Getting to Know the Living Atlas

Introduction

    As an emerging industry, UAS demands a lot of knowledge in a broad array of subjects. Learning GIS skills over the past few weeks has already expanded my skill set, and I am always looking to learn new things. I have found that the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is a great resource to consult. The library contains thousands upon thousands of crowdsourced layers to be used in projects. Many are free to use, however, some are considered “subscriber” or “premium” content. Searching this database is made easy by the filtering and sorting options provided. This week, I looked into a few different tutorials that interested me, I walked through the ArcGIS Living Atlas tutorial, and I made a few maps of my own.

Exploring ArcGIS Online

     While exploring ArcGIS online I came across a few tutorials that caught my eye. I think each of these has a valuable skill or lesson to be learned which I would like to add to my UAS skill set.

Estimate Storage Capacity with Drone Imagery

This tutorial walks through utilizing aerial imagery to create data products of a water storage basin and calculate its area. As this relates directly to UAS imagery, I think it will be good to review. I was surprised to see that there were not more ArcGIS Pro tutorials focused on UAS data. Maybe in the future there will be more. 

Figure 5.1: Estimate Storage Capacity with Drone Imagery

Figure 5.2: Estimate Storage Capacity with Drone Imagery

Lesson Plan

Georeference Imagery in ArcGIS Pro

This tutorial looks at aligning and transforming historical imagery that are missing spatial reference information. Understanding how to do this will give a better understanding of coordinate systems and how to find and add essential spatial reference information. Ideally this would be for lower accuracy operations where the exact location of something helps understanding but is not relied on.

Figure 5.3: Georeference Imagery in ArcGIS Pro

Figure 5.4: Georeference Imagery in ArcGIS Pro

Lesson Plan

Apply Subtypes and Domains to Vienna Hiking Trails

Here, you implement and apply attribute validation techniques to geodatabase features to ensure data integrity and simplify data collection and editing. This is an application I could see myself working on in the future. I approciate the attention to detail this tutorial adds to that hiking map. This specific application of updating and enhancing hiking trails stood out to me as someone who loves to hike.

Figure 5.5: Apply Subtypes and Domains to
Vienna Hiking Trails

Figure 5.6: Apply Subtypes and Domains to
Vienna Hiking Trails Lesson Plan

Fly Through South America in a 3D Animation
This tutorial animates a 3D tour of a famous geographer's epic journey. This would be an impressive skill to learn. Presenting materials in a creative and unique way is important to me which is why this tutorial stood out.

Figure 5.7: Fly Through South America in

a 3D Animation

Figure 5.8: Fly Through South America in

a 3D Animation Lesson Plan

Construct Realistic Buildings with Multipatch Editing
This tutorial shows how to create detailed 3D building models with real-world image textures. This could be incredibly useful in architecture, urban planning, inspection or real estate application. This stood out to me as a UAS project I would like to pursue in the future. 

Figure 5.9: Construct Realistic Buildings with
Multipatch Editing

Figure 5.10: Construct Realistic Buildings with
Multipatch Editing Lesson Plan

Living Atlas Tutorial

    This week I looked further into how ArcGIS Online works including the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. This included accessing Living Atlas content across the platform and discover the capabilities that these layers and maps can support through the tutorial here.

Figure 5.11: Get Started with ArcGIS Living Atlas

of the World

Figure 5.12: Get Started with ArcGIS Living Atlas

of the World Lesson Plan

    The tutorial takes you through as if you are preparing to study the potential impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built on the Nile River in eastern Africa. To learn more about the current water levels in the region it lets us dive into the content available in the Living Atlas.

Figure 5.13: ArcGIS Living Atlas
of the World Homepage

    To look into the global soil moisture over time, I selected the average monthly soil moisture modeled globally (shown below). This is a layer put together by NASA and curated by Esri. It is important to select data that is relevant to the question at hand and created by a reputable source. 

Figure 5.14: GLDAS Soil Moisture

2000 - Present

    To get a better look at this I opened it in the map viewer. When I did this I noticed it offered me to be a Beta user for the new Map Viewer update - I will have to look in to this more later. 
    Through the Living Atlas, applications built off of the selected layers can also be viewed. These can be useful tools and can give more insight into the data! The "Apps" tab offers a list of top curated apps - this means they were specifically selected and approved by Esri! In this situation the Water Balance Application (Figure 5.15) would be great for consulting the soil moisture around the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (the area of study for the tutorial).

Figure 5.15: The Water Balance Application

Featuring the Data at the Grand Ethiopia

Renaissance Dam

    Contributions can be submitted for Esri curator review under the "Contribute" tab and can be tracked under the "My Contributions" tab. In order to qualify for review it must have at least a fully documented item detail page.

Utilizing the ArgGIS Living Atlas to Create my own Maps

    

Conclusion

    The ArcGIS Living Atlas is a great tool to consult when compiling maps. There is a surprising amount of local information that can be used for a variety of projects. I would definitely consider referencing this for future projects. It could save time, effort and money rather than recollecting the data.