Greensboro’s Tree Canopy Assessment & Planting Hub

| Kevin McMaster

SymGEO is proud to announce the launch of the City of Greensboro’s Tree Canopy Assessment and Priority Planting Program hub site!

This platform is the result of a collaborative effort between Planning Communities (project lead), SymGEO, Breece Robertson Consulting, and the Office of Sustainability and Resilience for the City of Greensboro, NC. The hub is designed to guide strategic tree planting and stewardship efforts, while also supporting community engagement, education, and policy and program recommendations to grow and protect Greensboro’s tree canopy.

Built on Esri’s ArcGIS Hub technology, the site leverages ArcGIS StoryMaps, Dashboards, and Survey123 to create an interactive experience for residents and tree-planting partners, making it easier than ever to explore Greensboro’s urban forest and get involved.

The hub features quick facts and figures about the tree canopy and its benefits, along with other reports and future plans for the City’s urban forest.

SymGEO led Greensboro’s tree canopy assessment by combining advanced spatial data processing, statistical analysis, and environmental benefit modeling. Using Deep Learning in ArcGIS Pro, high-resolution imagery was classified into distinct land cover types and paired with National Land Cover Data to build a detailed picture of the city’s landscape. Insights from 5,000+ sampled trees were expanded citywide using Forest Inventory Analysis methods, providing a statistically reliable estimate of tree canopy conditions across Greensboro. These results were then processed through i-Tree Eco tools to calculate the environmental benefits that trees provide—such as cleaner air, stormwater management, energy savings, and improved quality of life. This assessment equips city leaders and residents with valuable information to guide urban forestry decisions, prioritize tree planting, and maximize the community benefits of Greensboro’s urban canopy.

The Deep Learning classification method was repeated using historic imagery and then compared to current results to show areas of canopy loss, gains, and future planting opportunities (potential planting areas).

Canopy statistics were summarized in a dashboard featuring both canopy changes and environmental benefits.

The results of the canopy assessment were combined with a detailed vulnerability assessment performed by Planning Communities and summarized in an interactive dashboard that shows where planted trees would provide the greatest benefit.

The hub site also features a resource section that facilitates the exploration of best practices regarding planting, maintaining, and planning for future trees.

A survey to capture new trees planted by residents was built using Survey123 and encourages 2-way stakeholder engagement.

“The hub is an amazing visualization of multiple data points and information uniting on one platform – solidifying a need for continuous growth in Greensboro, one tree at a time!”

– Shree Dorestant, Office of Sustainability and Resilience, City of Greensboro NC

“Creating a place for the citizens to interact with their data in a useful way was a high priority for this project. Every Hub element and dashboard was designed to get the residents to understand how the canopy impacts their house, their neighborhood, and the city as a whole.”

– John Hendricks, Office of Sustainability and Resilience, City of Greensboro NC

Talk to our industry experts if your agency or organization is interested in conducting a canopy assessment or leveraging the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online and analytical technology – SymGEO is here to help!

Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries

| Kevin McMaster

The Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries recognizes cemeteries among the most valuable historic resources of Louisiana for their information about events, religion, lifestyles, and genealogy of a local community. Recently brought to life by a Historic Preservation Fund grant awarded to the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (LTHP) from the National Park Service, the goals of the program include increasing awareness of historic cemeteries, for their protection, maintenance and respect of those buried within them. As part of this important effort, SymGEO was honored to partner with LTHP to build the web infrastructure to house the historic cemetery data and enable stakeholders to contribute to this growing, interactive library.

Built using ArcGIS Hub technology, the site features an interactive Historic Cemetery Dashboard that tracks all known historic cemeteries in Louisiana. Clicking on a cemetery icon will give basic information about the site, while cemeteries with detailed information and site pictures are differentiated by symbology.

An innovative twist in the Dashboard is presented by the “Info Needed” tab, where users can see which cemeteries are missing names, locations, or boundaries. If they are familiar with a cemetery on the list (filtered by parish or city), they are presented with the option of updating either the basic geographic cemetery information, or completing a more detailed information form, including picture upload options.

Built using ArcGIS Survey123, the forms include step logic to allow data updates or new cemetery information to be easily added to the growing collection of historic knowledge.

“The first step in protecting and respecting historic burials is to be aware of their location. By crowdsourcing this data beyond our initial research, we are able to learn about historic cemeteries in remote locations which may not appear on topographic maps or have even been used in over a century. The program will benefit descendants; industries such as tourism, real estate and construction; and should foster increased protection and maintenance at cemeteries.”

