Check out this interactive map that shows the perimeters of wildfires that have burned in California from 1878 to 2018 using data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Geological Survey. The wildfires are categorized by the year in which they started. Perimeter information from fires that started between 1878 and 2017 comes from Cal Fire, while information on the Thomas Fire and fires that started in 2018 comes from the USGS.
ArcGIS 10.8 Prerelease Available
Update 2/20/2020: ArcGIS 10.8 has been released. View the post here.
Looks like ESRI pre-released ArcGIS 10.8. Logging into my.esri.com shows what is available for download:

ArcGIS 10.8 Prerelease:
The ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Engine 10.8 setup packages are designed to detect and upgrade an existing installation of the same ArcGIS product. The settings for the installation location, license manager (for concurrent use), or authorization information (for single use) are retained during the upgrade.
ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8 upgrades are not supported at 10.8 prerelease. To see the new capabilities of ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8 prerelease, it is required to do a new installation. Upgrades from previous versions to the 10.8 prerelease are not supported. Upgrades from the prerelease version to the final released version are not supported. The final release of 10.8 will support upgrades from previous software releases as usual.
The following products are not included with ArcGIS 10.8 prerelease and will be available with the final release of ArcGIS 10.8:
- ArcGIS Business Analyst Enterprise
- ArcGIS LocateXT for Server
- ArcGIS LocateXT for Desktop
- ArcGIS Monitor
- ArcGIS for INSPIRE
- ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services
- ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure
ArcGIS 10.8 Single Use Licenses:
If ArcGIS 10.8 will be installed on a machine that is different from where a previous ArcGIS 10.x product is currently installed, and you wish to use the existing ArcGIS 10.1–10.7.1 authorization number for ArcGIS 10.8, the earlier version of an ArcGIS 10.x product must first be deauthorized before authorizing ArcGIS 10.8.
ArcGIS 10.8 Concurrent Use Licenses:
- The copy protection mechanism for the prerelease version of ArcGIS Desktop 10.8 and ArcGIS Engine 10.8 concurrent use requires that ArcGIS License Manager 2019.1 be installed to support these products.
- Existing ArcGIS 10.1–10.7.1 authorization numbers will work with ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Engine 10.8.
- Existing ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7–10.7.1 authorization numbers will not work with ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8. You must obtain a 10.8 authorization number which will also work with the final release of ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8.
Understanding ArcGIS Online Credits
If you are like me, I get confused on how many ArcGIS Online credits are used for certain transactions. For example, if I want to generate a tile cache, that would be 1 credit per 10,000 tiles generated.
Check out this Credits by Capability table to see how many credits you would consume per transaction.
Fire Hazard of Every Building in California
With all the fires that are going on right now, this interesting interactive map by UCLA shows all buildings in California classified by what Cal Fire Fire Hazard Severity Zone they fall in. Click below and check it out!
Thanks goes to Barry Waite for finding this one!
You can also check out the Cal Fire Fire Incident Map here.
Ocean and Atmospheric GIS Forum
See What Others Can’t Campaign
Looks like ESRI is starting a new campaign called “See What Others Can’t“. If you attended the 2019 Users Conference in July, you saw some of this already.
According to an email that went out to users, they will be extending the campaign “to include billboards and print, TV, and digital ads.” Billboards and TV? That should be interesting to see. When someone asks you what you do, ask them if they saw the TV commercial or billboard! Here is one of the commercials.
ESRI would like users to embrace and amplify the message on the campaign’s new website to share your stories and feedback with ESRI. Check it out!
How The Metric System Was Created
I remember trying to learn the metric system back in elementary school (1970’s). Then it just went away like it was not important anymore. I did not have to deal with it again until college.
How was the metric system created and adopted? Well, France created the metric system! The French Revolution (1789-99) and revolutionaries caused changes in many things, including the way things were measured in France. The French public really did not like the new system and went back to the old ways, which exasperated Paris authorities, so the government sent police inspectors to marketplaces to enforce the new system. In 1812, Napoleon abandoned the metric system though it was still taught in schools. However, by 1840 it was reinstated. Click below to read more about it!
The Early Days of GIS
If you are old enough, remember when you printed a map on a dot matrix printer? How about those Calcomp plotters that used different colored ball point pen cartridges to make color maps? Cross hatching was a big thing!
Check out this article about how advances in computer mapping shaped the early days of GIS.
The Huntington Fellowship
The Huntington is pleased to announce an addition to its fellowship program that may hold particular interest for members of this group. This fellowship is unusual among the Huntington’s offerings in having no specific degree requirements. To apply, please go to https://fellowships.huntington.org/; for further details, contact Natalie Serrano at nserrano@huntington.org.
The Huntington Fellowship in the Materiality of Print Culture
This newly created fellowship in the materiality of print culture provides one month of support for research in any aspect of printing history, book production, or illustration technologies including photography. Applications are welcomed from those inside and outside the academy, but are especially encouraged from librarians, curators, conservators, and advanced practitioners of any of the allied arts of printing, printmaking, photography, graphic design, or book production. Applicants must have a focused research project that centers on some material aspect of print culture and must demonstrate how research in The Huntington’s Library collections is critical to its development.
Expanding 3DEP Coverage
Five years after the United States Geological Survey launched its 3D Elevation Program, it has delivered the first ever national baseline of consistent high-resolution elevation data. As the program matures and works toward its goal of covering 100 percent of the U.S. and its territories, it faces challenges and opportunities in the West. Click below to read the article.






