WLIA 2025 Annual Conference Appleton

Large datasets can be the bane of tight deadlines and complex deliverables. Explore how you can take your workflows- from daily tasks to annual projects- and use python to automate your analysis and processing. Utilizing ArcGIS Pro’s Notebooks (built upon the popular Jupyter Notebook framework), we’ll show how our respective organizations tackle large geospatial datasets with (relatively) small lines of code. Taking it a step further, we’ll show our colleagues how to optimize their arcpy with tips and tricks to speed up the process. This dual-agency workshop aims to demonstrate technical collaboration for the benefit of all.
Activity 1: Overview of how Access to Parks, a population health indicator from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps dataset that captures the percentage of the population in each county that lives within a half mile of a park, is calculated. The workflow utilizes Markdown in Notebooks to annotate the Python code which can help limit human error and improve reproducibility. It combines large datasets from the US Census and Esri’s ArcGIS Living Atlas.
Activity 2: Overview of analyzing federal and state-maintained datasets utilizing Python code to optimize processing time. Focus on which processes can bog down your script, and how to adjust accordingly. Going over the logic behind scripted python processes within ArcGIS Pro, associated hurdles, and how they can be made more efficient by leveraging batch processing, runtime checks, and other tools of the trade. We will build upon what was worked on in the first half of the workshop, and implement discussed strategies to increase efficiency.
Requirements: ArcGIS Pro 2.9 or higher installed on participant machine. All skill levels welcome!