News

Going to California… to discuss GIS Strategy and Climate Change Analysis - Nathan Heazlewood

- July, 2023

At the end of 2022, I had the privilege to attend two excellent events in the USA. One focussed on GIS leadership, and the second discussed the connections between climate, weather, and the oceans. These were some of the most rewarding GIS events that I have ever attended, so I am very thankful to Eagle Technology for giving me this amazing opportunity. It is my belief that the topics raised are critical for where the GIS industry is right now and there were dozens of key learnings that I have brought home with me to share with the industry in New Zealand. What follows are some key observations that I made during these events. 

Event 1: URISA GIS Leadership Academy: Santa Rosa

The URISA GIS Leadership Academy is a professional development program designed for GIS leaders or professionals who aspire to take on leadership roles in their organisations. The academy aims to provide participants with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in management and leadership positions. The academy is offered by URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association), a non-profit professional organisation that promotes the effective use of spatial information and GIS technology. The GIS Leadership Academy took place over a week in the beautiful vineyard region of Northern California.

During the academy we learned about leadership and management principles, communication strategies, organisational change management, and strategic planning. There were structured lessons, resources, and activities but a key benefit of the week was the opportunity to network with other GIS managers and to gain insights from experienced leaders in the field.

Examples of some of the key learning points:

• From a strategy perspective, it is important to monitor what is going on in the world around you as well as look introspectively at what is currently happening at your organisation- sooner or later external factors will impact you too.
• We struggle with justifying the benefits of GIS to executives- sometimes there is a 'golden minute' at the end of a project when the customer/users are really pleased (however often they give that feedback verbally or in a meeting): grab that moment (or maybe right after the meeting) and ask the customer to just put that feedback into a simple couple of sentences in an email- this can be gold for proving the benefits of a future project.
• "Leadership is solving problems. The day staff stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."
• Celebrate the successes of your team using many approaches. In some cases this might be getting them to present their work to their colleagues or at a conference, in other cases, this might be doing a site visit to see the benefits of their work 'in the real world'.

Personal Observations

There were a few things that struck me personally about this event:

It was an honour to be the sole Kiwi at this event, but even though the vast majority of the attendees were from North America they face the same challenges that we do at home. People often think of the USA as being all like New York or Los Angeles, but in reality, most of the USA and Canada are made up of medium to small-sized cities, which have a lot more in common with Hutt City or Hamilton than you would expect. A lot of the issues that we discussed were exactly the same as we experience in New Zealand/Aoteroa.

The academy sessions were maybe 50% instructor-led and 50% contributions from the audience. I was pleased to be able to contribute to several of the lessons (even taking to the stage at one point to give an impromptu presentation on GIS benefits and ROI). As mentioned above these challenges are worldwide, and from the feedback I received, they were very thankful for some insights from down-under.

Having the opportunity to network with a smallish group of about 50 GIS leaders all staying for a week at the same venue was awesome - you really got to know people and to have some great conversations, if not in the lessons then over a coffee or over dinner. I was particularly pleased to get to know people that I have only met with online (including the fantastic instructors such as Tim Nolan and John Nolte). I was also very happy to get to meet a large contingent of native Americans representing the Bureau of Indian Affairs - it was great to see how Indigenous communities are expanding their GIS leadership capabilities. I think that there is something about people that chose to specialise in GIS: they are generally wonderful people no matter where in the world they come from: as geographers we tend to take a keen and caring interest in our environment and society.

Event 2: Esri Ocean, Weather, and Climate GIS Forum

This forum is an annual conference organized by Esri and as the name suggests, the conference focuses on the use of GIS technology in the fields of oceanography, meteorology, and climate science. As Dr. Dawn Wright pointed out in her opening address: these are one fluid, connected system, hence having them combined for this forum. Climate change is affecting major ocean currents and this is something that is being actively measured using some incredible scientific tools.

The forum covers a wide range of topics, including data acquisition and management, data analysis and visualization, modeling and simulation, and decision-making support systems. The conference provides an opportunity for attendees to learn about the latest GIS technology and solutions, and to network with peers and experts in the field. The goal of the conference is to foster collaboration and innovation in the application of GIS technology to address the complex challenges facing the ocean, weather, and climate scientific communities. I was also fortunate to be able to undertake a pre-event training course on using ArcGIS pro to analyse and visualise the implications of coastal inundation, including some very realistic 3D visualisations of what is likely to happen to different cities in coming decades, with the ability to zoom in to individual houses or businesses.

