Japan has just suffered another 7.4 Earthquake a mere 100km from the previous location, and ESRI is already on the case with updated maps showing the location.
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami – Map & Satellite Images | Disaster Relief & Support.
ESRI is demonstrating an impressive little Silverlight powered widget that rendering terrain data in 3D with full interactivity. They support 2D and 3D Views, with full manipulation controls.
The imagery, street and topography base maps are sourced directly from Esri’s ArcGIS Online portal for geospatial services, data, applications and communities.
Elevation data is sourced from SRTM, GTOPO30 and GEBCO bathymetry via a new service published yesterday. The service was developed as a custom Server Object Extension for ArcGIS Server.
You can play with the app yourself at this link.
via Applications Prototype Lab Blog : 3D Terrain Mapping in a Browser.
Several GIS companies have quickly come together to pool their resources at tracking the growing Gulf Oil Spill via ArcGIS Online. ESRI and others are posting maps, predictions, and satellite imagery to aid in coordination of recovery efforts. From AnyGeo:
Users and emergency responders working in the area are invited to contact the team in order to join the group and share their related apps, services, data and resources. See the ArcGIS Online (BETA) ESRI Gulf Oil Spill Response
To date several interesting web services have been published including:
- Gulf coast oil spill plume showing approx trajectory
- Environmental Sensitivity map
- Electronic navigational charts
I agree with AnyGeo, KUDOS to ESRI for picking up the challenge!
Last month, I attended the annual meeting of the ESRI Petroleum User Group (PUG) in Houston, Texas. This is the conference where oil and gas companies’ GIS professionals learn the latest applications of ArcGIS and geospatial technology to the exploration and production workflow.
It was my first time at ESRI PUG, having worked as a geologist and geophysical interpreter, i.e. the end customer, until 2009. Viewing the world of petroleum data management and analysis from the technology vendor/contractor side is a fresh, challenging flip on the same question all of us in the geo-industry ask: How can we push the limits of data access, analysis, visualization and scientific understanding using tech solutions, in this case GIS? This requires technological innovation, but, most crucially, a strong focus on the customer’s problem and closing the interpretation-GIS gap. This last theme came up over and over again, even if not explicitly stated always, during the three days of the conference.
I’ll put the concept in context as I run down key conference proceedings.
PLENARY
1. Keynote Address given by ESRI’s Clint Brown, Product Director, and Damian Spangrud, ArcGIS Platform Manager. After a few obligatory minutes on the hydrocarbon exploration and production (expro) lifecycle, Brown and Spangrud tag-teamed an hour-long talk and demo of the ArcGIS Explorer operational dashboard. Two items of note: a) Bing Maps as part of basemap library, which means viewing well location in birds’ eye view along with well and company-specific lease information, and b) ESRI in the cloud (I hate that word “cloud” – all we need is more marketing-speak) – more specifically ArcGIS Server on Amazon to use geoprocessing tools directly, presented by Lawrie Sims, ERDAS founder and ESRI’s current director of imagery enterprise solutions.Tom Bell, Shell’s head of GIS services, talked briefly about CAD integration into ArcGIS (more on this later).
I’m sure most people don’t think of Alabama being the pinnacle of geospatial research and imaging, but Google Enterprise is developing a GIS system for a “Virtual Alabama” and ESRI is building the “Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response”. GCN’s Wyatt Kash sits down with Jack Dangermond of ESRI to discuss advances in GIS.
Virtual Alabama copies data from different state and local agencies into a central server for visualization in the Google environment. In contrast, the VIPER system uses a distributed Web service architecture that dynamically integrates a network of real-time authoritative source services. Distributed servers integrate various maps as mashup applications, not just visualization. While some of these services are simply mapping and visualization, many others integrate analytic services and support sophisticated applications.
via The next step for agency GIS: shared services — Government Computer News.
ESRI has upgraded the ArcGIS Explorer sotware and released it as a free download on their website, providing a great way to borwse geographic information and GIS data.
“This release introduces some very big features,” says Bern Szukalski, ArcGIS Explorer product manager. “We’re always learning from users what they want and need, and we have incorporated some compelling new features as a result. These include the ability to access shared maps, layers, and tools directly from ArcGIS Online; support for layer packages that enable ArcGIS Explorer to leverage state-of-the-art ArcGIS Desktop cartography; the ability to use maps in 2D or 3D; and presentation tools that let users share their geographic knowledge and communicate geographically.”
They also adopted a few new UI features such as the popular “ribbon” interface, and integrated 2D and 3D displays with quick-switching. An SDK is available for custom plugins, and new maps and layers are available from ArcGIS online, including Bing Maps. Also is support for Google Earth’s KML and KMZ files. Check it all out at the ArcGIS Explorer website.
Jack Dangermond is a name synonymous with GIS, and in an interview with Chad Vander Veen of Government Technology he discusses advancements in GIS and how it can be used by the government to facilitate transparency.
I think historically GIS has changed the way people think. It’s changing how they reason. That’s because GIS introduces the relationships and patterns that you can only see through GIS visualization. Imagine when full GIS capabilities – all the analytics and power – are available to everyone so they could be more thoughtful and considerate about what they’re doing to the environment.
ESRI’s Jack Dangermond: GIS Brings Better Government Transparency.
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