GIS Day 2022
Discover the world through GIS
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GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society.
GIS Day is a fun day to showcase how GIS is used, discover and explore the benefits of GIS, and inspire your community by celebrating GIS.
In the beginning...
The first formal GIS Day took place in 1999. Esri president and co-founder Jack Dangermond credits Ralph Nader with being the person who inspired the creation of GIS Day.
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Jack Dangermond with a new generation of geographers at one of the first GIS Day events in 1999.
Nader considered GIS Day a good initiative for people to learn about geography, and the uses of GIS, and wanted GIS Day to be a grassroots effort that was open to everyone.
A global movement
GIS Day is not just an event, it's a global movement. GIS day brings universities, government agencies, schools, non-profits, and GIS professionals together to build knowledge of GIS in their communities, and create understanding about the world we live in.
GIS Day happens because you have a passion for geospatial thinking. Through your event a seed is planted that grows GIS understanding in your community, and around the world.
Each of us has the power to inspire and change the world through GIS. Join the movement on GIS Day!
GIS Day events around the globe
Use this map to find a GIS Day event near you. Click any location to learn more about the event. Please, confirm all dates and times with the event host.
Click the expand button to view in full screen.
Click any point to view details about GIS Day events.
Register your event
GIS Day is a fun way to celebrate GIS with everyone. It's an opportunity to discover and understand the benefits of GIS and showcase its uses to your community, spreading passion for GIS to users and the public alike.
Need resources?
Need resources to help stage your event? We've got you covered.
To help you put together a fun and successful event, we've assembled a few resources to help you promote your event, and also offer a set of activities to use during the event.
A Living Atlas of the World
The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is a great way to introduce your GIS Day audience to the power of maps.
The Living Atlas map featured below is the result of a cooperative effort between Esri and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It's the highest spatial resolution ecological land unit (ELU) map of the world ever produced.
Click anywhere on the map to learn more about each ecological facet. Click the expand button to view in full screen.
More about the Living Atlas
The Living Atlas is the foremost collection of authoritative, ready-to-use global geographic information ever assembled from Esri and the GIS user community. It's truly for the GIS community, and by the GIS community.
Anyone can explore the Living Atlas. It enables the discovery of people and places around the world, as well as the natural and man-made influences that impact them. Always changing and evolving like our world does, the Living Atlas contains information that educates and informs.
We all love maps
GIS is about maps. We know a map has the potential to change the world, inspire action, and serve well-informed decisions. It all starts by creating beautiful, powerful maps that reach others.
But, what makes a good map? How can we engage people with a map? How do you make a map that offers unexpected insights or even captivating beauty?
Turning data into a compelling map is about more than knowing which buttons to push. It’s about knowing how to uncover stories hidden in your data. It’s about telling those stories clearly, and simply.
Maps we love
Esri has assembled a collection of maps that we just love, with information about why we love them, and how they were made. Enjoy and explore these maps, and learn how you can make similar maps of your own.
Maps are not flat
Our world isn't flat, and maps don't have to be either. Viewing maps in 3D adds a new dimension to understanding and visualizing geography, whether it's viewing things globally, or in a city.
Shown below are a 3D scene (globe) with volcanoes and tectonic plates from the Living Atlas, and a citywide scene of Paris, France.
Click the expand button to view in full screen.
Volcanoes and Tectonic Plates
OpenStreetMap 3D - Paris, France
Storytelling with GIS
A story can effect change, influence opinion, and create awareness—and maps are an integral part of storytelling. ArcGIS StoryMaps can give your narrative a stronger sense of place, illustrate spatial relationships, and add visual appeal and credibility to your ideas by combining rich text with maps and media of all kinds.
The selection of stories below aims to inform and educate viewers about a variety of topics.
Be a storyteller
Tell your own GIS Day stories using ArcGIS StoryMaps to combine maps, videos, photos, and more. It's never been easier!
A GIS Day message from Jack Dangermond, Esri
For all of us involved in GIS, this day is a chance to showcase what we do as GIS professionals. For all of us, it's a day to tell our stories to others. It's an opportunity to demonstrate the value of your work, and the meaning of maps and their power.
This is an opportunity to go into schools, to have open houses, to teach kids—our next generation—what GIS and mapping technology is all about. It's an opportunity to tell others what geography, the science of our world, is all about. And to demonstrate the application of geography in very meaningful ways.
GIS Day
I appreciate your volunteerism, and your enthusiasm to participate in GIS Day. It's important to us, and also to those that will learn from what we do and show.
But it's also important to remember what attracted us to geography and GIS in the first place, and how maps are a powerful and fun way to communicate and share.
So above all, let's have some fun on this GIS Day, and share that fun with the world.