ArcGIS Living Atlas Blog

Understanding broadband availability for U.S. neighborhoods is an important first step toward providing adequate and affordable broadband for all communities. ArcGIS Living Atlas now includes the FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC), which shows fixed broadband availability for every U.S. neighborhood and outlying area.

Beyond Web Mercator: Building basemaps in different projections by Andrew Skinner explains how you can create basemaps in different projections to support your work. The earth isn't flat, so projections are a fact of life. And while WMAS is the defacto standard, you can create other basemaps in different projections to meet specific needs. 

We are pleased to welcome the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who have contributed their coastline and contour datasets from the Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) to Living Atlas. Having these items in Living Atlas means it is now easier than ever to access up-to-date and ready-to-use data on Antarctica to understand its ever-changing landscape.

A new addition to the ArcGIS Living Atlas apps was released earlier this morning. The Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer provides insights by delivering timely land use/land cover data with change analysis tools.

Just about all of us use ArcGIS Living Atlas every day. Living Atlas is deeply integrated and integral to the ArcGIS system, so whether you are using ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro or other ArcGIS apps, Living Atlas is an inherent part of your mapping activities.

Open blog article

Ten ways to get the most out of ArcGIS Living Atlas lists suggestions for getting the most out of ArcGIS Living Atlas in your work and workflows.

The Enhanced Contrast Dark and Enhanced Contrast Light basemaps are now out of beta. These are designed to offer higher contrast for the visually impaired. For details, see:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/mapping/working-with-enhanced-contrast...

For all related Living Atlas high contrast content, see:

https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/en/browse/?q=%22Enhanced%20Contrast%20Map%22#d=2&q=%22Enhanced%20Cont...

These two are now part of the Esri default basemap gallery if your organization region is set to United States (Settings > General > Organization Defaults > Region).

Those organizations using a different region can still use these basemaps using a custom basemap gallery, or start with the high contrast basemap after signing in at the Living Atlas website.

How to make a custom basemap gallery using Living Atlas basemaps:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/mapping/living-atlas-custom-basemap-gallery/

Field descriptions help clarify confusion around definitions, units, sources, vintages, and more. When people use the layer in Map Viewer, they can access each field's description when setting the layer's style and when they open the table in the map. This information helps them understand how to use and symbolize the data.

Many layers in Living Atlas contain field descriptions for all attributes. These descriptions help analysts learn more about what exactly they are mapping in just a few clicks.

For more information about field descriptions, and how they are used in Living Atlas and can be implemented in your work, see High-quality field descriptions make mapping easier.

The new USA 118th Congressional District features have been recently published. These layers are updated at least twice a year. Two iterations are available, one focused on the U.S. and the other including overseas territories. View the item details below:

USA 118th Congressional Districts (all territories)

USA 118th Congressional Districts

As global average temperatures continue to rise, some regions will likely experience more frequent high heat days and higher maximum temperatures. Learn how climate data in ArcGIS Living Atlas can be used to help you model and visualize extreme heat in your maps and even bring context to local communities.

Strong anomalous warming is shown across Europe, North Africa, and East Asia.

See Climate extremes: heat for more information.

I'm always on the lookout for unique basemaps that are a little different and let my operational layers pop. Sure, you can style your own using the Vector Tile Style Editor. But here Andy Skinner delivers some really interesting and useful "seasonally colored" basemaps that just might make your layers pop.

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/mapping/four-seasons-styles/

Be sure to check out the Creative Vector Tile Layers group for other options.