Mature Support for Raster Basemaps in the ArcGIS Platform

Esri have announced that Vector Tile Basemaps are to become the primary version of basemaps, so Raster Basemaps will move into Mature Support. During 2020 Esri have already moved several Raster Basemap services into Mature Support, and in July 2021 other Raster Basemap services will also be moved.

What’s Changing?

In 2020, the raster basemaps that entered Mature Support were:

• Arctic Ocean Reference

• DeLorme World Base Map

• World Ocean Reference

In 2021, the raster basemaps entering Mature Support are scheduled to be:

• World Dark Gray Base & World Dark Gray Reference

• World Light Gray Base & World Light Gray Reference

• India Dark Gray Base & India Dark Gray Reference

• India Light Gray Base & India Light Gray Reference

• World Boundaries and Places

• World Hybrid Overlay

• World Transportation

• NatGeo World Map

• World Street Map

• World Topo Map

How do we manage the change?

When a raster basemap service is in Mature Support, this indicates that there will no longer be any updates to the service as Esri will focus their updates on vector basemap services. In the UK we have already prepared for this migration by redesigning the basemaps we provide in line with OS Zoomstack:

• GB Background

• GB Cartographic

• GB Light Grey

• GB Dark Grey

• GB Topographic

• GB Cartographic Local Names

• GB Base OS Outdoors Style

It is recommended that all users migrate to the vector versions of these basemaps wherever possible. You can find them in ArcGIS Online In the Living Atlas content page, from Categories select Basemap then Vector tiles. For example, Filter by Category: Vector tiles & Region: United Kingdom and only the UK Vector Tile basemaps will be shown in the list.

If you have any questions about this change, please contact Esri UK Technical Support