it has a location tracking.

So you can, it'll route you right back to where you were before.

Or for instance, let's say you're somewhere that it's a really big area, and your admin is like, hey, I don't need you guys, you know, working in the same spot.

He can send you a template of just the location you need to work in.

All that information is going to go back to him so that way you don't have to overlap with anybody, and information that isn't being put in twice.

Um we used that also a lot in archaeology when we worked out in the middle for the National Forest Service.

Um you could say you're going to a site, and then someone says, Hey, what's that site too?

And I also got all those points.

And then you got multiple points on one map.

So that is the great thing about ARC field maps that um we use here.

It's also very customizable.

Um, I want to reiterate that because you can go in and make it and give all the features that you need and that map.

And I go in a little bit about that on the next this next slide.

So here's a quick video of what it looks like on a tablet.

You'll pull it up, and it has all the maps that you could possibly have in the world that you have created yourself or I have created for you.

Here is a couple of points that I've done right outside of our water and sewer department.

So for ours, this is what we typically look for when I go out in GPS.

So for instance, I created a point for a meter.

We can go in really quick and let's see what that point says.

So for our meters, we typically look for where there's a fire, domestic, um, residential, our address, our meter sizes, cleanouts, we don't look for too much.

This is basic information that's gonna come up if you do not need it to be customized.

So the thing about field maps is you can do anything in there.

It's just like having a regular uh web app.

So it's really, really, really customizable.

These are some of the features that we look for in the water and sewer department.

So for water, we do hydrants, mains, meter boxes, sewer features are typically manholes, sewer mains, and clean outs.

So from here, those these points again are automatically connected with our Arc Online map.

From whatever I gathered, then it is added into the Arc Online map to our ArcGIS Pro, where the features are then given attributes such as material, all of that and so forth.

Um Diameter, any information that is important to that structure.

Here's a quick look of how our sewer maps and our water maps look after all that information is pulled in.

So as you can see, a quick little view.

This is how information once it's collected shows up on ArcGIS Pro.

We have our water mains, sewer mains, um, manholes, cleanouts, anything of the sort, and this is how it looks in our aerial.

Um here's how it looks just without all the aerial vision.

Uh let's say, for instance, you want to get a glimpse of it for a static map, but you want it to be you know without aerial so you can see a little bit how things look topography-wise, streams and such.

From here, this information is then uploaded to our EEM management, which is Lucidi.

It is used for um data storage reporting, and is the main tool for our water and sewer department and our service crew.

Loose lucidity is really, really important, and also the accuracy of our GIS is really important for them.

Our service crew are the people that go out when there's hydrant, you know, hydrant breaks, water main breaks, uh, sewer service, and all that such.

So something I want to hone in about really quick is that when it comes to data location, who's ever looked up an address and you got there, and they say, actually, we needed you to go that way.

Um we moved that location uh probably like two months ago.

Um and then you're annoyed because you spent all your time trying to figure out you've done loops around Walmart, and it turns out you're in the wrong location.

This is why GPSing is very important, and while locating is very important.

Um let's say, for instance, we get a call at 2 a.m.

and there's a water main break, and on our map, it says our water main is two miles up the street, and our water main is two miles that way.

Three o'clock in the morning, you're tired, you're frustrated, and you've dug up this way, and I need to go dig up this way.

So the accuracy is very, very important.

It's one of the things that um when I go out and I'm GPSing, and ArcField Maps does the astronomical thing about it.

Um they make sure that they have a built-in GPS itself.

And we also use Trumble for also 100% accuracy.

We stream for 100, I say you know, at least 99.9%.

But as long as we get it accurate, that's all that's uh necessary.

So accuracy, efficiency, and and well-versed.

Um again, accuracy is what we strive for at the Marietta Water and Sewer Department.

Um, not only to help the citizens, but to help you, and how you guys can also, you know, need information as well.

Efficiency, we want to make sure that all information is as uh correct as possible.

So when we do get these calls, they don't call us back like, hey, you know, we you know try to look for a water man across the street, and we've lost resources because we dug up some sidewalk.

Um and now they're mad at us.

So versed.

Um, the amazing thing about all of these ESR products is they collaborate and they talk to each other so well.

You can do pretty much anything in one, and it's gonna collaborate with the other one just as well.

Um, so how can we help you?

This is what this is all about.

How can we go from here to help you guys if there's any information you need, anything that needs to be located, any information that you have that you want to be shown in a map in any way are possible.

