Create Amazing Hillshade Effects Quickly and Easily in ArcGIS Pro

By Aileen Buckley
Esri Research Cartographer

 22  1  23

If you want to give your maps depth and dimension, try using a hillshade effect in them. Hillshades enhance the three-dimensional appearance of the terrain by using patterns of light and shadow to create a 3D representation of the surface that makes it easier to identify landscape features. To create this effect, you can use digital elevation model (DEM) data—a type of raster data that contains an elevation value for each cell. (See figure 1.)

Figure 1. This 30-meter DEM data for the Crater Lake area in Oregon shows higher elevations in lighter tones and lower elevations in darker tones.

With ArcGIS Pro, you simply apply the hillshade effect to your DEM data rather than create a new layer. This can save storage space, especially if either the map extent or DEM dataset is large. In addition, with ArcGIS Pro, you can use the stunning multidirectional hillshade option, which simulates diffuse illumination by combining light from sources in multiple directions. This is more dramatic than a traditional hillshade that shows light from a single light source in the northwest.

Applying a hillshade effect in ArcGIS Pro is quick, easy, and efficient because ArcGIS Pro uses a raster function instead of the Hillshade geoprocessing tool. Raster functions are operations applied on the fly and directly to the pixels of imagery and raster datasets displayed so only pixels that are visible on the screen are processed. A raster function can be applied to all types of rasters, and the output will be a virtual raster layer. This shortens processing time and saves you the trouble of creating and storing additional data.

In ArcGIS Pro, raster functions are accessed from the Analysis tab. To use a raster function to apply a hillshade effect, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Raster Functions pane.
2. Expand the Surface functions and select the Hillshade option (or search for Hillshade in the Raster Functions pane).

3. Set Raster to your DEM dataset.
4. Set Hillshade Type to Traditional or Multidirectional, as desired.
5. Set Scaling to None if you are making a map at a single map scale (such as a printed map), or select Adjusted if you are making a multiscale map (such as a web map). You'll also want to select Adjusted scaling if you are making a hillshade of a large map extent, since no scaling would result in little terrain variation at small map scales.
6. Set Z Factor to a higher number to exaggerate the height variation in the terrain, or use it to convert the elevation units to the x,y linear units if they happen to be different (see Applying a z-factor to learn more about this second reason).

7. Click the Create new layer button at the bottom of the Raster Functions pane to create a new layer in the current map. Note that this is only a new display of the processed data—it is not a new raster dataset.

The figures below show how the traditional hillshade compares to the multidirectional hillshade for the Crater Lake dataset.

Figure 2. The traditional hillshade.

Figure 3. The multidirectional hillshade.

For Crater Lake, the beautiful texture of the multidirectional hillshade is even more pronounced when higher-resolution data is used. Figure 4 shows the results when 1-meter lidar data was used instead of the 30-meter data displayed in the previous examples.

Figure 4. The multidirectional hillshade with higher (1-meter) resolution data.

Not only does the multidirectional hillshade reveal more variation in the terrain, thus allowing you to find unique landform features, it also results in a 3D surface with a lighter overall tone. This is preferable when you plan to display other data, such as land use or a hypsometric tint (a DEM symbolized so that elevation values are displayed with varying colors, such as green for valleys, browns for midslope elevations, and white for mountaintops), transparently over the hillshade surface.

Figure 5. Elevation and bathymetry are colorized and displayed transparently over the multidirectional hillshade.

The hillshade effect is quick and easy to create in ArcGIS Pro, and it produces visually stunning results. Try it out yourself, and be sure to experiment with the multidirectional hillshade option.

To learn more about the hillshade and other raster functions, read these online help topics: Hillshade functionand Raster functions. To learn more about the multidirectional hillshade, read the blog post "Introducing Esri's Next Generation Hillshade."

Crater Lake data source: Robinson, J. E., 2012, "High-Resolution Digital Elevation Dataset for Crater Lake National Park and Vicinity, Oregon, Based on LiDAR Survey of August–September 2010 and Bathymetric Survey of July 2000": US Geological Survey Data Series 716. (Available at https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/716/.)

