Venezuelan Architects and Urban Planners Receive ESRI Award

The award goes to individuals or organisations that use GIS innovatively to significantly change an organisation, our society, or the environment. The couple was praised for helping pioneer the use of GIS in South America and better the lives of people living in Venezuela's barrios. As architects and urban designers, Giusti de Pérez and Pérez have used GIS technology on many projects to study poverty and analyse where to locate community services and infrastructure in squatter developments, where 50 percent of Venezuela's population lives.

They told the compelling story of how GIS can help transform poor neighborhoods into more modern, livable communities in Analyzing Urban Poverty: GIS for the Developing World, a book that ESRI Press released earlier this year.