{"id":583651,"date":"2026-05-05T17:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/?post_type=blog&p=583651"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:40:27","slug":"advancing-construction-safety-with-arcgis","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/articles\/advancing-construction-safety-with-arcgis","title":{"rendered":"Advancing Construction Safety with ArcGIS Velocity & the ArcGIS Platform\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Construction Safety Week 2026 calls on the industry to go All In Together<\/em> by focusing on three pillars – Recognize, Respond, and Respect, to help prevent serious injuries and fatalities across high energy, high hazard work environments.  <\/p>\n\n

This week will be filled with safety stand downs, and it\u2019s a week for extra reflection on what is said during them.  Construction incidents are very rarely a single point of failure, but rather a chain of events where any singular action could have prevented it.  Unforeseeable accidents can and will happen, but all too often avoidable events are in that category. <\/p>\n\n

Some years ago, a delivery driver was killed when a loose tape measure was kicked over the edge of a 50 story building, bounced off another object, ultimately landing on his unprotected head. The news called it a freak accident, but it could have easily been a preventable incident. <\/p>\n\n

When we all Recognize, Respond, and Respect, we go home in one piece. This year we\u2019ll talk a bit about the tech that can help across the entire project team and together, improve performance in all three pillars.<\/p>\n\n

As construction projects grow in complexity, technology plays an increasingly important role in supporting teams on and off the jobsite. ArcGIS Velocity<\/a> and the ArcGIS platform provide the tools needed to turn real\u2011time data into actionable safety intelligence. ArcGIS Velocity delivers real-time data integration and analytics capabilities, empowering organizations to ingest, analyze, and act on streaming data from virtually any source, including IoT sensors, moving assets, and event streams. <\/p>\n\n

Recognize<\/h2>\n\n

The first pillar, Recognize, focuses on the presence and impact of high energy \/ high hazards and STCKY (stuff that can kill you). The importance of having a common framework for early identification of these hazards is essential in ensuring workplace safety; the Esri ecosystem provides that framework by basing hazard identification in spatial location and real-time data, and recognizing hazardous conditions as they emerge.  <\/p>\n\n

Vehicle Tracking and Employee Location Awareness<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n

Almost everything has a sensor and location these days \u2013 from equipment to vehicles to mobile devices. Using ArcGIS Velocity, organizations can create feeds to continuously ingest live data from these sensors, perform analysis as the data is received, and ultimately better understand what is happening on a job site right now, not hours or days later. Project teams can stream GPS and telemetry data from vehicles to detect speed and idle time in sensitive areas, and traffic congestion which can lead to delays in delivery.<\/p>\n\n

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Employee Locations are tracked in real time, as workers walk through a crane watch zone, which is a potential hazard area. ArcGIS Velocity analyzes these movement patterns over time to identify safety incidents and near misses.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

While on the jobsite, employees can be notified instantly if they get within a certain distance of a restricted zone, allowing them to avoid dangerous situations before they occur. Combine employee location monitoring with vehicle tracking and new insights are unlocked, such as detection of repeated crossings between worker paths and delivery paths, and potential high-speed interactions with workers.  This takes hazard recognition from a static checklist to a continuous, data-driven process. <\/p>\n\n

Respond<\/h2>\n\n

Once hazards have been recognized, the next step is to respond. This second pillar focuses on communication when events do occur, and putting controls in place.<\/p>\n\n

Real<\/strong>\u2011Time Awareness for Rapid Safety Response<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n

Weather is one of the most unpredictable and dangerous variables on a construction site. Real-time weather data can be ingested from a variety of sources and data such as wind speed, lightning proximity, or extreme temperatures can be evaluated against pre-determined safety thresholds. <\/p>\n\n

When conditions exceed safe operational limits or dangerous weather conditions are expected to impact a site, alerts can be created to notify site supervisors, trigger field notifications, or update dashboards immediately. For activities like crane operations or lift planning, these instant insights can mean the difference between a workplace incident and a life\u2011saving decision. <\/p>\n\n

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Watch Center, an Esri Solution\u00a0utilizing\u00a0Velocity\u2019s feeds,\u00a0monitors\u00a0real\u2011time\u00a0weather\u00a0hazards and security events near projects, facilities, and critical assets, enabling faster risk assessment and informed operational decisions to protect\u00a0schedules,\u00a0infrastructure, and people.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

Velocity acts as the real-time engine behind the scenes and integrates seamlessly with ArcGIS Dashboards<\/a> and ArcGIS Experience Builder<\/a> to present a common operational picture for safety managers, field supervisors, and executives alike. Stream Layers generated in the engine can be added to maps, charts, and indicators to show what is happening across one site or an entire project portfolio – environmental conditions, vehicle activity, worker locations, and open safety events all in one centralized source. This holistic view supports faster decision making and helps ensure everyone is working from the same trusted information in moments when speed and clarity matter most.  <\/p>\n\n

Automated Workflows in the Office and the Field<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Beyond visualization, Velocity can trigger automated actions in business systems you already use when defined conditions are met. These workflows might include sending notifications to field crews, starting a safety incident report, updating internal tracking tools, or pausing downstream processes until hazards are resolved. This automation minimizes delays and supports standardized responses across projects. <\/p>\n\n

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This real-time analytic shows the workflow performed on an ingested weather wind feed and real-time employee locations, to determine if employees are in a crane watch area while the crane is operational (winds less than 35mph). ArcGIS Velocity allows for analysis and data editing to occur on every data layer that is ingested, in real-time. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Respect<\/h2>\n\n

The final pillar, Respect, focuses on learning from previous incidents and preventing future mistakes. This is where historical geographic data is key.   <\/p>\n\n