ArcWatch: GIS News, Views, and Insights

Create an Open Data Site in Three Steps

By Katelyn MacDonald
Technical Solutions Specialist, Esri Canada

 127  11  145

It’s easy to create a publicly accessible site for sharing data in a variety of formats with ArcGIS. If your organization has an ArcGIS Online subscription, you already have access to the comprehensive open data capabilities the ArcGIS platform offers—they are free and come included as part of your subscription. Once open data is enabled for an ArcGIS Online Organization, the management of that open data occurs inside ArcGIS Hub.

ArcGIS Hub is a new and separate product that can be purchased to help governments improve how they engage and collaborate with their communities. Since open data capabilities are now managed inside ArcGIS Hub, open data users can preview some of these new ArcGIS Hub capabilities, but won’t have access to all of them unless they purchase an ArcGIS Hub license. Either way, whether you are an ArcGIS Online subscriber, or an ArcGIS Hub user, you can take advantage of the ArcGIS platform’s open data capabilities and launch an open data site in these three straightforward steps.

The blog post “9 tips to ensure high-quality open data downloads" provides the foundation for getting ready to launch an open data site. Once a plan has been developed and your data has been described and organized, the next step is to move it to the open data site. Not only do you need to make the data available to your users, you also want to provide a site that's easy to navigate and showcases your organization's unique brand. If you need ideas on how to develop your open data objectives, I suggest reading "4 ways to drive open data program success."

In this tip, you will learn the technical aspects of launching your open data site.

With the 2.0 version of ArcGIS Hub, organizations now have more control over the flow and feel of their open data sites, making them more accessible and interactive for data users. With the introduction of charts and widgets, ArcGIS Hub 2.0 facilitates increased collaboration between data providers and the community. The new version also enables file geodatabase downloads, a functionality that's been highly requested by users. For more information on what's new with ArcGIS Hub 2.0, read this ArcGIS Blog post.

You can set up your open data site in three steps:

Step 1: Configure the open data site.

To enable open data capabilities in your organization's ArcGIS Online site, navigate to Organization > Edit Settings, then click the Open Data tab along the left-hand side of the page.

Click the ENABLE OPEN DATA button. You can come back to this Open Data tab in the future to manage your sites or to disable open data if you so choose.

Once you have open data groups created, you will see them listed in the open data pane. You can also use this pane to assign group members to open data groups, or go to the View My Content page to share data to your open data groups.

The MANAGE SITES button will take you to the ArcGIS Hub administrative application. Also on this page are the ASSIGN GROUP MEMBERS and VIEW MY CONTENT buttons. Staff in the Administrator role of your organization can click the ASSIGN GROUP MEMBERS button to batch assign a batch of ArcGIS Online members to your open data group. Clicking the VIEW MY CONTENT button takes you to the Content tab of ArcGIS Online.

Work with the Open Data Site Manager

Click the MANAGE SITES button to open the Site Manager page. This is where an open data administrator, can create an open data site or visit, manage, and edit an existing site by clicking its name. Each open data site is listed on this page, along with the associated management functionalities.

To create your first open data site, click the green Create New Site button.

The Site Configuration page is used to create the open data site.

You can open the page by clicking Create a new site. This page is where you will configure your Hub (open data) site, including the following:

• Site Name—Provide a name for the site. The name displayed will inform users which open data site they are visiting.
• Site URL—Choose the URL that will be used to navigate to your open data site.
• Browser Icon—You can upload a custom icon that displays on the left of the site URL in the browser.
• Custom Domain—Configure a custom domain name server (DNS). Check with your domain name registrar for details on configuring your DNS.
• Google Analytics—If you want to use Google Analytics to track the usage of your open data site, you can input the tracking ID.
• Sharing settings—You can choose to share your site with the ArcGIS Hub team only, your entire organization, or the public.
• Enforce HTTPS—open data sites are accessible over HTTPS, however, sites with custom domains are not accessible over HTTPS. You can test whether the site works over HTTPS by clicking Test Your Site First.
• Set Extent map—Either choose Draw Extent or Map Navigation to select the map extents of the data you will be uploading to the open data site.
• Basemaps—Use default basemaps or custom basemaps from your organization's basemap gallery.