Um from here, I'm gonna pass this back over to Jim, and he's gonna detail a little bit more about some applications.

So, Alexis, that was awesome.

Those are a lot of powerful ways to use uh ArcGIS field maps.

I want to really quickly just run through some other applications that ArcGIS and Esri provides to us and see if they inspire any of you with any ideas or anything like that.

Um we're also using field maps to do uh park asset collection.

We're using it as a tool to try and collect the locations and attribute data of all the various assets that are located within our parks.

Here you can see how the assets in each park will be symbolized based on type and contain relevant attribute data that can be added to and updated over time.

It also will include photos, installation dates, you know, various other attribute data that will help future users.

The whole point of this also is to keep all this data again, like in a one a solid repository, you know, one single place, so that it's not in various folders scattered throughout a T drive or a V drive.

We want to keep all this data in one spot so that future leaders in various departments are able to easily access this information without having to hunt through various folders and files.

And GIS has the capability to do that.

Um this is a great example of using field maps to collect and put all that data in one spot.

Another application we came up with um, not field maps related, but spatially related for sure, was born out of a request from Major Collins at MPD.

He wanted to the ability to add a spatial component, a map to the CAD call data that they already received.

So we took the computer aided dispatch information and added that as an element on the left.

When they click on a call from that list, they are taken to that location directly on the map where users also have the option of turning on vehicle locations for MPD and fire units to see where they are in relation to the incident.

This application has actually been a great success as it helps add that sense of location to information that MPD was already receiving.

This was all possible due to a collaborate collaborative collaborative collaborative effort.

I know, you know, it happens.

Between PD and us.

We would not have made this application just because we were sitting around.

They came to us to ask us, hey, how can you get this information even better?

And we put our heads together and made this.

But they didn't even know this was impossible, and that's what Brody was saying.

Bring your expertise to us.

Let's see what tools we have that we can make your work easier and in this case safer.

I want to really touch on this quick capture app.

So similar to field maps, this is an application where you can really quickly collect data in the field without even having a map around.

You we can configure buttons that you'll have an application on your phone.

You'll go out, click a button.

In this case, they were collecting plant uh potted plants throughout the city.

You click that, and then you just enter in some attribute information, save it and send it.

You can see it on the map in the application, but you don't need to.

In this case, uh Asia from Economic Development was trying to go out and collect various plant stamp plant potted plants, planters, landscape uh all throughout the square.

So she just went around, clicked it, clicked the button, took a picture, put some attribute data, and went on to the next.

She collected all this, you know, within an hour, thinking she was thinking it was going to take a lot more than that.

But with some of these quick capture tools, field information, field collecting is really not as difficult as you might think.

And then I want to wrap it up with uh the holiday light survey 123 and story map.

So this is actually a public facing application that's live right now, and it incorporates an application called Survey 123, which is a form-based application where users will go in, like you see here, submit information about their light displays at their home or business, and submit that to us upon review of GIS.

We then put those locations and pictures that they submit onto a story map that we then share on our website, and it enables other citizens to be able to see and appreciate the light displays that are made throughout the community.

You could also use it as kind of like a tour, like I know sometimes me and my family would drive around and kind of see all the different light displays.

This makes it so that people are able to submit their light displays.

Other citizens can then see those light displays, travel around, visit them, also visit events that are happening at Glover Park, like the lights there now and the tree lighting.

Um we started it last year.

It had some good ri success, and we're hoping for even more this year.

Um we're trying to get the word out.

So, you know, spread the word to anybody you know.

Um, it's on the website, it's shared through social media.

Um, it's a great community engagement application.

It's creative, it's fun, and it shows the power of GIS in a fun way.

And so with that, I'm gonna transition over into drones, that third pillar that I was talking about earlier.

Um the drone program here at the city was started about 2017-2018 by my predecessor, and from there it has really expanded into a fleet of a variety of uh use cases.

So we have a thermocapable drone that could be used for finding hot spots along power lines.

We can also the police also have thermal capable drones for obviously finding suspects hidden throughout the woods and such.

Um drones are capable of autonomous flights.

There's a couple different drones here because a different drone might suit different needs.

Some drones are better in one situation or another based on size, wind resistance, camera capability.

Um, so far this year we've logged over 110 drone flights, and that equates to over 7500 minutes or 125 hours of flight time.

And that's just the flight time of the drone actually being in the air.

It doesn't even account for all the time that we're spent out there changing out the batteries, planning missions.

