Dive Deep into Workshops at GIS-Pro 2021 in Baltimore

URISA is pleased to offer eight workshops during its 59th Annual Conference, GIS-Pro 2021, taking place October 3-6, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland.

One course is included with full registration. These workshops will be presented on Sunday, October 3:

• Decrypting Risk, Resilience, Social Vulnerability Data & Indices

This workshop will provide guidance for understanding and applying five geospatial web-based social index tools designed to help communities identify their social vulnerabilities and improve their resilience to disasters. Covered indices will include the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), Social Vulnerability Index for the United States (SoVI®), Community Resilience Indicator Analysis (CRIA), Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) and National Risk Index (NRI)*. Methodologies behind each of these resources, intended uses, and practical applications will be discussed. A significant portion of the workshop will be devoted to hands-on exploration of these tools.

• NG9-1-1 and The GIS Workflow

This workshop is aimed at the GIS professional who is currently supporting or may support their emergency communications division in the future. In a fully operational next generation 9-1-1 system, GIS is the core component in determining how a 9-1-1 call is routed to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP). This technology shift will have profound impacts on local data maintenance workflows, local data access, and data fidelity. We recognize there is a sincere lack of education available aimed at the GIS professional who may not be as versed with the 9-1-1 terminology or needs. This workshop is intended to provide an overview of next generation 9-1-1, GIS’ role in such a system, the implications on local workflows, and to illustrate common pain points and sources of errors in local GIS datasets.

• GIS Return on Investment

Determining Return on Investment (ROI) is an important task for identifying GIS project and program cost and benefits, securing support and funding, choosing among alternative components and tasks, and evaluating performance. ROI analysis is applicable to all stages of GIS project planning, development, operation, and expansion. Developing the metrics necessary to determine ROI, however, can be a daunting task. This workshop will present principles and methods to accomplish this goal. The workshop will cover ROI basics, types of ROI, how to determine costs, how to determine and quantify benefits, categorizing the results, calculating different types of ROI, and interpreting, using, and presenting the results. Hands-on Exercises include identifying and documenting costs, identifying and measuring benefits, and putting it together to develop an ROI analysis.

• Managing Addressing for the 21st Century

Addresses are a vital data set for all local governments, and are increasingly needed for regional and state functions as well. Managing the addressing life cycles from assignment to maintenance, and serving address data to multiple departments and agencies with different user needs and requirements make addressing a complex task. This workshop will focus on understanding your addressing system, the workflows for address assignment and maintenance, and the development of standard-compliant address repositories that provide the structure and flexibility needed to meet addressing needs throughout your organization.

• Preparing for GISP Certification

The GISP has become a respected and in-demand indication of your skills as a GIS professional. If you are pursuing the GISP credential, or are thinking of doing so, join us for this full-day workshop, as a group of GIS experts share valuable information that can increase your chance of success. Earning the GISP credential requires successfully completing an exam as well as a number of other application requirements. Attend this workshop to explore the topics that you need to be familiar with for each of the knowledge areas covered by the GISP exam. Information presented in this workshop is designed to help professionals who have extensive GIS education and experience, but need to know what topics to review prior to taking the exam. It also will help individuals with some GIS experience that may be lacking in one or more areas covered by the exam and that need to know where to find additional resources to study. This workshop will help you assess your knowledge of the content, sort out what is and is not covered on the exam, identify content areas you need to focus on, and even rediscover the joys of test-taking.

• Building Community Using Geospatial Tools

As spatial data becomes readily available; many organizations and community groups are taking GIS out of the back room and are using it in public settings. Using GIS technology to engage various “publics” in decision making requires more than traditional technical GIS skills. This course focuses on the process of entering into this type of engagement. It will review current tools and technologies used to engage the public as well as methods for engagement. Using real-world examples, the course will explore both government and community-led projects that encourage citizen participation and engagement. These methods will be applicable to governmental, non-profit, and community organizations. Special attention will be given to the responsibility of the GIS professional to engage the widest possible audience.

• Climate Change & Climate Equity

In this half-day interactive workshop, we will be offering our interdisciplinary ideas and expertise for input into several current local and global initiatives and opportunities related to climate change, community resiliency and climate justice. This is a unique opportunity to join alongside several of GIS-Pro’s multi-disciplined and talented workshop participants and members of URISA’s Climate Change and Climate Equity Working Group to give back to our communities! Participants will identify potential data and resources, gaps in data and analysis, how climate affects populations (especially related to equity and climate justice), cultures, and geographic areas, effective tools and methods for analysis, related indicators and performance metrics, and community partners and climate action leaders. The work of the Climate Change and Climate Equity Working Group and discussions align with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, particularly SDG 13.1 which focuses on strengthening community “resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-rated hazards and natural disasters in all countries” and SDG 13.b which relates to building capacity for effective climate change-related planning, especially in vulnerable communities and populations. Real world data around climate, health and equity will be used to inform the workshop and the results of the workshop will be shared back to support climate action efforts.

• Cybersecurity Awareness for GIS Professionals

National and economic security depends on reliable functioning of critical infrastructure, including transportation, utility, pipeline, and other distribution and collection networks. Cybersecurity threats exploit the increased complexity and connectivity of critical infrastructure systems, placing our nations’ security, economies, and public safety and health at risk. Similar to financial and reputational risk, cybersecurity risk can affect an organization’s bottom line by driving up costs and impacting revenue. It can also impact an organization’s ability to innovate, share and protect information, keep agreements, and gain and maintain public confidence. This ½ day workshop will focus on cybersecurity business drivers, and provide background for understanding how managing cybersecurity risks can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process. In this workshop, you will learn key concepts and components necessary for protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of geospatial information assets. You will gain an understanding of the importance and key techniques for managing security of information assets including access control, disaster recovery and business continuity that can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process. The first part of the workshop will focus on information security risk identification and management. The second part half of the class will cover details of security threats and the mitigation strategies used to manage risk.

Take some time to learn more about subject matter experts who are instructing and the detailed learning outcomes for each workshop.

Start here for registration and program details: https://www.urisa.org/gis-pro

Note that URISA is requiring that participants be fully vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID-19 test result in order to attend GIS-Pro 2021.