My web presence

Thursday, 29 December 2011

On-line spatial data validation, part II

[2013 update: Socium is now 1SpatialCloud]

Three weeks ago I introduced Socium's Online Validation Service (OVS). I showed the Ordnance Survey vector data QC, on the UK Parishes used as a geographic unit for the Medieval Fenlands project. Two weeks ago Socium kindly created a new rule, to post unexpected variations in adjacent feature attributes. In an essentially agricultural era, economic wealth of the Domesday period was quantified by Darby via the number of plough teams per parish. That is the attribute the rule was written for (it's hard-wired right now and Socium plans to add metadata pick lists in the future).

Saturday, 24 December 2011

Happy Holiday Season

Just for fun - momentary suspension of disbelief required - NORAD Tracks Santa countdown starts now! And follow it on Google Earth.

For serious fun - travel to the other side of the globe - follow the centennial celebration of the British Services Antarctic Expedition. And do it on arcgis.com c/o Esri(UK).

Thursday, 15 December 2011

How education has changed my life and what I did about it

I consider myself a citizen of the world, as shown in the map below. Born as my parents fled Hungary right after 1956 Uprising. Raised on the expat circuit of an oil company. Emigrated to north America as a student. Lived most of my adult life in north America. Recently repatriated to Europe, yet still work abroad. Education has been a constant thread in my life: first through graduate school, then running continuing education for a local  geological society, and now managing GIS in the resources sector worldwide.

Saturday, 10 December 2011

Cloud futures #2: on-line spatial data validation

[Update: follow ups for this project are Releasing Data Really Works Part I and Part IV]

Following vector maps on the web (cloud futures #1), here is a freemium online validation service (OVS) that helps us QC, quantify and clean up spatial data on the web. A speciality of 1Spatial is its spatial validation, an essential first step to setting up proper spatial data infrastructure. They spun off 1SpatialCloud to offer the same service online.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Openware inaugural newlsetter

Ask the GIS Expert column on page 14 in the inaugural newsletter of Openware (Esri distributor in Kuwait) echoes the current blog series: use what you already have on your Esri desktop.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Pipeline routing (RMOTC dataset, part V)

As promised last week here is the update to my second most popular Slideshare post: using ArcGIS Model Builder to plan a pipeline route as a function of topography, slope, land cover and cultural data (roads, rivers, wetlands etc.). As RMOTC is remote, see (pardon the pun) it is uninhabited and land cover is uniformly grass- or shrub-land, which has the same IGBP class of 5 (middle-of-the-road).

Saturday, 19 November 2011

Simple reservoir depletion modelling, part IV

This last in a series shows how to further extend the reach of your GIS analysis across the corporation in full 3D via a free ArcGIS Explorer Desktop. Simply go Add Contents: ArcGIS layers, and to enhance performance go Base Map: Clear basemap. This is a large data set complete with local topography.

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Simple reservoir depletion modelling, part III

This is to show on the web or with a free desktop GIS the results of the previous two postings. The free data-set from Teapot Dome is a great opportunity to display 3D petro-data in Esri. As the previous posting suggested, data were upgraded to Esri 3D Analyst ArcGlobe here.

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Simple reservoir depletion modelling, part II

Posted on ArcGIS Online a 3D rendition of the Teapot Dome free 3D GIS dataset by RMOTC and model by me. I used Esri ArcScene from its ArcMap 3D Analyst extension. If you don't have that, then download the free ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, and point to the layer package file here [updated with ArcGlobe]. ArcGIS Explorer Online cannot display 3D packages, furthermore, the drop-down menu on the arcgis.com site will suggest how to access it. You can get ArcGIS Desktop for Home use with extensions for $100 here.

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Simple reservoir depletion modelling

Following on last week's Teapot Dome 3D dataset, here's the first step toward upgrading my most popular Slideshare post: Geoscience class notes have an option to run ESRI Model Builder that comes with the Spatial Analyst extension. Simply reversing reservoir topography and applying a surface run-off model, will mimic the depletion of reservoir of its petroleum content. The same way water flows downstream though gravity, petroleum will flow up-slope through hydrostatic recharge (in other words buoyancy pushes hydrocarbons up on top of denser water and out of a reservoir).