– Executive Director, Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to feature projects or sites using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

Vision Zero DC

| Kevin McMaster

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser launched Vision Zero in 2015 to inspire and transform DC’s roadway safety efforts and to set DC’s sights on a goal of zero fatalities or serious injuries on District streets. Since then, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has shifted to designing streets that are safe for everyone, working closely with community members to identify problems and build solutions. As part of a new community outreach effort, SymGEO was honored to help DDOT build the new Vision Zero DC website using ArcGIS Hub technology. Read the official press release from DDOT for this exciting website launch, as well as the comprehensive ArcNews article entitled “Washington, DC, Pursues Equity and Transparency in Vision Zero Campaign” featured on the front page of the Spring 2023 edition.

“The new Vision Zero DC website will help us work closely with community members to identify problems and build solutions. SymGEO iterated quickly and efficiently on design ideas and built a very engaging platform solution for DDOT.”

– DDOT Vision Zero Director

The Vision Zero DC site is organized into easily navigable sections based on audience interest and is designed to be mobile-responsive and broadly accessible.

A poignant look at the human costs of dangerous driving and unsafe behaviors is presented in Vision Zero Stories, developed using ArcGIS StoryMap technology.

The Education page features educational campaigns that help to promote safe driving and pedestrian habits throughout the District.

The safety campaigns target the biggest threats to the most vulnerable travelers on DC’s roadways. These include aggressive driving, impaired driving, occupant protection, pedestrian safety, and bicycle safety.

A link is also featured to Safety Grant information housed on DDOT’s Highway Safety Office page. This page also includes many links to safety programs, grants, procedure manuals, and publications.

This living document provides links to numerous helpful documents and publications.

A look at the Engineering page shows the significant progress made in designing solutions to benefit vehicular and pedestrian traffic, conveniently organized into a Safety Treatment Toolbox.

Expanding a section of the toolbox gives a wealth of information about each treatment “tool.”

A Safety Intervention dashboard gives insight into all the implementations of the safety toolbox tools that have occurred to date.

An Annual Safety Improvement Program dashboard gives insight into all the roadway and intersection improvements made to date.

Exploring the Crash Analysis page gives a deep dive into the data fueling the push for zero fatalities on D.C.’s roadways, including a Fatality and Injury dashboard with authoritative data provided by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Talk to SymGEO today if your municipality or agency is interested in setting your sights on a goal of zero fatalities on your roadways using a Vision Zero hub site – we are certified experts and are here to help.

Special Event Operations at DDOT

| Kevin McMaster

Esri’s Special Event Operations is a configurable solution that helps organize special events, create event site maps, develop health and safety plans, manage event incidents and assignments, monitor public health and safety operations, and create after-action reports. The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) recognized the value of having comprehensive information about an event in one authoritative, collaborative place, and asked SymGEO to help configure and deploy Special Event Operations for their internal use.

“The Special Events solution has sparked a new level of excitement in preparing for special events in the city. With SymGEO’s technical help, DDOT now has improved internal communication and decision-making abilities. The training provided by SymGEO has been super beneficial – they are a treasure!”

– DDOT Program Manager, Traffic Management Center

ArcGIS Hub was used to host the solution as it facilitated the understanding and workflow of how each individual component fits into the comprehensive picture.

The solution is built around a core data set of special events. Individual events are initially “registered” with the solution using an ArcGIS Survey123 intake form.

An ArcGIS Dashboard uses the event information to give managers an overview of upcoming (or past) events that can be filtered by venue type, expected crowd size, approval status, or other event characteristics.

The Special Event Manager is used to dive deep into specific events. From this interface, site maps or operation maps can be created, copied from past events, reviewed, and eventually approved.

The Special Event Site Map interface facilitates the creation of site maps linked to individual events. Site maps include the point, line, or area representation of event physical features. This may include signs, fire lanes, event perimeters, or other stationary event components.

The operations map includes mobile or distributed resources that will be actively deployed during the event. This may include trucks, traffic control officers, resource assignment paths, staging areas, or security perimeters.

During an event, assignments can be created and assigned from the Special Event Command Center. Assignment deployment, tracking, and in-the-field responses are managed using ArcGIS Workforce behind the scenes.

ArcGIS Notebooks are used to copy site plans and operations maps from previous events. This saves time, money, and the duplication of effort for annual or repeating events.

Talk to SymGEO today if your agency or organization is interested in managing special events using the power of Esri’s Special Event Operations solution – we are certified experts and here to help.

