Baton Rouge, La. — November 15, 2021 — Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced today that the City-Parish will celebrate 2021 International GIS Day on Nov. 17 with a public workshop from 6-8 p.m. at the River Center Branch Library’s fourth floor conference room, 250 North Blvd. Residents can also join the hybrid event virtually by pre-registering at gisday.brla.gov.

“Each year, our community comes together to celebrate International GIS Day and learn more about the role GIS plays in making our community better and the services our City-Parish delivers more efficient and effective for our residents,” said Mayor Broome. “This year’s workshop will build on our annual celebration of GIS, connecting the residents we serve with relevant information and free resources they can use in their daily lives.”

In addition to the public workshop, City-Parish GIS staff have developed a GIS Day gallery to commemorate Baton Rouge’s annual GIS celebration. The gallery is on display on the first floor of the East Baton Rouge Main Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., and online at https://arcg.is/5j8Ti. 

The workshop will feature numerous guest speakers, including local experts and City-Parish GIS staff, discussing how the GIS, or geographic information system, is used to improve quality of life, government operations, and citizen services in East Baton Rouge Parish. 

Workshop topics will include a GIS analysis of dropout rates in Louisiana public high schools; how flood maps are developed using remote sensing techniques and GIS; the role of GIS in mapping the National Oil Spill Database; and an overview of the state of the City-Parish’s GIS program that will showcase the many free tools and resources available to all residents.

In addition to learning more about GIS and how it is used daily throughout East Baton Rouge Parish, attendees will have the opportunity to win one of five free ArcGIS for Personal Use licenses, courtesy of Esri, the global leader in location intelligence.

For more information, visit gisday.brla.gov.