Minutes of the 52nd Quarterly Salt Lake GIS Users Group (SLUG) meeting, held on November 17, 2022 from 11:30 am to 1:00 at Sandy City Hall (10000 Centennial Pkwy, Sandy, UT 84070). There were about 45 people in attendance today.
Business
Christina McCullock, SLUG Board
Welcome to SLUG’s 52nd meeting! We would like to thank Sandy City for hosting us. And to Aerographics for sponsoring lunch.
This meeting's lunch was sponsored by UGIC. If you have any contacts that would be willing to ‘sponsor’ a lunch by providing food/drinks in exchange for their advertising at the meeting, contact a SLUG Board member.
The next UGIC conference will be in May at the Zermatt in Midway, Utah. Keep an eye on their website for registration.
Maps on the Hill will be coming up on February 14, 2023! Keep an eye on UGRC’s website for a sign up for booths and applications to submit a map to the calendar.
Sponsor
Aero-Graphics is an aerial surveying and mapping company founded in 1965, I work directly with clients to understand their needs and provide customized geospatial solutions. Our team utilizes a fleet of five aircraft equipped with advanced digital cameras and LiDAR technology to perform dual acquisition surveys. We deliver high-quality digital surface maps, elevation models, and data to support floodplain analysis and a variety of other mapping and environmental applications.
Presentations
Matt Eskesen and Zlatko Grebenar - Sandy City, Parcels Owned by Sandy City
Matt and Zlatko created an internal web application to help city staff identify parcel ownership within Sandy, particularly focusing on which parcels are city-owned and which departments manage them. The tool has proven especially useful for economic development, supporting businesses exploring opportunities in the area. It features an attribute table widget as its primary tool for data exploration and is updated annually by joining county parcel data, which has proven sufficient for maintaining accuracy. The application is internal-facing and also supports departments like the fire department in accessing relevant parcel information.
Martijn Van Exel - New Developments at Mapillary
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open, collaboratively edited mapping platform—often called the “Wikipedia of maps”—that was founded in response to the lack of freely available geospatial data. Its data is openly licensed, meaning it can be used commercially, adapted, and modified, though derivative products must also remain openly licensed. OSM relies on tools like Mapillary, a street-level imagery platform that uses computer vision to identify signs and street assets; RapiD, a Meta-supported OSM editor that integrates AI-generated road segments and building footprints; and MapRoulette, a gamified tool for micro-mapping tasks. While both OSM and governments have valuable geodata, incompatible licensing has posed collaboration challenges, prompting the creation of an OSM US government committee in 2019 to address the issue. In Utah, the local OSM community holds monthly meetups to survey, learn, and socialize. See the presentation here.
GIS Humor
Zlatko Grebenar – SLUG Board
Thank you to our presenters and for joining us in person. If you have any ideas for a presentation or any other matter, please contact a SLUG board member. We welcome short or long presentations on any projects that you might be working on that might benefit others. We appreciate your interest and support!
Our next meeting will be in February at UGRC, more details to come!
We are looking for another board member to join SLUG! If you are interested please email us or contact a board member to learn more.
Check out our website for updates, contact info, or to sign up for our newsletter to get job announcements and SLUG meeting announcement emails.