{"id":697382,"date":"2024-08-30T17:53:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T00:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=697382"},"modified":"2024-08-30T17:53:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T00:53:44","slug":"2024ucmain","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain","title":{"rendered":"Uniting to Map a Better Future"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","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":[463771,10932,24962],"tags":[172412,489912],"arcuser_issues":[490002],"class_list":["post-697382","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-esri-user-conference","category-focus","tag-jack-dangermond","tag-tim-walz","arcuser_issues-au-summer-2024"],"acf":{"short_description":"More than 21,000 GIS professionals gathered in San Diego, California, for the 44th Esri User Conference (Esri UC). ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":697392,"file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"More than 21,000 GIS professionals from more than 130 countries gathered in San Diego, California, for the 44th Esri User Conference (Esri UC). The world\u2019s largest GIS conference was held July 15\u201319, 2024. It was four days of sharing, inspiring, connecting, and enjoying each other\u2019s company. The event featured hundreds of presentations, specialized training, networking opportunities, and information on the latest developments and best practices in GIS."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":697432,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In his Plenary Address on the conference's theme, GIS\u2014Uniting Our World, Esri president Jack Dangermond noted that the world is evolving rapidly\u2014for better and worse\u2014driven by human innovation.\r\n\r\nHowever, the great progress humans have made as a species has come at a great cost to the planet\u2014a cost that puts its sustainability in peril.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe humans are living carelessly. As a species we are way over the line,\u201d said Dangermond. \u201cEveryone needs to understand and work together to meet these challenges and unite around the powerful science of geography.\u201d Dangermond stressed that the situation is urgent, and the time to act is now."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":697442,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"However, humans possess a powerful tool: the geographic approach. \u201cGeography organizes everything we know\u2014all our experiences,\u201d said Dangermond. \u201cThis magical word \u2018where\u2019 is an extraordinary word because it connects all of humanity to all the science. The where is a powerful thing. It\u2019s your bridge to everyone else on the planet. It helps us see the world in interconnected ways.\u201d\r\n\r\nGIS is the technology that operationalizes geography by providing a framework and process for collecting, measuring, visualizing, and supporting decision-making. It is expanding the language of geography and enabling mapping that helps make the complexity of the world more understandable. The distributed architecture of modern GIS is creating a geospatial infrastructure that is being embraced by thousands of organizations and transforming the way they work together.\r\n\r\nEven with the power of GIS, Dangermond noted that meeting challenges to the Earth will take everyone. GIS professionals have an enormous role to play in influencing the future of the planet. It will require curiosity and courage to create holistic solutions that will deliver a better tomorrow, even as the world faces many challenges today.\r\n\r\nDangermond cited a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: \u201cAmong the map makers of each generation are the risk takers, those who see the opportunities, seize the moment and expand man\u2019s vision of the future.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWow, he was talking about GIS people,\u201d said Dangermond. \u201cWe as a group can do exactly what Emerson said\u2014unite our world and create a better future.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe theme of using GIS to unite efforts to create a better future for the world was also central to a special video message. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, addressed the GIS community. Over the past four decades, GIS had empowered agencies across the United Nations to fulfill their missions and support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). GIS professionals are working with UN staff to realize these goals.\r\n\r\n\u201cGeospatial information is not just a tool; it is a critical assets that helps us navigate the complexities of our world,\u201d said Mohammed. \u201cIt empowers us to see beyond the horizon, to understand the intricacies of our planet, and respond with precision and purpose.\u201d\r\n\r\nAfter reviewing examples of the diverse and innovative application of GIS done by users in numerous organizations, Dangermond called attention to the 258 organizations receiving Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Awards. These organizations were recognized for outstanding work in GIS.\r\n\r\nIn addition to the SAG Awards, each year three major awards\u2014the Making a Difference Award, Enterprise GIS Award, and the President\u2019s Award\u2014are presented during the plenary. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the largest geospatial organization on the planet, received the Making a Difference Award for its exceptional use of GIS to create a better world. The NGA relies on GIS to provide the geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) services that support decisions by the US president and US national policymakers.\r\n\r\nThe agency also helps federal agencies such as the Department of State and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. In accepting the award, Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth lauded the work of the GIS community, saying, \u201cThere is not a group of professionals on this planet doing more for this planet or doing more to unite this planet. That applies whether we are trying to save the world from bad weather or protect it from bad actors or both.\u201c\r\n\r\nThe City of Raleigh, North Carolina, received the Enterprise GIS Award for its organization-wide embrace of GIS technology to improve efficiency and collaboration. The city used GIS to better access and consolidate department datasets and gain a more holistic, real-time view of city operations.\r\n\r\nThe President\u2019s Award is personally chosen by Dangermond and given to an organization that uses data-driven decision-making to impact the world in a positive way. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) GeoCenter was honored with this award in recognition of its work using GIS to improve development outcomes.\r\n\r\nAccepting the award was Carrie Stokes, USAID chief geographer and GeoCenter director, who founded the center in 2011 and oversees the work of its 70 geospecialists. She noted that the mission of USAID is to save lives. The GeoCenter uses GIS to target where needs are the greatest. Stokes thanked Dangermond for \u201chelping us learn to map a better world.