News Roundup – April 2021

April 8, 2021

Dani Pacey

How is GIS helping with urban forestry efforts—and helping mitigate the effects of climate change in the process? What are the essential questions to ask when trying to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of your geospatial strategy? How can facility managers help create campuses that are safer during COVID-19? Learn more in the April News Roundup.

Feature Stories

Submit your app for our App of the Month
We’re looking for outstanding, publicly accessible ArcGIS-based apps to be featured in the Esri Canada Blog as our App of the Month. Could your app be it?

April’s Map of the Month: Urban trees: Protecting cities—and people—everywhere
Through the lens of April 2021’s featured map—“A Focus on Drumheller, Vegetation Inventory” from the Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation Office—learn about how urban forestry efforts in Canada and the United States are helping mitigate the effects of climate change.

March’s Map of the Month: GIS—Beyond the dashboards you see
March 2021’s featured map, “Geographic and Temporal Distribution of COVID-19 in Québec”, from Laval University, demonstrates that the real value of GIS is that it helps us to think better. Visit the Map Calendar Hub for an interview featuring Benoît Lalonde, the researcher behind March 2021’s featured map.

Your basemap is served
Did you know that a new version of the Community Map of Canada vector basemap is published twice a week, including daily updates from our over 270 contributors? Now, they’re more prominently labeled, featuring an additional red half-maple leaf, so that you can find them more easily when selecting your basemap. Learn more about how to use this up-to-date Canadian basemap in this blog post.

Enhancing data collection and operational reliability with Utility Network
Learn how utilities and public works organizations are using ArcGIS Utility Network to enable more complete connectivity between datasets, reduce the need for error-prone manual processes and gain operational insight to improve asset & outage management and ensure reliable service delivery.

Paperless field data collection made easy
Taking your field data collection process paperless might seem like an enormous undertaking, but the benefits of making the move include saving time, reducing data entry errors and automating repetitive processes. Carole Arseneau has some advice and resources to inspire you and help you on your way.

How to review a geospatial strategy
Identify gaps and opportunities in your geospatial strategy with these thirteen probing questions from Matthew Lewin, Esri Canada’s director of management consulting.

Responding to COVID-19 protocols results in long-term benefits
Although the circumstances under which companies have had to suddenly shift to online services in the last year are not ideal, there are many benefits in store for public sector organizations that are moving to more online services. Bill Grant, Esri Canada’s industry manager for public works, explores some success stories relating to digitalizing pre-existing processes.

See what others can’t with Esri’s solutions for situational awareness
Make defence and security decisions faster by using these technological solutions—including ArcGIS Dashboards, ArcGIS StoryMaps and ArcGIS Mission—to boost your organization’s situational awareness.

Creating a safe campus in the time of COVID-19
If you’re a facility manager working at a college or university, you’re very likely in the process of adapting your campus procedures and protocols to comply with public health agencies. Read this blog post for ideas of what to think about when you’re building the foundation for on-campus safety.

Cutting-edge disaster assessment improves public safety on public transit
How can 3D smart modelling help transit systems protect their riders from disasters? Learn more about how an innovative disaster assessment model helped the City of Vancouver and TransLink make more accurate assessments.

Esri News

Esri Releases New Book for Utilities Getting Started with GIS
March 23, 2021

Esri Joins ERES and K&A to Create Geospatial Real Estate Solution
March 23, 2021

Esri’s Site Scan for ArcGIS Introduces New Capabilities for US Drone Pilots
March 19, 2021

Esri Recognizes Partners for Innovation and Excellence
March 18, 2021

Esri Partner Track Star Integrates ArcGIS Platform
March 17, 2021

Esri Joins Digital Twin Consortium
March 16, 2021

Esri Canada News

EagleView and Esri Canada Announce New Integration Within Cityworks Platform
March 23, 2021

Resources

ArcUser: Online Schooling Prompts Municipalities to Map Digital Inequities
The challenges caused by unequal access to broadband internet are not new. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated their effects on some populations. The “homework gap”, which occurs when students lack the connectivity and access to computers needed to complete schoolwork at home, is more pronounced for Black, Hispanic and lower-income households. Read about two large school districts using GIS to identify these students and deliver solutions to their problems.

Read the latest issue of ArcUser online

ArcNews: A Starting Point for Bridging the Digital Divide
The digital divide creates inequities between groups of people and communities, and in the tribal lands of sovereign nations across the United States, the dire need for digital infrastructure, broadband service and computer hardware has only worsened during COVID-19. The American Association of Geographers’ Bridging the Digital Divide program seeks to help.

Read the latest issue of ArcNews online

WhereNext: Digital Twin of the Globe Helps Companies Get Ahead of Climate Risk
Business executives crave predictability, and a new simulation-based system uses GIS technology to predict where supply chain vulnerabilities could emerge months and years in the future.

Esri & The Science of Where Podcast: Supporting Water Justice for Indigenous People
Dr. Kelsey Leonard, Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo and citizen of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, explains how the combination of technology and tradition helps safeguard water rights for indigenous communities. Esri’s David Gadsden investigates the role location intelligence plays in identifying injustice and fostering sustainable ocean governance.

Geographical Thinking Podcast: Season 1, Episode 7—Choose to Challenge
Caroline Arnouk, founder & CEO of OPA Technologies, decided to challenge the status quo of traffic closure planning while working for the City of Montréal. The civil engineer founded OPA Technologies six years ago to help cities minimize the effects of traffic obstructions using GIS. Caroline speaks to Guan about how to sell to the public sector, the benefits of circulating business ideas and the evolution of her company during COVID-19.

Video: Pleins feux sur le calendrier de cartes (Mars 2021) | Map Calendar Spotlight (March 2021)
When the first COVID-19 lockdown in Québec began in March 2020, Benoît Lalonde, based at Université Laval, used GIS to see COVID-19 in new ways. His web app, “Geographic and Temporal Distribution of COVID-19 in Québec”, uses Esri technology to make case data accessible to the public.