Clicking Next will bring you to the Groups Manager. This is where you add data to your open data site. By clicking the green Add button (next to your group name under Available Open Data Groups, you will be adding all the data associated with this group to the site. If you intend to federate your open data site across multiple organizations, you can disable the selection of the option Only groups in your Organization to view all groups publicly available to add to your site.

Step 2: Prepare and manage data in an open data-configured ArcGIS Online group.

ArcGIS Online Roles

There are specific ArcGIS Online privileges that need to be granted to your users to enable and manage the open data site. These privileges are automatically granted to the Administrator role. For other roles, you will need to configure specific privileges based on the user's responsibilities. These privileges can be granted and revokedin ArcGIS Online by an Administrator. If the user responsible for the open data site is not the administrator, specific privileges will need to be assigned to the user's ArcGIS Online role. Privileges include the following:

• Manage open data sites—This privilege enables the creation and management of the site. This is required if the administrator of the open data site does not have an Administrator role in ArcGIS Online.
• Make groups available to open data—This privilege is given to ArcGIS Online group managers. Group managers will also require the following privileges: Create, update, and delete; Share with groups; and Make groups visible to public.

The Share with groups privilege will be the only one required for colleagues who create data that will be consumed in the open data group but don't need to create the group or manage the open data site.

Then, these users must be added to your ArcGIS Hub. You do this within the ArcGIS Hub administrative application.

For detailed information, see Using custom roles with ArcGIS Hub.

Once you've ensured that your data is prepared, your next step is to share this data with an ArcGIS Online group to be used in the site. You can create a group or modify an existing one; just keep in mind that the purpose of the group is to share the data you plan to showcase on your site. Any data you add to the group will be added to your open data portal.

On the Groups tab of ArcGIS Online, click Create Group.

Populate the group descriptions with information that describes the group's purpose. It's a good practice to include "Open Data" in the name to make it easier to find this group when creating your open data site.

Meaningful tags will also assist group users and are mandatory inputs for group creation. Tags can be separated using commas. Ensure that the status is set to Public and you have checked the check box for Allow this group to be accessed in Open Data sites.

Make your group public and designate it as available for use in open data sites.

You can add the following types of data to the group to be used by the open data site (each will have its own dataset page on the site):

• Hosted feature services
• ArcGIS Server feature services
• ArcGIS Server map services
• Image services
• CSV files
• Web maps
• Word documents
• PDFs

You can add external URLs as well—these URLs would not have their own dataset page but would be searchable and could be accessed from the search results. This is handy when you have data or information on other sites that you'd like to be accessed from your open data site.

Data can be added to the group through the Content page of ArcGIS Online. After checking the white check box to the left of your data name, click Share > Access and choose to share the item with your open data group. Your open data groups will have "(Open Data)" at the end of their names to easily indicate which groups are being used in the site. You can add a batch of data to the group by checking multiple datasets in your Content before clicking Share.

Step 3: Design the look of your open data site and make it public

After clicking Next, you will be brought to the Site Editor, where you can configure the look and style of your open data site. Using the editor tools provided or your own HTML/Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) code, you can design the site's headers and footers. Use the theme and layout builder to customize the body of your site.

Use the Site Editor to configure your open data home page.

When you visit the Site Editor for the open data site for the first time, there's already a preconfigured layout and template for you to begin working with—just point to each element and click the associated gear icon. Conversely, you can click the Close (x) button on each element to remove the entire template as it stands, and start again from scratch. Any element can be resized by clicking and dragging. At any point in time when designing your site, you can click the Admin button in the Site Editor to go back to the configuration page for your open data site.

