Santa Clara City has been recognized with Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for the innovative use of GIS technology to improve public safety coordination and situational awareness during the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship PGA Tour event at Black Desert Resort.
Esri’s SAG Awards recognize organizations around the world that demonstrate outstanding achievement and innovation through the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. With more than 700,000 Esri customers worldwide, this recognition reflects the dedication, collaboration, and innovation of the teams who developed this solution.
Project Goal
Santa Clara City’s goal was to improve operational coordination and situational awareness for public safety agencies during the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship PGA Tour event at Black Desert Resort, which hosted more than 30,000 spectators.
Large events create complex operational environments where multiple agencies must coordinate across large areas with rapidly changing conditions. Santa Clara City sought to provide incident command with a unified operational picture of the golf course and surrounding areas so responders could quickly identify incidents, monitor personnel, and coordinate resources.
By leveraging ArcGIS technology and high resolution drone imagery, the team developed a detailed operational map of the event footprint, including individual golf holes and key locations throughout the venue. This provided police, fire, and command staff with real time operational visibility, improving communication, response coordination, and overall event safety.
Technology Implemented
Santa Clara City implemented an ArcGIS based operational platform that integrated mapping technology, drone imagery, and emergency dispatch data to create a shared operational view for public safety teams.
Using ArcGIS Mission integrated with ArcGIS Enterprise, incident command and field personnel were able to view personnel locations, operational information, and incident activity in real time. High resolution orthomosaic imagery of the golf course and surrounding areas was captured using drone technology and processed to support detailed operational mapping.
A custom integration with the Spillman CAD system allowed emergency calls and active incidents to be continuously fed into the ArcGIS Enterprise GeoDatabase, allowing dispatch activity to appear within the operational map within seconds. This provided public safety teams with a common operating picture and improved their ability to coordinate resources throughout the event.
Development Team
This project was made possible through the collaboration and expertise of individuals across Santa Clara City departments.
Lance Haynie, Director of Government Affairs and IT Services for Santa Clara City, coordinated the city’s ArcGIS deployment, implementation of ArcGIS Mission, and cross department collaboration required for the project.
Ryan Levsey, IT Manager, built and supported the infrastructure behind the solution, including ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, networking, and the custom integrations that connected Spillman CAD data in near real time.
Rich Preston, GIS Analyst specializing in fire service operations, conducted drone flights, created high resolution imagery, and developed the operational GIS layers used to map the course and support incident coordination.
This effort would not have been possible without the leadership and support of Police Chief Jaron Studley and Fire Chief Dan Cazier, whose vision and commitment to improving emergency response capabilities were instrumental to the project’s success.
Continuing Innovation Through GIS
Santa Clara City is proud to be recognized for using innovative technology to improve public safety and better serve residents and visitors. The GIS solutions developed for the Black Desert PGA event provide a repeatable framework for supporting future large scale events and complex emergency response operations.
Learn more about Santa Clara City’s Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award on the Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award project page.