Key learning points:

• There will be far-reaching implications of climate change, many of which are not obvious to people. Some examples: the rising water table will affect the sub-surface foundations of buildings and sub-surfaces of roads is something that geo-technical engineers are concerned about. The general public also doesn't tend to be aware of the implications for sewage systems and septic tanks, buried landfills, or other contaminated sites (unfortunately following recent weather events some regions have been getting nasty surprises about this).
• The FAIR Principles need to be applied to this data. The meaning of each one of these items needs to be properly interpreted (for example 'Accessible' to whom?)
• Open Data is not enough: in order for data to be FAIR curation by a trusted authority and explanation about how to use and interpret the data is needed. One of the problems with providing Open Data on its own is that while it might be amazing and accurate scientific data if it is not explained well enough to multiple target audiences then its value will be diminished.
• In the USA they are already planning for when certain critical crops will no longer be viable in coming decades and where production will need to be migrated to.
• Inter-agency collaboration is essential, including public-private-NPO and international. I was pleased to hear work being done with New Zealand agencies, particularly NIWA, being mentioned several times by partner agencies from around the world.
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals identify challenges, action & measure progress. It is useful to have a framework that everyone can understand and use can use in a consistent way. This is something that we need to adopt more in New Zealand.
• Improvements in data processing and data management techniques mean that we are increasingly able to process and align massive datasets, including in real-time. This is important to be able to analyse vast quantities of data quickly.
• It was interesting for me to see the approach that the insurance industry is taking to this (which will bypass the political aspects of any debate). Another interesting observation was how seriously the US military is taking climate change: they assert the implications for naval facilities in particular: will prove to be incredibly costly.
• The impact of climate change will be trillions of dollars of capital and affect countless lives: evidence from trusted, authoritative sources is vital.

Personal Observations

• It was amazing to talk to the actual front-line scientists from the likes of NASA, NOAA, and USGS. The people who are actually putting up the satellites or down the submersibles and are the ones gathering the primary data. I was pleased that in general, while these aspects of geospatial analysis are not my specialty (impostor syndrome in overdrive), nevertheless I was actually able to follow along and understand most of what was being said.
• As my new friend and fellow surfer George McLeod from Old Dominion University explained: as scientists, we need to explain as widely as possible & in as many ways as we can. My favourite quote from the forum was: "What I see as our mandate as people that create geovisualisations is to tell the story of coastal flooding and sea level rise in as many ways as we possibly can. There is no one way to tell the story. The story might hit one person in one way and it might hit another person in another way, so why pick just one channel."
• It was a pleasure to be kindly hosted by my colleagues at Esri, who welcomed me as part of the Esri Distributor network, treating me as part of the team.
• It is great to see the work that Esri is doing with these branches of science. In the words of Jack Dangermond: "It's evident as well that our most difficult challenges—including the climate crisis but also social and economic inequality—are inherently tied to issues of geography. Key to understanding such issues and acting on them is knowing what is happening where, why they happen where they do, and what might happen next in any specific location."

For a more detailed review of the Ocean, Weather and Climate Forum see: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ocean-weather-climate-forum-2022-review-nathan-heazlewood

If you would like to discuss any of the items in this article then please get in touch with the Eagle Technology GIS Business Consultancy Team. 

Eagle Flyer - February 2021

View our latest newsletter here

PRESS RELEASE 27 OCTOBER 2020

Eagle Technology signs Partnership Agreement with Planet

Auckland, NZ (27 October 2020) — Eagle Technology has entered into a new partnership with Planet, the leading provider of global, near-daily satellite imagery data and insights.

Eagle Technology is the distributor for Esri’s ArcGIS platform in New Zealand and the South Pacific, the global leader in GIS technology, mapping, and spatial analytics software. The partnership gives customers the ability to purchase Planet’s high-cadence imagery directly from Eagle.

Planet’s mission is to image the entire Earth every day and make change visible, accessible, and actionable. By providing insights into daily changes occurring in communities, the way is clear for smarter land-use planning and strategic decision-making.

