Meet the competition winners

To learn more about the winning stories, visit the ArcGIS StoryMaps blog.

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Vista of green terraced fields with a house, a stand of trees on a hilltop, and a woman carrying a child on her back

All about the 2024 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition

From September 6 to December 6, 2024, Esri challenged you and storytellers globally to submit a story created with ArcGIS StoryMaps through one of five categories. Each category offered a student track for students enrolled in a college, university, or other institution of higher education:

  • Digital humanities and popular culture
  • Health and safety
  • Humanitarian and disaster response
  • Nature and physical science
  • Planning and infrastructure

And you delivered with over 570 stories from 58 countries.

Esri’s competition collaborators and guest judges—International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Old Dominion University (ODU) Center for Geospatial Science, Education, & Analytics; San Bernardino County Department of Public Health; Stanford University Libraries Map and GIS Team; and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—selected a winner and student winner from the finalists in each category. With you, the judges and Esri's StoryMaps team, selected the special award winners.

Congratulations to these inspiring storytellers.

Category 1

Discover the winner and student winner in the Digital Humanities and Popular Culture category selected by Esri’s guest judges from Stanford Libraries Map and GIS Team.

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Category 2

Discover the winner and student winner in the Health and Safety category selected by Esri’s guest judges from San Bernardino County Department of Public Health.

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Category 3

Discover the winner and student winner in the Humanitarian and Disaster Response category selected by Esri’s guest judges from the UNHCR or UN Refugee Agency.

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Category 5

Discover the winner and student winner in the Planning and Infrastructure category selected by Esri’s guest judges from ODU Center for Geospatial Science, Education, & Analytics.

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Special awards

Explore the special award winners selected by the guest judges, Esri’s StoryMaps team, and you.

Storytelling with Maps Innovation Award

The Storytelling with Maps Innovation Award presented by Esri’s StoryMaps team recognizes excellence and creativity in leveraging the ArcGIS StoryMaps features and integrating GIS products into a story. Each author of the winning story may accept a voucher ($250 value) for an Esri Technical Certification Exam and build upon their place-based storytelling excellence. 

WINNER 

Discovering San Juan Island's natural diversity: Ecosystems of San Juan Island National Historical Park by Claire Crawbuck, Sarah Dolan, Micah Stailey, and Zak Woods, U.S. National Park Service

Explore the story
A rocky hillside leading down into dark ocean waters under an overcast sky

Community Choice Award

On February 12, 2025, Esri announced the 2024 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition finalists and invited readers worldwide to vote for their favorite story. Over 7,200 individuals cast their votes. This award recognizes the story with the most votes—a measure of public engagement.

WINNER 

National Huemel Corridor: Public-private collaboration for the protection of the southernmost deer in the world and its habitat by Ingrid Espinoza, Lorena Valenzuela, and Liliana Guzmán, Fundación Rewilding Chile

Explore the story in English
Explore the story in Spanish
Close-up image of a deer standing on a hillside looking directly into the camera with a distant vista of rivers and thick green forests in the background

Grand Prize Award

This award recognizes stories that display excellence in storytelling techniques, GIS and ArcGIS StoryMaps implementation, and an innovative approach to the competition theme. The guest judges selected one winner and one student winner from the ten category winners.

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Learn more about ArcGIS StoryMaps

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