WLIA 2025 Annual Conference Appleton: Full Schedule

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10:30am CST

Making Wisconsin Historic Aerial Imagery Available to the World

Thursday February 27, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am CST

First released in 2011, the Wisconsin Historic Aerial Imagery Finder (“WHAIFinder”) has been our primary means of providing download access to over 38,000 scanned aerial photographs acquired between 1936 and 1941. We recently reached a major new milestone: we now have nearly 150,000 photos available for free download, dating from 1936 to 2022. In addition to acquiring and organizing new scanned photography, we completely redesigned the WHAIFinder Web app from the ground-up. We also now maintain an Esri feature service that GIS users can utilize for searching and then downloading GeoTIFF-format images, and a “bulk download” option for grabbing large volumes of data for specific areas of interest. In this presentation I will talk about what is available and lessons learned along the way.

Speakers

Jim Lacy

Associate State Cartographer, Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office

Jim is the Associate State Cartographer at the WI State Cartographer's Office, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Thursday February 27, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am CST
Evergreen

Imagery, Beginner

11:00am CST

Modeling Urban Forest Canopy in Wisconsin

Thursday February 27, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am CST

Evergreen

DNR staff created new statewide urban landcover models for Wisconsin for 2020 and 2022 derived from USDA aerial imagery. This presentation will describe the creation and validation of these models and highlight urban forest canopy differences between Wisconsin communities. In addition, this presentation will highlight the relationships between urban landcover and several variables including temperature, cooling, population demographics, and housing values. Finally, this presentation will demonstrate how the model can be used to optimize the beneficial effects of urban forests.

Speakers

Robert Smail

Research Scientist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Bob Smail is a research scientist for the Division of Forestry in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. His research topics include public land economics, urban heat island effects, historical forest cover change, and the effects of groundwater and climate variation on forest... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am CST
Evergreen

Imagery, Advanced

11:30am CST

WROC 2025 - Program Update

Thursday February 27, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm CST

Evergreen

The Wisconsin Regional Orthoimagery Consortium (WROC) is in full swing for 2025. Many counties across the state will be participating, along with a variety of partners. This presentation will go over consortium structure, participation levels, ortho and mapping options, and current trends. Please join us for a program update and discussion of future orthoimagery cycles in Wisconsin.

Speakers

Andy Faust

GIS Analyst, North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission

Andy has been with North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission for over 20 years. He is a long time WLIA member and WROC program manager.

Zach Nienow

Manager - Aerial Mapping, Ayres Associates

Zach manages the aerial mapping group at Ayres Associates. He has been a member of WLIA since 2012 and is a past president. He is the WROC consultant program manager.

Thursday February 27, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm CST
Evergreen

Imagery, Intermediate

2:00pm CST

Accessing and using USGS 3DEP Lidar Data

Thursday February 27, 2025 2:00pm - 2:30pm CST

Evergreen

Through partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), Wisconsin has complete coverage of high-resolution elevation data representing the surfaces of the state as lidar point clouds (LPC) and Digital Elevation Models (DEM). Comprised of trillions of data points and many terabytes of information, this vast amount of publicly available data can be intimidating for users and requires investment in resources to download and manage on local systems. This presentation will demonstrate how to search, view, interact with and download USGS 3DEP LPCs and DEMs using various web applications and web services available through The National Map.

Speakers

Mitch Bergeson

USGS National Map Liaison, U.S. Geological Survey

Mitch is the USGS National Map Liaison for IA, MN, and WI and performs outreach and coordination related to key initiatives of the USGS National Geospatial Program, including elevation, hydrography, and US Topo.

Thursday February 27, 2025 2:00pm - 2:30pm CST
Evergreen

2:30pm CST

Creating Cartographic Quality Contours from Recent or Historic QL2 Lidar Data and Breaklines

Thursday February 27, 2025 2:30pm - 3:00pm CST

Evergreen

What do you do with your existing QL2 Lidar data and breakline files? Highlighting a current project, I will discuss the considerations and pitfalls for using QL2 lidar data and breakline files to create cartographic quality contours. Following the USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5167, “Creation of Digital Contours that Approach the Characteristics of Cartographic Contours” workflow in current ArcGIS Pro environment this presentation will discuss how to implement this approach to your data set. We will highlight examples of initial data preparation, contour generation, different data QC methods, and common issues or errors that happen in each step.

Speakers

Jon Popelars

LiDAR Specialist, GPI GEO

Graduated from St Mary's University of Minnesota-Winona with a MS in GIS focusing on Natural Resource Managment. Has been generating GIS data from different sources for the last 17 years. With a particular focus on Lidar data for both small and large scale projects for the last 15... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2025 2:30pm - 3:00pm CST
Evergreen

Lidar, Intermediate

3:00pm CST

What to Do with Your Lidar

Thursday February 27, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm CST

Evergreen

Lidar exists in every corner of the State, more is coming, and it is only getting better. Lidar is a key foundational dataset from which many additional datasets can be derived. Cities and Counties can use their new Lidar to map their built environment with features like 2D/3D buildings, analyzing slopes on road ditches, or locating exactly where your culverts are. Many use the data for creating Enhanced Hydrography Datasets to map surface water flow, finding closed depressions, or assessing risk of soil erosion. Conservation offices are starting to the lidar with the ACPF toolset. Analysis of LiDAR can put your data to work to help derive answers for departments across your organization. This presentation will dive into the creation and use cases for the next generation of GIS layers derived from LiDAR base products.

Speakers

Adam Derringer

Senior Project Manager, Ayres Associates

Adam Derringer has over 20 years of experience consulting in the industry. He works to help local, state, and federal stakeholders collaborate, properly plan for, and apply appropriate GIS and Remote Sensing technology for innovative solutions. His career is supported by years of... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm CST
Evergreen

Lidar, Intermediate