Project Geospatial

In this session from FOSS4G NA 2025, Maggie Cawley and Jake Low of OpenStreetMap US presents the Trails Stewardship Initiative: Improving Outdoor Recreation Data. The presenters discuss the critical role of OpenStreetMap (OSM) as the primary data source for popular recreation apps like AllTrails and Strava, and the real-world safety and environmental challenges caused by missing or inaccurate trail metadata.

Maggie and Jake detail the collaborative efforts of the Trails Stewardship Initiative, a working group bringing together land managers (NPS, USFS, BLM), app companies, and the mapping community to standardize trail schemas and rendering guidelines. They showcase pilot projects in Washington and Utah that improved data for over 300,000 miles of trails, and introduce new tools like "Layercake"—which republishes OSM data as GeoParquet for traditional GIS workflows—and the Digital Trail Ambassador program designed to bridge the gap between volunteer mappers and professional land managers.

Highlights:

🛰️ The OSM Foundation & US Chapter: An overview of how the global geo-database is organized, from the servers in Ireland to the only US chapter with paid staff

🔄 The "Blue Dot" Problem: How post-COVID surges in outdoor recreation led to search-and-rescue issues and irresponsible use of unofficial "social trails"

🧩 Schema Standardization: Navigating the complex needs of different federal agencies to create high-priority tags for trail operators, closure status, and private access

⚙️ Rendering Guidelines: Encouraging app companies to distinguish between official trails and unofficial social paths to prevent environmental degradation

🌐 Pilot Success: A look at the pilot mapping campaign in Utah’s Bryce County and its impact on responsible recreation and land management

🏢 Layercake & Open Trail Map: New tools for exporting OSM data into cloud-native formats like GeoParquet and visualizing trail data gaps

🏗️ Digital Trail Ambassadors: A new program recruiting volunteers to act as liaisons between local park rangers and the global mapping community

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#OpenStreetMap #FOSS4G #Trails #OutdoorRecreation #OSM #GIS #NationalParks #PublicLands #GeoParquet #CommunityMapping #Safety #OpenSource #ProjectGeospatial #DataStewardship #Conservation

In this session from FOSS4G NA 2025, Tim Steward presents Unity in Code: The Power of Community. Tim explores the shift between commercial entities and open-source projects, emphasizing the critical role that a vibrant "village" or community plays in the long-term success of software projects like PostgreSQL and PostGIS.

Drawing from his early career in the Oracle ecosystem to his global travels with the PostgreSQL community, Tim discusses how open-source collaboration fosters professional growth, diversity, and innovation. He highlights the ubiquity of PostgreSQL—often hidden behind the scenes of major ride-sharing, banking, and betting applications—and details how its flexibility, high-transaction performance, and spatial capabilities through PostGIS make it the database of choice for modern enterprise environments.

Highlights:

🛰️ The Meaning of Community: Moving beyond mere "user groups" to a true open-source community centered on trust, responsiveness, and collective help

🔄 Lessons from the DBA Quest: A storytelling look at a DBA’s journey through Oracle and MySQL before finding reliability and community at the gates of PostgreSQL

🧩 The Successful Village: Why a powerful community is the defining factor behind every successful open-source project and how it empowers individuals

⚙️ Bridging Corporate & Community: Using customer feedback to drive improvements in open-source software that benefit both businesses and the greater good

🌐 PostgreSQL Trend: A look at how major hyperscalers (Azure, Google, AWS) and startups alike are migrating to PostgreSQL for its extensible, high-transaction power

🏢 Hidden Geospatial Power: Real-world examples of PostgreSQL and PostGIS powering ATM services, ride-share routing, and state-regulated sports betting apps

🏗️ The Future of Leadership: Why leaders of the future are those who support others and the importance of active participation in the FOSS community

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#Geospatial #FOSS4G #PostgreSQL #PostGIS #OpenSource #CommunityBuilding #DatabaseMigration #GIS #BigData #SoftwareDevelopment #ProjectGeospatial #Collaboration #TechInnovation #SoftwareMaintenance

In this session from FOSS4G NA 2025, Jason Gilman of Element 84 presents When LLMs Meet GIS: Building Reliable Geospatial AI Systems. Jason explores the practical integration of Large Language Models into geospatial workflows, moving beyond the hype to focus on building software that is reliable, cost-effective, and meet real-world user needs.

