How Raleigh’s GIS and Drone Program Is Shaping the Future of Smart Cities

Raleigh, North Carolina, is growing at a remarkable pace—approximately 50 new residents arrive every day. “Raleigh is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country,” said James Alberque, geographic information system (GIS) and emerging technology manager at the City of Raleigh. “That leads to some dynamic things happening.”

The growing population is putting pressure on the city’s infrastructure and public services. As local leaders grapple with aging roads, extreme weather, and the logistical demands of major events, they’re turning to drones and GIS technologies for answers.

Raleigh is in the process of building a comprehensive citywide program that integrates drones with Esri’s GIS products, transforming how the city plans, builds, and protects its communities. From faster damage assessments after weather events to more efficient infrastructure inspections and digital twin capabilities, the City of Raleigh is setting a new standard for data-driven decision-making in the public sector.

Raleigh’s rapid growth means more than just keeping pace with demand for new roads, bridges, parks, and public facilities. The challenge is most acute during major festivities. Events like Dreamville Festival, the Hopscotch music festival, and the state fair bring tens of thousands of visitors to the city, stretching resources to the limit. These occasions create logistical hurdles for public safety, maintenance, and event planning teams.

Major events don’t just bring crowds—they leave a mark on city infrastructure. Over two days, Dreamville Festival alone means 50,000 people daily and dozens of tractor-trailer loads of equipment moving in and out. When rain hits, the cleanup gets even messier.

“We’ve struggled in the past trying to get a good idea of the scale of impact, whether it’s from festivals or a natural event like a microburst,” said Jeff Dawson, technology and analytics manager at the City of Raleigh.

Natural events like microbursts and heavy rains can cause sudden damage across wide areas, requiring rapid assessment and response. “We had some challenges in trying to quickly and accurately assess damage across the city,” said Dawson. “Being able to really capture that damage across those expansive areas was important for us.”

Staff also faced difficulties inspecting bridges, pool enclosures, and other structures that were hard to access safely and efficiently. Raleigh needed a way to see more, respond faster, and make smarter decisions—without adding unsustainable costs or delays.

Raleigh’s city staff knew that piecemeal solutions wouldn’t be enough. Instead, they are developing a unified, scalable approach that enables multiple departments to participate and deliver value across the city. The teams committed to GIS technology as the city’s system of record. “Using drones in tandem with Esri technology gives us a much smoother end-to-end workflow because so much of our operational data already lives in our enterprise GIS,” said Alberque.

Various city teams work closely with the GIS team, sharing hardware, expertise, and lessons learned. Early on, staff reached out to peers at the North Carolina Department of Transportation as well as other cities, adopting best practices for flight operations, risk management, and regulatory compliance. Training and cross-departmental teamwork were central to the program’s success. Staff from parks, IT, water, and other departments became certified drone pilots, and policies were established to ensure safe and effective operations. The city also prioritized US-made drone hardware, such as Freefly’s Astro, to address security and interoperability concerns.

Raleigh staff emphasized flexibility and continuous improvement. Teams tested new workflows, such as using ArcGIS Flight corridor scans and imagery processed in Site Scan to map sidewalk gaps or monitor greenway trails, and refined their processes with each mission.

“By planning flights, processing imagery, and publishing outputs all within the Esri ecosystem, we eliminate data handoffs and ensure everything stays aligned with our authoritative layers,” said Alberque.

Staff could process imagery in the field with ArcGIS Drone2Map, or leverage cloud-based Site Scan for ArcGIS for larger projects, giving staff the agility to respond to a wide range of needs.

The adoption of ArcGIS Flight as the city’s primary drone mission-planning tool has been a game changer. “Using ArcGIS Flight for drone operations makes being a drone pilot accessible to those of us who don’t already have that background. It’s thinking about data in a way that we’re familiar with,” said Alberque.

