Who does your taxes? H&R Block? TurboTax? A CPA/Tax Professional? Yourself? Check out this web map by ESRI. ESRI says it used data at the census tract and block group level. It looked at whether taxpayers used H&R Block, TurboTax, a certified public accountant or other tax professional, or did their taxes on their own. ESRI then credited that block to which ever method was used the most. Click on a point and get the breakdown of tax methods.
Category Archives: Maps/Apps/Charts/Data
Stuff in Space
January 2023 NOTE: The Stuff in Space website has moved. The link to the site has been updated.
Stuff in Space is a “real-time 3D map of objects in earth’s orbit”, including satellites and debris. This map uses data from Space-Track.org, a website operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. On this map, different kinds of “stuff in space” are color-coded: red for satellites, blue for rocket bodies, and grey for debris. Visitors may also explore different groups of space objects, which include maps of all Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and their orbits and a map of the debris created by the 2009 collision of the satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251. Check it out!
Cities at Night
Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) take hundreds of night-time pictures each year of cities around the globe. Cities at Night is a “citizen science project that aims to create a map, similar to Google maps, of the Earth at night using night-time color photographs taken by astronauts onboard the ISS.” Check out the photographs that have been geo-referenced to the Earth, or join in and help the project team geo-reference new photographs!
Useless FCC Broadband Map
In February the FCC released their new broadband map showing the availability of high-speed internet in the US. Many of you might remember their previous map which turned out to be completely useless. Well … this new one seems to be about the same, not matching the reality on the ground. Click below to read more about the story.
A great example of how to lie with maps. Hey! There’s a book about that! You should get it, it’s a great book.
Curbside Services Web App
ESRI Updates Landsat Services
Starting April 11, 2018, ESRI will update their Landsat Image Services. Improvements include revised scaling of Top of Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance values, daily updates, new QA band, a new field to keep track of Landsat product ID, and WCS/WMS compatibility. For more info visit ESRI’s blog posting here.
ArcGIS Offline Data Collection Without a Named User
Use ArcGIS Server? Want to edit data out in the field with disconnected editing capability but don’t want to be forced into the ArcGIS named user model just to use Collector? Webmapsolutions.com might have an answer for you! They have built an offline-enabled ArcGIS data collection app which works with ArcGIS Server (no named user required), but can also work with Portal and ArcGIS Online! Check it out.
LARIAC5 Imagery
Burbank received the LARIAC5 2017 imagery and I must say it looks great! Click to enlarge.
Also, this time around the imagery has 4 bands, band 4 being near infrared, so you can display color infrared (CIR) to make the vegetation pop. Just set the Red band to 4, the Green band to 1, and the Blue band to 2:
Very cool. Great job LA County! -mike
Extracting MORE Features from Map Services
Back in August 2015 I posted information about how you can extract features from a map service. Since then, I have had many contact me about modifying the code so it can extract features beyond the record limit set in the map service. So today I decided to work on one that does!
To test the script, I headed over to the map services provided by the State of California GIS. Specifically, the one for wildfires:
http://services.gis.ca.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Environment/Wildfires/MapServer
When you scroll down a quick look will reveal that there is a maximum record count of 1000:

California Releases “EQ Zapp”
The California Earthquake Hazards Zone Application (“EQ Zapp”) is an online map that allows anyone with a computer, tablet, or smartphone to conveniently check whether a property is in an earthquake hazard zone. Earthquake hazard zones include fault rupture areas, liquefaction areas, and earthquake induced landslides. Check it out!











