Our Work

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mapping technology. Make your message clear, exciting,
and user-friendly for both mobile and web platforms.

ArcGIS Hub

Creating Effective Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Resources for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management

In 2020, the State of Nevada’s Department of Public Safety began discussing the possibility of using Esri’s ArcGIS disaster response and damage assessment solutions to support emergency preparedness, response, and recovery more efficiently and effectively within its Division of Emergency Management (DEM). With Blue Raster’s extensive knowledge on these configurable solutions, Nevada’s DEM selected our team to partner together to build out the Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) Tool utilizing ArcGIS in Nevada’s specific environment.

NVDEM Damage Assessment

With the PDA Tool, Nevada’s DEM is able to:

  • Conduct initial damage assessments following natural disaster(s) or destructive event(s)
  • Capture the extent and severity of damage to property
  • Streamline evaluation of need for resources and acquisition of resources after disaster(s)
  • Aid emergency management
  • Collect damage reports
  • Perform initial assessments
  • Monitor the impact of disaster(s)
  • Provide critical information to stakeholders and the public

For the next few months, our team collected the necessary data to bring into the ArcGIS applications; configured and tested the disaster-management capabilities; and created several workflows in ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Hub, Survey123, and ArcGIS Dashboards that would soon be presented to Nevada representatives from the state and local levels, as well as tribal lands.

To successfully build out the services Nevada DEM needed, our team also collaborated with Esri to secure the purchasing of Surge Licensing activated through Esri’s Disaster Response Program and requested through the State. With Surge Licensing, the division can request as many additional licenses as needed during the time of a disaster response without having to manage a large number of users on a day-to-day basis.

Nevada DEM’s PDA Tool utilizes:

  • ArcGIS Online to host and serve out content to the applications within the PDA Tool—including ArcGIS Dashboards, Survey123, and ArcGIS Hub
  • ArcGIS Dashboards to provide a comprehensive, at-a-glance view of the data and monitor trends
  • Survey123 so data can be collected via forms that are built into the tool; this includes operational surveys that can be accessed through the Damage Assessment Content group

ArcGIS Hub which offers a public site for county and local users and an internal destination for Nevada DEM; it also serves as a platform for connection and engagement between government entities and residents and promotes resources and data that are useful to the community

ArcGIS Experience Builder which is the configurable solution Blue Raster used to build the PDA Tool web application

In 2022, once the PDA Tool was in a good place, Nevada DEM brought in stakeholders—who were county officials, DEM employees, and local community and tribal leaders—so our team could deliver a series of trainings in their Emergency Operation Centers (EOC). Blue Raster GIS Analyst Andrew Patterson traveled to Carson City and Las Vegas to provide on-site, day-long trainings at the Nevada EOCs. These sessions included hands-on demonstrations, out-in-the-field practice, and thorough documentation so attendees could take what they learned during the training back to their communities and teach other people how to use this beneficial tool.

“Providing on-site training for Nevada DEM was a fantastic learning and teaching experience. I was able to work directly with the DEM’s GIS project manager and lead grants coordinator to provide day-long trainings at both the Carson City EOC and North Las Vegas City Hall. We used these trainings to not only showcase and teach the Preliminary Damage Assessment Tool but to also provide education on damage assessment best practices and its importance.” – Andrew Patterson, GIS Analyst, Blue Raster

NVDEM Training

Be Prepared in the Face of a Disaster

Blue Raster excels in creating fully operational emergency-management solutions. Interested in learning more? Contact us today to tell us more about your needs.

Georgia Uses GIS to Match Voters with Polling Places

Ahead of the November 2022 election, the Georgia Secretary of State (SOS) Elections Division approached Esri and Blue Raster to develop an efficient, well-defined process for mapping registered voters—helping election officials ensure voters were assigned to the proper polling places after redistricting. With nearly 8 million registered voters spread across 159 counties, Georgia officials needed an affordable and efficient solution to geocode each voter in the state with a verification process that could be overseen and managed at the state and county levels. This new tool would need to be active and ready for use by the end of February 2022—a turnaround time of less than two months—in addition to training election officials.

