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SDI Snapshot - July 2017

Here’s a look at what’s happening in Canada and globally in the world of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). This post contains a collection of the latest and most significant SDI news, data, products, and events.

SDI News

Government of Canada wins 2017 Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award

The Government of Canada (Natural Resources Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada) was presented with a SAG Award for the Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP) project. The project provides proactive, whole-of-government leadership in the management of geospatial infrastructure to better support government priorities and meet the rapidly evolving demands of Canadians by improving access, sharing and integration of geospatial data in the federal government.

Brampton GeoHub is a star at Canadian Open Data Summit

City of Brampton’s award-winning GeoHub allows residents to easily access public information like property maps, bike maps and zoning by-laws. The savings in both time and money for residents and the City has been extraordinary.

The Science of Where in action at the Esri User Conference

Revisit Jack Dangermond's opening keynote, see inspiring stories from the Esri user community, or take a deeper dive into the newest technological advances from ArcGIS. All the highlights from the UC Plenary are captured in these video clips.

Creating a Global Index of National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI)

There is currently neither an available global measure of a country’s NSDI performance nor a way to identify where improvements need to be made. The GSDI project will create a global index of NSDIs and a set of indicators to score NSDIs globally. The index will consolidate and condense a large body of scholarship and experience on NSDIs into a set of key components that can be assessed and benchmarked using six indicators.

Proceedings of the GSDI 15 World Conference published

The Proceedings of the GSDI 15 World Conference, held in 2016 in Taipei, Taiwan, are now available for downloading from the GSDI web site. The proceedings include non-refereed papers, refereed papers, presentation abstracts and the conference book "Spatial Enablement in a Smart World".

SDI Data

Accuracy comparison of several New Brunswick elevation datasets shows Esri DEM is the best

The largest wetland in New Brunswick, Grand Lake Meadows (GLM), is a historically and ecologically significant area with relatively flat terrain having an elevation range of only 14m. Due to recent open access to elevation data, it was of interest to evaluate the accuracy of the elevation data for the GLM area available from numerous online sources, including Esri, Google and Bing.

New Brunswick releases additional open liDar data

The Province of New Brunswick has released an additional 18,900 square kilometres of liDar data, which was collected in 2016 from the north-western region of the province. This brings the total liDar coverage to approximately 46,000 square kilometres or approximately 60% of the province. All of the liDar data is freely available under an open data license and can be downloaded from the GeoNB Data Catalogue.

Need Data? Successful geospatial data searching strategies

Directions Magazine published an article on finding GIS data, which is the fuel for all GIS-based projects. Not long ago, obtaining data was an arduous task. Challenges included the lack of data, monetary, licensing, and other restrictions, difficulty in obtaining and sharing large data sets, plus other challenges. Today, GIS users can gather and start analyzing data almost immediately using a variety of web-based platforms.

SDI Products

Interoperable data formats enhance policy decisions in the Arctic

Esri Canada developed a web app to demonstrate the value of interoperability standards by showing how different systems can be integrated when they connect to geospatial web services and data repositories. The demonstration app serves as a "policy workbench" for examining Arctic food security issues and it can be used to help diverse Arctic countries and indigenous populations share data.

Location intelligence is making geospatial technology go mainstream

Research indicates that the number of location-aware apps is expected to triple by 2019. With more consumers fast embracing location into their everyday lives, businesses are fast trying to keep up. As the ‘where’ element becomes an indispensable element of businesses, driving our thinking, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities, the geospatial industry must adopt new collaborative models to survive and thrive.

Intelligent maps checklist: Web maps

Have you ever made a checklist for yourself to ensure that your web map is not missing anything? Well if not, Esri has made one for you. Checklist items include: basemap, operational layers, pop-ups, item details, mobile, editable layers, time aware and sharing.

Voyager Search Launches Open Data Network With Searchable Geospatial Catalog of Global Content

Fueled by customer demand and a demonstrated need within the enterprise search industry, Voyager Search has released its most ambitious product yet. The company unveiled VoyagerODN, which provides public access to millions of free, geospatial pieces of content.

About the Author

Gordon Plunkett is the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Director at Esri Canada. He has more than 30 years of experience in GIS and Remote Sensing in both the public and private sectors. He currently sits as a member of the Community Map of Canada Steering Committee, GeoAlliance Canada Interim Board of Directors, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee, the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) Committee on Geomatics, the University of Laval Convergence Network Advisory Committee and the Advisory Board to the Carleton University Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre. During his career, Gordon has worked on projects in more than 20 countries and has contributed to numerous scientific conferences and publications. At Esri Canada, he is responsible for developing and supporting the company’s SDI vision, initiatives and outreach, including producing content for the SDI blog.

Profile Photo of Gordon Plunkett