Um there's a lot that goes into drone planning or planning a flight in the city.

Um we're under a certain airspace, and all GIS members need to be part one FAA Part 107 certified remote pilots because of this knowledge needed.

I'm actually going to show it, turn it over to Thomas, and he's gonna explain a little bit about these rules and regulations.

So, like Jim just said, we have to be certified to work in this position and fly drones.

Uh it's called the Part 107 certification, and it's an FAA regulated certificate that we need to fly commercially.

Um this is a required license that we need.

Uh since we're getting paid to fly, we have to have it.

Um, and to get it, there's a 60 question, uh two-hour multiple choice exam uh that can be pretty intense.

Um it goes over multiple different things like rules and regulations, uh, even the weather and airport operations and air spaces and flight patterns of manned aircrafts.

Um it honestly felt like we were having to take a test to fly an actual plane.

Um it needs to be renewed every two years.

Um we have to keep up with all the rules and regulations because uh they're always getting updated and always changing.

Um under part 107, a drone cannot fly over 400 feet in the air.

Uh that's the most common question we get.

Um, but there are some stipulations to that because everything in our atmosphere is split up into different air spaces.

Uh Class G airspace is one you don't need any sort of authorization for.

But since we in Marietta, we're actually within what's called Class D and E air Space, and that's due to our proximity to Dobbins and McCollum Airport.

Um, and so we have to get authorization from the FAA to be able to fly.

And we need to get something called a Lance.

It stands for low altitude authorization and notification capability.

Um, and this goes straight to Dobbins and their um air traffic control tower, and we use a company called Airspace Link to put in those authorizations.

So within this portal, we have this map that shows multiple different things, but if you see these blue grid patterns, these are grids that have individual height ceilings.

So if you look at this one, like in and around the square, it says 300.

So we can't go over 300 feet in that area.

And the square in particular, where we spend a lot of our time, uh, it's kind of split up into four different grids, and so we can make it to a variable height.

So say we needed to fly over these four grids.

We can then put it in a request to be able to only fly no higher than 300.

And we use this every day or every week, honestly, because every flight we do requires a lance, and particularly anywhere around Dobbins airbase, as you can see, it's all zero for obvious reasons.

But even areas nearby where we've where we've had to do flights, it has a 50-foot um height ceiling.

So that can be a little difficult to fly in because sometimes we need to at least go to 100.

And so we are actually able to put in a waiver to the FAA to go over that 50-foot uh height ceiling, but we would have to do it weeks in advance to give them information about what we're doing, how we're gonna be safe and everything.

So there are ways outside of that, but we have to be very diligent about what we do.

And for a lance, when we submit it, we draw a little like polygon over this map outlining the area we want to fly, and then we just give them information like the dates we want to fly, the time and the time range, how long we'll be there, and we don't really have to give information on what we're doing, but since we've worked with Dobbins so many times, they're able to approve our authorizations within 20 to 30 seconds.

Um that's very, very nice, especially when we need to go out on a quick request that needs to be done day of.

And so, in order to do our job, we have to be certified with a part 107 license and trained to know when, where, and how we can fly in the city.

And this is for every occasion for what we do, and all of this is so important because it allows us to fly safely and legally in the city.

So now I'm gonna pass it on to Brody to tell you about how we fly after we put in a lance.

Thank you, Thomas.

Thank you, Thomas.

So, like you said, that's how we get our license.

What do we do with this license?

So we fly drones.

Who would have thought?

That you see behind us, that's the media team.

Um three and then uh Kelly Huff and Maggie Moss.

Uh we work very closely with them very frequently with our drone work.

Uh recently, we started working closer with departments around the city to provide higher quality drone content.

Uh this normally happens by having meetings before the project or before the event to kind of align what footage we're gonna get and what outcomes we want.

Uh using the unique perspective provided by drones.

We do a lot of things such as videos of construction progress, uh videos or pictures of prospective areas for projects, uh, and last but definitely not least, content for use in social media.

Let's look at some of that.

So here's a fun one.

This is a recent fire graduate completing his little ladder hang at the top of the hundred foot fire ladder.

So we go out, we capture footage of this and other things in their graduation to help uh help Kelly produces videos.

I'm sure you recognize these lovely ladies.

This is from this 4th of July at the parade.

Uh events like this and Chocktoberfest here are our typically busiest days when we're flying.

