GIS in Action 2026

The first USGS topographic maps in 1884 started as hand-engraved copper plates, and in the early 1900s, relief was hand-shaded. By the 1960s, maps were scribed on mylar sheets, labels were applied letter by letter, and technicians field-verified map features. Since 2009, maps are made using GIS software with remotely sensed data, produced on a predefined grid, and updated every three years. The 2022 release of topoBuilder allows users to create custom topographic maps centered anywhere in the U.S. and territories with the latest available data from The National Map.

Imagery is no longer just a snapshot in time. It is becoming an essential infrastructure for how organizations plan, operate, and make decisions. Building a Resilient Imagery Program explores how organizations can move beyond one-time image capture toward a
planned, repeatable, and shared imagery program that supports standardized workflows, and broader organizational use. This session will examine the progression from ad hoc imagery collection to a resilient program model, highlighting how deliberate and repeatable
design choices help sustain long-term value while reducing risk. Attendees will gain insight into how imagery programs can be structured to support continuity, improve access to historical and operational context, and better serve planning, operations, and
decision-making across an organization. Ideal for GIS professionals, program managers, and organizational leaders, this session offers a practical framework for building imagery programs that endure.

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) is integral to Oregon’s complete and coordinated wildfire response system. Effective incident response relies on timely, accurate, and standardized geospatial information to support tactical and public safety decisions in complex, high pressure environments. This presentation examines how GIS technologies are integrated within the incident command structure - from field data collection to map production and data dissemination. A key focus will be the use of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Geosptial Operations (GeoOps) data standard to create efficient workflows, maintain data integrity, and ensure interoperability across all responding agencies. The session will also provide a glimpse into life at fire camp, where GIS specialists work alongside firefighters, planners, and operational staff to deliver critical geospatial intelligence.

Real-world lidar datasets rarely behave as cleanly as theory suggests. Multi-time-around artifacts, shoreline ringing, mission-level inconsistencies, and environmental effects such as steep terrain or water interfaces can introduce systematic noise that standard workflows struggle to resolve.
This presentation examines common lidar artifacts encountered in coastal, tropical, and complex terrain environments and discusses practical strategies for diagnosing root causes and applying targeted cleanup methods. Emphasis is placed on distinguishing systematic artifact patterns from random noise and adapting classification parameters to existing spatial behavior. Then implementing repeatable mitigation strategies and structuring workflows to improve coherence without relying solely on reflying data.
Attendees will gain insight into how critical analysis, structured automation, and adaptive classification approaches can improve data quality while preserving efficiency in production environments.

This presentation discusses methods for integration of tide-coordinated data sources to produce seamless surface of Jetty Structures.

Topographic-bathymetric lidar is a critical tool for coastal resilience, infrastructure planning, and nautical charting. Woolpert, Inc. collects topo-bathymetric lidar using Leica’s HawkEye5 system mounted on a fixed-wing aircraft, enabling efficient, high-resolution mapping of coasts, rivers, and lakes. The system simultaneously collects topographic and bathymetric data, allowing continuous coverage across the littoral zone.
Compared to traditional vessel based acoustic surveys, airborne topo-bathymetric lidar excels in nearshore and shallow regions (~0–20 m) where vessel operations can be unsafe or inefficient. Clients include the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). These projects support applications such as change analysis, disaster response, navigational charting, and deeper water applications (up to 50m) such as benthic habitat mapping, underwater obstacle detection.
Collection and processing challenges, including weather, water clarity, turbidity, and vegetation, require careful planning and adaptive workflows. GIS plays a central role in the workflow, supporting flight planning, coverage assessment, quality control, result validation, and product creation. Examples of final deliverables include seamless topo-bathymetric digital elevation models (DEM), web maps, and derived feature layers to support informed decision making.

Water managers, farmers and communities across the United States are increasingly seeking better information about how water is used across the landscape. One of the most important- and historically difficult- components of water accounting is consumptive use: the water that is actually used by crops and vegetation and returned to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration (ET).

OpenET is a collaborative, satellite-based platform that provides field-scale evapotranspiration data across the western United States. By combining satellite imagery, weather data and multiple ET models, OpenET makes it possible to estimate consumptive water use consistently across large areas while also making the information accessible through an easy-to-use online platform and open data tools.

This presentation will introduce the fundamentals of satellite-based evapotranspiration and provide an overview of the OpenET platform. Attendees will learn how ET can be estimated from satellite observations, how OpenET integrates multiple scientific models, and how these data can help water users, researchers and resource managers better manage water.

The talk will also highlight emerging ways OpenET data are being explored and applied in Oregon. Across the state, satellite-derived ET information is helping improve understanding of agricultural water use, support water management planning and provide new insights into how water moves through landscapes and watersheds.

The Freshwater Trust (TFT) is a solutions-oriented nonprofit that uses precision analytics to quantify high-priority conservation projects that achieve watershed-scale outcomes. I will highlight the water resource tools we are currently applying to solve problems across the Western U.S. and show examples of decision-support applications and the geospatial workflows we use in arid regions such as Colorado. We are partnering with water managers, farmers, and conservation districts to design programs that build resilience through large-scale water delivery and on-farm irrigation modernization projects. The foundation for these programs is TFT’s BasinScout® Analytics: automated diagnostics that assess large landscapes and watersheds to estimate environmental benefits and prioritize feasible conservation actions at targeted sites. For irrigation-related programs, we aggregate public data sets to focus on conserving high-value farmland, improving water quality, and supporting agricultural economies and communities impacted by drought and decades of water speculation. TFT’s analytics and customized decision-support tools can help communities adapt to changing water conditions and direct funding to the most impactful actions that balance agricultural productivity and competing water demands.

For over 2.5 years, City of Salem Environmental Services has accumulated both internally and externally collected PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) samples, but these results were not integrated into GIS until recently. Our GIS team developed an internal ArcGIS Experience Builder application, built on Survey123 forms and hosted feature layers, with an automated FME workflow to standardize and consolidate the data. The application allows users to generate chain of custody forms, submit new lab results to update the dataset, filter sites by matrix and category, track regulatory exceedances, explore time-series trends for 40 PFAS analytes, and access associated lab reports and data files. By linking sampling events to mapped locations, the system turns years of scattered environmental data into an interactive, easy-to-use resource that supports better decision-making.