When designing your page, it's good to keep in mind how the public is going to interact with the site and discover new data. The Layout Builder has cards that you can drag onto the page to design your site however you like. Included in these elements are the following:

• Dataset—Use this card to highlight specific datasets or applications that you would like featured on the home page of your open data site. For example, a county may find that users are most interested in parcel data for its locality and thus may want to feature this dataset in any easily accessible spot on the first page.
• Category—The Category card can be used to group datasets by a search query. When a user clicks one of the categories, all datasets within the defined category are returned in the search results.
• Chart—This can be used to create simple charts. Alternatively, you can use a defined JSON specification to create a custom chart, and both will be updated automatically as the dataset is updated. A simple chart can be created from a dataset in the open data group: choose Build a chart and then Find a dataset. You will then be prompted to choose the field you would like to chart. Use JSON to build different types of charts and change the chart colors.
• iFrame—This card allows you to insert just about anything into your open data home page. Insert a URL to embed a web resource to the page, such as web maps or applications. You could also include a geoprocessing widget with a geoprocessing service used to complete a task for your users.
• Summary Statistics—This provides statistical information for a dataset that is dependent on the field type chosen to be highlighted. It can provide snapshots of information at a glance that is updated as a dataset is updated.
• Gallery—This card can be used to point to content by a group within your organization that you'd like to add to your home page, including web maps and applications.

For more information on the Layout Builder, view the Design the layout of your Hub (open data) sitedocumentation.

After your site has been saved, you can navigate back to the Site Administrator page by clicking the Admin button in the Site Editor. You will see several other configuration options:

Sites

• Capabilities—Manage the capabilities associated with your open data site. At this time, there is the option to display PDFs and document links inside iFrames. There are other beta options available as well.
• Pages—Each open data site can have any number of pages. These pages can be used to showcase datasets or promote initiatives within the open data site, or however your organization would like.

Data

• The Data tab opens the Data Manager, a management tool that administrators can use to identify issues with datasets in the open data site. This is where you can also disable automatic download caching when users download datasets (use the toggle if it's available) and manually refresh datasets to ensure that they are the most up-to-date version (arrow button). One recommendation is to disable automatic download caching for datasets that are large or don't change very often.

Team

• All open data users can view the Team manager to see who can collaborate in sites and pages. Administrators can also add and remove members from the open data team.

Once you've designed the look and functionality of your open data site, click the Preview Site tab to look at your handiwork! Do you see all the data you would like to make available to your users? Is the site easy to navigate and visually appealing? You'll want to keep in mind the audience for your open data when fine-tuning the site.

If you navigate away from the Site Builder page at any time, you can reopen it by clicking Organization > Edit Settings > Open Data tab > Manage Sites. Under each of your open data site names, there are buttons to direct you to the configuration pages for the site. This is also where you make your site public by toggling to choose Share with the public. Once you've finished designing the site, be sure to make it public so that users can visit it.

That's it! You've successfully launched your open data site. Don't forget to promote your site so that the public can easily discover, download, and use your authoritative open data to solve problems.

You can take your open data even further by using the Community and Initiatives premium capabilities of ArcGIS Hub. Learn more about how to license ArcGIS Hub and get access to these additional community engagement and initiative creation features at esri.com/hub.

Web Apps to the Rescue

Florida City Maps Out a Rapid Response to Hurricane Irma

By Ian Wint
GIS Manager, City of Fort Lauderdale

 5  3  10

Before and after Hurricane Irma pummeled Florida in September 2017, staff in the City of Fort Lauderdale's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) turned to GIS technology to prepare for and respond to the damage caused by the storm's high winds and heavy rains.

Traffic moves smoothly on a sunny day in Fort Lauderdale. Photo courtesy of the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale's GIS Division, which operates under the Information Technology Services Department, conducts annual assessments of the city's emergency response needs. This includes studying how those requirements can be met using GIS. This annual assessment has led the GIS Division to implement GIS solutions based on Esri technology, with most being configurable applications. One of the division's goals is to get the apps in place and tested prior to the start of hurricane season, which occurs from June 1 to November 30 each year. But as Hurricane Irma demonstrated, Fort Lauderdale must be able to respond quickly to severe weather incidents, as no two events are guaranteed to be the same.

Esri's configurable application templates gave the GIS Division this agility when its staff was asked to deploy several new applications to meet the specific needs of the hurricane response efforts. The GIS Division augmented its preestablished inventory of emergency response-related applications by configuring several Esri templates several days before Hurricane Irma struck Florida and by making modifications shortly after the hurricane made landfall.

A web-based application, developed using Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS, provided the EOC with real-time, map-enabled fire-rescue and police calls for service from the 911 dispatch system. Fire-rescue calls are represented as red points on the map, pictured above, while police calls are symbolized as blue points. The symbols include a number to identify each call's priority rating, with 1 being the most severe and 4 being the least severe.