Uh we'll be out there all day coordinating with photographers on the ground like Maggie and Kelly, uh, doing what we can to provide the best footage.

Um recently, we've seen a lot more drone footage get used in social media, I think because of the work we've been putting in before these events.

Um of the biggest things we do is the construction monitoring.

So here, this is greenhouse phase one and two with Kennesaw Mountain in the background.

Umsing this, we're able to monitor construction progress, and also able to do drone inspections.

So as you can see down here, it's much easier to fly a drone there than to get a person.

Uh same with the top of this thing.

This is uh the water tower at uh Sugar Hill that recently was put up.

Um pull up on site, check out a problem area on the site or an area of interest and get footage back in a quick turnaround.

Um obviously this is great for both people in the city and even council members if it's something they wanted to see that night at a council meeting.

And so while videos and pictures are a great starting point, Jim is going to get into imagery processing, which really unlocks all sorts of possibilities with this data.

Thank you, Brody.

So, yeah, another uh product that we get from drones is what we call ortho mosaic images.

This is a top-down image made up of multiple photos and then stitched together into one.

We use this for a variety of sites where we want to capture the most recent conditions on the ground to help supplement the citywide imagery that we get every one or two years.

Now, when we take the citywide imagery, it is usually taken in March and delivered to us in August.

So already it is nearly five months old, and we won't get a new imagery again until at least another 12 months.

So having the ability to capture this imagery and then upload it into our drone imagery layer is a huge benefit.

So using the drone's internal software on the controller, and it's typically the orange one here.

Uh it has the more advanced mapping software.

We're able to map out a route in which the drone will be able to fly autonomously.

And we call these missions.

And we must always be sure that during this mission, the drone is within visual line of sight.

But uh it's really about setting up the parameters of the mission and then executing it autonomously.

And so what you see on the screen here is uh an image of our drone post-process processing.

So this is a product called ArcGS drone to map.

And once the images are captured, we bring them into this software.

What you see on the screen, those little blue circles, those are all the photos that we're taking of this particular mission.

After drone to map processes the images, we then, like I was saying, upload those orthomosaic images into our drone imagery layer and then incorporate it into the various viewers.

So here you'll see a demonstration of zooming into some of those updated drone photographed areas to supplement changes in the real world.

So here you see the right-of-way that was adjusted off of Roswell Street in front of Cobb Hardware.

You'll see the new QT that was built over at the intersection of 41 and Roswell Street.

You'll also see the uh ongoing construction at Marietta Crossing at the intersection of Roswell Road and Powers Ferry.

You can see it's a very high resolution image.

You can even see some of the tracks on the equipment on there on the ground.

And another great example is over when they're adding new streets.

We go over and fly it, add the new street in there.

So that way you can see when I toggle this layer off what this area looked like before.

Completely different, and it would be like that for another you know, 12 to 18 months if we didn't have the ability to fly our drones, capture that imagery and update to be a benefit for all.

So we're also exploring a way to use some of this imagery in a 3D environment.

So here we have a 3D viewer app that's kind of devoted to the greenhouse subdivision that is north of the city, the northernmost part of the city, and it's off of Bells Ferry.

So here you see phase one and phase two.

Let me pop this out for you.

So here you'll see phase one and phase two and phase three down here below.

So there'll be another phase four that is going in here that will connect the two together.

And by geo referencing the site, the overall site plan, we're able to have that as a separate layer so you can kind of see where that road will eventually be built.

I believe they're currently in that stage right now, and so perhaps when we go out there again, because we fly this monthly, we'll be able to have a new phase integrated into this viewer.

In addition to that, we're also taking the digital terrain models that we're getting from the drone-derived data.

So when you come down here and you orient it, you're able to see the actual elevation change of the real world.

So without the drone data, this terrain would just be flat because it used to be just trees there, flat trees and some farm.

So using this, you're able to apply an elevation profile tool where you can draw a line from one point to another on the map, and then see how the ground elevation has changed.

This is great for members of the stormwater team who might want to see how runoff is properly being diverted during storms or how it's being engineered to be properly diverted.

Another cool thing here is we're exploring 3D objects.

So as this development is being constructed, they're constructing model homes and amenities and welcome centers.

We're able to fly that, capture pictures from various angles, stitch them together in that drone to map software, and create an in-house photorealistic representation of the model homes and current homes as they're going to get built.

It's a great way to show this kind of stuff to stakeholders, council members, maybe citizens who want to see real time how their community is getting developed.

