A Maxent Script Tool for ArcGIS

As part of my PhD research at the University of Arizona where I study biogeography, biodiversity and macroecology, I have been part of a group looking at large-scale biodiversity questions for New World plants. In this role, I have been responsible for generating many species distribution models using Stephen Phillip's Maxent software (and R with the Dismo...

Speedy Attribute Editing with a Custom ArcMap Add-In

One of my colleagues, TerraSystems Southwest, is assisting The Nature Conservancy in Tucson with the Sonoran Desert Disturbed Lands Analysis project. As part of their scope of work, they were asked to assess the level and type of land disturbance for over 100,000 1-square mile hexagons covering the Sonoran Desert. As you might expect, editing the attributes...

Landing a GIS Job and GIS Skills Development in 2013

Note: This post is a 2013 update to my earlier post on Learning GIS and Getting a GIS Job – Some Tips and Tricks which was originally posted in 2009. In 2009 I wrote a post on how to obtain a GIS job that focused on pathways to learn GIS, critical skills every GIS analyst...

How I’d like ArcGIS to Work with SQL Server 2008

When Micosoft announced that SQL Server 2008 would include spatial data types I was excited. I've been a SQL Server user for a long time and have always preferred its management interface over those of the other DBMS I've tried. So the idea of spatial data types was exciting. Though there weren't many tools out there to...