A GIS Approach to Improving Emergency Operations
Michael Nelson, GIS Supervisor
Chris Sims, GIS Analyst
City of Overland Park, Kansas

The City of Overland Park's Emergency Management and GIS teams have successfully implemented a multi-year emergency management modernization plan, enabling city leaders to quickly interpret data and respond effectively to unpredictable events. Past severe weather events revealed critical gaps in communication and data collection; disparate data from various sources needed to be unified into a common operational view. Through the use of GIS technology, the City has been able to standardize data, quickly assess damage, deploy resources, and request federal aid, ultimately leading to a more efficient and effective emergency response.

Overland Park utilized the Esri Disaster Response Program for additional licensing and deployed a Python Notebook to manage ArcGIS Online accounts. An ArcGIS Enterprise Site serves as a central hub for deployment information and tool links. Survey123 is used by City staff, Police, and CERT Team volunteers to record non-life-threatening damage, while QuickCapture facilitates rapid windshield damage assessments. Workforce, with Survey123 integration, manages task assignments, specifically for the building damage assessment process. Experience Builder is leveraged for vegetation debris work tracking and editing workflows. A Web AppBuilder application presents a Common Operating Picture, ArcGIS Pro and Field Maps are used for data maintenance, and Survey123 template tools are leveraged for reporting.

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Automating GIS Workflows in ArcGIS Pro with ModelBuilder and Python Script Tools
Daryl Adams, GIS Analyst
Enertech

In modern GIS workflows, efficiency and data reliability are critical. This session demonstrates how ModelBuilder and Python script tools in ArcGIS Pro can automate common mapping and data analysis tasks while ensuring data integrity throughout the process. By leveraging ArcPy and custom Python toolboxes, GIS professionals can build repeatable, user-friendly tools that streamline editing, validation, and geoprocessing workflows. Real-world examples will show how automation reduces errors, enforces data standards, and saves valuable time in both small and large-scale projects.

Attendees will gain practical insight into:

• Designing a geoprocessing workflow using ModelBuilder
• Exporting a ModelBuilder model to a Python development environment
• Defining parameters and customizing Python scripts for script tools
• Building and deploying script tools in ArcGIS Pro

This session will demonstrate how to automate common mapping and analytic tasks in ArcGIS Pro using Python and custom script tools—empowering GIS professionals to create repeatable, efficient, and scalable workflows.

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Blueprinting Your Utility Network Migration: A Proven 6-Step Methodology for Success
Darren Haag, Primary Consultant
Epoch Solutions Group

The transition to Esri’s Utility Network (UN) is a major opportunity to modernize utility data management, improve system integration, and enhance operational efficiency. Epoch's UN Blueprint Process provides a clear, repeatable 6-step methodology designed to guide utilities through a successful migration.

This presentation outlines each phase of the process—Assessment & Planning, Data Preparation, Configuration & Customization, Migration Execution, Testing & Validation, and Training & Support—ensuring a structured path from initial analysis to long-term sustainability.

Key components include evaluating data readiness, aligning schema models with UN standards, ensuring integration with enterprise systems, and implementing robust testing to validate performance and completeness. The final step equips teams with the training and support they need to maximize long-term value from the UN platform.

Whether you're just beginning or already underway, this session will help you understand not only what’s required at each stage, but how to avoid common pitfalls and optimize your approach using industry best practices.

To kick off your journey, we’ll also cover how to build internal momentum—by framing the project as a strategic modernization effort with tangible operational and compliance benefits. Presenting a clear business case and requesting funding for the initial assessment phase helps secure leadership buy-in and positions your organization for long-term transformation.

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Boundary Blunders: Lines, Lies, and Making it all Public
Jack Faris, GIS Technician
Roger Denton, GIS Coordinator
Atchison County, Kansas

While performing our work, we discover parcel issues through documents, aerials, and pertinent questions. With certain parcels, we found the same problems every time the title was transferred.

The problems include, but are not limited to:

• Sewage lagoons, buildings, and roads encroaching property lines
• Vague or incorrect descriptions
• Buildings in the Flood Hazard Area
• Parcels that can’t be developed due to excess Flood Hazard Area
• Minimum maintenance road access
• No public road access

We need a tool to make this information readily available to the public, which is where our ArcGIS Dashboard shines. This tool has the flexibility to let the public find the issues and inform us when corrections have been made.

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City of Lawrence Data Clean-Up Project
Micah Seybold, GIS Manager
City of Lawrence, Kansas

The City of Lawrence will present on their GIS Web Layer Migration project completed in 2025. The goal of the project was to simplify the content search process for users and improve confidence in the data. The speaker will describe how the project came about, how the challenges of correcting data disorganization and user uncertainty were met, what tools were used in the process, and what's next for GIS at the City of Lawrence. Technologies referenced: ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Hub, Survey123, StoryMaps, ArcGIS Pro, Microsoft Teams, Geo Jobe Admin Tools.

