Mapping technology company Esri plans to use aerial imagery from Nearmap as the default source for its ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, the most widely used geographic information system (GIS) technology.
The partnership was announced at the Esri User Conference in San Diego. ArcGIS is the most widely used GIS platform by cities, municipalities, and even state planning and transportation agencies. It has users in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who will have access to Nearmap imagery through the World Imagery basemap on the ArcGIS platform.
Nearmap’s aerial imagery is captured by low-flying fixed-wind aircraft rather than satellites or drones. The integration includes Nearmap 20cm vertical imagery, expanding access to geospatial content while providing a visual foundation for mapping, planning and analysis in government, infrastructure, utilities, insurance, AEC and operations and commercial real estate.
As the default aerial imagery layer in ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Enterprise, the ArcGIS Living Atlas World Imagery basemap serves more than 700,000 organizations worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies, national governments, all 50 US states, more than 20,000 cities, and more than 7,000 universities.
“This agreement represents an important milestone for Nearmap and validates the quality, consistency and scale of our imagery program,” said Ray Savona, Nearmap’s chief revenue officer. “Organizations around the world rely on ArcGIS to understand and manage the built environment, and we’re proud that Nearmap imagery helps drive those decisions. This collaboration introduces hundreds of thousands of organizations to Nearmap imagery and opens the door to our broader portfolio of premium imagery, AI-powered property intelligence, and business workflows.”
New level of detail
ArcGIS users will be able to automatically view Nearmap imagery at supported zoom levels in their existing GIS workflows without additional logins, subscriptions, or configuration.
“Organizations across many industries are increasingly relying on imagery as a critical source of data for their analytical and operational geospatial workflows,” said Richard Cooke, Esri’s corporate director of global business development in a statement. “Nearmap metro imagery is a valuable addition to the ArcGIS Living Atlas to provide users with a higher resolution base map to improve situational awareness, planning and operational efficiency.”
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Nearmap will provide regular imagery updates every 6 to 12 months throughout the agreement, so that ArcGIS users continue to benefit from current, high-quality aerial imagery.
AI-driven property intelligence, APIs, and business workflow integrations can continue to access the capabilities of the ArcGIS platform through a direct subscription to Nearmap.
Esri founder and president Jack Dangermond said in his annual plenary message at the user conference that he is “now an optimist about AI and its use in connected information making for a more connected and sustainable future. A smarter world is possible and it’s exciting,” he said.
Dangermond said that most AIs are not yet geospatially aware, and users’ geographic knowledge needs to be added to agent AI, and standards like Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol allow Esri users to upload and share their geospatial data for this purpose.
Dangermond also announced a deep new integration with the ServiceNow facilities management platform that would give facility managers a similar workflow that AEC users enjoy across Autodesk and Esri products and the end-to-end experience through the company’s Microsoft partnership. He also said that a crowdsourced imagery layer is now available in ArcGIS Pro and Meta’s Living Atlas.
