ArcGIS Online

Conducting Research and Data Analysis for The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Restoration Opportunities Project

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental nonprofit that works to conserve the vital bodies of water and land on our planet, and it is also a long-term partner of Blue Raster. From 2021 until 2023, Blue Raster once again collaborated with TNC to help the organization with a project that aims to restore critical coastal habitats.

Determining Goals for TNC’s Coastal Restoration Opportunities Project

TNC required Blue Raster’s support in meeting its main goals for the Coastal Restoration Opportunities project, which included:

  • Delineating, mapping, and quantifying coastal restoration opportunities for five coastal habitats in the United States
  • Establishing natural historical and current habitat occurrences through research, subject matter expert surveys, and literature reviews
  • Creating interactive restoration opportunities maps

A Mission Rooted in History

Unlike some of the past projects for TNC, this one did not involve an application build-out. Instead, Blue Raster’s Abigail Krump and Jen Kern worked closely with TNC staffer, Bryan DeAngelis, and ocean resiliency expert, Annick Cros, to find, analyze, document, and map valuable datasets for the project. The five main datasets, which are habitats targeted for restoration opportunities, include:

  1. Oyster beds
  2. Salt marshes
  3. Mangroves
  4. Seagrass beds
  5. Kelp

In order to establish a historical baseline for the Coastal Restoration Opportunities project, Krump and Kern had to look at existing datasets from the government, satellite imagery, old scientific papers, and more. Inside the scientific papers, Krump and Kern often found hand-sketched maps or survey notes, which they then transformed into interactive restoration opportunities maps.

Coastal Restoration Opportunities
Coastal Restoration Opportunities

Impacting the Future of Restoration

The historic data collected by both teams has been published in various scientific journals and is available for scientists and coastal habitat experts to use for their own purposes, but the main goal is for it to be used to support and build cases for funding coastal restoration projects.

And the influence of TNC’s Coastal Restoration Opportunities project hasn’t halted since Blue Raster completed the research, data analysis, and map creation to produce the historical benchmarking resource the nonprofit requested. In fact, the datasets are already being used to support the pending legislation of California Assembly Bill 1407, the Ocean Life Recovery Act. If passed, Assembly Bill 1407 would protect California’s ocean ecosystems, including kelp, eelgrass, and native oysters, by launching essential restoration projects with the necessary backing from the state.

Could your organization’s data help change the world? Find out with research and data analysis support from Blue Raster.

Making Coastal Habitat Mapping Possible with Clark Labs

coastal habitat monitoring

Blue Raster is helping Clark Labs, an entity of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, with critical enhancements to its coastal habitat web mapping application that tracks and maps mangroves, pond aquaculture, and coastal habitats from all around the globe. Created in partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in support of the Foundation’s Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative, the Brackish Pond Aquaculture and Coastal Wetlands interactive map will help to protect and conserve coastal habitats and marine life from overconsumption.

Task 1: Enhancements and Infrastructure Maintenance

The coastal habitat monitoring application was originally built using open-source technology; however, our expertise was requested to enhance the application to meet current industry standards using Esri technology. To start the process, we began with Amazon AWS Cloud and GeoServer infrastructure maintenance and enhancements. This task required stabilizing and improving the infrastructure for the coastal habitat web map application. To do so, our team completed the following requirements:

  • Ensured the SSL certificate was set up and renewed automatically.
  • Reviewed hosting security and software versions to confirm the site is secure.
  • Migrated the download function to CloudFront for improved user experience.

Clark Labs also wanted to simplify the aquaculture application, so our team implemented new services for improved data management, reduced cost, and better performance. This also included migration from GeoServer to ArcGIS Online to streamline management.

Task 2: Data Updates

After the infrastructure maintenance and application enhancements were made, the application was handed off to the backend team at Blue Raster. Data updates were established on an as-needed basis to the coastal habitat web map application, with Blue Raster providing guidance for updating Clark Labs' web map data content when a data update is available and ready for publishing. The application depends on Landsat imagery data to complete change detections for its interactive map, so it’s crucial for tracking purposes that the conversion data is updated accurately.

