GIS Technology Expanded to All 15 UNU Campuses

Redlands, California — February 22, 2010 — ESRI and United Nations University (UNU) recently approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the university’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. They will collaborate on research, create Centers of Excellence, promote the exchange of graduate students, and provide geographic information system (GIS) training opportunities within and by UNU.

“This agreement will promote enhanced spatial information use in UNU’s research and education initiatives,” said UNU rector and under-secretary-general of the United Nations professor Konrad Osterwalder. “It will also support the increased presence of young researchers at UNU campuses and complement existing and planned research and education programs.”

Adds Michael Gould, ESRI director of education solutions, “The MOU will help connect promising graduate students to real-world problems, such as climate change, water resource management, food security, natural hazards, and sustainable development, and critical issues being researched at UNU institutes using GIS. ESRI is pleased to be able to support their efforts.”

UNU has used ArcGIS software since 2006. Projects include the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System, which documents and analyzes transboundary wildlife trade for monitoring purposes and compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The university has also used GIS to assess flood risk and analyze climate and land-use change impacts on water resources in the Asia Pacific region.

For more information about ESRI's higher education program, visit www.esri.com/university.

About UNU

United Nations University is an autonomous organ of the UN General Assembly dedicated to generating and transferring knowledge and strengthening capacities relevant to global issues of human security, development, and welfare. The university operates through a worldwide network of research and training institutes, coordinated by UNU Centre in Tokyo.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com/news.



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