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":697452,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The two keynote speakers told how they use GIS to understand and improve the sustainability of our world from financial and environmental perspectives. Governor Tim Walz, the first keynote speaker, has used GIS to enable a data-driven approach to solving challenges in Minnesota and supporting higher living standards for its residents. This address is explored in detail in an accompanying article in this issue, \u201cThe World We Want.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":697472,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The second keynote speaker, Jeff Kerby,\u00a0 is an ecologist, photographer, and National Geographic Explorer who specializes in animals and plants in extreme environments from the Greenland to Ethiopia. Currently, he is a senior researcher at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.\r\n\r\nHe has used photography as part of his research on monkeys in Ethiopia to capture data on his subjects and the landscape. He now conducts research in Greenland to understand seasonality and the interactions of temperature, vegetation, and carbon stores and their effects on climate change. Recent advances in imagery and 3D visualization in GIS that transform historic photographs into 3D scenes help him understand and document these changes over time. His presentation concluded with a stunning 3D visualization of a trip through the fjords of northeast Greenland as they would have appeared in the 1930s.\r\n\r\nPresentations by organizations from around the world demonstrated how they are using GIS to provide infrastructure for collaboration, cost savings, and the more efficient delivery of services.\r\n\r\nCentral San based in California, described how the ArcGIS Utility Network has improved its operations. Central San provides wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal services; recycled water production and distribution; and household hazardous waste collection for nearly half a million residents and more than 15,000 businesses in Contra Costa County, California.\r\n\r\nRepresentatives of the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) explained how the agency has become the geospatial authority for Kuwait, using geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and reality mapping to produce authoritative data and develop apps and services to support the country\u2019s four million people and its thriving economy.\r\n\r\n[For more information on PACI\u2019s innovative use of GIS, see \u201cMachine Learning Becomes Part of Kuwait\u201d (links.esri.com\/PACI<\/a>).]<\/em>\r\n\r\nAnother national organization, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and National Parks Board of Singapore, depends on GIS for its operations. It is the foundation for an enterprise-focused system for planning and landscape management to realize Singpore's goal of creating a \u201cCity in Nature\u201d so that green space is easily accessible to all residents.\r\n\r\nWith an areal land extent of approximately 1,900 square miles, the government of Miami-Dade County in Florida has a big job delivering services to its more than 2.7 million residents. ArcGIS Enterprise serves as the mechanism for residents and 30,000 staff members to discover and access government resources. It is the framework for the \u201cNo Wrong Door\u201d initiative that makes sure no matter at what point residents touch the government so that they seamlessly receive services. GIS also optimizes planning and maintenance of city infrastructure.\r\n\r\nRepresentatives for The Crown Estate, United Kingdom, demonstrated how GIS enables its marine planning activities. The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business that manages the sovereign\u2019s hereditary possessions with the goal of creating lasting and shared prosperity for the nation. To fulfill this mission, The Crown Estate uses GIS to identify and optimize how resources are managed in the seabed off England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Through scenarios built using GIS, The Crown Estate works at balancing competing and complementary uses of this area, protecting nature while supporting a flourishing marine economy.\r\n\r\nMarriott International uses GIS to assess and mitigate security risks and plan adaptation strategies to deal with severe weather events and climate change at its more than 9,000 properties in 139 countries. The company is developing climate adaptation strategies to safeguard its properties. Marriott global intelligence staff use the Atlas app to access tactical information on real-time global hazards.\r\n\r\nJohn Gillham, project manager and contractor for the United States Forestry Service, described a new cross-agency geospatial data sharing service that efficiently delivers, manages, and analyzes of high-resolution aerial imagery and raster data for the Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS). The Interdepartmental Imagery Publication Platform (IIPP) overcomes long-standing problems with heavily siloed systems in the federal government by using ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes and ArcGIS Online. The service already hosts more than a petabyte of data and it produces significant cost savings for all these agencies. For more on IIPP, see \u201cCloud-Based Approach Revolutionizes Interagency Imagery Data Sharing\u201d in this issue.\r\n\r\nIn the days following the Plenary Session, conference attendees had a host of activities to choose from: more than 700 paper and technical presentations; Lightning Talks; special interest group meetings; a vendor expo; and activities such as yoga; run, kids' fair, and the conference party."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nUniting to map a better future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More than 21,000 GIS professionals from more than 130 countries gathered in San Diego, California, for the 44th Esri User Conference (Esri UC),which was was held July 15\u201319, 2024.\" \/>\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\/arcuser\/2024ucmain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uniting to Map a Better Future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More than 21,000 GIS professionals from more than 130 countries gathered in San Diego, California, for the 44th Esri User Conference (Esri UC),which was was held July 15\u201319, 2024.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2024\/08\/v2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain\",\n\t \"name\": \"Uniting to map a better future\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2024-08-31T00:53:44+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"More than 21,000 GIS professionals from more than 130 countries gathered in San Diego, California, for the 44th Esri User Conference (Esri UC),which was was held July 15\u201319, 2024.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/2024ucmain#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"Uniting to Map a Better Future\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/82e5143bcdebadf8fd64d84e503ca468\",\n\t \"name\": \"Monica Pratt\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Monica Pratt\"\n\t },\n\t \"description\": \"Monica Pratt is the founding and current editor of ArcUser magazine, the executive editor of ArcNews magazine, the editor of Esri Globe and head of the Publications team at Esri. 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