Esri and PCI Geomatics have selected 24 organizations to develop and apply innovative methods for using GIS to analyze imagery for land-use management. Through the Esri Natural Resources Imagery Grant Program, Esri, the world leader in GIS, and PCI Geomatics, the world leader in geoimaging, provide each grant recipient with software and data valued at $100,000.
“Esri is committed to the development of tools and processes that advance the use of imagery for geospatial analysis,” said Lawrie Jordan, Esri’s imagery solutions director. “The applications that participants design will offer proof-of-concept models useful to imagery analysts worldwide.”
Participants are required to improve efficiency, productivity, or accuracy for detecting and analyzing land-cover change using MDA synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from RADARSAT-2 and 5 m multispectral imagery from RapidEye. They will use Esri and PCI software to process and analyze imagery. Grant participants, project titles, and organizations are listed on the Esri Natural Resources Imagery Grant Program web page.
“Imagery provides a cost-efficient means to monitor and measure what is happening on the ground and can be integrated with GIS to make better decisions,” said Terry Moloney, president and CEO ofPCI Geomatics. “Our partnership with Esri on this program will significantly change the GIS approach participants will apply to land-use management, planning, and policy making.”
Once completed, Esri will showcase Esri Natural Resources Imagery Grant Program projects on its GIS services platform ArcGIS Online.