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ArcGIS

Esri’s enterprise geospatial platform

What is ArcGIS?

ArcGIS is a comprehensive geospatial platform for professionals and organizations. It is the leading geographic information system (GIS) technology.

Built by Esri, ArcGIS integrates and connects data through the context of geography. It provides world-leading capabilities for creating, managing, analyzing, mapping, and sharing all types of data. 

Organizations that use ArcGIS to understand and analyze their data in geographic context have a distinct advantage and decision-making edge.

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ArcGIS supports essential business and government operations

ArcGIS is used by 70% of the largest global companies, 95% of the largest national governments, and 80% of the largest cities. These are some of the most prevalent ways organizations apply ArcGIS to return tangible value.

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Explore how organizations are innovating with ArcGIS

Leading organizations in virtually every field use ArcGIS to solve complex problems across operations. Find out how ArcGIS is being used across industries.

Analysis and modelling

Toronto and Durham Police collaborate to share real-time, location-based intelligence, solving violent crimes across jurisdictions

Esri’s GIS platform, with over 100 software tools, equips law enforcement agencies with powerful analytics to enhance decision-making and improve public and officer safety.

The Firearm Bail Compliance Dashboard, developed by Toronto and Durham Police Services, tracks firearm and gang-related offenders on bail, enabling real-time, location-based intelligence sharing across jurisdictions. This tool has proven instrumental in solving violent crimes and is now being expanded to all 58 police agencies in Ontario, showcasing the transformative impact of GIS in modern policing.

A digital twin of an aerial view of London, England, showing the River Thames, Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben.

Asset and resource inventory

Uncovering the legacy of Indigenous residential schools through GIS

In 2021, Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, assistant professor in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of the Fraser Valley, alongside the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation, discovered more than 200 anomalies representing possible unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The discovery kicked off a call for similar surveys at other former residential school sites across Canada.

This is one example of how GIS technology supports efforts at former residential school sites to uncover truths and advance Truth and Reconciliation across Canada.

A dashboard shows a map of city and town planned infrastructure projects with a wide distribution across the state of Montana, as well as statistics for Beaverhead County.

Planning and design

The District of Saanich: creating new housing by re-envisioning policy

The District of Saanich and other BC municipalities have been mandated by the Province of British Columbia to increase and accelerate the delivery of new housing units in the next five years. To accomplish this, Saanich is updating its planning and land use policies to accommodate this target, which requires an approximate tripling of the current new unit production.

The District of Saanich utilized Esri's ArcGIS Urban to create 3D scenarios and statistical analyses, enabling effective visualization of future planning policy changes for stakeholders.

 This approach facilitated the development of the Quadra McKenzie Plan, identifying land use changes over the next 20–30 years and supported public engagement by allowing residents to help shape the District's future. By leveraging ArcGIS Urban, Saanich is on track to meet provincial housing mandates, aiming to triple new housing unit production in the next five years.

Screenshot courtesy of Wien3420 showing a 3D map of buildings in aspern Seestadt and a readout of total embodied CO2 emissions to measure building performance and efficiency.

Sharing and collaboration

The Success of Saint-Hyacinthe’s Géoportail

In early 2023, Ville de Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, unveiled its innovative ArcGIS Hub site, Géoportail, on its municipal website. This hub was created with the mission to share important applications with the citizens of Saint-Hyacinthe in a unified and accessible manner and to promote the key role that GIS plays in information dissemination. Beyond achieving its technical objectives, Géoportail also kickstarted an era of collaboration between the city’s other departments, citizens and geomatics team, who quickly recognized the value of integrating spatial data into web applications.

Since its June 2023 launch, Géoportail has become a go-to platform for diverse app requests, from mapping fishing spots and city assets to hosting citizen surveys and showcasing the best Saint-Jean-Baptiste fireworks views.

 

Image courtesy of Organic Valley shows an aerial view of pastureland, overlaid with colorful layers that quantify vegetation health, with the healthiest plants shown in green and plants experiencing stress and disease in red.

Risk analytics and mitigation

Marriott builds a Risk Atlas for safer travels

Marriott International, a hotel brand operating in 139 countries with almost 8,700 properties, relies on a comprehensive risk assessment tool known as Risk Atlas for guest safety.

Built with ArcGIS, Risk Atlas analyzes data from diverse sources like news reports, social media chatter, and meteorological information to evaluate threat levels by location. The map format makes it easy to share data across the enterprise, from real estate teams to security managers. 

Reliable alerts enable Marriott to make informed decisions to protect guests and assets, ensuring business continuity.

Two modern curving blue-glass skyscrapers soar above lush green landscaping under a vivid blue sky

Transportation and logistics

FedEx manages maintenance on its global fleet of airplanes

To keep hundreds of FedEx planes flying, the right repair parts must be in the right place at the right time. 

ArcGIS is integrated with the FedEx maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) system, delivering timely intelligence about where planes, parts, and mechanics are, so repairs don’t lead to costly breakdowns and delays.

Executives, pilots, mechanics, and flight planners can view global dashboards with real-time information on plane schedules and performance. ArcGIS empowers the FedEx team to maintain airplane health and availability, ultimately ensuring the on-time deliveries customers expect.

Map of the globe showing dots and airplane-shaped icons in different colors, with a bar displayed at the bottom showing 5 time zones

Geography-driven capabilities offer unique advantages

ArcGIS provides capabilities for elevating business practices with geographic context. Capabilities, data, and tools work together within ArcGIS to form insight-generating, problem-solving systems.

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Learn how ArcGIS works

Esri Canada provides customer benefits beyond technology

Access to ArcGIS includes much more than GIS software solutions and services. It connects organizations to Esri Canada’s world-class support, training, and community.

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