For complex projects like the 18.5-acre Gipson Play Plaza, a public play area and park completed in June 2025, staff used ArcGIS Flight to plan both nadir and oblique image capture missions, helping them collect high-quality imagery with ease. Compared to other flight planning tools, ArcGIS Flight offers an integrated and seamless experience, reducing technical hiccups and enabling staff to focus on the mission rather than juggling different pieces of software.

“During flight planning, we use ArcGIS Flight and bring in key GIS layers such as building footprints, tree canopies, roads, edge of pavement, and project boundaries,” said Alberque. “Since all of these datasets already exist in our GIS, they immediately inform more comprehensive flight planning, especially in complex or urban environments.”

These contextual layers helped Raleigh staff during the recent city hall construction project. Staff were able to manage operations around a dense downtown area and avoid obstacles as they captured the imagery they needed. Once the flights were completed, the imagery was processed into True Orthos and 3D meshes using Site Scan. These were then published in ArcGIS Online, where they became part of the city’s larger digital twin. This enables city staff, leadership, and residents to better understand both proposed and completed projects, and assists with public engagement and education. Residents will be able to visualize what potential changes will look like and how projects will fit into the broader urban environment. Internally, this will also support planning and coordination by providing a shared, spatially accurate view of the city.

City staff have also begun exploring the possible applications of geospatial AI in city operations, starting with pavement marking analysis. After staff prepare the imagery by analyzing pixel counts and ratios to classify arrow markings, the labeled examples are used to build a training dataset, allowing the AI model to learn. Once trained, the model will be able to automatically detect markings across road imagery. “We plan to expand this workflow to identify additional pavement features, such as lane markings and crosswalks,” commented Alberque.

The unified GIS and drone workflow has delivered powerful results for Raleigh’s city government, fundamentally changing how teams operate and collaborate.

One of the most immediate benefits is the speed and accuracy of damage assessments. When there is severe weather—such as the microburst that toppled more than 100 pine trees at Durant Nature Preserve—city staff deploy drones to quickly capture aerial imagery. Teams can assess the full scope of damage from above, prioritize cleanup, and share visual evidence with decision-makers within hours rather than days.

Infrastructure inspections have become safer and more efficient. Bridges, pool enclosures, and other hard-to-reach structures can be surveyed without putting staff at risk. The parks department uses drone imagery and 3D models to monitor assets and identify maintenance needs, reducing the time and cost associated with traditional inspections.

Event planning and public safety have also improved. Large events and festivals once posed major logistical challenges. Now, city teams use drone data to evaluate the impact of crowds, monitor wear and tear on facilities, and coordinate with public safety agencies for real-time situational awareness.

ArcGIS Flight, in particular, has improved city planning and asset management. Staff have leveraged the app to plan and execute drone missions for a variety of projects, ensuring comprehensive coverage and high-quality data collection. The intuitive interface allows teams to quickly adapt flight plans as conditions change, and the seamless integration with Site Scan and ArcGIS Online enables rapid processing and sharing of results. This workflow not only improves project management but also enhances public engagement—residents can view 3D models of plans and progress updates online, deepening their connection to city projects.

Raleigh’s investment in GIS-enabled drone technology has also powered the city’s digital twin initiative. By combining drone imagery with GIS, staff are building detailed virtual models of the built environment. These digital twins support everything from infrastructure planning to storytelling, helping staff and residents visualize changes and track construction progress, as with the new city hall.

The program’s success has sparked interest across city departments. What began as a GIS-driven initiative now benefits teams throughout the City of Raleigh. Parks staff use drone and GIS data to manage green spaces and monitor maintenance needs. The water and transportation departments rely on the technology for inspections and planning.

This cross-departmental collaboration goes beyond just sharing technology. By exchanging hardware, workflows, and expertise, Raleigh has amplified the impact of its investment. The result is a growing culture of innovation and teamwork that reaches every corner of city operations. Perhaps most importantly, Raleigh’s approach has inspired other municipalities to explore similar strategies.

By demonstrating what’s possible with an integrated GIS and drone program, Raleigh is helping set a new standard for smart city management.