A single UAS flight can generate thousands of files. Here's where they all go. A routine drone inspection of a bridge or a stretch of rail line can produce thousands of individual images and video clips in under an hour. Multiply that across a state transportation department running dozens of flights a month, and you end up with a data problem most agencies weren't built to handle - mountains of unlabeled, unsorted footage that's technically valuable but practically unusable. That gap is what pulled PTFS into the geospatial content management business, and it's turned into one of the more distinctive parts of the company's work. Knowvation GS: geography meets search. Knowvation GS is PTFS's geospatial content management system (GeoCMS), built to store, tag, and retrieve imagery, video, and sensor data tied to specific locations. Instead of digging through folders labeled by date or project number, users can pull up a map and search for what happened in a particular area - flood imagery from a specific county, inspection photos along a rail corridor, or surveillance footage from a border sector. The platform is sensor-agnostic too, meaning it can ingest data from satellites, ground cameras, or aerial platforms without requiring a separate system for each. The rise of UAS data. Drones have become a routine tool for infrastructure inspection, agriculture, and emergency response, but they also generate an enormous amount of raw sensor data that's useless without organization. Knowvation was built to solve that specific problem - it automatically parses geospatial tags from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), then sorts the resulting imagery and video into an intelligent, searchable hierarchy. PTFS has also integrated Knowvation with Esri's mapping capabilities, giving agencies a fully web-based workflow that goes from raw drone footage to orthorectified, mapped imagery with minimal manual stitching. Industries that actually use this. The list of sectors leaning on this technology is broader than people might expect. Highway and transportation departments use it to track pavement conditions and bridge inspections. Homeland security and emergency management teams use it for tracking response efforts and disaster imagery in near real time. Railroads use it to monitor track and right-of-way conditions along thousands of miles of corridor. Parks and recreation departments, along with archaeological and historic preservation offices, use it to document land, wildlife, and cultural sites over time, building a visual record that would be nearly impossible to maintain with folders of loose photographs. PTFS has long supported events like GEOINT, the annual gathering for the geospatial intelligence community, to demonstrate these tools alongside partners like Esri and Amazon Web Services - a sign of how tightly geospatial content management now overlaps with mainstream cloud and AI infrastructure. The practical payoff. What ties all of this together is a fairly simple idea: location-based data is only useful if you can find it again later. A drone can capture thousands of images in a single flight, and a rail line can generate years of inspection footage, but none of it helps anyone unless it's organized to match how people actually search - by place, not by file name. That's the gap PTFS's geospatial tools are built to close, and it's a big part of why agencies dealing with physical infrastructure, land, and emergency response keep coming back. Sources. * PTFS Introduces the Knowvation CSP to the AWS Marketplace _________________________________________________________ ROCKVILLE, Maryland, June 13, 2025 - PTFS, a leading provider of knowledge management, geospatial,... * Webinar Replay: Harnessing Knowvation CSP for Geospatial Advancements & AI Insights Missed the webinar on "Harnessing Knowvation CSP for Geospatial Advancements & AI Insights"? * Knowvation GS: A Brief History of an Incredible Technology Most people who've never worked in federal records management or geospatial intelligence have never heard...

Esri expands World Imagery with Airbus high-resolution basemap coverage for 2,000 cities worldwide. New Airbus Imagery Enhances World Imagery Basemap as Part of Broader Expansion Announced at 2026 Esri User Conference Esri is enhancing its World Imagery basemap through new agreements with Airbus, Vantor, and Nearmap, announced during the 2026 Esri User Conference. Airbus will begin delivering 30 cm basemap imagery for approximately 2,000 cities worldwide starting in... August 20, 2026 at 8:10 a.m. New Airbus Imagery Enhances World Imagery Basemap as Part of Broader Expansion Announced at 2026 Esri User Conference * Esri is enhancing its World Imagery basemap through new agreements with Airbus, Vantor, and Nearmap, announced during the 2026 Esri User Conference. * Airbus will begin delivering 30 cm basemap imagery for approximately 2,000 cities worldwide starting in the second half of 2026. * Airbus basemaps provide highly accurate, color-consistent, nearly cloud-free coverage designed to deliver fresher and more detailed urban imagery. * Additional enhancements include expanded metropolitan coverage from Nearmap and continued global basemap updates from Vantor. REDLANDS, Calif. - At the 2026 Esri User Conference (UC), the global leader in location intelligence announced a significant enhancement to its World Imagery basemap through a new agreement with Airbus. The collaboration will enable Esri to provide ArcGIS users with high-resolution imagery coverage for approximately 2,000 cities around the world through the addition of the new Airbus, Nearmap, and Vantor imagery. The added data is part of an enhanced imagery initiative for the World Imagery Basemap, the most widely used map service in ArcGIS, and was highlighted during this year's Esri UC Plenary. Beginning in the second half of 2026, Airbus will deliver 30 cm imagery designed to provide more current and detailed visual context for ArcGIS users worldwide. Airbus imagery is highly accurate, color-consistent, and provides nearly cloud-free coverage with minimized haze and seasonal variation between contiguous images. As part of the broader World Imagery enhancement program announced at the 2026 UC, Esri also finalized agreements with Nearmap and Vantor. Nearmap's 20 cm vertical imagery will be integrated and regularly updated across 200 metropolitan areas in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, while Vantor will continue providing the global imagery foundation for World Imagery, including committed refreshes for hundreds of cities and upgrades to 15 cm imagery in select major urban areas. "Airbus Defense and Space has been delivering accurate and consistent imagery for more than 35 years and we are excited to take this next step collaborating with them," said Deane Kensok, chief technology officer for ArcGIS content at Esri. "The enhanced imagery Airbus brings to Esri's collection of basemap data will better help to support the mapping and analysis workflows of organizations across government, commercial, nonprofit, and academic sectors." To learn more about World Imagery and the latest enhancements to ArcGIS Living Atlas, visit livingatlas.arcgis.com and read What's New in World Imagery - July 2026. About Esri Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, helps customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969 in Redlands, California, USA, Esri software is deployed in hundreds of thousands of organizations globally, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofit institutions, and universities. Esri has regional offices, international distributors, and partners providing local support in over 100 countries on six continents. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial technology and analytics, Esri engineers the most innovative solutions that leverage a geographic approach to solving some of the world's most complex problems by placing them in the crucial context of location. Visit us at esri.com.

