EMS-I and the development team at Aquaveo have entered into a cooperative development agreement with ESRI to develop the Arc Hydro Groundwater data model. As part of this effort, a new suite of tools will be included within ArcGIS for groundwater data input, storage and visualization. This will provide GMS users who also use ArcGIS additional access to the many of the advanced visualization features they are familiar with in GMS.

As a result of this collaboration with ESRI, EMS-I is happy to announce that all GMS users who upgrade to version 6.5 with one years of release will be eligible to receive a free license of ArcView. GMS has long had strong ties to GIS software, with GIS data being necessary as the building blocks for groundwater models. GMS now takes advantage of OpenGIS capabilities allowing GMS users with ArcView licenses to seamlessly and more efficiently import and export GIS data using ArcGIS utilities from within the GMS interface. Having access to the new or additional ArcView licenses will help GMS users perform their groundwater modeling tasks more efficiently, as well as provide them with all the additional capabilities available within ArcView

ArcView licenses will be shipped to our GMS 6.5 users directly through ESRI distribution channels within 4 to 6 weeks of your upgrade to v6.5. Licensees will be responsible for maintenance fees for the ArcView license after the first year. Please watch for the release of the Arc Hydro Groundwater Toolbox with ArcView upgrades late in 2008!