{"id":78382,"date":"2019-02-01T14:01:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T22:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=78382"},"modified":"2023-10-04T09:22:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T16:22:10","slug":"web-based-apps-help-agricultural-producers-consumers-digest-information","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/web-based-apps-help-agricultural-producers-consumers-digest-information","title":{"rendered":"Web-Based Apps Help Agricultural Producers, Consumers Digest Information"},"author":1312,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10392,1031,931],"tags":[4381,1631,134972,1441,1461],"arcnews_issues":[47032],"class_list":["post-78382","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-online","category-natural-resources","category-spatial-analysis","tag-apps","tag-collaboration","tag-land-management","tag-resilience","tag-sustainability","arcnews_issues-fall-2017","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"The agricultural industry is facing unique agronomic, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities\u2014from extreme weather events and\u2026","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Canadian Government\u2019s Agriculture Department Develops Self-Serve Map- and App-Building Platform Using ArcGIS Online<\/h2>\r\nThe agricultural industry is facing unique agronomic, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities\u2014from extreme weather events and new invasive species to growing global competition. Consumer expectations are evolving as well. Canadians are demanding more variety and convenience from their food, as well as environmental friendliness and assurances of quality and safety.\r\n\r\nProducers are looking for novel products and processes to help them meet the demands of these new markets while also ensuring that their operations are competitive and sustainable. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), a government organization that aims to drive innovation and ingenuity in Canada\u2019s agriculture and food industries, determined that one of the best ways to help the sector develop sustainably is to give as many organizations and people as possible the ability to visualize and effectively leverage the wealth of information\u2014from crop density and soil moisture to farm locations and agri-environmental indicators\u2014that is available to support decision-making in the industry today.\r\n\r\nUsing ArcGIS Online, AAFC is making that possible. Two years ago, the organization opened up its ArcGIS Online organizational account to almost 180 departmental users. Called UMAP, this AAFC-branded, cloud-based portal enables these users to employ a wide range of agricultural data to create interactive web maps and apps for their colleagues, food producers, and the public.\r\n

A Self-Serve Geospatial Destination<\/h2>\r\nWhen this project started, AAFC had limited resources. So it wanted a solution that would require little in-house development and that would get the department up and running with making its own maps and apps quickly. The solution also needed to meet security requirements and integrate data according to government standards."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":78402,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"As a heavy user of the ArcGIS platform already, AAFC saw that ArcGIS Online met these requirements. Using it would give the team a secure, software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud-based platform that is hosted and supported by Esri.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe found the SaaS model very attractive because it meant that we could operate with a small server footprint,\u201d said James Ashton, AAFC\u2019s geomatics applications manager. In other words, the organization could focus on using the software rather than building it and maintaining the infrastructure.\r\n\r\nNow, UMAP is a self-serve geospatial destination that AAFC staff can use to mash up key organizational information layers\u2014such as annual crop inventories and historic yield and production statistics\u2014with interoperable data from other organizations and third parties, like Esri. They can then use this data to create intelligent web maps that can be shared with specific interest groups or departments. Employees can also build on work previously completed by colleagues and share new results across the enterprise.\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s more, employees designated as publishers can host their own, nonsensitive data in the cloud and create their own map services by converting CSV files into shapefiles to web enable them for ArcGIS Online. UMAP administrators monitor credit usage across the organization as well and choose which data to make public or keep private.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe platform transforms our datasets into ready-to-use web resources that serve as powerful tools to communicate complex information in a very simple way,\u201d said Ashton. \u201cIt significantly reduces confusion about where to access organizational maps and the need for departments to contact each other for information. This also reduces the number of requests received by our help desk.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe UMAP home page has a customized banner, featured content, and links to training videos\u2014all of which align with branding and objectives.\r\n

Disseminating Geospatial Data Efficiently<\/h2>\r\nTo make it easier to get data and apps to outside organizations and producers, AAFC also populated a public-facing app gallery with popular web apps.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe demand for information is always increasing, and we\u2019re seeing a much broader range of potential users,\u201d said Ashton. \u201cBy leveraging a more efficient and cost-effective approach to disseminating geospatial data, we continue to transform ourselves into a knowledge-based department where we\u00a0[employ]<\/em>\u00a0geospatial information in our decisions.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":78422,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Two of the public-facing web apps that AAFC staff recently developed and shared are the Annual Crop Inventory app and the Land Use app. The Annual Crop Inventory app allows users to quickly analyze and visualize field-level cropping patterns (i.e., an overview of what has been planted on farmland before) across Canada. The Land Use app enables users to analyze changes in land use throughout the country between 1990, 2000, and 2010. If a producer is interested in renting farmland, for example, he or she could use these maps to see which crops have been planted in previous years. That way, the producer can make the most effective and environmentally conscious decision about which land to farm and what to cultivate on it.\r\n\r\n\u201cA picture is worth a thousand words,\u201d said Ashton. \u201cMaps help us visualize the information we collect and that\u00a0[the Science and Technology Branch at AAFC]<\/em>\u00a0creates. This, in turn, helps us ask better questions and make better decisions. Imagine how a farmer or policy maker could benefit from simple web-based access to open datasets on changes in land use, such as crop rotations or the environmental impacts of droughts.\u201d\r\n\r\nAAFC uses Esri templates, such as Compare Maps and specialized Canadian federal government ones, to build the apps quickly and in compliance with accessibility and common government branding requirements. By using ArcGIS Online in conjunction with templates, some apps\u2014like the Spatial Density of Major Crops in Canada app\u2014have taken only an hour to deploy.\r\n\r\nIn addition, AAFC registers its data, web services, and apps to the Federal Geospatial Platform (an internal government portal) and the public-facing Canadian Government\u2019s Open Data Portal. By doing this, it ensures that these portals point back to AAFC\u2019s services, giving more people\u2014both internally and externally\u2014access to the organization\u2019s data.\r\n

Enabling Better Decision-Making<\/h2>\r\nBy using the ArcGIS platform to better inform internal staff, agricultural producers, and the public, AAFC is ensuring that more people can visualize and leverage the myriad information the department receives, meeting both consumer expectations and producer needs.\r\n\r\nAAFC\u2019s maps and apps are informing policy makers on a global scale, from grain brokers looking for new cereal sources to real estate scouts seeking new investment opportunities. Now, they can all see where specific cropping trends, like monocropping, are occurring and where forest or urban expansion are taking place. Using web maps, the department can share its data broadly and cost-effectively, allowing policy makers to easily collaborate in finding solutions to ongoing challenges.\r\n\r\nFor more information, email\u00a0Gordon Plunkett<\/a>, the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) director for Esri Canada, or call 613-683-6213."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nWeb-Based Apps Help Agricultural Producers, Consumers Digest Information | Fall 2017 | ArcNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Canadian Government\u2019s Agriculture Department Develops Self-Serve Map- and App-Building Platform Using ArcGIS Online.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/web-based-apps-help-agricultural-producers-consumers-digest-information\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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