ArcGIS Living Atlas Blog

With the introduction of calendar heat charts in ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, it’s now easier than ever to uncover temporal patterns hidden within large datasets. This short tutorial explores how to use calendar heat charts to analyze fatal vehicle crashes across the United States using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and provided by Esri in ArcGIS Living Atlas.

To read the full article, visit this blog by Steven Aviles.

A collection of six new Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products is now available in the ArcGIS Living Atlas. These 30-meter resolution layers, from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium, offer a consistent, yearly snapshot of land cover use and change for the lower-48 states from 1985 to 2024:

• USA Annual NLCD – Land Cover
• USA Annual NLCD – Land Cover Change
• USA Annual NLCD – Land Cover Confidence
• USA Annual NLCD – Date Spectral Change
• USA Annual NLCD – Fractional Impervious Surface
• USA Annual NLCD – Impervious Descriptor

For full details about the new layers, visit this blog by the Living Atlas Environment Team. 

USA Cloud Cover Days is now available in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, makes it easier than ever to integrate cloud cover information into your GIS workflows. This new imagery layer, derived from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), provides the average number of days per year with cloud cover for the contiguous United States (CONUS) and portions of Mexico and Canada. With a 500-meter cell size, this data offers the spatial detail necessary for regional analyses in diverse environments.

To learn more about this layer, visit this full article by Raf Antwerpen

This just updated blog article now lists 12 (formerly 10) ways to get the most out of ArcGIS Living Atlas. If you've not yet fully incorporated Living Atlas into your workflows, this is a good introduction to the different ways it can be used by you, or your organization.

For more information, see Twelve ways to get the most out of ArcGIS Living Atlas, see the Living Atlas website, or view all Living Atlas blog articles.

Watch this GIS in Higher Education Chat on “Performing Raster Analysis using ArcGIS Living Atlas Imagery Layers in ArcGIS Online,” taking place on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM (PT).

Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization advancing ocean governance through transparency of human activity at sea, recently undertook a project increasing the level of ocean understanding for GIS users everywhere.  We’re excited to share that new Global Fishing Watch layers are now available in ArcGIS Online and in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. This marks a significant milestone for the GIS community, providing direct access to powerful datasets designed to inform, inspire, and support efforts to protect our oceans.

To learn more about the layers and how to access them, visit this blog by @KeithVanGraafeiland. 

New American Community Survey layers are now available which contain the latest 2020-2024 5-year estimates from U.S. Census Bureau. New topics provided this year are occupants per room (crowded housing), and new attributes within specific Asian groups. For more information about transitioning from the older version of these layers and to learn more, visit the full blog by @DianaLavery1 here. 

Oil spills from ships, tanker accidents, and offshore platforms have been a global concern for marine ecosystems, coastal communities, and fisheries. Early identification of oil spills is essential for guiding effective response efforts, minimizing environmental damage, and reducing economic losses. This tutorial helps step you through how to use ready-to-use ArcGIS Living Atlas Sentinel-1 imagery to detect and map oil spills. Read the blog by @SamiraDaneshgar here. 

Do you have a layer that’s rich with attribute information, but you are conflicted about which one to display, or maybe you want to show two of them together? If you are in this situation, a bivariate map may be the answer for you. Check out this quick blog by @EmilyMeriam1 and @AndrewSkinner to learn more about how these maps can be built using ArcGIS Living Atlas in ArcGIS Pro.

Each decade after the new Census is released, Esri rebuilds Tapestry from the ground up to capture a decade’s worth of sociodemographic shifts. A comparison between the last iteration of Tapestry and the current system is made to help understand the contributions of previous segments to the formation of new segments. This article is here to help you transition smoothly so you can easily identify the new segments and make the most of the new ArcGIS Tapestry for your organizational strategies. 

For the full article by @SangitaVashi, click here.