NACIS 2018

The wind beneath our wings: creating How Birds Migrate
Presenter: Brian Jacobs, National Geographic
Billions of birds migrate every year, and National Geographic Magazine covered this extraordinary phenomenon in print and digital forms. Our digital feature shows the intercontinental journey of several species of birds through text, audio, photography, and animated maps. I'll discuss the design and development of this project alongside the print poster, and the how and why of assembling geospatial animations. Much of this project involves marrying automated and manual map creation steps. I'll talk about workflow of creating animations from thousands of images, layering them with vector layers and hand-placed labels. Animated data sources include satellite imagery, global NDVI, GPS tracks, and bird abundance modeling.

Mapping for Environmental Law
Presenter: Jovian Sackett, Southern Environmental Law Center
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) uses the power of the law to champion the environment of the Southeast. Mapping for advocacy is a fair, but limited, characterization of SELC’s geospatial work. Our maps must often transcend the courts of public opinion and withstand rigors of evidentiary scrutiny in courts of law. Since NACIS is in Norfolk, come see how SELC uses maps, right here, to campaign against offshore oil/gas exploration, plan for sea-level rise, and clean up contaminated industrial sites.

The technology of US Topo mass production
Presenter: Andrew Stauffer, US Geological Survey
The US Topo production system maintained by the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center at the U.S. Geological Survey underwent major modernization in mid-2017. The system architecture and software are now housed in a cloud computing environment, and we used an Agile-based development paradigm of small, iterative improvements to create and now to maintain the system. I also discuss the underlying geospatial data framework that enables production of over 18,000 US Topo maps per year, as well as the workflows and business logic that can generate 65,000 unique maps from a single template and national geospatial database.

Lake Tahoe– Topographies in many forms
Presenter: Jeremy Goldsmith, National Geographic
This presentation highlights the research and production of two recreational mapping projects within the same geographic extent of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Learn how these maps are produced in multiple media formats–from folded maps to mobile platforms–and why both are essential to outdoor enthusiasts.