July 15, 2009
Redlands, California—The City of Midland, Michigan received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award today at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California. The city received this honor for its vision, leadership, and innovative use of ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology. The City of Midland was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide and recognized during today's SAG awards ceremony for making extraordinary contributions to our global society.
In three short years, the City of Midland developed a complex enterprise-wide GIS that meets the growing needs of its organization. City staff can access GIS data and information through a Web-based interactive mapping application. Applications have also been deployed for the police and fire department. Displaying incident data on a map is a powerful resource that did not previously exist. The city has integrated asset management records with GIS including a complete street sign inventory and maintenance program, a GIS-based pavement management system, a sanitary and stormwater manhole rehabilitation prioritization program, and sewer modeling.
In addition to city staff, the community is able to access a wealth of GIS data through interactive GIS applications. Additionally, the interactive mapping applications integrate with existing online portals for property and tax information and provide a seamless online user experience that was previously impossible. Staff and the community can now access geographic-based data and information in one location. The City of Midland GIS program will continue to enhance its use of GIS to benefit city staff and customer service for the community. The city plans on improving interactive mapping applications; increasing the accessibility to GIS in the field to allow field staff to view, edit, and share GIS information; ensuring the continuous development and maintenance of city GIS data; and continuing to maintain ongoing coordination with outside organizations to share resources and reduce data duplication.
"Our world is being challenged by rapid change," says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "GIS technology is increasingly being deployed as a way to understand the issues facing our society. At ESRI, we are always extremely impressed with the work of our users and want to recognize their efforts with our Special Achievement in GIS Award. Their work is a great example of using GIS to improve our world."
GIS combines computer hardware, software, and data to collect, manage, and analyze geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, helping people to see that information as part of a complete picture. With GIS, users can view relationships, processes, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Whether they are selecting routes to transport ethanol, or studying landslides, GIS helps them see how the world works and changes. More than one million people across the globe rely on GIS to solve problems and make better decisions by thinking and planning geographically.
Other organizations being honored at the ESRI UC include Artesia Water Company, Montana State Library, NASA Langley Research Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Yosemite National Park, City of Madrid, DHL Express, Polytechnic of Namibia, Victoria Police in Australia, and the Grammar School at Leeds.
To learn more about the 2009 SAG Award winners and to view their photos and project descriptions and images, 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, running on more
than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's
mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for
desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.
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Contact: Aly Lawson, ESRI
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E-mail: press@esri.com
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