gis-enterprise-domain

name	gis-enterprise-domain
description	Use when administering ArcGIS Enterprise or building real-estate-specific GIS features — ArcGIS components, publishing services, security/roles, backup/DR, plus property search, neighbourhood analysis, catchment/isochrones, market heatmaps, and real-estate-SaaS integration.
metadata	{"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

Enterprise and Domain GIS

Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, [phone].

Use When

• Use when administering ArcGIS Enterprise or building real-estate-specific GIS features — ArcGIS components, publishing services, security/roles, backup/DR, plus property search, neighbourhood analysis, catchment/isochrones, market heatmaps, and real-estate-SaaS integration.

Evidence Produced

Category	Artifact	Format	Example
Operability	ArcGIS Enterprise admin runbook	Markdown doc per skill-composition-standards/references/runbook-template.md covering portal, Server, and Data Store ops	docs/gis/arcgis-runbook.md
Data safety	Real-estate domain data model	Markdown doc per skill-composition-standards/references/entity-model-template.md covering parcel, ownership, and valuation entities	docs/gis/real-estate-model.md

References

• Use the references/ directory for deep detail after reading the core workflow below.

ArcGIS Enterprise administration for regulated / established GIS environments, plus real-estate-specific GIS patterns that map cleanly to PostGIS + map clients.

Prerequisites: Load the gis-platform-engineering skill for the spatial backend (its gis-postgis-backend reference) and the map client (its gis-mapping or gis-maps-integration reference), and multi-tenant-saas-architecture for tenant isolation.

When this skill applies

• Operating or integrating with ArcGIS Enterprise (Portal, Server, Data Store, Web Adaptor).
• Publishing authoritative GIS services (map, feature, image, geocoding).
• Designing GIS features for real estate: property search, neighbourhood analysis, catchment, market heatmaps.
• Building a real-estate SaaS that needs spatial features at a high bar.

When ArcGIS Enterprise is right

Government / regulated sector with ArcGIS mandated               -> ArcGIS Enterprise
Team already trained on ArcGIS Pro                               -> ArcGIS Enterprise
Need authoritative imagery/demographics datasets under licence    -> ArcGIS Online/Enterprise
Small startup, modern stack, cost-sensitive                       -> PostGIS + Mapbox/MapLibre
You need ESRI-specific analytical tools (Network Analyst)        -> ArcGIS Enterprise

Most SaaS startups pick the PostGIS + OSS map stack. ArcGIS Enterprise earns its cost in sectors where it's already the standard (government, utilities, defence) or when licenced datasets are critical.

See references/when-arcgis-enterprise.md.

ArcGIS Enterprise components

• Portal for ArcGIS — identity, sharing, groups, content catalogue.
• ArcGIS Server — publishes services (map, feature, image, geoprocessing, geocoding).
• Data Store — relational, tile, and spatiotemporal data backends.
• Web Adaptor — IIS/Java web server integration for HTTPS, custom URLs.

Typical base deployment: one of each, highly available variant adds replication for each.

See references/arcgis-components.md.

Publishing services

• Feature services — CRUD + query on features, the workhorse for interactive apps.
• Map services — pre-rendered tiles for fast display at fixed scales.
• Image services — raster data (imagery, DEM).
• Geocoding services — address to coordinate.
• GeoProcessing services — spatial analysis functions as endpoints.

Versioning: branch versioning for concurrent editing without conflicts; default version for most read workloads.

See references/publishing-services.md.

Security + roles

Portal users assigned roles: Viewer, Data Editor, Publisher, Administrator. Groups control sharing.

Server-side Role-Based Access Control on published services. Integrate with enterprise IdP (SAML / OIDC).

Audit logs — enable and ship to the SIEM.

See references/arcgis-security-roles.md.

Backup + DR

1. Portal content — webgisdr utility (export + import).
2. Data Store — automated backups + geo-replicate for HA.
3. Server config — backup the machine's `config-store` directory.
4. Web Adaptor — stateless, reinstall from config.
5. Restore drill quarterly.

webgisdr is authoritative for Portal/Server/Data Store coordinated backup.

See references/arcgis-backup-dr.md.

Real estate GIS recipes

Property search with spatial filters

Filter by district/neighbourhood + within walking distance to transit + inside a school zone:

WITH search_area AS (
  SELECT ST_Union(geom) AS geom FROM districts WHERE code IN ('KAM01', 'KAM02')
), school_zones AS (
  SELECT ST_Union(geom) AS geom FROM zones WHERE type = 'school' AND rating >= 4
), transit AS (
  SELECT ST_Buffer(geom::geography, 800)::geometry AS geom FROM transit_stops  -- 800m walking
)
SELECT l.*
FROM listings l
JOIN search_area s ON ST_Contains(s.geom, l.geom)
JOIN school_zones sz ON ST_Contains(sz.geom, l.geom)
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT 1 FROM transit t WHERE ST_Intersects(t.geom, l.geom) LIMIT 1) tr ON TRUE
WHERE l.tenant_id = :tenant_id AND l.status = 'active';

See references/property-search-spatial.md.

