NWGIS 2019: Evolve Your GIS

With examples developed for Open Range Consulting, LLC, a Utah-based provider of advanced techniques for rangeland management, the goal of this presentation is to offer guidance that may be helpful to anyone interested in developing geoprocessing tools and processes, particularly using Python. Specifically, the presentation will address three primary topics: (1) the development of a set of Python tools to support raster processing workflows for rangeland management; (2) the use of multiprocessing to significantly reduce processing times, and (3) recommendations for producing clean and consistent code. The tools to be described in the presentation have evolved over a number of years, with a focus on streamlining the use of existing ArcGIS geoprocessing functionality in association with the statistics software R. In simple terms, the development path has involved three steps: (1) develop the initial tools; (2) make them run faster, and (3) expand their capabilities and versatility. In implementing these steps, the aim was not only to meet specific operational needs, but also to enhance the professional development of the Open Range Consulting staff.