64-bit TIFF images not supported in ArcGIS

Earlier this week I encountered an interesting phenomenon. Some output TIFF images in ArcMap kept displaying like the one below.  I tried deleting pyramids, rebuilding pyramids, but to no avail.  However, the images displayed perfectly well at < 1:250,000 map scale.  Then I noticed that the image was 64-bit depth.  It turns out that even though Esri supports 64-bit rasters for display not all functions work properly.  I forwarded this to Esri support and it turns out that this is a limitation of the software not a bug.  There are plenty of workarounds for this problem.  Simply converting to 32-bit works.  As does converting to a file geodatabase format.  However, I think that having this out there as a known limitation in the blogosphere might do some good.  Check out the link below for the list of supported raster formats in ArcGIS 10.3.

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/raster-and-images/supported-raster-dataset-file-formats.htm

Handy tool for converting feature classes (shapefiles) to GPX format

I recently came across this very useful tool for converting feature classes in ArcGIS to GPX files:

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=067d6ab392b24497b8466eb8447ea7eb

updates on Landsat 9 progress

Some news on Landsat 9:

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/april/nasa-usgs-begin-work-on-landsat-9-to-continue-land-imaging-legacy

Multiscale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change is out in print

Our paper "Multiscale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change" is now out in print in Ecological Applications.

Dilts, T., Weisberg, P., Leitner, P., Matocq, M. D., Inman, R. D., Nussear, K. E., & Esque, T. (2015). Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change. Ecological Applications, 26(4): 1223–1237.

I discovered, however, that the link at the end of the article to the supplemental KMZ files is incorrect. They erroneously printed the link as:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0925.1/suppinfo

This is a dead link.  Instead go to:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0925/full

or

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286490878_Multi-scale_connectivity_and_graph_theory_highlight_critical_areas_for_conservation_under_climate_change

Impacts of climate change and renewable energy development on habitat of an endemic squirrel, Xerospermophilus mohavensis, in the Mojave Desert, USA accepted in Biological Conservation

Our paper "Impacts of climate change and renewable energy development on habitat of an endemic squirrel, Xerospermophilus mohavensis, in the Mojave Desert, USA" has been accepted in Biological Conservation!  This is the third Mohave ground squirrel paper of ours that has been recently accepted.  The other two are:

Inman, RD, TC Esque, KE Nussear, P Leitner, MD Matocq, PJ Weisberg, TE Dilts,and AG Vandergast. 2013. Is there room for all of us? Renewable energy and Xerospermophilus mohavensis. Endangered Species Research 20:1-20.

and

Dilts, T., P. Weisberg, P. Leitner, M. Matocq, R. Inman, K. Nussear, and T. Esque. In Review. Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change. Ecological Applications.

 This paper examines climate change effects on Mohave ground squirrel habitat, but also includes realistic dispersal scenarios to understand which portions of the range are most likely to be colonized.

Congratulation Rich Inman on a job well done.

Paper is available online - Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change

Our paper "Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change" is now available online HERE .

In this paper we use a combination of circuit theory and graph theory to assess changes to Mohave ground squirrel from proposed solar and wind energy development. Graph theory is used to assess both overall changes in habitat connectivity and to map out core areas and stepping stones that may be important for dispersal.

Current citation:

Dilts, T. E., Weisberg, P. J., Leitner, P., Matocq, M. D., Inman, R. D., Nussear, K. E. and Esque, T. C. (2016), Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change. Ecological Applications. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1890/15-0925

Improvements to Sampling Grid Tools

A neat thing  happened this week.  A while back I created a new tool called Create Regular Sampling Grid and posted it online HERE . The tool is designed to help guide field workers in systematic grid around user-defined points. The tool is useful for validating coarse-resolution imagery, such as Landsat or MODIS, or for sampling systematically within polygons. Earlier this week I got a message from Duncan Hornby, a long time ArcGIS programmer from the UK, with a slew of awesome suggestions for ways to improve this tool.  His suggestions ended up dramatically improving the speed and user interface of the Create Regular Sampling Grid Tool resulting in version 2.  The lesson that I learned is that good things can happen with a second pair of eyes, and posting code online is a great idea.  I also learned a fair bit about improving the user experience and anticipating and troubleshooting potential problems.  Thanks Duncan.