North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

QGIS

Training Schedule for the QGIS Workshop for 2020

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QGIS Classes have been scheduled through 2020 – which is a first.

Changes – oh there are several:

  • QGIS Workshop is 2 days now making it 16 hours total. We’re covering everything from the interface to editing to building forms to symbology. It’s going to be a busy two days.
  • Class is still hands on – so show up with a little bit of background in GIS. We hit the ground running in this class.
  • We’re holding the class at Chattanooga State in an actual classroom. Which settles the massive issue of parking and facilities.
  • If you can’t come to Chattanooga – the class can come to you.
  • Bring your laptop with the latest and greatest of QGIS. We aren’t providing equipment (but I’ll help you get your equipment ready).

Dates for Chattanooga:

  • January 15-16 2020
  • May 13-14 2020
  • Sep 16-17 2020
  • Nov 18-19 2020

Cost: $700 for two days – and this comes with a certificate from the QGIS Community. I used to give people the option and it’s now mandatory for the class.

Registration: https://www.campusce.net/cscc/course/EventDetail.aspx?C=106

Location: Chattanooga TN

Where can you stay? Several places within 15 minutes of Chattanooga State. I would suggest downtown Chattanooga just for the fun of being in downtown. Plus if you bring significant others there is plenty to do.

Participants: Locked at 12 per class.

Anyway – I look forward to seeing you come to Chattanooga for a QGIS Class!

 

Chattanooga QGIS Conference Update

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So things are moving. Things are always a bit terrifying as this starts pulling together. I’ve been tossing updates everywhere – so here’s an update for the Blog.

Official Stuff

Website: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/20191000-QGIS-US

Date: October 25th 2019

So the first big thing: A Social. I’m headed down to the Tap House this week to make sure everything is arranged for a social On October 24th.

Talks

Talks are rolling in for Friday. There is still room to submit a paper if you wish. The big one is I’m hopefully (and I’m at the mercy of the internet) is I’ve got Nyall Dawson on Video from Australia speaking first.

Here are some of the abstracts that have been submitted:

  • QGIS: It’s all about Form(s) – QGIS comes with the ability to create forms to help you input data or capture data. You can build simple forms to help users avoid misspellings and help speed up data capture. You can also build forms where data entry is dependent on previous data entered as well as forms where data entry depends on other GIS data. Building Forms in QGIS is easy, powerful, and easily done if you have no programming experience. I’m going to attempt to talk you through the easiest to make forms plus one difficult form to show you how easy this can be (or hard depending on how the demos work).
  • Using QGIS with TN’s 911 Database Standard – Henry County 911 recently moved away form their COTS system and started using QGIS, PostGIS, and Fulcrum to collect and maintain the county’s 911 data. This talk covers some of the in’s and out’s of switching software, tools, and workflows.
  • EcoValuator:  EcoValuator is built on python and provides a simple means of estimating the dollar value of a study area, based on the land cover types in that study area, and on your ecosystem service of choice. This presentation will cover background information about the project, what are ecosystem services, how the EcoValuator works, challenges of using the QGIS python API, and demonstration of the plugin in action.
  • Building a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution based on Openlayers and CesiumJS. 18 month ago our team felt the need for having a next Gen cloud mapping solution. We did not want to leave it all to ArcGIS Online, so we decided to build our own. It is designed to make maps, analyze data, add custom database solutions, and to share maps and data with fellow users.Take a look behind the scene of the journey of putting it all together and learn how far we have come and what are our ideas in terms of connecting Open Source solutions like QGIS and GeoServer.

…..and more are coming.

This is the third meeting I’ve put on since 2017. All meetings are centered around FOSS4G with this being the  first QGIS focused one. I’ve had emails and conversations from all over the US on this meeting. One thing that keeps coming up is people want more open source GIS meetings. The tough part is it has to be a community run affair or someone (yours truly) jumps up and puts this together. I really need to start earlier and shoot for bigger – BUT – there’s only so much I can do. We have the FOSS4G NA meetings that are well run and much bigger – but this seems to scratch an itch. How does this get bigger? I have no idea and I’m open to suggestions.

Anyway – the clock is ticking. The more the merrier at this thing so please make plans to attend.

 

 

TN 911 Server Updates

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The TN NG911 server got an upgrade this month with some quality assurance checks. After working with Henry County for the last bit we’re into more “what if” scenarios.

  • What if we ran checks for misspelled addresses or improperly labeled addresses?
  • What if we started filling out the fields we weren’t filling with out with our ArcGIS/Geodatabase setup?

Working with Chad Howard (911 GIS Guru for Henry County TN) we’ve started playing with data problems. One thing I learned is that the amount of quality assurance checks at the county level are lacking – not because anyone didn’t want to do it it’s just hard working with a basic arcgis license to do anything significant. That’s where postgis comes into play. I’ve got a total of three checks on the addresses planned with two implemented as of right now.

