2009 Map Gallery
Dear ESRI Users, It gives me great pleasure to present ESRI Canada's tenth Map Gallery calendar. It contains a small selection of the many superb maps created by ESRI users across Canada. I want to sincerely thank everyone who submitted an entry for this year's gallery. The many high quality entries made it difficult for the selection committee to choose only a few for the calendar. Our world continues to change rapidly with record warm temperatures this year in the Arctic, massive upheaval in our financial systems and on-going conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. Maps are a powerful tool to illustrate these changes, helping to increase awareness and showing patterns and trends not easily understood by any other means. The immense complexity of climate, water supply, energy systems, social structure, our cities and our natural world are much better understood through the medium of maps and the geographic information systems that create them. Geographic information systems (GIS) provide the geographic knowledge and modeling capabilities that help us confront our world's problems and also make the beautiful and informative maps published in this calendar. Maps were submitted that show hidden underwater treasures, tourist attractions, historic communities, municipal facilities, disease surveillance, geological landscapes, wetland status, hospitals in 3D, offshore oil and gas leases, recreation sites, and potential transit locations. These maps provide a glimpse of the incredible work being done by ESRI users to improve the management of our world. ArcGIS continues to evolve as an enterprise platform for modeling our world and publishing ever more sophisticated maps. New tools for publishing PDF and KML files help us create better maps for both printing and the web. New ArcGIS Server capabilities for distributed data management ensure that data shown on these maps is up to date. New Internet tools such as the REST API for publishing content on the web let GIS users create mashups of ArcGIS services with Google or Microsoft map services. In 2009, ESRI Canada will continue to expand the Geography Network Canada portal (www.geographynetwork.ca), adding free national base maps and imagery to the already published base map services of Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. As we begin another year, my colleagues and I are more committed than ever to serving you by better understanding your needs and helping you understand our products and services. This coming year, we will be hosting 18 user group meetings, 30 special interest group meetings, attending many conferences and holding dozens of seminars across the country. I look forward to personally meeting many of you at these events. On behalf of all of us at ESRI Canada, I want to thank you for your support and look forward to serving you for many years to come. From our families to yours, Happy Holidays and best wishes for 2009. Yours truly, Alex Miller |
