New Category Allows Greater Collaboration between National and Commercial Participants

REDLANDS, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 28, 2019 — Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, today announced its membership in the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The new GEO Associates category allows commercial and nongovernmental entities to apply to join existing member institutions in activities promoting GEO's goals and ideals. GEO is an intergovernmental organization devoted to advancing the universal accessibility of open data and promoting sustainability resulting from Earth observations.

Esri's new Associate member status acknowledges Esri's supportive involvement with GEO over the last six years, which has included the development of interoperability between GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) and ArcGIS Online, allowing global information in open data sites built on the Esri platform to be available to everyone in GEO and permitting Esri users to search the GEOSS Portal as well.

"We are honored to be chosen as one of the first members in GEO's new membership category," said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. "GEO is doing incredibly important work in improving critical decision-making in areas like the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), disaster recovery, and natural resource management, as well as making accurate Earth observation data accessible to everyone."

In response to GEO's interest in data that enables ecosystem management, Esri also partnered with the US Geological Survey on an initiative to devise ecosystem mapping methods. This combined effort resulted in the globally consistent, statistically based ecosystem classifications known as Ecological Land Units (ELU) and Ecological Marine Units (EMU) and will soon add Ecological Coastal Units (ECU). Additionally, Esri has been a key collaborator in the development of the GEO Global Streamflow forecasting and AmeriGEOSS initiatives.

GEO is composed of governments and organizations around the globe that share a goal of applying current, accurate Earth observations to a range of societal benefit areas (fields of environmental concern) in problem-solving and decision-making processes.

Esri's status as one of the first invitees into the new GEO Associates membership category was confirmed at the 48th GEO Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in July 2019.

About Esri

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the U.S., as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the U.S. Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.

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Jo Ann Pruchniewski
Public Relations, Esri
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