Capital Bikeshare Community Survey

| Kevin McMaster

With 6000+ bikes covering 180+ square miles of the region, Capital Bikeshare is a great way to explore Metro DC and travel to and from various destination points. The network of 600+ bike stations is constantly expanding, and community feedback is an important part of deciding where to locate new stations. To facilitate the presentation of proposed locations to the general public and gather community feedback, SymGEO was honored to help build the Capital Bikeshare Station Request Tool using Esri’s ArcGIS Online technology. This work was featured in the Esri case study “GIS-Driven Initiatives Promote Active Transportation in Washington, DC“.

“The SymGEO team helped DDOT quickly implement a complex, public facing tool with a simple user interface to help us gather a high volume of public input data, which is extremely useful for Capital Bikeshare planning purposes. Their knowledge of GIS and ESRI products helped make a challenging project with many stakeholders simple and quick to turn around.”

– DDOT Project Manager

The tool leverages an ArcGIS web map and ArcGIS Web AppBuilder for the application as well as Survey123 for the gathering of comments on proposed bike stations, and it is hosted on ArcGIS Hub. Sharing feedback for a selected station opens a survey page for that station using URL parameters so that the comment is connected to the appropriate station.

If a resident would like to suggest a location for a new site, an alternative survey is launched with additional data capture fields.

The Request New Capital Bikeshare Location survey was constructed using Survey123 Connect and offers the ability for a user to suggest multiple sites in the same submission.

“This is great stuff. Thanks again for pulling this together so quickly!”

– DDOT GIS and Applications Manager

Talk to SymGEO today if your agency or organization is interested in community engagement with the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

COVID-19 Honduras

| Kevin McMaster

When our collaborative partners at Armor at Hand asked us if we were willing to continue our pro-bono work to fight the devastating effects of COVID-19 and help the people of Honduras, we didn’t hesitate. The result of this international work can now be seen in the Optimized Capacity and Mitigation (OCM) Honduras Dashboard.

This dashboard leverages data specific to Honduras and is a variant of the US version. This required significant updates to the modeling process and data files as well as a reconfiguration of the dashboard to reference the new data schemas. ArcGIS Online Assistant was used to facilitate the substitution of ArcGIS web maps and data services, and a new python script was developed to keep the Honduras data current.

For more information about the data model developed by Armor at Hand that powers the dashboard, check out the OCM Hub page, OCM whitepaper, or OCM ArcGIS Marketplace listing.

Talk to our industry experts today to help you leverage your spatial data with an ArcGIS Dashboard, ArcGIS Hub site, or the ModelBuilder process – SymGEO is here to help!

Arbor Day

| Kevin McMaster

“Every day is Arbor Day in the City of Trees!” – these wise words from Dr. Kasey Yturralde, the Forest Health and Community Outreach Specialist at DDOT’s Urban Forest Division (UFD), are a great indicator of the passion and excitement possessed by the entire UFD team keeping our city green and beautiful.

With that in mind, SymGEO is pleased to announce a brand new interactive Arbor Day at Home resource for communities and individuals who share the same passion for our neighborhood trees. This dynamic website, built with ArcGIS Hub technology, showcases a number of best-practices when planting or caring for trees, as well as fun activities for the whole family in identifying local tree varieties.

Talk to our industry experts today if your agency or organization is interested in community engagement with the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Hub – SymGEO is here to help!

COVID-19 Mitigation Analytics

| Kevin McMaster

Returning to “normal” after (or during) a global pandemic is a complicated prospect. Finding the right balance between the potential rate of infection based on social distancing scenarios versus hospital capacity to handle projected cases requires advanced spatial modeling and analytics. Needless to say, when SymGEO was asked to help our national recovery effort by our respected peers in the industry, GeoMarvel and Armor at Hand, we were happy to do as much as possible to assist.

The result of this collaboration is the Optimized Capacity and Mitigation (OCM) Analytics Dashboard, free for use in the ArcGIS Marketplace to assist with COVID-19 mitigation efforts. This dashboard is designed to use current hospital capacity data, infection rate scenarios based on demonstrated or projected epidemiology statistics, and peer-reviewed variable modeling methods. The history of this project is described on the OCM ArcGIS Hub site and summarized in an informative OCM whitepaper.

As modeling scenarios become more sophisticated and our understanding of infection rates is improved, this information can be used to augment the dashboard results. This information can be submitted by subject matter experts through an integrated survey on the ArcGIS Hub site.