By map enabling the 911 dispatch system in this way, command staff gained greater insight into storm-related incidents, such as two cases of breaking and entering commercial properties that occurred before the storm.

In the photograph above, a member of the city's fire-rescue command staff works with a GIS analyst to make changes to one of the web applications.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) storm, tornado, and wind report web services helped fire-rescue and police command staff gauge when and where it was safe to send first responders out to address calls for service. Some classes of vehicles in each department's fleet were better able to withstand high winds, so that was considered when determining how to handle a call for service.

As the storm progressed, managers and supervisors in the Public Works Department, along with other city leaders, needed to know the status and capacity of the sewer pump stations. The maps pictured above show sewer pump stations and the area being served by each station. The pump stations move wastewater in the correct flow direction. If wastewater doesn't move, there is the potential for sewage backup. In extreme conditions, such as a major storm, precipitation and floodwater have the potential to penetrate the wastewater system through surface-level manholes. Excessive water penetration into areas where pump stations are malfunctioning could result in sewage backups that seep onto the surface.

Utility workers with access to the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system entered pump station status and capacity information into an application configured by the city’s GIS team using the ArcGIS Online Basic Viewer template. Staff at the EOC and utility managers around the city were kept abreast of the situation through the use of this viewer application, pictured above. During the hurricane, the colors on the map changed from predominantly green to red. Green indicates that the pump stations are operating perfectly, yellow means they're operating at less than an optimal level, orange means they're approaching failure, and red means they've completely failed.

If city staff observe that the pump stations are operating far below optimal levels when the weather is good, the Public Works Department can easily remedy the situation. Crews are usually sent into the field to strategically shut off select valves in one area of the system. This action diverts pressure from one area of the system to another area that needs more pressure. But during a major storm, it's often dangerous for crews to be out in the field. In these instances, Public Works staff can remotely power down targeted pump stations. During Hurricane Irma, the decision of which pump stations to shut off was made by looking at the status and capacity of all pump stations in the system. Essentially, the operation of one pump station affects the operation of other pump stations. The web application that showed the status and capacity of each pump station helped the supervisors, managers, and directors in Public Works determine which pump stations to power down.

Poststorm activity started at the crack of dawn, with fire prevention and building inspectors conducting a rapid impact assessment of the entire city. Decision-makers in the EOC are granted access to the real-time status of the assessments by way of the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer.

A storm as powerful as Hurricane Irma leaves behind an abundance of hazards such as flooding, trees down in roadways, and downed power lines. These issues were reported by Fort Lauderdale residents as well as city staff performing damage assessments or going about their business.

Different departments within the EOC are interested in tracking different activities using the configurable apps. In the photograph above, the map on the large screen on the left showed first responders the areas where there were flooding problems, downed trees in roadways, and traffic light outages. This information was of interest to the staff in the Public Works and Parks and Recreation Departments because it identified debris issues and concerns associated with utility assets. The map in the middle of the photograph displayed the progress of the rapid impact assessment (conducted when deemed safe during severe weather events) and was of interest to just about everyone on the city staff. The map on the right shows the fire-rescue and police command staff monitoring the current calls for service and viewing surveillance footage.

Staff in various departments and work units can focus on their particular concerns by using the web application pictured above, which was embedded in an Esri Story Map Series app that city staff calls the Emergency Operations Portal. They can track Open (red), In-Progress (yellow), and Closed (green) statuses of the issues pertinent to their area of the response.

Fort Lauderdale's emergency preparedness and disaster response have become increasingly dependent on technology in recent years. GIS is at the forefront of that technology dependence, as made evident in the hours leading up to Hurricane Irma and at the start of the recovery effort. Those were periods when the large electronic displays in the EOC were dominated by interactive GIS applications. This point was underscored an hour into the start of the recovery effort on September 11, when EOC occupants requested that all seven screens in the EOC display GIS applications.

This article was adapted from a blog post written by Ian Wint. During the storm, he was assisted in the EOC by GIS team staff members including Lucia Hogan, Jon Stahl, and Rollin Maycumber.