The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has licensed the Microsoft� Virtual Earth� platform on which to develop its mission-critical geospatial and mapping applications. The commitment to Virtual Earth will improve data sharing, analysis and insight for partner agencies, citizens and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on topics ranging from superfund sites and oil spills to waterways and the quality of beach water.

EPA sought an easy-to-use solution that includes maps and imagery that can be integrated into its numerous line-of-business applications, such as Web-based mapping applications, and environmental monitoring systems to better serve EPA programs.

Virtual Earth provides an accurate digital representation of the Earth. Agencies and other organizations can layer their unique data on top of Virtual Earth, allowing them to focus on their core missions instead of creating base map data. Virtual Earth is the only existing platform that offers developers and end users the ability to work with and view satellite, aerial, oblique and 3-D imagery of the Earth.