ArcGIS Pro ModelBuilder was used to facilitate and standardize the modeling updates and data tables used by the dashboard. The model was then converted into a Python script, designed to be run as needed to keep the data current and informative.

Check out the OCM Dashboard, OCM Hub page, or OCM ArcGIS Marketplace listing to learn all about this project and let us know if SymGEO can help you leverage your spatial data with an ArcGIS Dashboard, ArcGIS Hub site, or the ModelBuilder process.

Hub Specialty Designation

| Kevin McMaster

SymGEO is pleased to announce we have been awarded the ArcGIS Hub Specialty designation from Esri! This prestigious honor is bestowed upon partners to recognize their expertise and delivery of solutions and services that help customers build a bridge between government departments and communities using ArcGIS Hub technology.

“ArcGIS Hub is an easy-to-configure cloud platform that organizes people, data, and tools to accomplish Initiatives and goals.” – Esri

SymGEO has been fortunate to work on community engagement projects for municipal and local government clients and has enhanced our partnership with Esri to gain valuable insight into best practices and emerging Hub technologies. We work diligently with our clients to identify their core messaging, digital assets, targeted audience, and corporate branding. We then typically implement a Hub site comprised of pages and initiatives that feature a range of ArcGIS Online solutions, including Survey123, Web AppBuilder, ArcGIS Dashboard, Collector, and 3D WebScenes.

To show a sampling of our ArcGIS Hub work, we offer the following examples:

SymGEO partnered with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Urban Forestry Division (UFD) to build an ArcGIS Hub site that showcases their work, data, and configurable applications. Upon completion, we then developed an initiative for their group that features Urban Wood Reuse in Washington, DC. The site is designed for schools that are interested in ordering products from DDOT made from urban trees so that school children can appreciate the continued benefits of the urban forest. The site uses Survey123 to capture order information, and ArcGIS Dashboard (on the backend) to track request status as the orders are being processed. Most recently, we have made a page for their group that explores Urban Forest Health issues.

SymGEO worked with guidance from the Kentlands Downtown Working Group to develop Kentlands Downtown: Energize!, an ArcGIS Hub-powered site that aims to connect the community with the economic development team to voice their opinions on what would do well or is needed in the Kentlands. The site leverages Survey123, ArcGIS Dashboard, and a number of unique design elements, including a 3D “virtual” fly-through. The realistic textured 3D environment was developed using a Local Government solution (Local Government 3D Basemaps) that used building footprints, LiDAR data, and CityEngine.

SymGEO was honored to partner with DC’s Ward7 to design and launch a community outreach site designed to present a brief history of the area, a flavor of the neighborhood, the challenges faced due to a changing development landscape, and a call to action for the residents. The site features a history of the development and a map showing the rather sharp economic divide between Ward7 and some of its surrounding neighborhoods.

SymGEO is focused on empowering state and local governments to better use their data and digital assets and to facilitate 2-way engagement with their constituents and communities. We leverage configurable Esri applications to deliver cost-effective solutions to our clients and pride ourselves on delivering a tailored, successful experience during each engagement. Talk to our industry experts today if your neighborhood, department, or organization is interested in community engagement with the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Hub technology – SymGEO is a certified specialist and is here to help!

Ward7 Community Outreach

| Kevin McMaster

“The genius of SymGEO was exactly what I needed to help jump-start a discussion on the DC Comprehensive Plan/Element Framework, transforming it from a boring review of data sets into an energizing discussion where people can clearly identify themselves in the data and endeavor to become change agents! SymGEO has taken community engagement and data collection to another level! #OneHappyCustomer”

– Ward7 Outreach Committee Chair

The Ward7 Community Outreach site is built on Esri’s ArcGIS Hub framework which offers exceptional design flexibility and mobile responsiveness. The site begins by presenting what makes a successful neighborhood and how Ward7 has achieved its own distinct success.

Historic challenges have caused a rather sharp divide between Ward7 and some of its surrounding neighborhoods. This divide was best illustrated with demographic data showing income and education. This mobile-responsive data exploring application was built using Web AppBuilder.

The site discusses how long-term planning and development within Washington DC is guided by the Comprehensive plan, what factors are considered by the plan, and some of the challenges faced by Ward7 during the development process.

Suggestions on how to improve the plan are offered, and community input is solicited using Esri’s Survey123 for ArcGIS,

Finally, social media is embedded into the site so that the community can stay up to date with the many events happening in and around Ward7.

Talk to SymGEO today if your agency or organization is interested in community engagement with the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.