SDI Snapshot – July 2016
Check out the interactive map showing BC wildfires, explore Sudbury’s web-based, mobile friendly traffic app, learn about ArcGIS Server on Microsoft Azure and much more in the July SDI Snapshot.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in Canada and globally in the world of spatial data infrastructures (SDI). This July 2016 post is a collection of the latest and most significant SDI news, data and products.
News
Interactive BC wildfires map – How many fires were started by humans?
This online story map shows the locations of wildfires in BC and gives an indication of whether the fire had a human or natural cause. The map displays fires in 2015 and 2016.
Interactive map provides view of Northern Ontario’s infrastructure
CBC has published an article showing a new online map that offers a snapshot of northern Ontario's railways, roads and even rest stops. The Northern Ontario Infrastructure Map shows passenger rail and bus routes, major highways, border crossings, airports and more. Users can click on the interactive map to compare each route along with nearby cities, towns and First Nations reserves.
Sudbury launches new web-based, mobile friendly traffic app
The City of Greater Sudbury has launched a new web-based, mobile friendly traffic application that identifies road and traffic restrictions in Greater Sudbury. The Road and Traffic Restrictions (RATR) app makes residents and local businesses aware of where road work is planned or ongoing.
Maps: The key ingredient that aggregates the Internet of Things (IoT)
The IoT is a network that allows sensors and web-enabled devices and systems — the things — to communicate with one another. GIS extends the reach and visibility of IoT data. Maps are the best way to see and access IoT data. Maps complete the picture of all those related object by binding the information together and telling the real-time story of everything we need to be aware of. The map is the key to expressing the data and making communities smarter.
Canadian startup company SensorUp joins the Esri Startup Program
SensorUp offers the world’s first IoT platform built on the OGC SensorThings API, an international open standard and unified framework to interconnect IoT sensing devices, data and applications over the web. SensorUp has announced that it is joining the Esri Startup program, a three-year program that gives companies the tools to build mapping and location analytics capabilities into Esri products.
Data
June 2016 Community Map of Canada Basemap updates
Several contributors had their content published or updated in June. Contributions to both the World Topographic Basemap and the Imagery Basemap were included in the update. Check out this story map to discover what's new in Canada with regards to basemap content.
ICI Society plans to increase permitted uses for AddressBC data
The Integrated Cadastral Information Society (ICI Society) is building and improving AddressBC as the central authoritative, accurate and accessible point-based civic address registry for British Columbia. Use of AddressBC data relies on both the quality of address data and permitted use of address data. An AddressBC Addendum has been developed to supplement the Data Sharing and Licensing Agreement’s terms of use for address data.
GIS data is more than positions and attributes. Here’s how additional information can work for you
When most people think of GIS, they think of maps and rightfully so. For decades, typical consumers of spatial data were cities, municipalities and other organizations that used GIS to manage and visualize information about assets and environments. This is continuing, of course, as the use of geospatial information moves into new private, commercial and industrial segments. However, as GIS data flows from the field to end users, opportunities exist to develop information that goes well beyond the traditional positions and attributes.
Products
ArcGIS Server for the Microsoft Azure cloud
ArcGIS Server on Microsoft Azure allows users to deploy a GIS server or a full web GIS on Microsoft Azure virtual machines. Users can deploy ArcGIS Server on Microsoft Azure sites from images on Microsoft Azure Marketplace. From the images, use ArcGIS Server Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure and your ArcGIS licenses to deploy either a GIS server or web GIS.
Insights for ArcGIS app revealed at Esri User Conference
Attendees of the Esri User Conference were among the first to experience Insights for ArcGIS, a data analysis application that marks a milestone in the evolution of GIS. The Insights for ArcGIS interface can host all data from enterprise data warehouses, ArcGIS data, geodatabases, spreadsheets and big data. By including a wider variety of information in their analysis, users can now find answers to questions that they previously couldn’t even think to ask.
The expansive reach of web GIS
The geographic organizing aspect of GIS has been part of geospatial thinking from the beginning but now factor in the impact of the web. The new web GIS provides an online infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout an organization, across a community and openly on the web. This new vision for web GIS fully complements, integrates and extends the work of existing GIS professionals.
Green Infrastructure: A way to view the land around us
In today’s ever-changing world, decision makers are faced with the common challenge of determining how, where and what to develop. The need for cities and towns to develop is inevitable, but the loss of natural, life-sustaining resources doesn't have to be. By developing a network of critical landscapes — a green infrastructure — communities can protect the places and resources that help people, wildlife and the economy thrive.