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Collection of Building Images Using Esri Field Maps and Portal for ArcGIS in Johnson County, Kansas
Kevin Skridulis, GIS Project Analyst
Johnson County Kansas DTI AIMS

This session will showcase how the Johnson County Appraiser’s Office, in collaboration with the AIMS department, deployed Esri Field Maps and Portal for ArcGIS to collect JPEG images of buildings for approximately 7,000 parcels. Attendees will explore the setup of Field Maps layers within Portal, key configuration decisions (such as image resolution and metadata capture), and the training process for appraisal staff. The presentation will also detail backend workflows for extracting JPGs, striping them with capture dates, and generating index files for import into the County’s Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system. A similar presentation was delivered at the 2024 MAGIC Symposium during the project’s testing phase. This updated session highlights key lessons learned and system refinements made during full-scale implementation.

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DASC Geoportal Hub and Cloud Migration Update: What Every DASC User Needs to Know!
Eileen Battles, Manager
Dave Grolling, GIS Developer
Brent Miller, Research Informatics Analyst

The data, applications and tools shared through the DASC Geoportal Hub continues to grow. We will do a light demo of the DASC Hub to highlight some recent enhancements. We will also discuss the huge effort underway to migrate DASC’s many TBs of data to the cloud. While this migration is mostly seamless to DASC Hub users there are some impactful changes coming to DASC imagery and LiDAR services. Come to this session to find out more and to stay connected!

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Developing and Executing a Geospatial Strategy
Mike D'Attilio, Senior Consultant
Esri

What is a Geospatial Strategy? A Geospatial Strategy defines how an organization will use GIS to achieve its goals. ​Why do I want one and how do I make one? In this presentation we will examine what a Geospatial Strategy is, how to build one, and what its value is.

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Field Maps to Survey123 Points, Line, Polygons, and a Buffer “Oh My”
Michelle Williams, Survey123 Jedi
Williams Training & Consulting LLC

“Do you need a buffer in your field app? This one line of code is worth the price of admission.”

Michelle shares what’s in this workshop

This workshop combines Survey123 Connect, Field Maps, and the magical power of buffers to build a powerful, real-world-ready mobile data collection system. If you’ve ever needed to draw a buffer on the fly or wrangle points, lines, and polygons in the same form—this class was built for you.

• Build a Survey123 form with points, lines, polygons and a buffer
• Seamlessly integrate with Field Maps (so your field crew loves you)
• Merge all your layers inside ArcGIS Pro for a rock-solid geodatabase

Ideal for:

• Environmental Monitoring
• Asset Inspections
• Utility & Infrastructure Management

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"Fire" Prevention: Getting Out of Perpetual Crisis Mode
Amy Roust, GIS Administrator
City of Lawrence, Kansas

Many GIS professionals feel trapped in an endless loop of constant busyness. They aren't spending their time doing work they love because they are "putting out fires" all day, every day. Yet breaking that cycle is an uphill battle for subordinates who lack the authority to set their organization's priorities and determine workloads. This presentation will offer strategies and resources for responding to the constant stream of "emergencies" without resorting to quiet quitting tactics.

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From Manual Mapping to Machine Learning: An Evolving Spatial Bibliography of Aspen Research
Ryan Howell, UAS Instructor
Kansas State University Salina

This presentation traces the 10-year evolution of a spatial bibliography project that maps locations referenced in scholarly publications, with research on aspen as the primary case study. Initially built through manual data entry and student-led curation, the project has grown into a more efficient system using structured editing workflows in ArcGIS Online and, more recently, AI tools for automating location extraction from text. I’ll highlight key transitions in our process, from early challenges in georeferencing academic content to integrating natural language processing and geocoding models. The result is a dynamic, searchable web app that bridges bibliographic data and geographic context.

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GIS -- Asset Management for Rural Water Districts
Sheldon Bina, GIS Specialist
Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC)

Leavenworth Consolidated Water District #1 serves 3,000 customers, putting it in the top 5 Kansas Rural Water Districts, in terms for number of customers. The District reached out to Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) to develop a more efficient platform to accurately map and track their large number of assets - pipes, values, hydrants, etc. PEC implemented this complete solution within ArcGIS. Some of the enhancements included: accessing platform anywhere, anytime, on any device; pairing to GPS for live, high accurate, data collections; easily sharing mapping to business partners; and having the potential to add more capabilities. A demo will be given of the platform while discussing its benefits as well as some future enhancements.

