VAMLIS Mission The Virginia Association for Mapping and Land Information Systems is a professional association in Virginia designed to provide educational and networking opportunities for professionals who have an interest in the mapping sciences in Virginia.
The Virginia Department of Conservation (DCR) has upgraded its web mapping application, the Virginia Flood Risk Information System (VFRIS). VFRIS helps communities, real estate agents, property buyers, and property owners understand an area's flood risk. By pulling together information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Esri (GIS mapping software), and the Virginia Geographic Information Network, VFRIS allows users to quickly locate a property to see if it is within the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). The previous iteration of VFRIS was developed in house by DCR staff using ESRI’s Web App Builder platform, and although it was widely used (7,500 unique visits per quarter), the system needed a redesign that addressed a wide range of needs for a diverse audience.
VFRIS now allows users to quickly assess whether they are in a special flood hazard area using a user-entered address and provides an “expert” level view which aggregates the most relevant flooding information for specialized users. This upgrade was developed in collaboration with GeoDecision using ESRI’s ArcGIS Experience Builder (Developer Edition). ArcGIS Experience Builder leverages a drag-and drop interface and highly configurable templates, interconnected widgets, and themes. This solution creates a compelling, immersive web experience for the public with flexible design. Using Esri's Experience Builder, DCR can make configuration changes to mapping elements such as widgets, layers, basemaps, etc., without needing to modify the application’s codebase. Additionally, a custom widget was developed to query data from a user entered address or map click and displays that information in the flood panel. The tool’s queries are maintained in a json file that can be easily updated by DCR staff if needed. This upgrade to VFRIS has allowed DCR to stay current in ESRI’s platform ecosystem while creating a more user focused and friendly interface that is easily maintained by staff.