The presentation introduces two open-source libraries: E84-GDAL-AI-Common, which provides core utilities for LLM interaction and structured data extraction, and Natural Language Geometry (NLG), a library that translates human-readable spatial descriptions—like "within 10 miles of the coast"—into precise GIS polygons. Jason also discusses the trade-offs between autonomous "agents" and deterministic "workflows," the importance of tracing and evaluation suites, and how Element 84 built their own geocoding database to overcome the relevancy and polygon-retrieval limitations of traditional tools.

Highlights:

🛰️ The Reliability Gap: Why rushing to add AI to geospatial tools can compromise software quality, security, and energy efficiency

🔄 Natural Language Geometry (NLG): How to convert vague spatial phrases into a structured tree of operations and final GIS polygons

🧩 Beyond Point Geocoding: The shift from center-point results to full polygon retrieval for complex areas like the Gulf of Mexico

⚙️ Why Build a New AI Library? Moving away from the complexity of LangChain toward the strong typing and simplicity of E84-GDAL-AI-Common

🌐 Agents vs. Workflows: When to use autonomous AI agents for unpredictable human queries and when to use prescriptive pipelines for efficiency

🏢 Evaluations & Tracing: Using graph edit distance and tools like LangFuse to measure LLM performance and identify token bottlenecks

🏗️ Custom Geocoding Databases: Leveraging Who’s On First and Natural Earth data to provide context-aware results for ambiguous place names

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#Geospatial #FOSS4G #LLM #AI #GIS #NaturalLanguageProcessing #Geocoding #OpenSource #SoftwareEngineering #DataScience #Element84 #MachineLearning #ProjectGeospatial #LangChain #Pydantic

Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial hosts a discussion with Kevin Corbley of Corbley Communications and Rachel Wilkins from Team of Seven Consulting, serving as Project Strategist for Greater St. Louis Inc. This conversation previews the upcoming GEOINT 2025 Symposium in St. Louis, Missouri. They cover the event dates (May 18th-21st), location (America Center Convention Complex), and this year's theme, "Building a secure tomorrow together". Key speakers like the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Admiral Whitworth of NGA, and General Saltzman of Space Force are highlighted. The discussion also touches on managing the press room, media expectations for defense and intelligence reporting, and the significant presence and goals of Greater St. Louis Inc. in showcasing the region's geospatial ecosystem and attracting business. The upcoming move of the new NGA location in St. Louis and its potential impact on the local industry are mentioned, as is the future location of GEOINT 2026 in Colorado.

Highlights

• GEOINT 2025 is taking place in St. Louis, Missouri, from May 18th through the 21st.

• The theme for this year's symposium is "Building a secure tomorrow together," emphasizing security and cybersecurity.

• Notable keynote speakers include the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, NGA's Admiral Whitworth, and Space Force's General Saltzman.

• The media attending GEOINT are primarily defense/intelligence reporters interested in current news and company support for the warfighter.

• Greater St. Louis Inc. will have a large booth showcasing the region's geospatial ecosystem and partners, aiming for business attraction and collaboration.

• The new NGA location in St. Louis is set to open in September/October 2025, expected to boost the local geospatial industry.

• GEOINT is confirmed to return to St. Louis in 2029.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT2025 #GeospatialIntelligence #StLouis #USGIF #NationalSecurity #Cybersecurity #NGA #SpaceForce #GreaterStLouisInc #DefenseIndustry #IntelligenceCommunity #EventPreview

Adam Simmons speaks with Aaron Kelley from Upslope Advisors at GEOINT 2025, where Aaron shares his perspective on the conference and his deep involvement in the open source geospatial community. He challenges the negative stereotype of open source as the "wild west," asserting that FOSS (Free Open Source Software) tools like QGIS are stable and well-supported, comparing QGIS and ArcGIS Pro as a "Coke Pepsi conversation" where one is free. He notes that NGA uses QGIS internally. Aaron highlights OpenStreetMap as a favorite base map for its community updates and as a reliable API for startups. He enthusiastically discusses the upcoming FOSS4G North America conference in November, emphasizing its focus on showcasing real-world use cases for mission and everyday life. Aaron shares his passion for introducing geospatial and open source tools to younger communities and mentions Upslope Advisors' recent contract supporting disaster management at the SBA using geospatial analysis.

Highlights

• Interview with Aaron Kelley from Upslope Advisors.

• Deeply involved in the open source geospatial community.

• Challenges the negative stereotype of open source ("wild west").

• Highlights FOSS tools like QGIS as stable and well-maintained.

• Notes that NGA uses QGIS internally.