In addition to this, let me transition out.

So we're also exploring just 3D models with other features.

So here's one of uh autonomous flight of a pedestrian of the pedestrian bridge over near Marietta Station.

Um, but we've also done other models of other construction previous constructions, such as the new fire tower over at Station 56 and the new water tower that Brody alluded to at Sugar Hill.

Um, using these objects, we're able to really craft a photorealistic representation of what is changing on the ground.

And then all of this helps us practice to create a more realistic 3D base map, which is one of our goals for the future.

We're planning to create a 3D baseman of the Marietta Square to be able to use in future applications or even digital twins.

Here you can still here you can see a really early stage 3D basemap model of the buildings of the downtown area.

Much of this source data was developed through uh free LiDAR data that we acquired from the state.

In the future, we hope to be able to incorporate our drone imagery data to create a more photorealistic environment.

This would all come together to eventually support what is known as a digital twin.

And a digital twin, if you haven't heard, is a dynamic virtual representation of a physical object, a process, or a system that is connected and synchronized through real-time data flow.

And so currently the city is exploring and applying for grant funding that would assist in the development of a transportation digital twin.

Think of a digital twin as like the next frontier of GIS, like we've gone from static maps to now complete environments that are full of real-time 3D buildings, and also when it comes to data such as like real-time data such as traffic flow, which be from the various IoT sensors and connected sources such as smart cars, it would allow predictive models and simulations to be developed.

So, for example, new buildings and neighborhoods that are being proposed, you'd be able to place those objects inside of the digital twin to see how it looks and fits within the existing area.

Is that building too tall, or does the chosen facade not mesh well with the existing area around it?

For transportation and traffic related projects, such as a new stop sign or new stoplights, you'd be able to see how making that change would then affect traffic flow in other areas that you have not thought about.

You know, you saw at the beginning of that slide where they were captures of cars and transport of people and traffic lights and you know being able to ingest all that data and then feed it into a model, and that model then sits in a 3D environment is incredibly powerful.

You're even able to, with the right GIS data, be able to go underground in a digital twin.

So think about the water and sewer pipes, how new water and sewer pipes would connect with existing infrastructure.

You'd be able to go underground to see it all.

Digital twins are an extremely powerful tool as long as you have the proper GIS backing it up.

And that is definitely a part of our future plans.

So that's a lot, and it's a lot of GIS talk and a lot of stuff, and it seems like it's a lot of work and it's a ever-changing technology, really.

So we're always always trying to like stay ahead of the curb because there's always a new application out, this would new use case out.

Um that's where having a GIS community really helps.

We're always learning from each other.

Um there's always a need to work together.

You know, we're all sharing data together, especially like working in city government, you know, we're within a county, we're within a state, we're within a country.

We all have to be sharing this data together to have the most accurate GIS data available for all.

Um we use events such as user conferences, um, regional organizations such as Georgia Geospatial Association, which Brody is on the board of, Atlanta Regional Commission Geospatial Group.

We go to these monthly and quarterly meetings, so we're constantly learning and trying to think of ways to bring that technology to Marietta.

Um what I want to point to now though is through student internships, um, we're able to have a connection with the community in a different way and also learn from them as they learn from us.

So I wanted Stephanie to come up and just say a few words about her experience here at Marietta and hopefully how her internship here at Marietta has helped her in her future GIS career.

Thank you, Jim.

So one of the most influential benefits of my internship so far has been learning how to apply the skills I have gained academically in a professional workplace.

In an educational setting, project data is always carefully curated by the professor, but during my internship, I have had to learn how to collect and manipulate raw data that can be influenced by an endless number of variables.

It creates a more realistic representation of how the GIS specialist here need a problem solve on a day-to-day basis.

Through my coursework as an environmental science major, I have always been taught how GIS contributes to sustainability, agricultural, and conservation practices.

However, this internship has provided me with an insight into how truly integrative GIS is when it comes to our public safety, community development, and resilience planning.

GIS is very interdisciplinary di interdisciplinary to me.

And for example, it is very possible to link community development, parks and rec, sustainable practices that I have learned through my studies by using drones to pinpoint potential urban hotspots within city limits.

Urban hot spots decrease air quality, increase energy consumption, and increase public health risks.

Using GIS, it is possible to pinpoint areas best fit for green spaces or smart urban planning to negate these impacts on a city's growing population.

I hope to combine these ideas and bring them with me along wherever my future career takes me.