Customers can access and integrate Planet’s imagery within their workflows for deep-level analyses using ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tools to build models, perform raster operations, or apply machine learning to Planet’s analysis-ready imagery data.

“Esri’s imagery analysis and change detection is a logical fit with Planet’s mission to make global change visible,” says Duane Eagle, Managing Director, Eagle Technology.

“Planet’s imagery, combined with ArcGIS software, means our customers can plan and monitor workflows with current imagery to map and track change more frequently than ever before.”

“We are very excited about our partnership with Eagle Technology. Our mutual alignment with Esri and the calibre of skills they bring to market will help customers see immense value from access to Planet’s satellite imagery and analytics.” says Simon Campbell, Director Channels & Alliances APAC, Planet.

For more information:

Web: www.eagle.co.nz/planet

Email:planet@eagle.co.nz

Doug Stark: 021 24 8 4868

Maps for Farm Management

Maps have always played an important role in farm management. Now with technolo­gies like geographic information systems (GIS) the maps are digital and that, says, Eagle Technology' Lauren McArtney, means they can do much more with them.

Unlike paper maps, GIS maps are living documents. Farmers can update them in an instant and share them with key stakeholders such as suppliers, government or customers. They represent the real world as a series of spatial layers. These layers represent the location of key as­sets, the distribution of soil types, farm activities or crop health. Armed with digital maps farmers can manage the various aspects of the farm in a dynamic and connected way including bringing in live data feeds from sensors or third party data-feeds.   

McArtney says GIS is an important way to support health and safety processes on a farm. She says: "Making a farm safe is about understanding hazards, visualising them and sharing that information in an easy to understand map for any visitors or contractors. Incidents or fresh risks can easily be recorded when and where they occur and used to act as well as for reporting. This means recording health and safety isn't a separate task, and it becomes part of a farm's everyday workflow.   

Scott Campbell, Eagle Technology's Head of GIS technology says farmers have, for a while, been capturing drone and satellite imagery and internet-of-things (IoT) sensors and these too have a location associated with them and are being incorporated within a farm's GIS.   

Campbell says "These data sources, as well as being more dynamic, can give access to valuable layers of data (for example productivity, water quality, soil moisture or weather conditions) which can be connected to other layers providing a more complete picture such as continuous temperature, water quality, crop productivity and understand how these affect one another: this takes advantage of the basic value of GIS which is connecting things through a shared location."

Farmers have used drones for some time. Campbell says a drone can capture video footage that can become a two or three-dimensional image-based farm map.

He says: "Increasingly farmers make maps using information the infrared and ultravio­let areas beyond the visible spectrum. This allows them to pick up information about things such as vegetation health."

ArcGIS provides the farmer with tools and maps that help decision making and in turn, makes for greater productivity, less waste and better sustain­ability.

More information:
Eagle Technology Agribusiness Lead: Murray McCallum
E: mrm@eagle.co.nz
M: 021 763 044
www.eagle.co.nz/agtech

Register for the Eagle Technology Agtech webinar: https://bit.ly/3fHwXN1

COVID-19 - Eagle Technology Business Continuity

UPDATE 30 March 2020 - Accessing your ArcGIS Licenses working from the Home Office

As the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, Eagle Technology is committed to keeping its people safe and is following guidelines from the Ministry of Health. We have now activated our business continuity plan so that we can continue to support all our customers. This means that the majority of our staff will be working remotely, leveraging the necessary technology to continue business as usual.

What will this mean for you? You will still be able to contact all staff whilst accessing the services and support you need. Communications will move to a virtual-first approach which includes meetings, events, and training where, for example, all instructor-led courses will now be delivered online until further notice.

For users of Esri software and services, Esri has released the following statement, with Eagle Technology's support:
Esri is fully prepared to maintain operations during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We have not experienced any significant business impact or interruption. We have a business continuity plan in place across all business units, including technology support and customer service, to ensure resilience. We will continue to fully serve our users, partners, and employees without disruption.

Additionally, we wanted to highlight the following resources currently available for you to access and use:

Esri COVID-19 GIS Hub – this hub provides a collection of authoritative global datasets, reporting dashboards and other useful content. This includes access to ArcGIS Online with ArcGIS Hub Basic as well as the ArcGIS Hub Coronavirus Response template.

