Brian Busch, GISP

I'm a GISP-certified Senior GIS Analyst at the City of Millcreek, where the work splits fairly evenly between cartography and the systems and data underneath it. I administer an enterprise ArcGIS Online organization (1,600+ items, 50+ users), write Python pipelines that move parcel and permitting data into production SQL systems, and build custom web apps on the ArcGIS Experience Builder SDK — alongside public-facing maps like Millcreek's Future Land Use Map, a 2025 Esri UC Map Gallery finalist, and the city's Sidewalk & Trails Master Plan, a 2026 Esri UC Map Gallery finalist (write-up).

How I got here

I started at Millcreek in 2019 as an intern, a role that turned into the city's first dedicated GIS hire, building the city's first public ArcGIS Hub and a Python workflow that pushed roughly 22,000 parcels into production SQL systems for Building Services and Finance. From there the role kept absorbing more of the city's spatial infrastructure: a GNSS field program on Trimble RTK hardware, an FAA Part 107 drone program, a citywide stormwater inventory built for MS4 compliance, and the 2021–2023 migration off ArcMap. By 2024 that had become a Senior GIS Analyst role built around enterprise governance — metadata standards, org-wide sharing policy, and Millcreek's first Esri Enterprise Agreement — on top of the cartography and app work that was always part of the job.

I passed the GISP exam on the first attempt in December 2024. The GIS Certification Institute issued the certification in January 2025. The exam was broader than I expected. It covers AEC/BIM and remote sensing/sUAS in addition to the civil engineering and surveying side I work in day to day.

What I actually do

• Enterprise ArcGIS Online administration — governance, metadata (ISO 19115-3), sharing policy, licensing
• Python/SQL data pipelines moving parcel, permitting, and regulatory data into production systems
• Custom web apps on the ArcGIS Experience Builder SDK, including a Node.js build integrating the Nearmap API
• Field data collection — GNSS/RTK surveying and an FAA Part 107 drone program (DJI Phantom 4 RTK, Pix4D orthomosaic processing) supporting 4–5 engineering projects a year
• Cartography and print-map layouts for public-facing planning documents

Outside of work

I keep a personal cartography and data-engineering practice alongside the day job. In November 2024, I built selected maps for the 30 Day Map Challenge. More recently, I built the Western Water Dashboard with TypeScript and the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript. It shows reservoir storage, mountain snow, and drought for eleven western states. Its daily Python pipeline combines two federal data sources and verified capacity data. This project shows where I want to go next: more data engineering and enterprise data management, grounded in cartography.

Away from a screen, that same pull toward out-of-the-way places shows up as backroad exploring, hiking, winter trail running, and landscape photography — most of it in Utah's more remote corners. I publish that photography at Dust and Starlight.

What I publish here

• Cartography and print-map layouts
• Enterprise GIS administration and data-governance notes
• Python and SQL data-pipeline and automation writeups
• Spatial analysis notes and data-method writeups
• Small cartography notes about labels, palettes, hierarchy, and simplification

Email brian.busch@me.com, connect on LinkedIn, view related work on GitHub, or see the photography at Dust and Starlight.