August 4, 2008
San Diego, California—The County of Santa Barbara, California, has demonstrated vision and leadership, using ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology to better serve the world. To recognize this passionate approach to applying GIS solutions, ESRI will present the organization with the Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on August 6, 2008, at the 28th Annual ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California.
The County of Santa Barbara uses GIS to advance the capabilities of its Emergency Operations Center, public safety departments, planning and development, and more. From generating land use maps to emergency response, the County uses the technology to add a layer of reliability to its decision making processes such as responding to last year’s 240,000-acre Zaca Fire or this year’s 9,450-acre Gap Fire. The County applies GIS to determine a number of things during a wildfire including evacuation routes, the fire’s growth pattern and size, locations to deploy fire crews, and recovery approaches. GIS maps also greatly enhanced the County’s ability to provide visual information to the public and news media.
During the Zaca Fire, the organization partnered with CalFire to develop the Front Country Plan, which divided up the entire south coast area into battle divisions and grids detailed to street level to be able to fight the fire should it come into any given area. During the recent Gap Fire, emergency personnel again referred to the Front Country Plan as the wildfire burned close to the edges of many area homes and prompted evacuation.
"At ESRI, we are always deeply impressed by the innovation of our users," says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "We want to recognize the efforts of these individuals with our Special Achievement in GIS Award. This recognition is well deserved for how they've applied geospatial technology to address the needs of their industries and communities. They are defining GIS best practices."
GIS combines computer hardware, software, and data to create a tool for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, allowing users to see that information as part of a complete picture to be analyzed and applied to a problem or issue. With GIS, people can see firsthand how the world works and changes, view and manage information about locations, analyze spatial relationships, and visualize processes. From underground mine modeling to air traffic control, more than 300,000 organizations worldwide rely on GIS to better analyze their environments and make smarter decisions.
Other organizations being honored at the ESRI UC are Chesapeake Energy, the City of Austin, Forsyth County Schools, Greater New Orleans, Inc., the Marine Advanced Technology Center, the Navajo Department of Transportation, the City Planning Department in Bangkok, Thailand, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the United Nations Joint Logistics Center, Qatar Petroleum, and more.
To learn more about the 2008 SAG Award winners and to view their photos and project descriptions and images, please visit www.esri.com/sag. More information about ESRI and its GIS solutions can be found at www.esri.com.
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About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and
plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than
300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the
United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500
companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications,
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