Meeting the Distinct Needs of Georgia SOS

The Georgia SOS Elections Division required one resource that would:

  • House every county’s unique voter data
  • Alert election officials of any inconsistencies within the system
  • Allow election officials to make necessary corrections
  • Account for a variety of users and levels of permission—as state election officials would need to access records for the entire state, while officials in each county would only be granted access to the data pertaining to their jurisdiction

To accomplish the massive task of geocoding nearly 8 million registered voters, Esri and Blue Raster applied the ArcGIS System including ArcGIS Pro on its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment to process Georgia’s entire voter data file in just a matter of hours. ArcGIS StreetMap Premium allowed for fast and accurate geocoding of addresses to the building and street level. Mapped voters were intersected with new district boundaries to confirm voter assignments. With the process finalized, the team worked quickly to automate it, allowing the voter file to be received each month and fully processed and geocoded within 48 hours to ensure its ongoing accuracy.

Process overview for the 2022 Redistricting Quality Assurance Tool.
Process overview for the 2022 Redistricting Quality Assurance Tool.

Customizing 159+ Dashboards for County and State Election Officials

Once a solution was presented for geocoding, Esri and Blue Raster used the Georgia SOS 2022 Redistricting Quality Assurance Tool—an interactive, online mapping resource developed using ArcGIS Hub—to make voter data at the state and county levels accessible to Georgia’s election officials. The innovative tool features:

  1. A central landing page that is viewable to all users with an account
  2. Unique ArcGIS Dashboards that are only viewable to their corresponding state or county officials
  3. 159 automated Hub pages for each county that include instructional information and can only be accessed within officials’ jurisdiction
  4. Maps of voting districts in officials’ counties and action items they need to address, including any voter records to review
  5. Voter details—such as where they’re mapped based on the geocoding to confirm the voter is assigned to the correct polling location
  6. CSV files for voting district assignments that need to be reviewed and for any addresses that could not be placed on the map
Every time voter registration data is updated, any voter records that expose a discrepancy are flagged, and local staff can quickly review each record.
Every time voter registration data is updated, any voter records that expose a discrepancy are flagged, and local staff can quickly review each record.

By the end of February 2022, Esri and Blue Raster successfully trained Georgia election officials on the 2022 Redistricting Quality Assurance Tool to verify the accuracy of their voter records. The statewide voter record was updated monthly, and geocoded, with updates published to the Hub pages, maps, and reviewable records available within 48 hours. Election officials were reviewing their county Hub pages regularly and reporting back to the Elections Division when updates were made in the voter registration database. This ensured consistent reporting of voter record review progress and official sign-off of completion from Georgia SOS.

Video walkthrough resource provided to all Georgia election officials.
Video walkthrough resource provided to all Georgia election officials.

Explore Blue Raster’s Elections Services

See how our team can help you make sense of your voter registration files and analyses leading up to the next election—and beyond! 

Driving Forward with VDOT’s Integrated Directional Signing Program

While driving on the highway you likely find yourself looking at signs lining the road to determine your next meal, gas stop, or a place to stay. You probably do not consider that there is a directional signing program that manages the accuracy of these signs, but you trust the information and services they provide. 

In Virginia, Blue Raster partnered with Directional Signing Program (DSP) to put in place Esri workflows that help ensure you can trust these signs. Using ArcGIS Online, Field Maps, Survey123, Workforce, and Dashboards, the signing program at VDOT has never been more interactive and in real-time. The Integrated Directional Signing Program (IDSP) includes over 16,000 signs across the State and is comprised of:

  • Logo Guide Signs - Blue highway signs with gas, food and lodging company logos
  • Tourist-Oriented Directional Signs - Blue highways signs with directional information, no company logos
  • Supplemental Guide Signs - Cultural, recreational, education and historic guide signs
  • General Motorist Service Signs - Generic symbols representing Gas, Food, Lodging, Hospitals and Camping
  • Historic Markers - Signs depicting historic information about places, people or events

directional sign

Blue Raster's workflows for field GIS allow DSP and other VDOT contractors to inventory and update the status of every sign in the IDSP. The initial inventory of all 16,000 signs was completed in just 5 weeks with the help of Field Maps and offline capabilities. Since then, routine inspections for condition and retroreflectivity, construction inspections, or maintenance work orders for signs has been managed in GIS with Esri's field applications. Data from the field crews feed a series of dashboards configured to show key metrics and status to VDOT in real-time.

