Brian Busch, GISP

I'm a Certified GIS Professional (GISP) and a Senior GIS Analyst at the City of Millcreek. I build GIS applications for city planning with the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript. I train city staff to use GIS. I also work on large analysis projects, such as a pilot tree inventory made from lidar. I administer an enterprise ArcGIS Online organization (1,600+ items, 50+ users). I also make public maps such as 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 joined Millcreek in 2019, and the work grew into the city's first dedicated GIS position. In it I built the city's first public ArcGIS Hub and a Python workflow that pushed about 22,000 parcels into production SQL systems for Building Services and Finance. The role then took on 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 for MS4 compliance, and the 2021–2023 migration off ArcMap. By 2024 it had become a Senior GIS Analyst role centered on enterprise governance: metadata standards, org-wide sharing policy, and Millcreek's first Esri Enterprise Agreement. The cartography and app work stayed part of the job. Today the role centers on GIS applications for the city's planners, GIS training for staff, and large analysis projects.

I passed the GISP exam on the first attempt in December 2024. The GIS Certification Institute issued the certification in January 2025. The certification requires a portfolio of education, work experience, and contributions to the profession, and a passing exam score. The exam covers AEC/BIM and remote sensing/sUAS in addition to the civil engineering and surveying side I work in day to day.

What I 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
• GIS applications for city planning on the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript. One brings Nearmap aerial imagery into the browser. It replaced an earlier Node.js build on the Experience Builder SDK.
• GIS training for city staff
• Lidar analysis: a pilot tree inventory from a canopy height model, which gives the height of trees above the ground, checked against aerial imagery
• 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 also do cartography and data-engineering work on my own time. 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 reservoir data from nine agencies, mountain snow data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Away from a screen, I spend time on backroads, hiking, winter trail running, and landscape photography, most of it in Utah's more remote areas. 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

Get in touch

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