Project Based GIS - ESRI's Living Atlas

ESRI’s Living Atlas is establishing itself as the “go-to” site for authoritative geospatial data. I’ve gathered the resources provided here to jump-start your dive into this amazing resource. But first, I recommend you watch this video from ESRI giving a nice overview of this resource.

Main Site

https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/en/

Some Apps to try…

• Living atlas for Elevation

• Wayback

• Sentinel Explorer

• Intact Habitat

• ESRI Maps for Public Policy

Vector Tile Basemaps to play with…

Through the Living Atlas, you have many, many new and interesting basemaps to add to your maps.

• Sign in to ArcGIS Online
• Select Content tab, then select the Living Atlas tab in the blue ribbon
• Under Categories, select Basemaps > Vector Tiles…

To use these in ArcGIS Pro, navigate to the Living Atlas within the Catalog pane and search for type:vector or for a specific base map you found while browsing above.

Discussion Questions

• Who contributes to the Living Atlas?
• What does it mean that “all content is curated, authoritative, and continually updated”
• Why do you think ESRI has focused so many resources in the Living Atlas?
• What are some advantages to creating an on-line map vs doing analyses in ArcGIS Pro?
• Should Duke/NSOE get in the business of publishing content to the Living Atlas?
• What factors might go into selecting a specific base map to use?
• What is the difference between a Raster and a Vector tile base map? (Hint)
• What are some benefits and drawbacks of ESRI’s community mapping project?
• What is the Firefly cartography set? What is its purpose?
• What are some advantages of having OpenStreetMap features available as part of ESRI’s offerings?