Category Archives: Spatial IT/GIS

Matt Pietryszyn

Team Lead, Location Intelligence & Data Visualization, City of Brampton Ontario, Canada The City of Brampton in Ontario is on the leading edge of vibrant, geospatially charged communities; xyHt receives many nominations for 40 under 40 each year for folks in the connected geo-community there. Matt Pietryszyn received multiple nods, not only for his work with...

GIS in Higher Education

Given this column’s theme of the coordinated campus and educational implications for the GIS professional community, it seems fitting to ask: If you went to a postsecondary school, did you take a course in GIS? For more people than ever before, the answer is “yes.” GIS has long been a part of institutions of higher...

Kari Hicks

Senior GIS Analyst, Duke Energy Ohio, USA Duke Energy is one of the largest utilities in the U.S., with nearly eight million customers across multiple states in the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard. Like other utilities, Duke is seeking to modernize and provide affordable, reliable, and greener energy for growing markets through improved engineering efficiencies and...

Smart Access for 3D Cities

Above: A view from the OpenCities Planner online 3D city model web portal (hosted by Agency9) for Gothenburg, Sweden. A new skyscraper (now under construction) was added to provide planners and citizens a realistic idea of the visual impact of the proposed development. Credit for all images in this article: Bentley Systems. Today’s 3D city...

Aerial Self-sufficiency

Above: Universal Studios, Florida A large risk-assessment and data-analytics company created its own internal system to collect imagery, write software, and develop processing workflows. If a private company or public agency is large enough, it may be able to internalize all of the processes for its services rather than having to outsource any. For example, it might...

What’s within a 30-minute Walk – Revisited

I recently had reason to be in London for a short meeting and walked past London Bridge, looked at the sky around me, and thought, “I wonder how accurate that map I made last year is?” I was fortunate to have my camera phone with me so that I could take a few pictures. The...