Ottawa receives ESRI Award of Excellence

The City of Ottawa received the Award of Excellence by ESRI for integrating geographic information system (GIS) technology with enterprise business systems to enhance municipal operations including public works, surveys and mapping, and urban forestry management. The ESRI enterprise GIS, which uses a services-oriented architecture (SOA) approach, will enable the City to more easily incorporate and adopt new technologies in the future.

The City of Ottawa has been using ESRI ArcGIS technology since 2002 and has extensively used GIS in its operations including urban mapping, land use and natural resource planning, and sewer, water and wastewater management. The City also uses GIS for health and public safety program planning and has leveraged the technology to monitor, track and develop appropriate action plans to protect its citizens from infectious diseases such as the West Nile virus in 2003. GIS is also applied in the City's urban tree preservation programs and is a key tool in managing and addressing the current emerald ash borer infestation in Ottawa and surrounding areas.