Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science Seminar, George Mason University, Falls Church, VA, September 2015. Increasingly, GIS is part of the collaboration between computer scientists, information scientists, and domain scientists to solve complex scientific questions. Successfully addressing scientific problems, such as informing regional decision- and policy-making for coastal zone management and marine spatial planning, requires integrative and innovative approaches to analyzing, modeling, and developing extensive and diverse data sets. The current chaotic distribution of available data sets, lack of documentation about them, and lack of easy-to-use access tools and computer modeling and analysis codes are still major obstacles for scientists and educators alike. Contributing solutions to these problems is part of an emerging science agenda at Esri for a range of environmental, conservation, climate and ocean sciences that will be discussed. The talk will highlight some recent projects in progress, including a new global map of ecological land units, new tools to support multidimensional scientific data, continued work on an ocean basemap, and more.

1. Dawn Wright, Ph.D.
Esri Chief Scientist
George Mason University, September 16, 2015
Esri and the
Scientific Community

2. Esri View of Science
Societal drivers of science are key.
How the Earth
should look.
How we should
look at the Earth.
Increasing fundamental
scientific understanding
Enabling stewardship
of the environment
Promoting
economic vitality
Protecting life
and property
How the Earth works.

3. So Many Fundamental Science Questions…
Howwill climate change impact forest
composition, coastal habitats, etc.?
Whatfactors most affect the spread of
infectious diseases and invasive
species?

4. So Many Fundamental Science Questions…
Howmuch will sea level change on a range
of spatial and temporal scales?
Whatare the potential impacts?
Howto design coastal
infrastructure accordingly?

5. Strengthen science base at Esri …
Establish Esri as a member of the scientific community …
Agricultural Science
Hydrology
Ecology
Climate Science
Geology/Geophysics
Conservation Biology
Sustainability Science
/Geodesign
Forestry
Ocean Science
GIScience /
Computer Science

6. Recent Chief Scientist Summary
• Solidify launch of oceans initiative
• Further platform adoption among
scientists
• Scientific Boards & Councils
- EPA Science Advisory, NOAA Science Advisory, National Academy
of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, NSF Earth Cube Governance, NSF
Ocean Obs Research Coordination Network, Consortium for Ocean
Leadership, World Ocean Council, West Coast Governor’s Alliance
on Ocean Health, Conservation Intl Science Advisory Council,
UNESCO IOC IODE
• Esri Technology Integration Projects
- U. Illinois CyberGIS, Arizona State PySAL, Oregon State U. Adaptive
Map Projections, GMU (GDAL)
• Strategic Engagements
- World Bank GPO Blue Ribbon Panel, NOAA Ocean Exploration 2020,
Schmidt Ocean Institute
• Esri Distributor Support
- Esri Netherlands, Eagle Technology

7. esriurl.com/scicomm

9. •Python
•OPeNDAP (Open-source Project for a
Network Data Access Protocol)
•R (the R Project for Statistical
Computing)
Software Stacks for the Scientific
Community

10. • Pandas – provide high-performance,
easy-to-use data structures and data
analysis tools for working with tables in
Python
• SciPy - supports our goal of being a
comprehensive geospatial platform for
science by expanding the number and
type of analytical methods available to
the science community
• netCDF4 - provides programmatic
access for a popular scientific data
format
Inclusion of Additional Python Packages

11. HDF/netCDF/GRIB Data Warehouses ArcGIS Multidimensional
Mosaic Dataset
Enable ArcGIS Platform
Aggregate (mosaic) spatial, time, and vertical dimensions
• Create a seamless multidimensional cube from:
• files representing different regions
• files representing different time steps/slices
• Spatial Aggregation
• Temporal Aggregation
• On-the-fly analysis
17
Processing, analyzing, and visualizing NASA’s
scientific data
Matt & Brian Tisdale, Booz Allen Hamilton & NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center

12. Modeling with Raster function template (RFT)
ArcGIS Multidimensional Mosaic Dataset
Mosaic Index
Visualization
Spatial and Temporal Analysis
18
End-to-End Solution for Processing, Analyzing,
and Visualizing Data
On-the-fly
processing
• Orthorectification
• Image Algebra
• Statistics
• Reproject
• Remap
• Tassel Cap, etc.
Matt & Brian Tisdale, Booz Allen Hamilton & NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center

13. Movies
19
1 – Visualizing data (netCDF) in temporal and vertical dimensions. Data are Navy
Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM). Ocean current and sea surface temperature (SST)
are draped on a hillshaded sea temperature layer for a better visualization effect.
Current vectors are calculated and symbolized for each raster cell.
2 – Demo of an image service published with National Digital Forecast Data (NDFD)
of NOAA’s National Weather Service, 3-hour interval, 4-day-time event. The demo
shows a proof-of-concept of on-the-fly scientific computing capability with a
multidimensional mosaic dataset and image service. The heat index, wind chill,
and fire warning layers are computed on-the-fly from 3 variables added to the
mosaic dataset. The scientist can send a request with their algorithm to the server
which returns the computed result in seconds.
3 – A forthcoming new feature for scientific data. Adding one variable from netCDF,
GRIB, or HDF file will be just as easy as a simple drag-drop, and the layer is a
multidimensional raster.
Thanks to Esri Solution Engineers Hong Xu hxu@esri.com and Feroz Abdul Kadar
akferoz@esri.com

