The 10th Annual University of Washington (UW) GIS Symposium was held on May 27, 2026, in-person in the UW Libraries’ Research Commons and continued its mission of creating an opportunity for faculty, students, and staff across disciplines to come together and share their GIS-related research.
Featured at this year’s symposium was an interdisciplinary representation of work from across the UW campus. Students and staff from the following programs and units all delivered lightning talk presentations: UW Facilities, the iSchool, Environmental Studies, Geography, and Professional & Continuing Education. Presentation topics were:
- A look at the geography and proliferation of eco-blocks in the Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown
- The environmental risks of climate change faced by libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions
- The implementation of 360 degree images into ArcGIS Pro
- Using ArcGIS Field Maps to map the location of water fountains on the UW campus
- The impacts to wetland hydrology from nearby stream daylighting and precipitation changes
- Integrating agricultural land into land-use planning to reduce disaster risk
All of the lightning talk presenters attended the symposium and were on hand to answer attendee questions via a Q&A session following the lightning talk portion of the event. Abstracts from the lightning talks are included in these Proceedings below.
The opening presentation of this year’s symposium was delivered by Erin McElroy, Associate Professor in the Geography department, who talked about their work as co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and lead of the Anti-Eviction Lab at the University of Washington.
Prior to the opening presentation, UW Libraries’ GIS Lab Assistant, Keenan Ganz, gave a demonstration and preview of an updated Aerial Photo Finder Tool that he has been working on over the 2025-26 academic year. The Libraries anticipates replacing the old tool with the new one by the end of Fall Quarter 2026.
This year’s symposium was open to all members of the UW community and the public. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s UW GIS Symposium including members of the GIS Symposium planning committee for their numerous contributions and the staff of the Research Commons.
Proceedings Editors
Kian Flynn and Matthew Parsons, UW Libraries