News Roundup – April 2026
How are public utilities using geographic information system (GIS) technology to drastically increase the precision of their underground mapping? How is one Canadian organization leveraging location intelligence to expand HIV testing and care across Canada? How is GIS being used in African wildlife parks to control poaching of protected species? Learn more in the News Roundup for April 2026.
Feature Stories
Important Notice: Living Atlas items are moving!
Living Atlas items managed by Esri Canada are moving to a single ArcGIS Online account to help users easily find our curated content. You can find the list of items moving, along with their replacements layers, here. If you are using any of the items listed within your maps, apps or workflows, please transition to the replacement item to ensure you are working with the best available data. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to our Living Atlas team (livingatlascurator@esri.ca).
Underground insight: Transforming fieldwork with reliable asset data
Sault Ste. Marie’s PUC cut its accuracy gap by 99% from three metres down to 2.54 centimetres by modernizing how it maps underground assets. As part of PUC’s Strategic Plan commitment to GIS and innovation, crews can now capture field data once, retain it permanently and share it across teams. This precision helps water and electric utilities pinpoint buried infrastructure faster, reducing repeat locates, delays and safety risks. Here is how they did it.
How GIS Helps REACH Nexus at St. Michael’s Hospital Fight HIV
Location intelligence is changing the way we tackle health inequities by revealing patterns that data tables can’t. Based on a joint webinar, this blog post captures how REACH Nexus is using location intelligence to expand HIV testing and care across Canada.
A guide to producing more powerful popups with ArcGIS Arcade
ArcGIS Arcade is a simple programming language designed to add functionality to different aspects of ArcGIS. In this guide from certified ArcGIS instructor Ray Caron, discover how you can use it to add figures, tables, lists, dynamically coloured text and data aggregation and calculation capabilities to the popups in your web map.
Esri Canada News
Raven Connected wins Esri Partner Content Delivery Award
March 10, 2026
Esri Canada launches ISO-certified ArcGIS Managed Cloud Services
March 25, 2026
Esri Canada joins GeoIgnite 2026 as Bronze Sponsor
March 26, 2026
Esri News
Esri Publishes Top 20 Essential Skills for Imagery and Remote Sensing
March 19, 2026
Esri Releases Ninth Edition of Map Use: Map Reading and Design, the Definitive Guide to Cartographic Design
March 19, 2026
Esri Releases ArcGIS Update to US Census American Community Survey Data
March 24, 2026
Resources
ArcUser: Empowering a University with Smart Campus GIS Solutions
At the University of Rhode Island (URI), transitioning from a legacy computer-aided facility management (CAFM) system to ArcGIS Indoors in 2022 marked a pivotal shift in how spatial data was managed, visualized and shared across campuses. Today, the university’s spatial services team and other key stakeholders are taking the next steps to embed GIS in the fabric of URI campus operations.
ArcNews: Rebuilding a Public Health Data System on a Spatial Foundation
When the newly formed Adams County Health Department (ACHD) in Colorado set out to modernize its operations in 2023, it sought to create a unified, data-informed foundation for public health. ACHD prioritized GIS technology and built their Integrated Data System (IDS), which now connects their every division, dataset and workflow. The enterprise-wide platform enables Adams County to manage data, streamline public health processes and respond rapidly to community-specific needs—all through the power of location intelligence.
WhereNext Magazine: How I Became the GIS Manager I Am Today: A Q&A on Mentorship
WhereNext sat down with Shannon Philippus, a manager of grocery chain Publix’s GIS systems team, to discuss what she’s learned from managers, how she’s helping colleagues blend data science with spatial analysis and which skill she thinks GIS professionals should upgrade.
Video: Esri on location | African Parks
Naftali Honig is the anti-poaching coordinator at a lush national wildlife park in the Congo. Not only have violent poachers massacred elephants despite his efforts—they’ve assassinated five of Naftali’s colleagues. Can he use GIS to turn the tide?
Video: Community Spotlight: City of Medicine Hat
Join Hillary Elliott, GIS analyst with Esri Canada’s Community Map of Canada team, as she introduces the City of Medicine Hat as a key contributor to the Community Map of Canada program. It’s been providing extensive mapping data to the program since 2014. The City supplies land use, water bodies, roads, trails, buildings, addresses and imagery, and is dedicated to maintaining accurate and current information.