IMAGINews: Digital Edition

Fall 2020

Election Brings GIS to the Forefront

A wide variety of maps are produced by analyzing big datasets such as voter data and election results. Our feature article looks at a few examples of data and maps that you can find on TV or online.  Learn more about high-tech options such as the 'Magic Wall' or different forms of choropleth maps, which are all used to help people outside the GIS world understand voter demographics and election trends.

IMAGIN Bulletin Board

Be on the lookout for the IMAGIN Webinar Series!  Every two weeks starting November 5th, we will offer a virtual presentation from speakers who planned to present at the canceled 2020 Conference.  The webinars will be offered live for IMAGIN members who are current with their dues.  Later, the sessions will be made available for anyone to watch.

Welcome New Board Members!

Brodey Hill, Geospatial Analyst, Kent County


Jerry Swanson, GIS Coordinator, Traverse City

Congrats to Returning Board Members!

Pete Schneider, Sarah Merz, Ariana Toth, Eric Kerney, Jon Merrick and Scott Swan

ArcGIS Highlights

Field Map Beta released in October 2020 now supports the new Indoor Mapping feature and includes a Location Tracking feature.  Now you have the passive, battery efficient experience of background tracking and the ability to simultaneously capture points, lines or areas. With this beta update, we’ve tightened the experience between mapping and tracking. For more info read the full blog post.

AppStudio 4.3 New Features:

  • Improvements to profiles give you the ability to control the content and appearance of AppStudio Player.
  • More share app options about setting group sharing once the app is shared with an organization or the public. You can also share via an app link URL that allows others to directly open a specific app in Player by simply tapping on the link.
  • You can also manually change the Player’s theme in the Settings > Theme.
  • Download for the first time from the Microsoft Store.
  • Many improvements and new features in App Templates can be found in this article or watch a YouTube video that explains the new functionality!

Focus on Open Source GIS

A Review of CloudCompare

Do you have LiDAR point clouds waiting to be processed or analyzed? You might want to check out CloudCompare - an open source software that is fast, produces beautiful images, and makes change detection as straightforward as possible.  The images on the right were generated by CloudCompare. Trevor Hobbs from the Huron-Manistee National Forests shared his experience with the software. You can download CloudCompare from the project website and view documentation along with tutorials to help you get started.

Story Map Tales

Explorer Map Tour (beta) is the type of map tour that is similar to the guided-tour story map that is designed to to help you present larger sets of places to explore.  Adding a photo, title, and description for each place is now much easier.  Geotagged photos will be automatically placed on the map.  Create a grid, list, or media-focused layouts to have the best story telling experience.  Learn more about the Explorer Map Tour by watching this video.

Click one of the Story Maps below to learn more about Michigan!

Congratulations IMAGIN Award Winners!

Congratulate your colleagues who were recognized at IMAGIN's Annual Awards and General Membership Meeting held on August 10, 2020!  Recipients will be honored again at the 2021 IMAGIN Conference on Mackinac Island in June 2021!

GIS for Everyone

City of Farmington Hills

Matt Malone, GIS Coordinator, accepted the award on behalf of Farmington Hills.  The city's website includes numerous interactive and PDF maps that help the city's residents and businesses answer their questions.

GIS Innovation

Traverse City Light & Power

Scott Menhart, Chief Information Officer, accepted the award for building a GIS-centric implementation within the utility industry. GIS is now the backbone of IT operations.

Volunteer of the Year

Brodey Hill, Kent County IT/GIS

Brodey helped with planning the social events for the 2019 conference. Many posts distributed via IMAGIN's social media channels are posted by Brodey.

Graduate Scholarship

Rebeka Rooks, University of Michigan

Rebeka attends the Taubman College of Architecture and Planning and plans to graduate in 2022. She worked for Washtenaw County Water Resources.  

Geospatial Achievement

Ann Burns, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)

Ann has been active in the GIS field since 1992 when she first started working for SEMCOG.  After a brief time at Waterford Twp where she set up the GIS Department, Ann returned to SEMCOG in 1999.  A few of her career highlights include coordinating the first regional orthophotography flight, building SEMCOG's Open Data Portal, and supporting an active GIS user group in southeast Michigan.

In addition to her work at SEMCOG, Ann has been an active member of IMAGIN and served on the board for several years.  Ann's colleagues offered many memories and accolades so be sure to check out the Geospatial Achievement section of the Awards Story Map!

Looking Ahead...

Upcoming Events:

Office: 517.338.3035 x 709   Fax: 866.298.2115  
Address: 416 S Cedar St, Suite C, Lansing, MI 48912
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