Task 3: Code Maintenance

Our Blue Raster developers also played a role in the code maintenance for the coastal habitat web map. They were responsible for reviewing existing web applications and publishing practices code to determine what could be reused and enhanced for Clark Labs’ application. Our developers revised existing software scripts where it was applicable, enacted performance improvements to the front-end user experience, and reviewed existing designs and flagged any updates that required alterations.

What's Next for the Coastal Habitat Web Map

Currently, the Blue Raster team is in the process of transferring the Brackish Pond Aquaculture and Coastal Wetlands web map from open-source technology to Esri technology, but the improved infrastructure, data updates, and current code maintenance will help us ensure that the web map application is functioning properly and providing users with a better-quality experience.

Explore Clark Labs’ Interactive Web Map for Brackish Pond Aquaculture and Coastal Wetlands >

Esri Streams Real-Time Data to ArcGIS Online with Velocity

It’s no secret that data empowers educated decision-making; however, with our rapidly evolving data landscape, this cannot be a stagnant process. As the need for real-time data continues to rise, the options that allow us to access the most current information only get better.

To offer this level of real-time data monitoring to ArcGIS Online users, Esri developed ArcGIS Velocity to integrate with IoT sensors, allowing users improved access to up-to-the-minute data. ArcGIS Velocity is Esri’s cloud-based Saas Solution for near real-time data streaming and Big Data Analytics. Similar to how Geoevent for ArcGIS Enterprise allows the ingestion and visualization of data streams, Velocity takes advantage of Kubernetes in the cloud to offer streaming and analytics of massive-scale datasets—that would otherwise be too large for analysis without dedicated computing infrastructure.

ArcGIS Velocity Brings Data Streaming and Big Data Analytics to Our Fingertips

ArcGIS Velocity allows users to configure data feeds from cloud service providers such as Azure and AWS, web messaging formats like HTTP and RSS, or directly from Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) providers, such as Geotab. Once a data feed has been established, the stream can be integrated directly into ArcGIS Online anywhere there is support for Stream Services.

Users can also use the established feed as a source in Velocity Analytics to enhance the feed with outside data sources or make on-the-fly calculations before being published as a Hosted Feature Service in ArcGIS Online. Enhancements include:

  • Adding indicators from Esri’s Living Atlas using spatial joins
  • Summarizing values from multiple sources to create a composite score or average sensor reading over time
  • Calculating motions statistics like compass bearing and movement speeds for AVL

Velocity also allows for multiple feature layers to be published from the same source, making it possible to keep a historic archive of all data collected from a feed for long-term analysis while also separately publishing the most up-to-date data.

Velocity’s Big Data Analytics gives users the ability to analyze massive amounts of data without the need for their own on-premises or cloud infrastructure. Taking advantage of Kubernetes to allow for scalable processing, users have access to Velocity’s cloud infrastructure to run large-scale analysis on data from sources such as:

  • Data in their own existing feeds and historic feature services
  • Hosted services published to the web
  • Datasets hosted in cloud storage—like Azure Blob Storage and Amazon S3

Big Data Analytics in Velocity gives users the ability to process massive datasets, including multiple CSVs from S3 hosting millions of individual data records, and create a predictive model of things like forest loss, crime hotspots, or future crop yields based on previously collected data.

AVL

Deploying ArcGIS Velocity for Blue Raster’s Local Government Clients

Blue Raster understands the value ArcGIS Velocity can bring to customers. Since 2020, we have been working with the City of Manassas Park in Northern Virginia to implement ArcGIS workflows and solutions citywide—supporting law enforcement, fire safety, zoning, public works, and more.

Manassas Park needed the ability to visualize AVL in some of their public safety vehicles. We were able to configure two feeds as an early concept for the city—making them an early user and success story for ArcGIS Velocity.

  1. The first feed was processed from AVL units through Azure Event Hub to ArcGIS Velocity.
  2. The second feed was for the city Computer Aided Dispatch that is served by an HTTP service using Azure Function Apps to prepare the data for ArcGIS Velocity.

The work for Manassas Park was even the focus of an Esri case study—published in the fall of 2022—highlighting the adoption of ArcGIS Velocity by a city government. This story has also been presented by Esri and Blue Raster at FedGIS 2023.

As the need for real-time data monitoring expands, Blue Raster is excited to share the success of ArcGIS Velocity for Manassas Park as we explore ways to increase the use of Velocity for more of the Manassas Park fleet. ArcGIS Velocity offers a unique product for real-time data visualization and incorporation into many applications on the ArcGIS Platform, as well as seamless integration into existing Cloud GIS Infrastructure with the added benefit of access to Big Data Analytics.

