TECHnology
- Reviewed Geoportal 2.0 updates, discussed list of fixture records, and prioritized feature requirements
- Shared an overview of APIs to support shared understanding
December 2025 Program Update
2025: A Year in Review
Section titled “2025: A Year in Review”In 2025, the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Information Network marked its tenth year with significant progress across all core programs. Our flagship service, the BTAA Geoportal, continued to grow, surpassing 114,000 records now available to researchers and the public. We also welcomed two new member institutions—Washington and Oregon—through a newly developed onboarding process.
This growth brought new demands on our technology. We published the BTAA-GIN Technology Strategic Plan (2025–2026) and tested its direction through a prototype for a more flexible, future-ready Geoportal architecture. At the same time, the BTAA-GIN Geodata Collection Program reached a major milestone, transitioning from internal prototyping to real-world implementation. We established a clear Urban Base Layers curation vision, formed new data partnerships, published datasets from multiple cities, and refined our technical workflows.
The fifth annual Big Ten GIS Conference set new records for both registration and attendance, reflecting the Big Ten’s growing influence across geospatial research, tools, and techniques.
The year concluded with BTAA-GIN’s first in-person Strategic Planning Retreat in seven years. Colleagues came together to reflect on a decade of progress, align on shared priorities, and chart a clear path toward 2028—building on the collaborative foundation that has sustained this work.
Program Activities
Section titled “Program Activities”Committees
Section titled “Committees”Community Engagement
- Discussed a “Maps in the Wild” concept with plans to return to the ideas document and consider a sprint in 2026.
- GIS Conference planning: Reviewed timeline and roles; brainstormed award categories and student engagement ideas, noted need for CEC involvement and ~10 volunteers for planning work group.
Knowledge
- Did not meet.
Coordination
- Reviewed the Post Retreat Priority Ranking survey results, determined how the work could be structured, and defined the supervisory role of the Coordination Cmte
Workgroups
Section titled “Workgroups”
Geodata Curation
Section titled “Geodata Curation”- Hit our goal of publishing Urban Base Layer data from two cities (Philadelphia and Minneapolis).
- Targeting a mid-January draft of the curation plan, including documented workflows and key learnings
Data Citation
Section titled “Data Citation”- Reviewed citation tool updates and prioritized next enhancements
- Discussed alignment with BTAA-GIN standards, including how to handle non-standard fields such as AI-generated content
BTAA Geoportal
Section titled “BTAA Geoportal”This month by the numbers
Section titled “This month by the numbers”Top Google searches leading to the Geoportal
Section titled “Top Google searches leading to the Geoportal”- btaa geoportal
- ohio school district map
- south bend city limits
- 1937 aerial photographs wisconsin
- outagamie county gis
- milwaukee voting wards
- evansville city limits
- school district map ohio
- sanborn maps michigan
- wetlands map nj
Top internal search keywords
Section titled “Top internal search keywords”- geology
- PLSS
- sanborn
- highways roads
- buildings Wisconsin 2025
- btaa-gin
- pottstown
- 2 maps on 1 sheet
- syria
- germany
Collections
Section titled “Collections”Total records as of January 1, 2025: 114,895
Harvesting Activities
Section titled “Harvesting Activities”| Task | Records added | Records retired |
|---|---|---|
| Umedia Reharvest for maps added October 2025 | 119 | 0 |
| 2025-12-02 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 60 | 2008 |
| 2025-12-09 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 493 | 694 |
| Reharvest Dec 2025 WisconsinView | 56 | 1123 |
| Review 06b-26081 | 0 | 47 |
| Total | 728 | 3827 |
Web Development on Geoportal 2.0
Section titled “Web Development on Geoportal 2.0”- Expanded and refined API documentation, including live Python examples
- Added place + keyword searching, bounding box filtering, and static maps displayed directly within the search interface
- Improved backend support for dates and temporal data