Benjamin Hickson Email & Phone Number

United States

Tucson, Arizona

• Leverage a variety of software packages, libraries, and approaches to provide spatial analysis and cartographic support for environmental, transportation, and demographic programs and activities conducted at PAG.
• Administer, manage, and support a local ArcGIS Enterprise installation (Server, Portal, DataStore, ArcSDE, License Manager) and SQL Server Express (2012 and 2017) databases.
• Image analysis to produce Tree Canopy, Heat Severity, and Landcover data products from orthoimagery and point-cloud data products using python processing pipelines, machine learning techniques, QGIS, and the ArcGIS.
• Coordinate regional biennial orthophotography and LiDAR acquisitions covering as much as 8,500 square miles with up to 16 local, state, tribal, and federal partners.ArcGIS Pro and Desktop, QGIS, Anaconda, Graphopper.

University Of Arizona

• Full-stack management of geospatial portal server and backend applications systems composing the libraries geospatial data archive
• Development and management of the geodatabase (PostGIS) used in the geospatial data archive
• Provided geospatial data and software support for projects ranging across all research disciplines covering a variety of software types, programming languages, and analysis and modeling techniques.
• Consistently engaged troubleshooting techniques to resolve issues related to my own work as well as work for students, researchers, and faculty which I would assist.
• Consistently engage and maintain productive working relationships with members of our department, the Libraries, and University-wide
• Conduct workshops and tutorial session for both novice and experienced GIS users. Necessitated conveying complex topics and new material clearly in person and writing

University Of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

• Connect with librarians and technicians from over a dozen institutions around the United States regarding their geospatial repositories and web services
• Collaborate with campus colleges to maximize the sharing of resources and data
• Conduct an extensive inventory and review of data and metadata for nearly 1,000 vector and 36,000 raster datasets gathered from other campus repositories
• Setup a development instance of the OpenGeoportal project for the University of Arizona Library
• Create, edit, and update existing metadata records

Tucson, AZ

• Work with the Arizona Remote Sensing Center at the University of Arizona to develop a Land Use/Land Cover model to identify riparian areas in Pinal County, Arizona using high resolution imagery and elevation data with.
• Work with members of the Pinal Partnership Natural Watercourses Protection sub-committee to produce a white paper for the Pinal County Board of Supervisors assessing the need for and strategies to address riparian.
• Communicate with various stakeholders and county agencies regarding possible avenues of legislation revision
• Compile and derive environmental and social GIS data from numerous federal, state, educational, non-profit, and local institutions
• Production of maps and data to be used and distributed in papers and at meetings with participating members of the Open Space and Trails Committee as well as county stakeholders

Elk Grove, CA

• Work as part of two man field crew to implement the California Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) bioassessment protocol on streams and rivers across California
• Use digital maps, TOPO software, and GPS units to navigate to remote and urban site location all across California
• Utilize kick nets, stadia rods, densitometers, clinometers, YSI sensors, GPS Units, current meters, and riparian observation techniques to characterize watercourses
• Operate four wheel drive vehicles and boats to access sites in remote locations

South Lake Tahoe, CA

• Remove large trees in urban and rural areas around South Lake Tahoe
• Carry out thinning projects to reduce fuel hazard and improve landscape health on Conservancy parcels in both forested and chaparral conditions on urban and rural parcels
• Build and install fence and other off-highway vehicle barriers around Conservancy parcels

Karijini National Park, AUS

Chico, California Area

Incline Village, NV

Master Of Science (M.S.), Geographic Information Systems Technology

Bachelors Of Science, Environmental Science - Watershed Science