Mapping the Nation: Navigating Complex Challenges continues the pattern of annual national mapping books from Esri that highlight inspiring GIS work by the public sector. This year, this book focuses on the many ways GIS can help governments face challenges in multiple, specific areas, such as public safety and population growth.

These stories highlight how GIS was applied to understand and address various challenges and how the public sector uses GIS to serve all people. Mapping the Nation: Navigating Complex Challenges details how GIS helps gather details about people and place to assist in understanding the issue and making decisions. These stories provide a sample of the work of thousands of public sector professionals around the world who are using GIS to navigate this new territory. They detail how governments at a local, national, and global scale turn to GIS for addressing their challenges.

Governments have applied GIS to all manner of challenges. Many states and localities used their understanding of their workers and businesses to forecast and address economic hardship, and to plan for contingencies and recovery. Cities across the country have used GIS to examine and understand who they serve—and who they leave out—to adjust budgets to address inequities.

In this time of crisis, we have seen the value of a societal GIS with governments embracing it from the point of seeing details on a dashboard to the delivery of assistance.