Denver Maps, the City and County of Denver’s public mapping and reporting service, was recognized as a first-place winner at the 2005 Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) International User Conference held July 25-29 in San Diego. The gathering is the largest annual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) event in the world, attended by more than 13,000 professionals from 130 countries.

Denver Maps (www.denvergov.org/maps) was the first-place winner in the Web Based GIS Application category of the user software competition. The category included web-based GIS and mapping applications from around the world, including entries from several U.S. city and county governments. Applications were evaluated on a variety of criteria including functionality, design, creativity and user interface. The Province of Styria, Austria, won the second-place award for its digital atlas of the province; New Zealand Post, Ltd, took third place for its national postal address database.

Denver Maps provides Denver’s citizens, businesses and visitors with convenient access to a variety of location-based images and information on the city’s official Web site. The searchable map information is provided in an accessible report-based format that combines interactive mapping with location-based content. The interactive reports are cross-linked and allow address locations to be explored across multiple information categories, like property information, cultural resources, recreation, safety, government districts, land surveys and more.

Visitors to the Denver Maps site also can submit comments and suggestions for adding new data or improving existing information through Contact GIS links on all the site’s pages. A separate survey link allows users to rate the site’s overall content and usability.

Notably, Denver Maps also incorporates accessibility design and usability recommendations from Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, making the site easy to use with screen reader technologies and usable in wide range of browser environments.

"This truly is world-class recognition for Denver," said Michael Locatis, Chief Information Officer, City and County of Denver. "It's also an outstanding example of how technology is being used to help make Denver the most service-friendly city in the nation, both for internal business needs, and in service and information delivery to residents, business, and visitor customers near and far."

Denver Maps is developed and maintained by the Geographic Information Systems group in cooperation with Customer Information Services – both part of the city’s consolidated Technology Services agency. Denver Maps was launched in September 2004 and delivers over 3,000 map-based reports per day.

Denver’s recent award follows two first-place awards at the 2004 ESRI International User Conference for the Denver Bike Map. The map won first-place in both the Best Single Map Product (Large Format) and Best Overall Map categories.

ESRI (http://www.esri.com) develops GIS software and technology that is used by hundreds of thousands of organizations around the world.

2004
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Awards

Denver Geographic Information Systems was honored with two first-place awards at the 2004 Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) International User Conference held August 9-13 in San Diego. The awards were given for the Denver Bike Map created by city staffers Doug Genzer (Denver GIS) and Julie Connor (Community Planning and Development) for use and distribution by the Bicycle Program office of the Denver Public Works Department.

The full-color, easy-to-use, bike map provides comprehensive information for bicyclists: current bike routes, bike lanes, bike shops, places of interest, and planned improvements to Denver’s bike infrastructure. Additional graphics and text were incorporated to facilitate awareness of the rules of the road, bike safety, and bike etiquette. The map demonstrates the city’s continued commitment to provide safe, alternative, forms of transportation in its service to the public.

The Bike Map won First Place both in the Best Single Map Product (Large Format) and Overall categories. These recognitions are given for excellence in cartography and feature the application of ESRI software using geographic computer technology.