Real-Time Data Experts

As an Esri Gold Business Partner in the State and Local Specialty, Blue Raster is the service provider you can trust with your real-time data needs.

Saratoga County Launches Substance Use Surveillance Dashboard

Saratoga County Dashboard

Saratoga County officials have been determined to find a way to address and combat the opioid epidemic in Upstate New York. On February 7, 2023, the Saratoga County Department of Health launched a tool called the Substance Use Surveillance Dashboard to help enhance the county’s opioid education, prevention, treatment, and response efforts.

The near real-time resource consists of an easy-to-navigate dashboard that houses informative data for Saratoga County professionals in law enforcement, public health, and mental health, as well as community partners who focus on substance use support services.

From Vision to Reality: Building the Substance Use Surveillance Dashboard

Blue Raster worked with epidemiologists from the Saratoga County Department of Health to design and configure the dashboard. Through a series of learning sessions, our team took Saratoga County’s vision and visualization ideas and brought them to life. Built on the ArcGIS Platform, we utilized Python scripts to update the dashboard’s key metrics for overdoses—shown through various graphs, charts, and a map by zip code. The dashboard also displays a series of charts and tables illustrating the epidemic over the years and through demographic breakdowns.

The Powerful Impact of GIS

At Blue Raster, we introduce federal, state, and local government clients, as well as global organizations, to the power of maps and GIS products as a way to respond to some of the largest health issues we face today. Saratoga County’s Substance Use Surveillance Dashboard is now another resource for local officials across multiple departments to use to educate and prevent further opioid use, provide treatment, and respond to overdoses with real-time knowledge.

“The opioid epidemic has devastated communities throughout the U.S. and like national and state trends, heroin and fentanyl continue to be key drivers of overdose deaths in Saratoga County. This dashboard will provide critical information for the County to implement effective strategies and initiatives to mitigate the effects of the opioid epidemic in our communities and the Health and Human Services Committee remains focused on supporting our county departments in these efforts.”

- Supervisor Phil Barrett (Clifton Park), Chair of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Health and Human Services Committee

 *Source: https://www.saratogacountyny.gov/latest-news/

Map Creation Made Easy With WRI’s MapBuilder

At Blue Raster, we pride ourselves on our longstanding relationships with our clients. We’ve been a steadfast partner with the World Resources Institute (WRI)—a research organization that works to solve global challenges—for many years, and in 2016, we helped them launch MapBuilder, a configurable ArcGIS Online template, for their Global Forest Watch (GFW) program. The GFW program is an online platform that grants users access to valuable, real-time information about the status of forests all around the world.

image

Making MapBuilder More User-Friendly

In 2022, our team assisted WRI with some updates to make MapBuilder more user-friendly for the general public to access and use. To do so, we created a WordPress site that provides a workflow to create a configuration file and offers step-by-step tutorials on the following:

  • How to set up an ArcGIS online account
  • How to create your own map within the MapBuilder application
  • How to share your map

WRI asked the question: “What if the general public could use their own inputs with WRI’s spatial data to create analytical, interactive maps that show forests, tree cover loss, land use, and more?” Blue Raster answered the call and now WRI’s MapBuilder tool allows users to create custom maps that combine their unique metrics with the global organization’s robust datasets and layers using ArcGIS Online. One of the most notable qualities of the application is that users can integrate it with both organizational and free ArcGIS Online accounts.

Integrating Deforestation Alerts

In addition to the public accessibility updates, WRI wanted to integrate deforestation alerts into MapBuilder, combining multiple deforestation calculations into one layer. With so many organizations now interested in forest conservation, MapBuilder gives any individual the ability to build their own maps and visualizations leveraging WRI's existing deforestation records. Users can access WRI's data and use the pre-designed ArcGIS Online template to input information and then output the results as a product to reference for research purposes.

Now more people can make educated, well-researched decisions on environmental priorities such as impact, restoration, or conservation thanks to the easy-to-use MapBuilder application and the updates that Blue Raster made in 2022. We look forward to continuing our partnership with WRI and helping change people’s lives and how they view and treat the world we live in.


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