The second CAST sponsored competition for #EASTcon22 is the Mapping App Competition.

The Mapping App Competition is open to any Web Mapping Application built within ArcGIS Online, including Story Maps, Configurable or Instant Apps, Web AppBuilder, or a Dashboard. EAST students and/or EAST project teams can submit multiple Mapping App Competition applications for 2022.

Submission DEADLINES for all EAST Conference competitions are 3pm CST Feb 8, 2022.

EAST students or an EAST lab project team can only submit one Go Map 22 project into our online reporting form for this Go Map 22 competition, located here: https://tinyurl.com/gomap22

A student or EAST project team must submit their final StoryMap by 3pm CST on February 8, 2022. Your final project submission should be in the form of a publicly visible StoryMap that clearly explains the project scope and community impact. It should also include maps, applications or other ArcGIS platform-related technologies that supported this community outreach or support effort.

The full details of the Go Map 22 competition or the Mapping App Competition can be reviewed on the #EASTcon22 Competitions page on the EAST Conference 2022 website. All EAST Conference Competitions are due by 3pm CST on Tuesday February 8, 2022.

Mimi Reagler said, “The GoMap Twenty-One map competition gave her a good relationship with the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.”

– The Sentinel-Record, April 5, 2021

“I want to stay in EAST. I would like to continue to use that relationship for future projects,” Reagler said.

John Anderson | The Sentinel-Record, April 5, 2021

The EAST Geospatial Support Team at CAST would like to thank all of our 2021 GoMap Twenty-One Competition participants. The response to this years ArcGIS activity competition was a pleasant surprise and there were many EAST programs and participants using their ArcGIS skills effectively and making positive impacts within their communities.

One way to celebrate Earth Day (today) is to review this REAL-TIME ArcGIS dashboard of important Environmental Health indicators of our planet! It leverages LIVE data feeds from the ArcGIS Living Atlas!

Esri has gathered near real-time information within the ArcGIS Living Atlas from many data-contributing partners such as: NOAA, UN Environment Programme, and the US Geological Survey to create this ArcGIS Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet. This ArcGIS application was launched in July 2020 and organizes an impressive collection of indices into a dashboard gallery of Environmental conditions for our planet. Earth Day 2021 is the perfect time to review these Earth Indicators and possibly plan activities to help mitigate these impacts. Simply planting a tree, or picking up litter in a local park could make a lasting difference!

ArcGIS Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet was developed using the ArcGIS Experience Builder and is in its Beta release while additional capabilities are being implemented. This Experience Builder template can be customized for your own topics of interest. All of the underlying layers, maps, and apps are available from this Content Group.

The ArcGIS Online Assistant – An ArcGIS online tool for managing ArcGIS content created by ArcGIS Online users.   Copy, Move, or Manage ArcGIS Online Items using a web browser.  – use this ArcGIS Swiss Army knife.

The ArcGIS Online Assistant – An ESRI web browser tool for managing AGOL content for all ArcGIS Online users.   Copy, Move, Manage ArcGIS Online Items using a web browser.  *Make sure you have the content owners’ username and passwords (for each organization) so that you can MOVE or COPY ArcGIS online content (maps/apps/surveys/feature services) from one organization to another. You can transfer content ownership, too!

1. Navigate to the ArcGIS Online Assistant website (use a Chrome or Firefox web browser.)

https://ago-assistant.esri.com

• Log in using the content owner’s username/password for each AGOL organization. *Don’t forget to specify your organization, it’s required for portal/enterprise accounts not managed by ArcGIS.com.

Click to download the step-by-step ArcGIS Online Assistant tutorial created by Brian Culpepper for EAST facilitators and students.

Each ArcGIS Enterprise organization address will be unique so your address will differ than this example screenshot from ArcGIS Field Map

Field Maps was released in October 2020 and is set to replace ArcGIS collector in December 2021 so now is the time to dive into using Field Maps.   The migration to Field Maps will simplify the ArcGIS variety of ‘mobile mapping applications’ and eventually consolidate functionality into one application: ArcGIS Field Maps.   For EAST students, you have used ArcGIS Collector when field mapping or creating new geodata, such as points, lines or polygons from your mobile device, so Field Maps should feel very familiar. If you have questions, contact the EAST Geospatial Support Team (Brian Culpepper or Malcolm Williamson)

There are several excellent ESRI Blog posts that summarize what you can do with Field Maps and why it will improve your workflow; especially if you are needing to ‘work offline’ in an area with limited cellular service.  Map navigation within the Field Maps app has also improved, so let’s download it and try out these FIVE THINGS TO TRY WITH THE NEW FIELD MAPS app from Esri.   We are interested in hearing your thoughts too!

ArcGIS Online Updates: The ArcGIS online platform is scheduled for an update on April 14, 2021 but this list of Internet web browsers are the currently recommended web browsers for ArcGIS Online applications.

For the best performance within the ArcGIS Online website, use the latest version of a browser listed below. The ArcGIS platform leverages the local storage capabilities (like cookies) of the web browser. If this storage is disabled, the ArcGIS site may not function properly. To learn how to enable local storage, consult the web browser’s online documentation.