A new Esri Academy experience is here. By Esri Digital Experience For nearly three decades, Esri Academy has helped GIS professionals, students, and organizations build skills, earn certifications, and unlock the full value of ArcGIS. Today, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is excited to introduce a redesigned Esri Academy experience that makes it easier to discover, access, and manage learning resources. The new experience features a refreshed visual design, streamlined navigation, and a more intuitive learning journey aligned with the broader Esri.com ecosystem. Guided by customer feedback and usability research, the redesign was created to help learners find the training they need more quickly and confidently, whether they are just getting started with ArcGIS or expanding their expertise. Designed around how people learn. Learning is not a one-size-fits-all journey. Some learners arrive at Esri Academy looking for a specific course. Others are exploring career paths, preparing for certification, or building expertise in a new area of GIS. The redesigned experience focuses on helping learners navigate these journeys more effectively through improved organization and simplified discovery. Training resources are easier to browse, topics and focus areas have been expanded and reorganized, and the overall experience more closely aligns with conventions used across Esri.com. The result is a cleaner, more connected experience that helps learners spend less time searching and more time developing new skills. A better Learning Plans experience. Learning Plans are one of Esri Academy's most valuable resources, helping learners follow structured pathways that support certification goals, career development, and skill-building initiatives. The redesigned site introduces a dedicated experience for curated Learning Plans. Rather than being surfaced alongside individual courses in the catalog, Learning Plans now have their own destination, creating a more guided experience for learners pursuing specific objectives. User-created Learning Plans remain available and continue to be managed through My Learning Plans. This change makes it easier for learners to identify recommended learning paths and build a plan that's aligned with their goals. An updated My Academy experience. My Academy has also been redesigned with a cleaner and more personalized experience. The new dashboard helps learners manage certifications, track training activity, review learning progress, and access the resources most relevant to them. By simplifying how information is presented in My Academy, the experience supports both new and experienced learners as they manage their ongoing professional development. Enhancements for certification candidates. Certification continues to be an important part of many learners' professional journeys, and several improvements have been made to support that experience. Exam voucher purchasing has been simplified, making it easier for learners to find the resources they need. The Certification Directory has also been enhanced with a new interactive map experience that allows certified individuals who choose to participate to showcase their accomplishments. These updates help strengthen the certification experience while making related resources easier to discover. What's changing. As part of the redesign, some features have been renamed or retired to create a more streamlined experience. Changes include: * Wish List is now Bookmarks * Help is now FAQ * Community Learning Plans are retired * Are You Ready Assessments are retired While some functionality has evolved, the goal remains the same: helping learners quickly find and engage with the resources they need most. Building a foundation for the future. This redesign is more than a visual refresh. Esri Academy has undergone a significant platform modernization as well, creating a stronger foundation for future innovation. The new platform enables closer alignment with Esri.com standards while creating opportunities for improved analytics, ongoing optimization, and future personalization. The launch also introduces the first implementation of Global Navigation Notifications, allowing learners to receive targeted Academy updates directly within their Esri.com experience when they are logged in. As learner needs continue to evolve, this new foundation will help Esri continue improving how customers discover and consume learning content. Thank you. The new Esri Academy reflects the feedback, ideas, and needs of the learners who use Esri Academy every day. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is grateful to everyone who helped shape this new experience and look forward to continuing to improve it over time. Explore the new Esri Academy experience and continue your learning journey today. announcements esri academy Esri Digital Experience Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is an extensive team of digital experience enthusiasts who are responsible for managing many Esri websites. If you're browsing product pages, signing up for an event, shopping in the Esri Store or doing anything else on its sites, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is the team behind the scenes enabling your experience. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.'ll keep you posted with relevant updates here.