What if you accidentally add two address points with the same geometry? A red circle appears in one of the layers in your database (and in your QGIS session) alerting you to the mistake. What if you accidentally misspell an address street name and that doesn’t match a street? A blue circle appears. If you look at the example it looks like someone can’t spell. Actually the old setup was adding spaces to names. So instead of “Main” you had “Main “. That’s an easy enough fix we can do in a bulk edit.

I expect these next set of checks to slowly become irrelevant over the next bit as the client takes full advantage of QGIS’s forms for data entry. Once again we’re hitting spaces as opposed to nulls in the data in 80% of the cases. We should only have 4 pre-directionals – well at most 8 –  but for this county they only have 4.

We can bulk edit the spaces away in the database. It’s nice to have this table sitting in the qaqc schema just to check occasionally but I do expect that to drift off in significance the more we use Fulcrum and QGIS’s Forms for data input. These checks check everything from street types, names, to directionals. Like I said – over time these start drifting off in significance but it’s nice for now.

Anyway – more quality checks are planned but we’re over he first hurdle to making this even more useful and easy.

QGIS Training Revisions

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Like I don’t talk about this enough……BUT – can I just say Training is difficult on a good day. You have to pick a day, pick a location, advertise your butt off, and then HOPE beyond hope someone signs up for it. This year has been odd in that I’ve taught three or four times now – all for conferences and clients. So I’ve been on the road bouncing out different versions of the basic classes and gymnastic skills to get training done. I hate flying – and I’ve been on more planes the first 6 months of this year than I have in a good while.

The last few training classes have been enjoyable. At one time I was using the Business Development Center here in town and that was a good spot overall just a bit of a pain to deal with as far as parking and food went. Plus it was more of a numbers game. To make it worth my while I really had to hold a lot of classes – and that went back to my days as an ESRI Certified Trainer.

So – what just changed?

  • Classes will be held again in Chattanooga once a quarter
  • The QGIS Class will now be 2 days and Cover QGIS I and II. It’s all Chattanooga Centric Data also from vector to raster – you’re going to be in the dataset we are going to use.
  • The classes will be held at the new Holiday Inn in Chattanooga. Holiday Inn? Yes. It’s in Downtown Chattanooga and within walking distance of everything you would want to do in Chattanooga at night or during the day (if you happen to bring anyone with you). There will be a special rate at the Holiday Inn for people wanting to stay there. For those not staying there we’ve got parking available and that’s not a hassle.
  • All Classes will be QGIS Certified – so you will get a certificate and funds go back to the QGIS Project.
  • It’s all prepaid. So if you don’t pay you don’t have a spot. This will keep the price lower because I’ll be less stressed.

I’m rounding out the Day 2 class to be more in line with Day 1. I may scrap the QGIS 3 class just because that’s a bit much. I’m still available to come to you vs you coming to me also.

I look forward to you coming to Chattanooga – it’s fun, centrally located, and makes for a good trip out. Plus Chattanooga has a massive mapping history no one knows about. Anyway – dates are coming soon.

 

TN NG-911 Server

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Last year I had the chance to work with Henry County TN’s 911 group on a software migration project. I moved the organization off a basic commercial GIS product to an open source enterprise server. Overall it was a great project with a defined end goal and a lot of flexibility in making it happen.

Once the project ended I never stopped working on the database and the tools. Over the last few months I’ve had the chance to turn the database into something that is 100% compliant with the State of TN’s NG911 System. I present the TN NG911 Server.

What does it look like?

The workflow is simple. Field Personnel go out and collect data using menus set up in Fulcrum.

Data is stored in PostGIS/PostgreSQL and edited with custom menus in QGIS. The database is served out through Geoserver as an OGC service.

Data is exported from the server at night to the the states ESRI database.

The bonuses to this approach:

  • 100% TN NG911 Compliant
  • Cloud Deployment Or Onsite Deployment
  • Local TN Support for your organization
  • Can Interface with Computer Aided Dispatch Systems through managed Exports.
  • Quality Checks on your attributes
  • Topology checks for your data
  • Unlimited Desktop Deployments for everyone
  • Can work with TN’s LIDAR Data and TN’s Imagery Services.
  • Handles more than just the 3 data layers the state needs for NG911

Granted it’s not 100% open source as Fulcrum is a commercial product. Fulcrum will need to be purchased but it’s only a fraction of what you could be spending on software and it has more uses than just address collection.

The TN NG911 Server has a solid deployment that’s been in production a year. If you’re interested in integrating Open Source GIS into your 911 system you should at least look at this approach. Everyone needs good clean data.

Future plans have a plugin and more quality checks on the data. For Version 1 though this is very solid and very functional.

What about the NENA Standard? The TN Standard is not NENA Compliant! Well – stay tuned for more news.

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