U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Will Distribute Software to Federal, State, and Local Agencies

Redlands, California - ESRI, the leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop, install, and maintain an agencywide standard GIS platform.

Part of HUD's Community 2020 program, the scope of work will include a needs assessment, applications customization, training and support, and full integration within the existing HUD infrastructure. ESRI will develop a community-planning tool that will empower individuals involved in local community development with data and mapping capabilities designed to set new standards for information analysis and data sharing.

ESRI and HUD signed the $10.2 million contract in Washington on May 25. Work on the project has already begun and is expected to last for five years. Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, said, "This is a huge step forward for place-based planning and GIS technology as a data dissemination tool via the Internet. We are immensely proud that HUD selected ESRI to play such a pivotal role."

Community 2020 seeks to improve the ability of communities throughout the country to make strategic decisions, open the local planning process to community input, and increase the effectiveness of HUD programs. The software package designed and implemented by ESRI will improve access to a range of information and expand the dialog between citizens and their government.

David Nystrom, Senior Information Technology Advisor at HUD said, "HUD has launched an Enterprise Systems Integration Initiative to facilitate the consolidation of its data processing and information systems practices and minimize the number of supported platforms, systems, and infrastructure components.

"ESRI is working with HUD to integrate the geospatial capabilities of Community 2020 into many ongoing data access and information delivery development activities. It is our intent that the integrated, geospatial component of this effort will be viewed as a first step in the development of a place-based planning tool to assist communities in making informed decisions."

An ArcIMS-Based Solution

ESRI will use two of its highly scalable software programs for the HUD solution. ArcIMS 3, its new Internet mapping and GIS system, and ArcSDE (Spatial Database Engine) will address HUD's requirements for database management, analysis, and dissemination. ArcSDE is client/server software for storing, managing, and quickly retrieving spatial data from a database management system.

ArcIMS is an end user software program capable of establishing a common platform for the exchange of Web-enabled GIS data and services. It is a framework for distributing GIS capabilities via the Internet.

"The variety of GIS technologies that ESRI has to offer will help HUD leverage its investments in a shared federal, state, and local governmentwide geospatial database," said Todd Rogers of the ESRI Federal Development Team.