ArcGIS Online Map Viewers, StoryMaps Builder and Web Scene Viewers support the latest versions of the following browsers:
Google Chrome
Microsoft Edge
Mozilla Firefox
Apple Safari*
*Safari does not have WebGL implementation optimized for memory-intensive applications and may not work reliably when opening certain scenes.

Specific requirements for ArcGIS Storymaps: Only WebGL-enabled browsers are supported, and the browser must support JavaScript and cookies.

Note: Internet Explorer 11 and Edge Legacy are no longer supported. Please use the latest versions of the browsers listed above.

Here are some Mapping Activities that the CAST team wants to encourage:

• Demonstrate the use of ArcGIS Mapping Technologies in your EAST Project(s) but submit examples or documentation within your report.
• Complete an ArcGIS Mapping Tutorial (Online or in-person)
• Share your knowledge of Mapping Technologies with others (Survey123, ArcGIS Hub, Web Map Builder, ArcGIS Administration, StoryMaps, or Community Analyst all count in this competition.)

Multiple mapping-related activities can be submitted by using the online submission form, but we require supporting documentation for each activity report to valid your effort. Documentation may include the URL to a Survey123 form/web map application that you have created, or even a screen shot of the completion certificate from an online mapping tutorial. We simply want you to UP your MAPPING SAVVY and GoMap more in 2021! We look forward to answering questions and assisting you this year with your mapping questions. Map On!

The GoMap Twenty-One Competition officially began August 24, 2020 and the closing date for this competition was March 9, 2021.

Thanks to some legwork by Jerry Prince at EAST and Charlie Fitzpatrick at Esri, I can share the cure for this malady. The bottom line is that Esri has been making some changes in the “User Types” used by their system, and they’re pushing all of their accounts to change from a User Type of “Creator” to one of “GIS Professional Advanced” (sounds fancy, doesn’t it?). The only “gotcha” is that you may have to do this for many users, so I’ll show you the easy way to do that.

After signing into ArcGIS Online, make sure that you are on the “Organization” tab, and then click on “Members” in the blue bar.

If you have more than 20 members in your organization, you’ll note that this page only shows 20 members at a time by default. Thankfully, if you’re like me and have a lot of members, you can go to the bottom of the page and tell it to display up to 100 members per page:

Go back up to the top of the page and check the checkbox next to “Member” at the very top of the list to select all members on the page. If your account is also displayed on this page, you’ll need to uncheck the box next to it, as you can’t manage it at the same time as everyone else (you’ll repeat these steps just for your account). Above the list, several options will appear; you want to click on the option to “Manage User Types”:

In the “Manage user type / role” window, click on the arrows to the right of “User types assigned”:

Click on “GIS Professional Advanced”. You might also want to Roles assigned; you probably want everyone except you to be a “Publisher”, so you can take care of that at the same time if you wish. Finally, click the “Save” button. You’ll be prompted to confirm that you really want to update the User/Role of you members; you will of course click “OK”:

You’ll be returned to your Members list, where you should see that everyone now has a User Type of “GIS Professional Advanced”, except possibly yourself (you’ll fix that in a minute).

Before selecting another page of members (if you’ve got more than 100) or fixing your account, you should take this opportunity to manage add-on licenses for everyone. While all the members are still selected, click the option at the top of the list to “Manage add-on licenses”:

Because you’ve got enough licenses for all your members to have every license, I recommend saving yourself some effort in the future by simply granting every license to everyone. This includes the extensions for ArcGIS Pro, the ArcGIS Urban Suite app bundle, and all the other Applications – just select them all, then click the “Save” button at the bottom:

There is the possibility that you’ll see an Add-on License that shows (in red) that you’ve got more licenses in use than are available – this means that that particular app license is no longer part of the Education bundle. I ran into this with CityEngine, which previously was a separate license. Now it’s part of the ArcGIS Urban Suite. Regardless, if you see such an issue in your account, you’ll need to remove those licenses from the members to which they were assigned, else you’ll keep seeing that same warning box when you sign in!

That’s the basic process. Don’t forget to go back and assign the correct User Type and Add-On Licenses for yourself. If you’ve got more than 100 members, you can then go to the next page and repeat the process. Either way, it won’t take you long once you get used to it.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or problems.

-Malcolm Williamson

Ever wanted to get a glimpse of what your town or school looked like some years ago? If you search for something like “historic imagery” in ArcGIS Online, you won’t find many useful results. Sure, they were taking aerial photos as far back as World War I – 100 years ago! – but all these photos were on film, not digital media. Scanning these photos and then aligning them properly on the Earth was a lot of work, and therefore expensive.

In the last few years, computing power has vastly increased, and software has been created that can automate much of this process. Because of this, your friends at CAST have been able to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Arkansas GIS Office to convert 4500 scanned photos, flown over Arkansas in the early 1980s, into a seamless set of georeferenced digital images. Through the Arkansas GIS Office, anyone can now access these images directly in their GIS project.

Using these images couldn’t be easier. Simply copy the link below, and then use the Add > Add Layer from Web option to add it to the Map Viewer of ArcGIS Online.

https://gis.arkansas.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ImageServices/IMAGERY_NHAP_1980_1986/ImageServer