Neighbourhood analysis

For a listing, compute:

• Walk score — count of amenities within 800m / 1600m weighted by category.
• Transit access — nearest N transit stops with travel time.
• Comparables — similar listings within 2 km in last 180 days.
• Demographics — join to census or tenant-provided block statistics.

Cache per-listing summaries; refresh nightly.

See references/neighbourhood-analysis.md.

Catchment / drive-time isochrones

• Simple: buffer by straight-line distance.
• Better: drive-time isochrones from OSRM, Mapbox Isochrone API, or Google Distance Matrix.
• Cache isochrone polygons in PostGIS; key by (point, mode, minutes).
• Use in "find listings I can reach in 20 minutes" features.

CREATE TABLE isochrones (
  id serial PRIMARY KEY,
  point geometry(Point, 4326) NOT NULL,
  mode text NOT NULL,
  minutes int NOT NULL,
  geom geometry(Polygon, 4326) NOT NULL,
  computed_at timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
  UNIQUE (point, mode, minutes)
);

See references/catchment-isochrones.md.

Market heatmaps

Heatmap of listing price per square metre by small area (H3 hex index, grid, or admin boundary):

SELECT h.cell, AVG(l.price_per_sqm) AS avg_price, COUNT(*) AS listings
FROM listings l
JOIN h3_cells_resolution_8 h ON h3_indexes_contain(h.cell, l.geom)
WHERE l.tenant_id = :tenant_id AND l.sold_date > now() - interval '180 days'
GROUP BY h.cell
HAVING COUNT(*) >= 5;

Render client-side as a choropleth on Mapbox/MapLibre. Suppress cells with low N to avoid privacy + noise.

See references/market-heatmaps.md.

Real-estate-SaaS integration

Architecture:

Web app (Next.js/React)
  -> API (Fastify/PHP) reads MySQL listings table
  -> API joins to PostGIS for spatial queries
  -> Client renders map (Mapbox GL with MVT tiles from PostGIS)
  -> Geocoding via Google Places (cached)
  -> Isochrones via Mapbox Isochrone (cached in PostGIS)

Keep transactional listing data in MySQL; keep spatial in PostGIS; keep them linked by listing_id.

See references/real-estate-saas-integration.md.

Anti-patterns

• Double-entry of property location in MySQL and PostGIS without a canonical source.
• Heatmaps rendered per-request without caching (expensive queries every pan/zoom).
• Isochrones computed live instead of cached.
• Exposing raw ArcGIS service URLs on the public internet without auth and rate limits.
• ArcGIS Enterprise on a single node for production (no HA).
• No webgisdr backup schedule.
• Publishing feature services without field-level visibility rules for multi-tenant contexts.

Read next

Decision rules

Condition	Choice	Failure avoided
Governed internal services need ArcGIS tooling	Use ArcGIS Enterprise with explicit HA and backup design	Unsupported single-node production
Public workload is an application-specific spatial API	Prefer PostGIS platform engineering	Excess licensing and operational coupling
Analysis is expensive but inputs change slowly	Precompute and cache by versioned inputs	Repeated isochrone or heatmap cost

Capability contract

Read and search the service inventory, topology rules, roles, and recovery requirements first. Administrative changes require explicit authorisation; execute non-destructive checks only in an approved environment.

Degraded mode

If the ArcGIS environment or service metadata is unavailable, provide a read-only assessment and mark publishing, topology, security, capacity, and recovery conclusions as unverified.

• gis-platform-engineering skill (its gis-postgis-backend reference) — spatial backbone.
• gis-platform-engineering skill (its gis-maps-integration reference) — client mapping.
• multi-tenant-saas-architecture — tenant isolation end-to-end.

References

• references/when-arcgis-enterprise.md
• references/arcgis-components.md
• references/publishing-services.md
• references/arcgis-security-roles.md
• references/arcgis-backup-dr.md
• references/property-search-spatial.md
• references/neighbourhood-analysis.md
• references/catchment-isochrones.md
• references/market-heatmaps.md
• references/real-estate-saas-integration.md
• references/arcgis-pro-workflows.md — geodatabase invariants, topology rules for parcels, branch vs traditional versioning, georeferencing with RMS targets, service pre-flight checklist

Inputs

Artefact	Required?	Purpose
Domain entities, spatial operations, coordinate systems, accuracy, and governance requirements	yes	Model enterprise GIS behaviour

Outputs

• Produce GIS domain model, spatial rules, data quality controls, and operational evidence.