Request for Eagle Assistance – locally, Eagle's Emergency Support Programme is available for requests for assistance related to such emergency events as COVID-19. Our team work with Esri's Disaster Response Programme team to support you in times of need.

Alongside these, our dedicated support lines continue to remain open:

General: https://www.eagle.co.nz/it-services/support

GIS specific: https://www.eagle.co.nz/gis-solutions/gis-support

Eagle Technology will continue to keep you informed of any changes to these arrangements and appreciate your flexibility and support during this unprecedented situation we are facing.

Please stay healthy and take care of one another and your families.

Regards,

Duane Eagle
Managing Director
Eagle Technology

Vector Basemaps in NZTM

To complement our existing raster Basemaps, the content team is working hard on the next generation of Basemaps in the New Zealand Transverse Mercator projection: vector Basemaps. These Basemaps are cached and delivered as vector tiles and are rendered client-side based on a style file that is delivered with the vector tiles. 

The content team has released the second beta of the NZ Topographic Map and will be fully releasing that map soon. You can find the layer and map in this group (be sure to join this group as we will be adding the final releases and new beta styles to this group). The NZ Topographic Map is based on the World Topographic map from Esri. After the NZ Topographic Map, we plan on releasing more styles as vector Basemaps like the Canvas maps, Navigation map and a hybrid style that can be overlaid with the NZ Imagery Basemap. 

Please keep an eye out on our blog post where we will be adding more information shortly more information about the new Vector Basemaps and how you can style them and add them to your Basemap gallery.

Waikato Open Data LAUNCH and Information Session

Eagle Technology Group Ltd opens Christchurch office

AUCKLAND – 6^th March 2018 –

Eagle Technology Group Ltd has opened an office in Christchurch to support its South Island client base. Located in the central city, the office makes real the ‘virtual’ office that has been run by Kenna Kelly, principal Account Manager for Eagle’s South Island customers, since the earthquake of February 2011. Joining Kenna is a full service team offering Professional Services and Technical Support.

Duane Eagle, Managing Director, Eagle Technology, says the office is the culmination of a plan that began more than seven years ago. “We first opened our Christchurch office in January 2011 in Victoria Street, an area that suffered extensive damage just one month later, and necessitated Kenna’s move to her home as a base, supported remotely by the wider team out of Wellington and Auckland. During this time our South Island customers have grown to include more than 150 organisations across sectors including Local Government, Infrastructure, Agriculture, Utilities, Education, Iwi, Consulting and Business.”

“We have a number of very long-standing customers, particularly in local and regional government , as well as a burgeoning number in other sectors, such as Forestry and Infrastructure. As a full-service IT infrastructure and GIS practice, we’ve provided GIS solutions to solve a number of problems relating to the Christchurch re-build, and have been active in assisting with Common Operating systems for Emergency Management teams in more recent events, such as the Port Hills fires and the Kaikoura earthquakes. So it’s very exciting after a seven year hiatus, to have a permanent, accessible local base for our team and our customers.”

Eagle Technology is the distributor for Esri’s ArcGIS platform, and will also now be offering instructor led training courses in Christchurch as part of the regular training schedule.

Christchurch Office Location:
Eagle Technology, Billens Building, Suite 7, Level 1, 177 High St, Christchurch, 8011
Postal:
Eagle Technology, PO Box 22656, CBD, Christchurch, 8140

29 November 2017

Duane Eagle steps into Leadership Role

The Board of Eagle Technology wishes to advise the resignation of Mark Allan, CEO, effective today. The Board acknowledges the considerable contribution Mark has given to Eagle Technology through the past eight months as Eagle has effected change and growth as a full-service Geospatial, Communications and Managed Services provider.

“Mark has been instrumental in identifying key markets and managing internal processes to meet demand as our business continues to grow. He leaves Eagle to pursue personal and other business interests,” says Duane Eagle, Executive Director, Eagle Technology.

The Board wishes to announce that Duane Eagle will assume Mark’s responsibilities, stepping into the leadership role for the family owned business that was established by his late father Trevor Eagle and his mother, Corallie Eagle, forty-eight years ago.

Duane Eagle has worked in the business for twenty-seven years, initially in Sales, as Business Development Manager and in his current role for the past five years. 

