Share Your Content to ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

Why add your GIS work into the ArcGIS system? And how?

"Now everyone can access each other’s geographic information as URLs on the web. Their results are being shared using maps and apps on the web and smartphones. The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World reflects these data-sharing trends, enabling users to build on each other’s good work and to share their most creative ideas with others." - Clint Brown, Director of Product Engineering, GIM interview

GIS projects used to start with an empty map, but with the advances of web GIS, you can add trustworthy content directly into your workflows using ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. If you have maps and layers that you want shared with the GIS community, you can easily nominate your content to ArcGIS Living Atlas where it can be accessed throughout the ArcGIS system.

For example, when someone opens ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro, they have access to Living Atlas layers which can be added and used within their mapping projects. They can access thousands of Living Atlas layers and web maps that tell stories and answer specific question. Each is ready-to-use, for creating maps, scenes, and analysis about areas you are studying. Imagine your organizations’ work right there, one click away.

So how can you get your content into ArcGIS Living Atlas?

Let's break it down into three easy steps:

  1. Prepare
  2. Nominate
  3. Finalize & Maintain

1) Prepare

This step is arguably the most important, because the more that is done in the beginning, the more time you'll save later. Knowing the considerations and requirements will help you be successful, quickly!

To nominate your content into ArcGIS Living Atlas, it first needs to exist as an  ArcGIS Online item . This can be many different item types:

When nominated, each item is scored by the completeness of the item and its metadata. The score helps to identify key characteristics of your item which will make sure others can find, understand, and use the item. Sections left blank, or with too little content, decreases the score of an item.

To save time later, check a few things about your item before nominating:

Here is an example of an item description page that meets Living Atlas standards.

There are a few things that are REQUIRED in order to have the option to nominate. Let's go over them and where to find them.

Fill in the Description and Summary sections, answering the question "what is this?". Cover the basic questions of "who, what, when, where, why, and how" and provide information about the data source. Remove words like "test" and "demo".  See an example. 

Upload a great thumbnail that shows the layer, map, or app at its best. This provides a visual aid when others find your item. We recommend using a large image size, such as 600×400 pixels, to get the best results. You can add this using the “Edit Thumbnails” option within the Contributor App, or directly from the item description page.  More info .

Share the item publicly so that all users can access it. Your ArcGIS Online profile also needs to be public in order for people to find your item.  More info .

Not pictured:

Secure layers, maps, and apps with HTTPS rather than HTTP in their URLS. This provides secure internet transactions between web browsers and web servers. The contribution app will tell you if your layers are secure. Find more information  here  and make the change  here  if necessary. The setting can also be  configured  for your organization.

There are other factors considered when your item is scored that will also be considered by the curator when an item is nominated.

It is recommended that your item contain at least three Tags. The words demo, copy, test, or eval are discouraged. Tags help others find your item when searching ArcGIS Living Atlas. But keep the list of tags to the most relevant keywords instead of listing out twenty related words.  More info .

Minimize the amount of layers within your web map nominations. The most you would want in one map is 2-5 layers. Anything more than that would better be portrayed within an additional map or set of maps. This helps tell a more clear story about the data.

Communicate any Terms of Use required by your organization or data provider, and add appropriate Credits. Hyperlinks explaining the constraints or data source are encouraged.  See an example .

Complete your ArcGIS Online user profile so that others will know who created the item. Describe yourself, your team, your organization, and how to reach you through email.  More info .

Add Delete Protection to your item to ensure it is not accidentally removed.  More info .

When preparing your items for ArcGIS Living Atlas, keep in mind that your content will be accessible to the entire GIS community. Considering this, our team of curators from the Living Atlas team at Esri may also offer suggestions that follow best practices for the end user's benefit.

We asked a few of the Living Atlas curators: "What makes a great Living Atlas item?"

2) Nominate

To nominate your item to Living Atlas, start at the Living Atlas website in the "My Contributions" tab and sign in with your ArcGIS organizational account. Click the link below to follow along with your own content and see how your items are scored.

Here, you will see all your ArcGIS content items, along with the option to narrow down the view to items that might be eligible based on score. Items require a score of 80 for it to be nominated to ArcGIS Living Atlas. The score is NOT scoring the quality of your item, but rather the completeness.

Click on an item to view the scoring, make edits, see suggested improvements, and to nominate an item. You can make certain edits directly to your item by using the editing pencils. You can also hover over the suggested improvements for more guidance. Once an item reaches a score of 80 and meets the above requirements, you will be able to nominate it. You don't necessarily need to get a perfect score of 100, but it is encouraged to make your item as well-documented and public-ready as possible.

The video below shows a basic example of nominating an item:

Nominate your item to the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

3) Finalize & Maintain

Once nominated, a Living Atlas curator from Esri will review your item promptly to ensure it meets the requirements. If there are any outstanding issues or suggestions by the curator, they will reach out to you via email.

Once the curator and contributor come to an agreement that the item is ready to be added, the curator will accept the item and it will appear in Living Atlas within a few minutes.

After your content is accepted, you maintain full ownership of that item. It will be searchable through ArcGIS, but the maintenance and upkeep of the item is up to you as the owner.

We always recommend keeping the "living" aspect of ArcGIS Living Atlas in mind when contributing. If you have a newer version of a map layer, or if you need to make updates, we encourage you to update the existing layer or remove the old item after contributing a new one.

If you have routinely updating maps or layers,  this blog  provides information about how to update your services with Python.

Below are additional Living Atlas resources and information to stay involved in the largest growing community of GIS content in the world:

Want to contribute your data to Esri basemaps? Check out the  Community Maps Program !

We look forward to seeing your contributions!