Skip to Content

Environmental Regulation

Take a geographic approach to protect our environment and natural resources

Person monitoring natural resources and a map of natural resources

Ensure access to clean land, air, and water

Environmental agencies are tasked with keeping our environment and natural resources safe through environmental regulation. They use GIS to assess project impacts, inform and implement environmental policy, facilitate community engagement, monitor assets in real time, and provide transparency for better outcomes for all people. A geographic approach allows agencies to track the health of the environment, assess environmental justice, identify the source of pollutants, and prevent environmental hazards from contributing to a disaster.

Streamline environmental regulation

Ensure compliance

Environmental agencies can ensure compliance by streamlining business processes. With GIS, staff can conduct paperless inspections offline, monitor assets remotely in real time, assess the status of processes, and automate tasks.

Dashboard with map and natural resource data

Enable environmental justice

With GIS, environmental agencies can analyze when, where, and how environmental burdens occur. Location-based technology allows this information to be combined with demographic data to show disproportionate impacts on communities, promote environmental equity, and engage the public on these important topics.

Map of California and environmental data

Communicate and implement policy

Environmental agencies can use GIS to communicate dynamic environmental policies and permitting requirements no matter where a project is located. Agencies can use and share tools to assist project planners, consultants, and others to collect and analyze data, apply for permits, and conduct follow-up inspections in the field.   

Map of Washington DC area and project data

Monitor environmental assets

Environmental agencies use real-time apps and dashboards to easily understand critical information about environmental quality, such as air and water purity. Using GIS to explore complex datasets allows environmental agencies to easily uncover significant patterns, trends, correlations, and relationships.

Map of water quality status data

Measure and report progress

Agencies can use ArcGIS StoryMaps and other mapping apps to easily communicate the potential benefits of projects as well as their impacts and outcomes on the environment with the public, executives, and other agencies. These location-based tools enable users to quickly measure and report on outcomes and progress.

Map of progress made toward protecting natural resources

BLOG

Maps help ensure equitable distribution of funds

Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation employs maps and dashboards to add transparency to the distribution of stimulus funds.

Read the story

Products and solutions

Previous
Next

Contact us

Contact us

Outside the United States

Connect with the Esri State and Local Government team