And I'll pass it back to Jim to continue community discussions.

Awesome.

Thank you, Stephanie.

And so I hope that you've learned a lot, and I wanted to say that we also benefit a lot and learn a lot from having student interns.

It helps us as an industry and a community and organization understand what students are being taught in their geospatial classes, and also helps us as a group keep our finger on the pulse of what geospatial problems and issues are important to students such as Stephanie, who will eventually be the next GIS employees working at places such as the city of Marietta and beyond.

So going back to uh Ronnie's point at the very beginning about how important open data is uh and participating with other governments and institutions.

This is the City of Marietta GeoHub.

This is where you can find any data that we have that's supposed to be public facing.

That's streets, parcels, parks, other various GIS layers we have.

Also our static PDF maps where you can find zoning maps, ward maps, city limits.

And last but not least most of these apps that we talked about today, all of the public-facing ones are all in here as well.

So you can explore them yourself.

Um check them out.

Anyways, uh for the internal maps and apps.

Jim's gonna show you where you're gonna be accessing those.

So yeah, just as a final part here, um, we wanted to create, we wanted to talk about a new place to access all these applications.

I get a lot of comments, questions like where can I get this?

Where can I find this?

Oh, you sent me this in an email.

I don't have that email, I didn't bookmark it.

Um I wanted to create a place where it all these URLs, all these links are gonna live in a really easy to access area.

So we're all familiar with SharePoint.

So we're gonna put this on the it's on the IT main SharePoint.

You just click IT, you'll see of this link that says GIS app URL list.

Um this will be effective January 1st, and it will have all the the URLs to the various applications.

Um we'll have a list, we'll have a little blurb about what the application is, and this will be your go-to for finding anything you need as far as applications, because I know we have a lot, and sometimes you just you forget about it or you don't have the URL handy, and you're like, oh, I need to I need this for a meeting.

So we're gonna put it all here.

Um I wanted to just quickly touch on so all these applications live in either one of these two portals, ArcGS Online or ArcGS Enterprise.

Um that's the URL and that's a QR code to get there.

You don't need to go there, but if any of you are curious about going there, that is where you're gonna start out when you're designing your survey 123s, your story maps, your web maps, you know.

If you want to do try your hand at some of the stuff, like it's out there and there's free.

So there's licensing for some creating and design, but viewing everything is included.

Like all of you have access to view anything in there.

Um I wanted to touch on really quick logging in.

So sometimes when we send you URLs to see applications that we've made for you, it's behind an organization credential login because it's not a publicly accessible application.

So I just wanted to quickly show, you know, if you ever come across logging in, you might see uh a blue box.

You'll want to click that, but then you're just gonna use your city email and city credentials to log in.

There's no additional email, there's no additional username, password that you have to remember.

It's all linked together because we want to make it easy for you to access all this information.

So just click the blue box, you'll see a Microsoft pop-up, like you see on the screen, and you just sign in using your city email and city credentials.

It's a very important step that often gets overlooked by us, so we are sorry for that.

And then just really quickly, what's next?

You know, we're gonna be looking into that 3D base map design of the square.

We'll be redesigning, updating the planning and zoning viewer, the water viewer, engineering viewer, all into a new format similar to the internal viewer or the vertige studio maps that you saw.

We have a new fire hydrant inspection app being deployed at the beginning of the year with the fire department.

Uh Marietta Trails story map will be coming, so it's a more intuitive and interactive look into all the trail systems that economic development and the city as a whole maintain.

Um then we just have constant quality checking of data.

We have a lot, a lot of data.

We have over 80,000 address points, 20,000 parcels, you know, dozens and dozens of applications.

Um we're constantly going back over and correcting the data, correcting the feasibility of the data.

Um this is where I wanted to transition into like if you ever notice anything about our data, don't feel free, don't feel like afraid to either reach out through email or the GIS issues ticket.

You know, let us know, hey, I think this is wrong, this is not correct.

Um if you have any project ideas or anything you want to talk about, you can always use the GIS general request support ticket.

But we're here to, I wanted to stress we're here to help you all try to develop applications that would help you do your jobs easier.

So the first place to start is think about it, get with your supervisor or manager, and then just submit a ticket and we can collaborate and see if GIS can help be a solution to your problems.

Um with that, I will wrap up and I just want to say thank you all for attending.

And I hope you all learned at least one thing.

If you learned one thing, it was totally worth it.

Um so we appreciate your time and attendance.