NZ Esri Young Scholar

The Esri Young Scholar Award is about recognising the very best GIS students around the globe. Every year, Esri's global partners nominate 25 university students for excellence in relation to a GIS project. These projects include comprehensive research papers, software development, impactful maps, and apps that promote education, conservation, disaster response, and urban planning.

NZ Esri Young Scholar Award 2017 – Winner

Eagle Technology is pleased to announce Leigh McKenzie of the University of Otago as the Winner of the NZ Esri Young Scholar Award 2017.

To recognise this achievement, Leigh will be attending the Esri Education Conference and Esri User Conference in San Diego in July 2017. 

Leigh’s project entitled Using a Geodatabase to Assess Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise in Greater South Dunedin focused on a subject that potentially has serious repercussions for many low lying areas of New Zealand. ArcGIS was utilised in her project to provide further understanding about what could go on in South Dunedin as sea levels rise.

For more details on Leigh’s project view her poster at:

Using a Geodatabase to Assess Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise in Greater South Dunedin

The entries this year were really exceptional and Eagle Technology commends the following outstanding projects for the NZ Esri Young Scholar Award 2017.

• Euan Forsyth for his Walking to scale: Utilising ArcGIS to implement a residential scale walkability index in Auckland project and
• Stephen Ford for his Lightning Strike Prediction – Protecting Critical Assets project.

Eagle Technology is a stakeholder and supporter of Predator Free NZ (PFNZ) a charitable trust formed to connect, inform and inspire others to get involved in the cause to protect New Zealand’s endangered native species by eliminating the threat of introduced predators such as possums, stoats and rats.

Eagle brings its strong expertise with geospatial data and technology to map and analyse the predator management work being done across the country. To do this Eagle has been collaborating with organisations such as OSPRI, Department of Conservation, Nga Whenua Rahui, and regional councils to create a ‘Big Picture’ map of New Zealand showing where the gaps and opportunities lie, thus allowing the many organisations across NZ to focus their resources where and how they can be most effective.

An example of this mapping can be seen on the PFNZ website (http://predatorfreenz.org/the-big-picture/) as well as in a dedicated map viewer (http://pfnz.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Viewer/index.html?appid=00e67ff4ce7347b5976d7142b3dcc227).

As a key part of this support, Eagle’s Chief Executive Gary Langford is also a Trustee and member of the PFNZ Board helping to steer the organisation. Below is the press release from Predatro Free New Zealand.

Bold Plan to make New Zealand predator free

A group of New Zealanders and independent businesses are joining forces with government agencies to create a predator free New Zealand – eradicating all rats, possums and stoats and other predators to native bird life and conservation.

The group formed the Predator Free New Zealand Trust, which will receive $575,000 over the next two years from the Community Conservation Partnerships Fund.

The Trust unveiled the first stage of its vision at the ‘A Place to Live’ conference in Whanganui today. It revealed a map displaying predator control areas already undertaken by public and government agencies including OSPRI, DOC and regional councils.

Stage two of the Trust’s work focuses on community and private efforts, which are underway or planned.

Chairman of Predator Free New Zealand Devon McLean said the secret weapon in this battle was the countless number of New Zealanders, mainly volunteers, already dedicating millions of hours controlling the predators.

However, he said, becoming predator free would not be an easy task and would require new innovation and real commitment from all New Zealanders.

“We believe the only way that New Zealand can be predator free is if all Kiwis, in every community, in every region, accept some of the responsibility and join in the fight.”

Gareth Morgan was one of the business leaders supporting the Trust. Eliminating predators was important to secure a future for our threatened native species, including our national emblem the kiwi, Dr Morgan said.

It was also a boost to our vital tourism industry, reduced diseases and increased farm output resulting in gains for our food exports and an enhanced international reputation.

The vision of a predator-free New Zealand is the brainchild of eminent physician Sir Paul Callaghan, a native of Whanganui. At his last public lecture in 2011, Sir Paul likened the vision to the first Apollo mission, saying “It’s crazy, it’s ambitious but I think it might be worth a shot”.

Trustee Professor Charles Daugherty, of Victoria University, said the Trust was a necessary investment to protect our biodiversity for future generations and secure what we most treasure about being New Zealanders.

Contact Nicky Barton 0273060603 or 04 499 6940