Blue Raster has been chosen to receive the Public Web Application Award for the 2015 Esri Partner Conference. The award is given to a company who demonstrates outstanding and innovative uses of the Esri platform, taking geographic visualization to a higher level. Candidates for the award are nominated by Esri staff, and the selected winner is honored at the 2015 Esri Partner Conference, March 7-10.

Blue Raster’s winning application, Global Forest Watch Fires (GFW Fires), is part of the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform. Launched in July 2014, GFW Fires aims to promote access to information on forest and land fires in Southeast Asia. The fires, often set illegally to clear land for agriculture or used as a tool in conflict over land, produce a toxic haze that threatens human health, the economy, and the environment.

Efforts to stop the fires have been hampered by a lack of concrete evidence regarding who is responsible for starting them. Now, with GFW Fires, everyone from decision makers to local community members can pinpoint fires on company concessions- and use this information to take action. This application was built using Esri ArcGIS Server and Image Server Extension, and uses Digital Globe first look imagery along with the Twilio API for SMS, and includes webservices feeds from many sources including NASA, NOAA and others.

Visit GFW Fires, and learn more about the Global Forest Watch platform.