Esri, a provider of geospatial services for government, announced two partnerships today that could enhance ArcGIS for government users. The company is working with Waze, the creators of a popular traffic mapping application to use Waze technology in an offering specifically designed for governments to use as they manage transportation changes. Esri is also partnering with Continuum Analytics, the company behind the Anaconda an Open Data Science platform powered by Python to expand the services available to ArcGIS users.
Governments already using the ArcGIS will be able to exchange data through the Waze Connected Citizens Program, a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information. Users not already on the Waze Connected Citizens service will be able to start registering as of today and will be able to share road closure and other information through the service.
“Municipalities can now leverage real-time reports without having to invest in sensor networks or an Internet of Things infrastructure,” said Andrew Stauffer, manager of civic technology at Esri. With the partnership, local governments can merge information from Waze into existing enterprise systems, such as emergency dispatch and street maintenance systems they will also be able to push information to Waze so that individuals using the traffic app will have updated information about changing road conditions.
In 2014, Waze pioneered data standards for road closure and incident reporting, which are embedded within customized data feeds provided to each partner. Established as a two-way data share, Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slowdown information directly from the source: drivers themselves. In exchange, partners provide real-time, government-reported construction, crash, and road closure data to Waze to return one of the most thorough records of current road conditions.
Esri’s other partnership with Anaconda will provide increased accessibility to Python developers who want to use ArcGIS as part of their projects. The integration of Anaconda into ArcGIS Pro 1.3 enables GIS professionals to build detailed maps using the most current data and analysis to apply geography to problem solving. Developers using ArcGIS Pro will be able to integrate open source libraries into projects, create projects in multiple versions of Python and accelerate the process of installing nearly all publicly available Python packages.
Esri says the inclusion of Anaconda will be of value to government developers who are often coordinating code across multiple machines or deploying software through centralized IT systems.
