Mapping the future

JACK Dangermond is one of the world’s most influential people who isn’t a household name. For that matter, Esri, his company, is probably little-known outside the mapping software world that it rules. That despite Esri’s technology – the brainchild of Mr Dangermond – being a driving force across a myriad functions and processes that touch everyday living.

Here in Singapore, the Land Transport Authority uses the technology to better understand commuter behaviour across different modes of transport. The Urban Redevelopment Authority

(URA) employs it in a map-based application that helps users search for information to buy or lease a property. URA will also be using Esri’s 3D smart city technology for urban planning and design simulation. And over at the Botanic Gardens, every tree planted is “organised” using the billion-dollar California company’s flagship product.

“I’m very proud of our users in Singapore, particularly the Botanic Gardens here,” Mr Dangermond tells BT. “It’s one of my best GIS users here in Singapore. Every tree that they plant they put in a database, they visualise the Gardens, they do the facility management of the Gardens, so GIS is everywhere. It’s interesting because there are probably a hundred major botanical gardens around the world – the big ones like Kew Gardens in England; the (Kirstenbosch) in Cape Town, South Africa; Arnold Arboretum at Harvard – they all use GIS to manage the location of their living collections.”

Mapping the future