"And the Winner is"......Department of Education & Science Award Special Achievement in GIS.

2010-08-10

And the Winner is.....

The Esri International User Conference took place in San Diego last month and was attended by over 13,000 delegates from around the world. An integral part of the conference every year is the announcement of the SAG Award (Special Achievement in GIS).

We're delighted to announce the Department of Education & Science as this year's recipient.

The Department of Education & Science (DES) is using GIS to help anticipate where 100,000 new school places will need to be created over the next seven years. The GIS allows the Planning and Building Unit to help in planning the location of schools.

The forward planning team now has easy access to on a national basis, the differing age cohorts of the school going population (ages 0-18) residing within each electoral district and enumeration area as per the 2006 census; how many schools are within each electoral district and enumeration area; total enrollment for each school; likely demand in each area; and where surplus/deficits may exist - ultimately resulting in better outcomes and results in terms of transparency, more efficient government expenditure and better service provision for the school going public.

In addition DES has recently completed a Web GIS solution to disseminate this type of GIS data throughout the department. Marie Hogan, GIS Consultant, Esri Ireland was there to collect the award on behalf of the department (pictured below with Jack Dangermond, Esri President).