We need a 1990’s ArcView for 2026 and beyond.
We need a mapping program that is to ArcGIS Pro as Windows Paint is to Photoshop.
We need a very basic, simple to use, and inexpensive mapping program to provide to our non-GIS staff and analysts.
I provide mapping support to a property assessment organization, so I will use that scenario to illustrative my points, but the same would apply across many industries.
Mapping:
When property owners appeal their assessment to the assessment tribunal our assessors need maps showing the location of the property in relation to comparable sales in order to defend the value they assessed to the property. There are simply too many appeals for me to provide mapping support for this, so Assessors are left to make their own maps, often using screen shots of parcels selected in the ESRI API in our assessment software and then maybe adding labels in Windows Paint.
I did manage to coble together an application in ArcGIS Online that would allow them to highlight subject parcels in one colour and comparable sales parcels in another colour, then add labels using an annotation tool, but it is incredibly clunky and there is no way to save or print the map so they have to screen shot it and paste it into Word to print it. It would be nice if there was a very simple and easy to use mapping software that was inexpensive enough to purchase 30 or 40 copies for the Assessors to make the maps for their appeal reports.
Analysis:
When working on the reassessment or while doing a data review our Assessors, particularly the senior Assessors doing the advanced analysis, review a lot of data that could be visualized spatially.
I try to identify the most common and useful data visualizations and create map services for those that are published on our ArcGIS Server and consumed through the ESRI API in our assessment application, which is enough for most day to day analysis, but it has no flexibility or customization.
Assessors are able to do an advanced search in the assessment application for some specific combination of data (say 1.5 story, C quality, Urban Residential properties sold in 2024) and then have those properties highlighted on the map in the ESRI API, but that is the extent of their custom visualization. They can see one specific selection set in one highlight colour at one time. They don’t, for instance, have the ability to show the above query on the map with B, C, and D quality houses displayed in different colours to differentiate them. Even if they are not GIS professionals, that ability would make their jobs a lot easier.
So, our Assessment Analysts have a choice between viewing a single query at a time on the map or waiting three days in the queue for me to make them a custom ad-hock map. There is a gaping chasm between those two extremes that is just crying out for software to fill it.
Job Security:
The kneejerk reaction to this suggestion might be a concern that if the staff can all make their own maps, what do they need the GIS Analysts/Cartographers for?
My experience back in the 1990’s working for the US EPA when many of the staff were given access to ArcView (the original, pre ArcGIS Desktop ArcView) was that this just led to more interesting map requests. It got non-GIS staff thinking spatially so that they would think to ask for maps that would never have occurred to them before. Yes, they would make a lot of maps themselves, but it would not take long for a non-GIS analyst to reach the extent of their mapping skill and need a professional to take their maps to the next level, or make their crude map into something of a presentation quality.
Simple mapping software would need:
- To be inexpensive. It would be a supplemental tool for non-GIS staff so hard to justify if it cost too much.
- Be able to open and access GIS data.
- The ability to set display criteria.
- Be able to display points, lines, and polygons with custom symbology. (Colour, point symbols, line type.)
- Be able to add text/labels to the map, with the ability to move that text if not placed correctly on the first try.
- Ability to be able to adjust font, size, and colour of text.
- The ability to save file, export as .jpg or .pdf and the ability to print the map.
It does not take a lot of functionality to impress when you are comparing it to taking a screenshot into Windows Paint to add labels.