• Considers OpenStreetMap a favorite base map and a great startup API.

• Mentions the upcoming FOSS4G North America conference in November.

• FOSS4G NA focuses on real-world use cases for open source technology.

• Shares a passion for getting geospatial and open source tools into younger communities (e.g., YouthMappers).

• Upslope Advisors has a contract supporting disaster management at the SBA using geospatial.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT2025 #Geospatial #OpenSource #FOSS #FOSS4GNA #QGIS #ArcGISPro #OpenStreetMap #DataManagement #DisasterManagement #SBA #YouthMappers #UpslopeAdvisors #ProjectGeospatial

Adam Simmons interviews Craig Brower from Unseenlabs US at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Craig discusses Unseenlabs' capability to provide satellite-based RF (Radio Frequency) data for monitoring and tracking, which is integrated into customer workflows for rapid tasking and delivery. He highlights the ongoing need to educate the community about RF data and SIGINT-type sources, noting that many, including traditional imagery analysts, may be unfamiliar with it. Craig describes their data as simple "dots on a map" where status changes indicate behavior, such as a vessel turning off its AIS. He mentions that Unseenlabs is unique in being a profitable company, recently secured a large investment to build 20 new satellites and next-generation birds, and currently has 16 satellites on orbit.

Highlights

• Interview with Craig Brower from Unseenlabs US.

• Provides satellite-based RF (Radio Frequency) data for monitoring and tracking.

• Data is integrated into customer workflows for quick tasking and delivery.

• Notes the need to educate the community about RF data and SIGINT sources.

• Describes their data presentation as simple, using dots on a map.

• Status changes in the data can indicate behaviors like turning off AIS.

• Unseenlabs is a profitable company.

• Recently secured a large investment to fund the build-out of 20 new satellites and next-generation birds.

• Currently has 16 satellites on orbit.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT2025 #Geospatial #SatelliteData #RFData #RadioFrequency #SIGINT #Monitoring #Tracking #MaritimeDomainAwareness #Unseenlabs #Aerospace #ProjectGeospatial

Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Sean Walsh, Managing Partner of Turnberry Labs (part of Turnberry Solutions), at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Sean, with over 30 years in tech, discusses Turnberry Solutions' work, including geospatial custom development for both private sector clients (like Bayer Crop Science) and national geospatial agencies (like NGA). He highlights their approach as a commercial company that moves at commercial speed and their trademarked methodology: Human Centered Design Agile (HCD Agile). This method prioritizes understanding user needs before developing technology. Sean shares details of their work with NGA on the AIM 2 (Aeronautical Information Management System 20) project, where they migrated a system to AWS, focusing heavily on user engagement to ensure the new cloud-based application worked seamlessly for users without requiring training. He emphasizes that their HCD Agile approach allows them to quickly start solving problems and deliver value to clients.

Highlights

• Turnberry Solutions, including Turnberry Labs led by Sean Walsh, provides geospatial custom software and data development.

• They work with both commercial clients and national geospatial agencies like NGA.

• Their approach uses a trademarked Human Centered Design Agile (HCD Agile) methodology that prioritizes understanding human needs.

• They worked with NGA on the AIM 2 project, migrating a system to AWS and focusing on user engagement to ensure ease of use.

• The AIM 2 project successfully moved an application to the cloud, improved features, and is going into production after three years.

• Turnberry Solutions emphasizes getting started quickly and delivering value to clients through their user-centric approach.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT2025 #TurnberrySolutions #TurnberryLabs #GeospatialDevelopment #CustomSoftware #HumanCenteredDesign #Agile #NGA #AIM2 #CloudMigration #DefenseIndustry #IntelligenceCommunity

Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Dan DeGennaro (CTO), Bryan Cosme (CEO & Co-founder), and Brian Buttaccio (COO) of Trevity at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Bryan shares his background, including experience in the Marine Corps specializing in geospatial, which informs Trevity's focus. Dan, a physicist turned coder, focuses on AI, Augmentation, and integrating capabilities into analyst workflows. All of them discuss Trevity's mission to increase analyst productivity, believing they can nearly double it. They highlight their new software, Inkwell, which addresses the challenge of managing vast amounts of geospatial data. Inkwell allows for targeted data scraping and, crucially, enables analysts to interact with and filter data using natural language. This helps analysts quickly find and understand relevant data within an area of interest.

Highlights

• Trevity's founders has a background in the Marine Corps specializing in geospatial intelligence.

