Field Notes

The Fieldwork Handbook is a new book from Esri Press that includes tips, best practices, and activities for creating successful and productive field workflows. The author, Marika Vertzonis, is a long-time friend (and former guest) of the Field Notes podcast. In our latest field snack episode, we sit down with Marika once again to talk all about this new book which releases on March 5th, 2024.

• The Fieldwork ...

Aryn Musgrave does just about everything related to GIS for the Desert Botanical Garden located in Phoenix, AZ. Maintaining land that contains over 4000 plant species is no small feat, especially since the garden doubles as a museum for researchers across the country.

With ArcGIS paired with high-accuracy data collection, Aryn and her team maintain a variety of maps that include horticulture, irrigation, and other critical informat...

In this episode of Field Notes, we chat with Andrea Pecharich and Andrew Bartshire, who work with the Russian River Salmon and Steelhead Monitoring program. The data they collect with Esri Field Apps helps conservationists monitor fish populations, analyze patterns, and ultimately recover California's endangered fish species. Highlights from this episode include:

• Combatting climate change by monitoring salmon and steelhead popu...

African People & Wildlife is an organization dedicated to creating a world where Africa’s people and wildlife coexist and thrive in vibrant, healthy landscapes. In this episode, we sit down with two folks who help achieve this vision in Tanzania. Elizabeth Naro and Ramadhani Omary use GIS in all aspects of their work—from managing business operations to monitoring rangelands and resources with local communities in the field. In...

Shane Bradt is an extension professor at the University of New Hampshire and a member of the team responsible for creating the bloomWatch app. The app allows community members to report cases of cyanobacteria, a form of algae that’s harmful to human health, in their local lakes. In this episode of Field Notes, we talk with Shane about the importance of monitoring cyanobacteria, considerations for designing the app, and where his te...

Atlanta, Georgia is often called the city of trees, however increased development over the past several years has threatened the natural landscape the city is known for. Trees Atlanta is one organization working to restore the city's tree population by raising awareness and developing a variety of initiatives to plant trees across the city. One of these initiatives is the Front Yard Tree Program, which allows Atlanta residents to r...

Another year flies by and with it another season of the Field Notes podcast.  On this short, final episode, Josh and D’Maia reflect on the past year of podcasting about Esri Field Apps and mobile GIS.

We hope you have a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year! We have so many exciting things in store for season three of Field Notes, and can’t wait to see you then. In the meantime, be sure to fill out the feedback survey so we...

Kenny Ratliff is the GIS Manager at the Oldham County Water District, where they manage 370 miles of water main and treat 1.2 billion gallons of water annually. On this episode of Field Notes, Kenny discusses how Esri Field Apps and EOS Positioning Systems helped transform their mobile operations from paper mapping to robust, high-accuracy data management. Check out the full episode announcement blog post.

Oldham County Water Dist...

On this episode, we’re joined by Dan Colbert and Jeff Ryan from Trimble. They talk about the value of high-accuracy data collection and share best practices for using GNSS receivers—covering everything from preparing a data collection project to practical tips while working with receivers in the field.

• 2:57—Difference between GPS and GNSS
• 4:27—Examples of when high-accuracy data collection is necessary
• 7:00—Additiona...

High-accuracy data collection is often a requirement when adding and inspecting assets on a map. While your phone can provide a location accuracy of a few meters, high-accuracy GNSS receivers can ensure submeter, or even centimeter level accuracy when collecting data.

On this Field Snack, we break down the basics of high-accuracy data collection—covering basic definitions and terminology, the ArcGIS data model for GPS metadata, and...

David Webb is a GIS Solutions Developer for the engineering firm, Meshek & Associates. We first met David at the User Conference, where he stopped by our booth every day to discuss the latest features and capabilities of Esri Field Apps. In David’s role, he is tasked with developing mobile solutions for clients that help integrate modern GIS capabilities into their city workflows. It was a pleasure to sit down with him and talk abo...

In this episode of Field Notes, we dive into creating and using maps for mobile navigation. We sit down with Katherine Fuller to learn how her team at San Diego Gas and Electric uses mobile map packages (MMPKs), route layers, and custom locators in ArcGIS Navigator to route to assets, view attribute information, and respond to emergencies in the field. 

Additional Resources:

• ArcGIS Navigator Overview page
• Prepare Navigator (he...

Another Esri User Conference is in the books, and it was a whirlwind to say the least! It was wonderful spending a week devoted to GIS in sunny San Diego, and it was fantastic talking to so many customers about Esri Field Apps. Hear from some of those voices on the latest episode of Field Notes.

The following are additional resources mentioned in this episode of Field Notes:

• Esri User Conference Website
• Plenary recordings
• Wha...

The Chicago Field Museum partners with the community on a variety of science projects, including an effort to restore the Eastern Monarch Butterfly population (which has declined 80% in the past two decades). We sit down with Mark Johnston and Karen Klinger, GIS analysts for the museum, and discuss how they employ community science to gather data, restore habitats, and raise awareness of conservation issues in Chicago and beyond.

Welcome to our first Field Snack: a short form episode that delivers bite-sized information.

On this inaugural episode, we talk about the biggest Esri event of the year: the User Conference (UC). There is so much going on with Field Operations at UC 2022, and we break it all down in this episode. Hear from the presenters themselves, find out about different events taking place throughout the week, and learn how you can share your s...

In this episode of Field Notes, we sit down with Levi Cecil, GIS Specialist for Portland Public Schools, and discuss how he and his team use floor-aware mapping, ArcGIS Survey123, and ArcGIS Field Maps to prioritize and maintain school sanitation during these unprecedented times.

The following are additional resources relevant to this episode of Field Notes:

• Create a floor-aware map in Field Maps (help topic)
• Floor-aware map an...

Last month we packed up our podcasting gear and traveled to Palm Springs, CA for the Esri Developer Summit. It was a jam-packed week filled with informative tech sessions, inspiring demos, and incredible conversations with Esri customers (some of which you’ll hear on this episode!).  We also met for the first-time in person! Listen to our live experience of the 2022 Dev Summit and hear firsthand from users of Esri Field Operations....