THE Department of Agri-culture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has
received a Special Achieve-ment in GIS Award (SAG) at Esri’s annual International User Conference in San Diego.
DAERA was recognised for its Information Hub, which has transformed its handling of data, and supports informed and effect-ive policy-making decisions in Northern Ireland.
Esri’s International User Con-ference is the world’s largest GIS event with more than 18,000 attendees.
The SAG Awards recognise out-standing applications of Esri’s ArcGIS technology, and DAERA was selected from over 300,000 eligible global candidates.
The Esri solution gives DAERA employees instant and secure access to accurate location information which can be accessed both from the office or in the field via mobile apps.
This has enabled DAERA to quickly address emergencies such as Covid-19, Brexit implications and Avian flu outbreak.
The department’s 3,000 employ-ees now have access to a central system that enables them to conceptualise the effect potential policy decisions will make on the environment or the economy, be-fore they are implemented. They can also examine historical trends and analyse the success of previous schemes and initiatives.
The Veterinary Service Animal Health Group within DAERA has completely transformed its disease investigation processes, swapping paper forms for digital technology. DAERA can now respond more quickly to animal welfare concerns and instigate the most appropriate measures to prevent the spread of disease.
Paul McGurnaghan, Director of Digital Service, DAERA, said: “It is an honour to receive this high-profile global award which recognises the dedication and innovation of our team.
“The Information Hub has been transformational and enabled the department to bring together data coherently, which has advanced more informed and effective policy making decisions.
“Our Information Hub will continue to bring benefits not only for DAERA but for our local farm businesses, for our environment and indeed for our wider economy.”
The solution has improved over-
all efficiency by removing manual, paper-based processes and elim-inating the unnecessary duplication of data. Information Hub is at the heart of the department, enabling it to improve organisational ex-cellence, reach business plan targets, helping to make DAERA an insight-driven organisation, placing data at the heart of all decision making.
Jack Dangermond, co-founder and President of Esri Inc, selected the award. He said: “I am delighted to present DAERA with this prestigious award, in recognition of its impactful use of geographic information in quickly addressing unprecedented and global challenges.
“The winning entrants demons-trate users from around the world are leveraging GIS capabilities to improve decision making to solve real-world problems.”
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