FREDERICTON, Esri Canada User Conference  – Esri Canada today presented the NB 911 Bureau, a branch of the New Brunswick Department of Justice and Public Safety, with an Award of Excellence for its outstanding use of geographic information system (GIS) technology. The Bureau has leveraged GIS to develop AddressNB, a point-based, web-centric civic address system that improves support for current 911 operations in New Brunswick and paves the way for next-generation 911 services. It has also developed GIS tools to maintain the New Brunswick Road Network (NBRN), which will become the province’s single, authoritative source of road data.

“NB 911 Bureau’s innovative use of GIS has significant impact on enhancing public safety,” said Alex Miller, president, Esri Canada. “With projects such as AddressNB and NBRN, the Bureau is transforming how civic address and road datasets are managed and shared, making the processes more efficient. Having accurate address and road data significantly improves the delivery of emergency services, as well as other public services across New Brunswick.”

“Our goal for AddressNB was to develop a dynamic GIS that would meet or exceed next generation 911 requirements. With Esri Canada’s help, we’ve reached that goal,” said Diane Pelletier, director, NB 911 Bureau. “In addition to supporting new map-based applications like AddressNB and NBRN, Esri’s ArcGIS technology has helped us modernize workflows for data maintenance, access and exchange, allowing for more effective collaboration with our partners and stakeholders.”

AddressNB
AddressNB is a map-based online information system that replaces the province’s legacy civic address system. It stores both civic addresses and corresponding geographic location points in a single database. The system is designed to route 911 calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)—the province has six municipal PSAPs—where it provides emergency operators with callers’ address information and physical location on a map. In tandem with NBRN, it displays optimal routes and driving directions for the nearest available first responders.

AddressNB is powered by ArcGIS Server and an enterprise geodatabase. The Bureau used ArcGIS Desktop to develop its province-wide civic address point layer and continues to use this application to maintain its data. The new GIS-based civic address system, with its intuitive visual interface, not only improves the user experience but also makes it easier to maintain and share information with partner organizations.

NBRN
In 2014, the NB 911 Bureau partnered with Ambulance New Brunswick, Service New Brunswick and a private consultant to develop the New Brunswick Road Network. The project’s goal was to establish a single, authoritative source of provincial road data, replacing redundant and inconsistent datasets previously used by government departments and partner organizations. NBRN features a complete dataset of the province’s roads including attributes such as road names, classes, speed limits, surface types and address ranges.

The Bureau assumed responsibility for maintaining NBRN this past summer. With help from Esri Canada, the Bureau has been using ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro to implement Address Data Management tools for managing road attributes and ArcGIS Data Reviewer for automating quality review processes for spatial data.

As well, the Bureau, along with several of the province’s larger municipalities, is participating in the GeoFoundation Exchange (GFX), a national open data exchange program that leverages cloud-based services for the cost-effective sharing of accurate and authoritative geographic base mapping data.

To learn more about ArcGIS, visit esri.ca/arcgis.

About Esri Canada
Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography.  The company distributes the world’s leading GIS software from Esri, Schneider Electric, Cityworks–Azteca Systems, LLC and other technology partners.  Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Esri Canada joined the elite rank of Canada’s Best Managed companies in 2012 and became a Gold Standard winner in 2015. The company has also been named to the Branham300. More information can be found at esri.ca. Follow Esri Canada on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.