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GIS for Railroads: A View into how GIS Serves a Critical Industry
Brian Parr, Senior Project Manager
Bryan Boutz, Spatial Systems Developer and Software Architect
Bartlett & West

Railroads are everywhere—crossing roads, running behind neighborhoods, stretching across the countryside—but for many, they remain a mystery. This presentation aims to pull back the curtain on how GIS is used in the rail industry, revealing surprising similarities to how cities and counties use GIS every day. From property mapping and asset management to situational awareness and emergency response, railroads depend on geography to keep their networks safe, efficient, and operational. Whether you're a longtime local government mapper or just curious about how this essential industry runs behind the scenes, this session will satisfy your inner railfan and show how GIS drives one of the oldest—and still most critical—modes of transportation.

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Innovative Applications of Deep Learning in Drone Imagery
Daniel Gwartney, Technical Manager
Benesch

The integration of deep learning (DL) with drone imagery creates exciting opportunities for infrastructure monitoring and environmental assessment. This presentation highlights three key applications: detecting concrete delamination in bridges using thermal imagery, classifying land cover to generate 2D linework, and identifying objects in frequently collected imagery to flag emerging hazards.

By combining drone data with DL models, we can improve the speed and accuracy of interpreting complex imagery, enabling more informed decision-making for infrastructure planning, maintenance, and environmental management. This session will cover workflows for building DL models using both standalone Python and the arcgis.learn module, along with lessons learned and challenges encountered. We'll also demonstrate how results can be integrated into ArcGIS Online dashboards to create intuitive, interactive tools that help stakeholders visualize findings and take action. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of how to turn raw drone imagery into practical, actionable products for planning, mitigation, and daily operations.

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Iowa RIMS: A Geospatially Integrated Solution for Digital Right-of-Way Management
Louise Jennings, Senior GIS Analyst
HNTB

This presentation introduces the Iowa Right of Way Information Management System (RIMS), a custom-tailored application that digitally transforms the Iowa Department of Transportation's (DOT) manual parcel sales and right-of-way processes by digitizing critical business logic into a robust framework for standardized and auditable parcel management. Its technical architecture ensures seamless geospatial data integration, leveraging a centralized data warehouse to reference the DOT's project management software, while a key highlight is the advanced workflow for ingesting new geometric data directly from MicroStation CAD environments to generate enriched, project-specific geospatial records synchronized with the project management system. Gain insight into this digital transformation, demonstrating how a custom GIS application optimizes data integrity, enhances workflow efficiency, and provides an integrated approach to right-of-way management.

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Jefferson County, Kansas Experience Builder Applications
Kirk Webb, GIS Coordinator
Jefferson County, Kansas

Jefferson County GIS is developing ArcGIS Experience Builder Developer's Edition low-code applications for Jefferson County departments as well as applications for public use. Parcel search, road records, zoning, section tie, utility and historical online maps are some of the applications that have been developed with the Experience Builder platform. This presentation will focus on how the parcel search app. was developed and touch on some of the other applications as well.

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Kansas LSLI - Recipe for Success
Bryce Hirschman, Senior GIS Project Manager
JEO Consulting Group

Remember the Flint, Michigan water crisis of 2014? It brought a lot of attention to the dangers of lead in drinking water. While the EPA began efforts to eliminate lead pipes from water systems in the 1970’s, with communities replacing lead service lines on the public side, the focus shifted to include the private side after Flint. In alignment with the EPA’s revised Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) launched a statewide initiative to provide technical assistance to Public Water Systems in the development of comprehensive Water Service Line Inventories across public and private infrastructure. Following KDHE’s 2022 Request for Proposals, the JEO team was selected as an assigned vendor to support this work. We implemented a scalable, GIS-driven solution using ArcGIS to aggregate historical infrastructure data, customer survey data, and coordinate field verification. Our approach emphasizes robust schema design, QA/QC workflows, and stakeholder engagement through interactive dashboards and reporting tools. This presentation shares our methodology, key challenges, and lessons learned to help other utilities prepare for LCR compliance.

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Kansas NG911 GIS User Group
Eileen Battles, Manager, Kansas Data Access and Support Center (DASC)
Sherry Massey, Executive Director, NG911 Board
Will Trimble, GIS Developer, Kansas Data Access and Support Center (DASC)

Come join the Kansas NG911 GIS User Group for an update on the Kansas NG911 program. We are always excited to talk about NG911 GIS data maintenance, the NG911 Toolbox, the Kansas NG911 GIS Data Model, addressing, or anything related to Kansas NG911 GIS data. This is a casual, open discussion session so bring your questions and let’s chat!