14. esriurl.com/landsat - 80,000 Landsat 8 scenes

15. esriurl.com/landsat

16. esriurl.com/landsat

17. esriurl.com/landsat

18. esriurl.com/landsat

19. esriurl.com/landsat

20. esriurl.com/landsat

21. esriurl.com/landsat

22. esriurl.com/landsat

23. esriurl.com/landsat

24. New R – ArcGIS Bridge and Community
• R is the most widely used, fastest growing statistical
analysis software
• Many organizations using ArcGIS also use R
• High interest in our existing R integration
• Who is this for?
- R users who want to work in R with easy, efficient access to
ArcGIS data
- R users who want to provide R analysis capabilities to ArcGIS
users
- ArcGIS users who don’t know R

25. esriurl.com/scicomm & r-arcgis.github.io

26. Resource Centers / Case Studies / Blogs
- Data and models can be downloaded
- Analysis and tools are defined by the
question - outlined at the start
- Processes shown, results are
interpreted
• Analysis from exploration to decision-making
demonstrated by example
esriurl.com/ocnres
esriurl.com/case

27. Roger Sayre, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist for Ecosystems
U.S. Geological Survey
rsayre@usgs.gov
Dawn Wright, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
dwright@esri.com
Charlie Frye, M.A.
Chief Cartographer
Randy Vaughan, Ph.D.
Content Engineering Lead
Peter Aniello, M.E.
Content Engineering Team
Sean Breyer
ArcGIS Content Lead
Esri
A New Map of Global
Ecological Land Units

28. EC-01-C1: Global Ecosystem Classification and Mapping
Develop a standardized, robust, and practical global ecosystems
classification and map for the planet’s terrestrial, freshwater,
and marine ecosystems.
GEOSS Task EC-01-C1

29. Catalyze: Science  Planning  Management
Provide Globally Comparable
Understanding of: Changes, Impacts, Resilience
Value: Economic, Social, Goods & Services
Why Do We Need A Global Ecosystems Map?
Too many govt policies based on antiquated knowledge & tech

30. Ecological Land Classification
Water
Matter
Land Cover
Lithology
Bioclimate
Landforms
Energy

31. Ecological Land Classification …
not Ecological Classification

32. Anchor Publication
www.aag.org/global_ecosystems

33. Land Cover
Lithology
Landform
Bioclimate
Data Sources
(in order of ecological importance)
Global Environmental Stratification (GEnS) , U. of Edinburgh
USGS Global MultiRez Terrain Elevation 2010
Global Lithological Map (GLiM), Hamburg U.
GlobCover 2009, European Space Agency

34. Where We Started
~100,000 combinations of Bioclimate, Landform, Lithology,
and Land Cover

35. Where We Finished
Eliminated over 50,000 erroneous combinations, and created
an intuitive visualization

36. Land Cover
Lithology
Landform
Bioclimate
3,923 ELUs Mapped
Data Sources
(in order of ecological importance)

37. Landscape
Ecologists
Public
Resource
Managers
Geodesign
Planners
Authoritative
Classifications
Updated
Classifications
ArcGIS
Online
Workflows
Data Tools
esriurl.com/landscapermgsc.cr.usgs.gov/outgoing/ecosystems/Global
Data Served as ArcGIS Online Content

38. White Paper
esriurl.com/eluwhite

39. Value-Added Apps
esriurl.com/elu

42. Value-Added Apps
esriurl.com/ecotapestry

46. “This app shows how climate change is affecting the
world around you.” – Time magazine
https://shar.es/1tJj9K

47. “This app shows how climate change is affecting the
world around you.” – Time magazine
https://shar.es/1tJj9K

48. Once upon a time…

49. storymaps.arcgis.com

50. esriurl.com/analyticalstories

51. New Esri Press Books for Scientists
esripress.esri.com

52. Dawn Wright
dwright@esri.com
Twitter: @deepseadawn

53. Extra slides

55. esri.github.com/gis-tools-for-hadoop

56. Support for multiple
dimensions in WMS
implementation of ArcGIS
for Server…
SciPy stack integration
OpenDAP, netCDF, HDF,
GRIB1, GRIB2…
esriurl.com/multid
esriurl.com/multid2

57. Shareable Apps
Creative Ideas
Innovative Methods
Open Data
Many Participants
Governments
Startups / Developers
Businesses
Academics & NGO’s
Building a Resilient Platform
esriurl.com/resilientcomm
esri.com/climate-app / esriurl.com/climateapp2
resilience.maps.arcgis.com
Making Communities More Resilient
Climate Resilience

58. Big Data
Open Source
- Geoportal Server, ArcGIS Editor for Open
StreetMap, Flex Viewer
- Esri DC Research & Development Center
- Blog posts: bit.ly/O4hLXL , blog.geoiq.com
- Blog post: bit.ly/RV2JDO

59. geoss.esri.com

60. esriurl.com/zotero