SpatialNews Press Release
Washington’s DC Atlas Powered by ESRI’s ArcIMS;
Enterprise GIS Delivers Spatial Data Throughout City Offices
www.esri.com
Redlands, California—ESRI’s ArcIMS, the foundation for distributing geographic information system (GIS) data and applications on the Internet, is powering a new application at city government offices in Washington, D.C.
In June, the District of Columbia launched DC Atlas, an enterprise GIS for its employees. The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) in Washington, D.C., worked with ESRI business partner, Michael Baker Jr., Inc., to develop the ArcIMS Intranet-based tool that brings together data from the city’s 67 departments and delivers it to staff members’ desktops.
An ArcSDE geodatabase from ESRI enables city employees to access more than 150 map layers including demographic, socioeconomic, and spatial data. DC Atlas supports the city’s departments with instant access to a wealth of information such as orthophotos; planimetric maps; and maps of service areas, political and administrative boundaries, development areas, fire and police stations, hospitals, schools, and libraries.
For non-GIS users ESRI’s ArcIMS system is intuitive and easy to learn. “They log on with a Web browser, and the application is set up with predefined views and queries,” says Barney Krucoff, GIS group manager, Michael Baker Jr., Inc. “GIS users who want the full power of ESRI’s software have access to ArcView 8.x and ArcInfo, which are deployed from a Citrix server.”
Participants in the new system are genuinely pleased, and citywide departments are finding they are now better equipped to make faster, informed decisions. “It’s definitely becoming part of the business process,” says Vicki DeFries, GIS manager, OCTO. “We’ve been conducting training classes twice a week, every week since June. There has been an immense amount of positive feedback. It’s easy to use and does what people want it to without having to go through an entire GIS course.”
Michael Baker Jr., Inc., is participating in an expanded ArcIMS effort in Washington, D.C., that will bring some of the data to the Internet to provide added services to its citizens.
About ESRI
For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI software is used in all 200 of the largest cities in the United States and in more than 60 percent of counties and municipalities nationwide. Headquartered in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,500 business partners. ESRI’s goal is to develop comprehensive tools that enable users to efficiently manage, use, and serve geographic information to make a difference in the world around them. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. ESRI can be found on the Web at www.esri.com.
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