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.

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.

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.

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

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!