Beyond just VDOT, the IDSP is made up of the customers on the signs and the public. Through hosted web maps and Survey123 forms, there is now the ability for both customers and the public to view an interactive map of all the signs in the IDSP (with current image), provide general feedback on the program, and report sign issues or knockdowns.

directional signing program

Integrating ArcGIS into the IDSP allows for significant improvements to data collection, understanding of assets, efficiency, reporting and tracking goals. Continued work with DSP and VDOT includes developing StoryMaps around the Historic Marker Program, leveraging Business Analyst to attract new customers and understand interchange saturation and vacancies, and better use of imagery including 360 degree capture. All of this work makes the IDSP better, and provides a better experience to drivers in Virginia.

Green Keeper Africa – Utilizing Invasive Plant Species to Mitigate Lake Pollution in Benin

The water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant found in Lake Nokoué in the southern area of Benin. This plant grows rapidly, forming thick layers on the water, shading out other plants. As it decays, it depletes oxygen levels, impacting the fish and other aquatic life in the lake. In addition to the ecological impacts, the hyacinth also has economic impacts, clogging up transportation routes. The hyacinth fiber has a high-performance absorption power for all types of liquids, from dyes to crude oil and heavy fuel oil. Green Keeper Africa created a transformation path that takes harvested hyacinths and converts them into an absorptive product that can soak up oil spills.

Building an Economic Engine

In order to produce the absorption solutions, Green Keeper Africa works with local communities to collect and prepare the hyacinth for production. The company needed more visibility into the growth patterns to be able to set pricing each season and direct harvesters to the most abundant areas.

Blue Raster developed an application that uses an algorithm to detect water hyacinth in satellite imagery. The application also gathers data from water sensors currently being prototyped by MIT as well as other ground data and water quality readings. Green Keeper uses this view of real time and historic data to fairly set prices and plan for harvest areas they need to support.

Green Keeper Africa

Beyond Hyacinth Tracking

This application can help promote additional sustainable and profitable uses of Lake Nokoué. Acadja is a fishing method where dense masses of branches are set in an area to attract fish in large numbers for harvesting. The Blue Raster application can use footage from drones to map the placement of the Acadjas, overlaying that information with other data to track environmental impacts and/or present alternate locations or methods that may result in more fish with less environmental impact.

Contact us to learn more about how Blue Raster can customize applications for you!

 

Mekong Monitor – Providing Vital Insight for River-dependent Communities

The Mekong River runs through six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, and Vietnam. It provides a livelihood and natural resources for over 60 million people. New upstream dams in China are changing the waterflow, creating a huge impact on the countries and people that depend on the river. Using the Mekong Dam Monitor as a tool, the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program and Eyes on Earth, Inc committed to working with countries to gain more visibility into the flow of the river and better plan for water availability.

Mekong MonitorBlue Raster developed the Mekong Dam Monitor to provide unprecedented transparency of the flow of water and conditions of dams and reservoirs along the Mekong River. Using satellite data as well as weather and water gauge data, the monitor provides visibility into what is happening upstream, giving a comprehensive near-real time view of the current state of the Mekong basin along with historic conditions. This allows people all along the river and those advocating for more equitable and sustainable use of the river to understand and plan for changes in the levels of the river.

Mekong Monitor

In late 2021, Blue Raster integrated WordPress into the application, making it easier for the project administrators to make updates to the site themselves. The site also received an update to the UI, making it more mobile friendly to support growing field use. Finally, the team also coordinated making the site available in six local languages, increasing the access to this valuable data on water levels and projected water flow.

Mekong Monitor

Blue Raster is proud to continue to support this project, providing real time visibility and reporting on impacts of up river decisions on the various communities that rely on the Mekong.


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