Imagery is Visible Intelligence
By: Dave Grenley
The next generation of imagery intelligence comes alive in The ArcGIS Imagery Book: New View. New Vision., published by Esri Press. It is now available in print, interactive PDF, and interactive companion website.
The new book provides readers with a wealth of gorgeous, inspiring images and links to powerful web apps and maps that weave interesting stories about our planet and the issues we face. Readers will also gain foundational knowledge about how imagery and remote sensing is used for geographic information system (GIS) technology.
The ArcGIS Imagery Book offers a look back at the fascinating history and rapid evolution of earth observation technology. Readers will learn about modern earth imaging technologies and how imagery data can be used in GIS—for real world applications such as asset management, precision agriculture, emergency response, real estate geolocation, urban planning, natural disaster assessment, and climate studies.
Additionally, readers will gain hands-on experience working with powerful imagery and remote-sensing data through the book’s companion lesson plan from the Learn ArcGIS organization.
The book’s editors, Clint Brown, Esri director of software products, and Christian Harder, Esri senior editor and writer, said they hope the book will help turn readers into “GIS and imagery aces.”
The ArcGIS Imagery Book is the second in a series of publications from Esri (following The ArcGIS Book) that provides an online interactive learning experience for readers to take advantage of, at their own pace. “It comes with intelligent information items: maps, web scenes, analytic models, story maps—just amazing rich content,” said Brown. “We get into real-world problem solving and real-world applications.”
The Map of the Future is an Intelligent Image
GIS technology is both intuitive and cognitive. It combines powerful mapping with strong analytic and modeling tools. Imagery is the definitive visual reference at its core. It brings to life the way the planet operates.
In this book, readers will learn about new capabilities in Esri ArcGIS, including ArcGIS Pro and Drone2Map for ArcGIS, for quickly processing, visualizing, analyzing, managing, and sharing imagery. And they will get a bird’s-eye view of how the technology works, as they download the software via the companion website to explore imagery and learn how to work with imagery content within ArcGIS.
“The design goal of the new imagery book and the original ArcGIS Book was to present a treasure trove of real-world applied GIS applications and examples, paired with hands-on lessons that get readers quickly making cool maps with real data,” said Harder. “With The ArcGIS Imagery Book, in particular, we think that many existing ArcGIS users will be delighted with the rich opportunities offered by imagery data.”
The ArcGIS Imagery Book and companion website—with 200 links to maps and other materials—includes the following resources:
- Maps and apps to visualize and study imagery
- Videos about GIS and imagery
- Articles about the history of imagery
- Thought leadership pieces about ArcGIS and imagery written by industry leaders such as Esri president Jack Dangermond; remote-sensing pioneer Kass Green; Kathryn D. Sullivan, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); satellite architect Sarah Parcak; and Pascal Mueller, director of the Esri R&D Center in Zurich, Switzerland
- Learn ArcGIS lessons on topics such as imagery interpretation and analysis in ArcGIS in 3D and 4D, display Landsat data in ArcGIS Pro, and create GIS data from drones using Drone2Map for ArcGIS
This is the age of geographic enlightenment, where a massive transformation is taking place in GIS and imagery. Never before have so many information feeds of imagery and geographic information been accessible to the rapidly growing GIS community—with no computing or storage limits. With ArcGIS, you are limited only by your imagination of what might be possible.