Celebrating a Milestone Year: King County GIS Center Honored with Dual Enterprise GIS Awards in 2025

In 2025, the King County GIS Center received dual Enterprise GIS Awards from Esri, honoring more than three decades of leadership and excellence in GIS. Recognized at both the CIO Summit and the Esri User Conference, KCGISC continues to deliver countywide value, from emergency response to public health, with a projected ROI of $3 billion by 2025 that underscores its sustained innovation and collaboration.

King County State of GIS awarded URISA 2024 Exemplary Systems in GIS: Distinguished System

In October, I attended the URISA annual GIS-Pro Conference in Portland, where URISA rebranded as the Geospatial Professional Network. A personal highlight was receiving the ESIG Award for King County’s SOGIS. The new Esri ArcGIS Hub platform improves access and engagement, streamlining the preparation of GIS documentation significantly.

Extraction of Tree Crowns Using 2021 LiDAR for King County

Climate change is a growing concern due to extreme weather events and infrastructure damage. Trees play a crucial role in mitigating this by absorbing CO2 and producing oxygen. High-resolution LiDAR data is used to create tree canopy models to track changes in tree cover, vital for environmental and economic well-being. An estimate of over 101 million trees in King County underscores the importance of accurate inventory and conservation efforts.

Explain GIS to me like I’m a Fifth-Grader

GIS, or Geographic Information System, is often misunderstood by non-GIS professionals. To address this, resources like short videos and articles from Esri provide fun and accessible introductions to GIS. These materials cover topics such as location intelligence, data sharing, GIS in education, and support for various business functions. Additionally, publications are available for further exploration.

King County’s Septic and Group B Records Search

Public Health and the GIS Center launched a new map-based application in August 2023, consolidating septic and Group B water system records. The app simplifies access to records and provides valuable information for homeowners, potential buyers, companies, and real estate professionals. The application’s successful implementation has been well-received and praised for its ease of use and efficiency.

King County GIS Center receives URISA’s 2023 Exemplary Systems in GIS Award

I recently attended the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) annual GIS-Pro Conference in Columbus, Ohio. The 2023 URISA ESIG Awards One of the highlights of the Conference is the annual awards breakfast, where inductees into the GIS Hall of Fame are announced, as well as various service awards to URISA members, committees, and…

GIS Software Utilization

Who is using ArcGIS Pro anyway?

Understanding GIS software usage at King County, WA Given that ESRI is ending support for ArcGIS Desktop in 2026, the King County GIS Center needed to understand the migration of users from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro. Specifically, we wanted to know who is using ArcGIS Pro and how often they’re using it. Today we…

Department of Enterprise Services and King County Partner to Bring GIS Training to Washington State and Beyond

By Marcia Moody and Greg Babinski Bringing GIS training to agencies across Washington StateOn January 8, 2007, eight State of Washington employees made their way from Olympia to the King County GIS Center Training Facility in downtown Seattle. At 8:00am, a King County GIS training instructor, Mary Ullrich, welcomed the eight, as well as eight…