Our latest guide, The Mapping Revolution: Incorporating Geographic Information Systems in Government, features case studies and best practices from the Census Bureau, Geoplatform.gov and United States Department of Agriculture and insights from Esri President, Jack Dangermond. Download PDF.
Since the beginning of civilization, humans have used images as a means to tell stories. We have used images to educate, entertain or to build a just and moral society. Our ancient ancestors would use images to remember stories and archive information for future generations. Similar to our ancient ancestors, we use images today to convey meaning, understand complex relationships and improve communication.
The use of mapping and geospatial technology is at the heart of story telling and improved communications. As the challenges of the public sector continue to grow in complexity, efficient and effective communication tools are essential. Today, government is more interconnected than ever before, and the complexity has led to increased integration between state, local and federal officials. At all levels of government, agencies are looking for solutions to find value and improve public sector decision-making through data.
With GIS, agencies can gather new perspectives on organizational changes to improve mission needs. GIS provides the opportunities for agencies to map quantities and densities, and manage facilities and change. With GIS, anything can be mapped, providing easy to use and visually compelling maps. In this report, GovLoop outlines the impact of GIS on the public sector by exploring:
- Case studies and applications of GIS in the public sector
- Lessons learned and best practices for GIS adoption
- Examples how GIS is creating an open and transparent government
- Ways GIS is powering civic engagement initiatives
- Thoughts from Esri President, Jack Dangermond
- Download PDF
GIS truly represents the ability to integrate, collaborate, and communicate more efficiently across an agency. With a GIS platform, operations and services can be scaled across the agency, and expose more comprehensive and direct communication with core stakeholders.
“We are seeing a lot of interest in Congress, for example, by staffers who are introducing maps and geographic analysis into their policy discussions. For the traditional GIS professionals the platform is providing a new and open platform for sharing their geo database investments as easy to use services. The ability to integrate multi agency information also promises to help facilitate better collaboration across agencies,” Jack Dangermond, Esri President.
Additional GIS Resources:
- Exploring the Power of GIS for Facilities Management [Interactive]
- How GIS Influences our Daily Lives – Interactive
- Esri: ArcGIS as a Platform Interview with Jack Dangermond
- Western States Contract Alliance, Sean McSpaden, Deputy CIO of Oregon
- Greg Babinski, King County, WA, GIS Center (part 1)
- Kshemendra Paul, Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment
- Recap: Challenge Your Community- Esri and GovLoop Meet Up
- GIS Interviews: Geoplatform.gov and the National Strategy for Information Sharing
- How GIS Can Be Used for Humanitarian Aid – Case Study from Direct Relief
- GovLoop’s GIS Knowledge Hub
When Esri was founded in 1969, it realized even then that geographic information system (GIS) technology could make a difference in society. GIS helps people to solve problems at local, regional, national, and global scales. Access maps and apps at ArcGIS.com. Be sure to check out all the GIS resources produced by Esri and GovLoop.
