As data, including geospatial data, are increasingly mobilized in the service of governments and corporations, their unequal conditions of production, their asymmetrical methods of application, and their unequal effects on both individuals and groups have become increasingly difficult for data scientists--and others who rely on data in their work--to ignore. But it is precisely this…

From deforestation to urbanization, the human footprint on the land surface is ever expanding, converting natural land covers into land uses or intensifying current land uses. Land use change results in loss of biodiversity, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and alteration of hydrological systems, among other impacts. Rates of land use change can be quantified using…

Is nature predictable? If so, how can we better manage and conserve ecosystems? Iterative ecological forecasting is an emerging interdisciplinary research area that aims to improve researchers' ability to predict ecological processes on near-term timescales that can be validated and updated. In this forum, Dietze will discuss the challenges and opportunities in iterative ecological forecasting,…

Seasonal (0-3 months) climate forecasts and near-term decadal (10-30 years) climate change projections provide valuable information for improving seasonal and long-term planning of water and energy management. Given that the climatic attributes over these time periods are typically expressed as probabilistic information, we propose an adaptive water and energy management framework that uses probabilistic inflow…

ArcGIS Enterprise is a foundational software system for powerful mapping, analytics, and data management. Deploying ArcGIS Enterprise in the cloud combines the capabilities of GIS with the computing power and flexibility of cloud deployments. This forum presentation will provide an overview of ArcGIS Enterprise and the software components necessary to configure a base deployment. We…

In heavily forested environments, the digital deletion of vegetation through lidar remote sensing and the generation of bare-earth digital elevation models has enhanced our abilities to observe and quantify geologic hazards. In this forum Dr. Wegmann will present examples from studies in Washington, Colorado, and North Carolina where lidar datasets allow for improved identification and…

As extreme climatic events such as droughts are becoming more frequent and demands for water are increasing world-wide, it is projected that as many as 3.5 billion people could experience water scarcity by 2025. In Australia, changes in climate and land use as well as multi-year droughts, such as the Millennium Drought that ended in…