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18 ArcNews Summer 2017 esri.com/arcnews Interoperable Data Formats Enhance Policy Decisions in the Arctic Web Mapping App from Esri Canada Helps Diverse Countries and Indigenous Populations Share Data e Arctic is getting a lot of attention these days. Sea ice in the region was at a record low this winter for the third straight year, according to scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado. So gov- ernments around the world are more concerned than ever with monitoring and assessing the Arctic's environmental challenges, resource po- tential, sea transport, and sovereignty. ese issues are primarily pan-Arctic, and addressing them often requires international collaboration. e Arctic Council, a high-level intergovern- mental forum that promotes cooperation among Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States, plus lo- cal indigenous communities, is a leading orga- nization for action on Arctic issues. To improve pan-Arctic decision-making through enhanced geospatial data sharing, the council initiated the development of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for the Arctic in 2009. A voluntary coopera- tion among the eight Arctic countries' national mapping agencies—including the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)—the Arctic SDI seeks to give politicians, governments, policy makers, scien- tists, and private enterprises access to reliable and interoperable geospatial data, tools, and services. In 2015, to support the strategic goals of the Arctic SDI, the USGS and NRCan began the Arctic Spatial Data Pilot (Arctic SDP) project, which demonstrates the advantages of en- hanced data sharing. e pilot project, man- aged by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), was completed in early 2017. Esri Canada was significantly involved in the Arctic SDP project, which was designed to exhibit the value of interoperability standards by demon- strating how different systems can be integrated when they connect to geospatial web services and data repositories. After the project sponsors decided to focus on policy issues related to Arctic food security, Esri Canada developed a demon- stration app that would serve as a "policy work- bench" for examining Arctic food security issues. Building the Policy Workbench Because policy analysis, development, and moni- toring require input by and communication among many policy makers, Esri Canada decided that a shareable web mapping app would be used as the technology behind the Policy Workbench. is would allow policy makers to use a single tool to view, analyze, and share maps and data. Esri Story Maps apps, available in ArcGIS Online, were selected as the best solution to meet the requirements of having a comprehensive, one-stop, simple-to-use, multiparticipant app for Arctic policy makers. Esri Canada chose the Esri Story Map Series app template in a tabbed layout to clearly present various types of information. With the story map, a policy maker could look for information related to polar bears, for example. To find and view geospatial data, the policy maker would go to the Find Data tab; se- lect a catalog search site, such as Esri Geoportal Server, and run it outside the story map in ArcGIS Online; search for the term "polar bear"; and ex- amine the results. Once the policy maker selects a dataset, he or she can copy the service URL from the catalog site and paste it into the Add Web Layer box in ArcGIS Online. With the data loaded, the policy maker can examine the polar bear data in relation to other Arctic spatial data. Detecting Change Through Imagery e Policy Workbench also provides users with immediate and dynamic access to Esri's massive Landsat imagery services collection, which con- tains more than 30 years of Landsat satellite imag- ery. e demonstration app interacts with Landsat services using the ArcGIS REST API, which makes it easy for peers to exchange information in a de- centralized, distributed environment. Policy mak- ers can also load their own map services on top of the Landsat base image to provide further context. Esri Geoportal Server lets users discover and apply geospatial resources—including datasets, images, and web services—in the Arctic and across the globe.

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