• Trevity aims to significantly increase analyst productivity, potentially nearly doubling it.

• They are debuting Inkwell, a software designed to manage and access large volumes of geospatial data.

• Inkwell allows for targeted data scraping over specific areas of interest.

• A key feature of Inkwell is enabling analysts to interact with data using natural language.

• This natural language interface helps analysts filter, cleanse, and make sense of large datasets.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT2025 #Trevity #AnalystProductivity #GeospatialData #NaturalLanguageProcessing #AI #Augmentation #MilitaryIntelligence #DefenseIndustry #SoftwareDevelopment #Inkwell

Mats Palsson, CEO of T Kartor Group, shares his journey from engineering to finding his passion in geospatial and maps. He introduces T Kartor Group, founded 40 years ago, which specializes in map and information management solutions based on the principle that maps represent information assets with a position. T Kartor provides solutions for major cities, defense organizations, and public safety sectors in Europe and the US. Palsson mentions T Kartor has significant operations in St. Louis and Sweden. He explains that "making maps" for them involves managing information and tailoring its presentation for diverse end-users, such as military personnel and public transport systems. The company has evolved to focus on information management with a cartographic element. Recent developments include providing customers with dashboards to monitor how their information is used. Palsson discusses the significant industry changes driven by the tremendous amount of data from satellites and drones and the challenge of helping customers understand the power and accessibility of this rapidly updated information. T Kartor is a strong supporter of open source technology, valuing the freedom, flexibility, and collaboration it provides. Palsson emphasizes that T Kartor helps organizations effectively use their information assets to gain powerful insights.

Highlights

• Mats Palsson, CEO, introduces T Kartor Group, specializing in map and information management.

• Founded 40 years ago, they manage information assets with positional data.

• They provide solutions for large cities, defense, and public safety in Europe and the US.

• T Kartor has a significant office presence in St. Louis, in addition to Sweden.

• "Making maps" involves managing and tailoring information presentation for diverse users (military, public safety, city navigation).

• Latest work includes dashboards for monitoring how customer information is used.

• Major industry impacts are the volume of data from satellites and drones.

• A challenge is educating customers on the accessibility and power of frequently updated data.

• T Kartor is a strong supporter of open source technology for flexibility and collaboration.

• They help organizations use information effectively to gain powerful insights.

For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com

#GEOINT #TKartorGroup #MapMaking #InformationManagement #Geospatial #Cartography #Defense #PublicSafety #SmartCities #OpenSource #SatelliteData #DroneData #GIS #IntelligenceCommunity

Dive deep into the world of Terradepth with CTO Andrew Lunstad, as he discusses their mission to revolutionize how we understand and interact with the ocean. Learn how Terradepth is tackling the challenge of gathering and making sense of vital undersea data, an area less explored than the surface of Mars. Discover their innovative two-pronged approach: developing high-endurance autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for massive data collection, and their powerful, sensor-agnostic Absolute Ocean data platform. This platform, built on CesiumJS, offers advanced visualization and management tools, allowing users to interact with both current and historical undersea surveys to make better decisions for critical applications like offshore energy, resource management, and defense. Andrew also shares insights into their cloud strategy, their shift to AWS GovCloud for enhanced security, and how Absolute Ocean enables faster collaboration and decision-making, moving from "scan to decision" in hours rather than months by integrating edge computing capabilities.

Highlights:

🌊 Terradepth's mission: Help people make better decisions about the ocean by tackling the vast unknown beneath the surface.

🤖 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): Building high-endurance AUVs to collect volumes of ocean data.

📊 Absolute Ocean Platform: A data platform that integrates, manages, and visualizes all kinds of ocean data, making it permissioned and controllable.

🌐 CesiumJS Integration: Absolute Ocean's front end is built on CesiumJS, offering an intuitive, world-view interface for undersea data, akin to Google Maps.

☁️ Cloud & Security: Consolidated to AWS (including GovCloud) for sensitive government data, and supports self-hosted solutions for enterprise customers.

🤝 Enhanced Collaboration: Enables interactive monitoring of surveys and seamless collaboration among stakeholders without specialized tools.

⚡ Speed to Decision: Leveraging edge hosting to drastically reduce the time from data collection to decision-making, from months to the same day.

#Terradepth #OceanData #AbsoluteOcean #AUV #UnderwaterRobotics #Geospatial #OceanExploration #MarineTech #CesiumJS #DataVisualization #OffshoreEnergy #DefenseTech #GEOINT2025