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Mapping Emergency Management
Matthew Hartung, Data Analyst
Cherie Smith, Data Analyst
City of Olathe, Kansas

The City of Olathe prides itself on its super cool and fun interactive EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT map! We will discuss our processes for large emergency/hazard events from a GIS and responder viewpoint. In real time, our map shows current hazards, potential hazards, risk analysis, and response! We will discuss our current capabilities and where we will be in the near future. From tornadoes to flooding, from gas leaks to water leaks, from mass casualty events to a happy sunny super fun time no casualty events! We will have it all (when talking about emergency management mapping)!

This will be a BASIC overview of our process for creating a working GIS centric emergency management program. The presentation will outline the expectations for a municipality and their introduction into emergency management.

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Navigating the Perils and the Pitfalls of Metadata: A Critical Examination of Hydrologic Data
Avantika Ramekar, GIS Analyst
Scott Perkins, Business Development Director
Prairie Engineers, PC

Metadata is critical to the integrity of geospatial data but is often overlooked. As the geospatial industry depends on data-driven analysis and decision-making, a thorough understanding of metadata is essential for appropriate, accurate, and efficient data use. In today’s era of democratized data collection and widespread data sharing, ensuring data quality has become increasingly critical. Hydrographic datasets, for example, require detailed contextual information such as instrument calibration, tidal influences, seasonal changes, and time of data was collected. However, inconsistent, incomplete, or missing metadata, can severely compromise the reliability and applicability of geospatial analyses.

This presentation explores the opportunities and challenges of providing robust metadata for hydrological data collected along the Kankakee River in Illinois. The case study is discussed in context of the U.S. Geological Survey’s ongoing development of a nationwide 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP), highlighting broader implications for data transparency and best practices in the geospatial industry.

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Photon Counting Lidar: What Is It and Why Use It?
Matt Hiland, Director of Strategic Accounts
Sanborn Geospatial

LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) has become a ubiquitous tool in the geospatial data toolbox. Photon Counting Lidar (PCL) is a new version of the technology that allows collection of denser data at higher altitudes and faster speeds, providing significant cost savings over traditional linear Lidar. This presentation explains some of the differences between the two and when you might want to use one rather than the other.

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Real-Time QA/QC in ArcGIS Field Maps Using Arcade
Clayton Hayes, GIS Analyst I
TREKK Design Group, LLC

Accurate data starts in the field. This session will demonstrate how Arcade expressions in ArcGIS Field Maps can enforce quality control and provide quality assurance at the point of entry. We’ll show how calculated expressions can automatically populate values based on known rules (QC) and how expressions can pull and display corresponding values from related features (QA) using a common ID. Using a MACP inspection example, attendees will see how to verify that pipe connection attributes entered on one side match attributes on the other side in real time. This workflow improves data accuracy, reduces rework, and ensures field staff receive immediate feedback during inspections. By the end of the session, participants will understand how to implement similar QA/QC strategies in their own Field Maps deployments for public works and asset management workflows.

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Robust, No-Code Web Apps with Experience BuilderKristen Jordan Koenig, GIS Developer
Kansas Geological Survey

Using the Kansas Geological Survey's Oil & Gas and Water Well mappers as examples, we'll explore ArcGIS Online's Experience Builder. This platform provides users with all kinds of tools and widgets to make highly functional, data-focused mapping applications with no coding.

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Simplifying the Use of AI
Luke Finley, Solution Engineer
Esri

AI is transforming GIS by automating feature creation, analysis, and enabling intuitive interactions. This session explores how ArcGIS GeoAI and AI assistants enhance spatial workflows through deep learning and natural language processing. Attendees will see real-world applications, what's new and what's coming at Esri, and learn how these tools can be used to boost efficiency and innovation using geospatial technologies.

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Starting Small, Growing Smart - Evolving On-Street Parking into a Data-Driven, Multi-App Ecosystem
Tyler Wehr, GIS Parking Analyst
LAZ Parking

What began as a modest on-street parking system, reliant on coin-only meters and a single mobile payment provider, has since evolved into a modern, data-informed, multi-app environment that supports smarter decisions, improved customer choice, and greater operational visibility.

This presentation outlines a multi-year transformation focused not just on hardware and payments, but on strategic progression: expanding payment options, reorganizing zone data to reflect real-world use, and building a robust Power BI dashboard that gives staff and stakeholders clear insight into system performance. The process wasn’t about correcting failure, but about recognizing opportunity, aligning tools with goals, and designing a program that’s scalable, transparent, and responsive.

Attendees will learn how early constraints became a platform for innovation, how data design supports daily operations and long-term planning, and what it takes to sustain growth in a multi-vendor environment.

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