Cartezan is a new company founded to continue the innovative work of the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS and the Esri ArcGIS for Parks and Gardens solution program that is dedicated to creating professional geographic information solutions for landscape management and conservation.

While we are not devout followers of the French philosopher, René Descartes, who are called Cartesians, our work would not be possible without the coordinate system that was named after him.

At Cartezan, we believe that if you can’t be present in the landscape, a geographic information system (GIS) is the next best thing. A GIS uses variations on the Cartesian coordinate system to visually locate, collect, manage, and present just about any kind of information you can gather about the features in your landscape.

When our founder was tasked with mapping the landscape and living plant collections of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden in 2005 it quickly became apparent that there was a great need for standards and intuitive tools for managing and sharing geographic information at public gardens. Through funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and collaboration with botanical gardens and zoos worldwide, the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS and the ArcGIS Public Garden Data Model were established. This work was continued through the Esri ArcGIS for Parks and Gardens solutions program, and has now evolved into Cartezan to serve arboreta, botanical gardens, campuses, cemeteries, golf courses, parks, zoos, and all managed landscapes.

Cartezan is here to help you with every stage of your mapping project from planning your mapping system to launching a mobile interpretive application for your visitors. Through our work as the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS we have helped institutions like the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Mount Auburn Cemetery, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and many more launch and grow successful GIS programs. We encourage you to explore our products, services and resources to discover how Cartezan can help you and your organization with all of your landscape mapping needs and to contact us with any questions.