Climate Archives | Blue Raster

Many organizations prioritize the accessibility of imagery and image-derived products for visualization and analysis among both internal and external users. As such, efficient management and delivery workflows are crucial for these organizations to fully harness the power of spatial data and maximize their product impact. Use cases for aerial images and raster data include land cover classification, urban planning, natural resource management, emergency response and disaster management, precision agriculture and conservation, environmental monitoring and change detection/climate change analysis.

Blue Raster specializes in utilizing the robust capabilities of GIS and cloud services to facilitate the seamless assembly, analysis, management and dissemination of multiresolution imagery, and raster data from different sources and timeframes. Our expertise helps organizations enhance their spatial data management and analysis capabilities.

Employing ArcGIS for Imagery Hosting, Analysis & Management

Empowered by cutting-edge technology, Blue Raster excels in tapping into the full potential of ArcGIS for image hosting, analysis, and delivery workflows across ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Online. With ArcGIS Image Server and ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online, we enable organizations to host and conduct dynamic imagery analysis on an unprecedented scale.

The scalability and performance of ArcGIS Image Server redefines the boundaries of what is achievable in geospatial analytics. Additionally, by integrating imagery into the ArcGIS Online platform, organizations can create compelling and informative maps that facilitate a deeper understanding of their spatial data.

Providing On-Demand Imagery Delivery Services

We specialize in providing swift, on-demand collection and smooth delivery of imagery through versatile means including API keys, custom widgets, online user interfaces, and application plugins. Our expertise ensures that you have the necessary tools and support to cater to diverse requirements and preferences.

Whether you need quick access to specific imagery, or a tailored solution embedded within your applications, Blue Raster stands ready to assist, offering a range of flexible and efficient options to meet your unique needs.

Furthermore, we recognize the importance of seamless delivery workflows in ensuring timely access to critical imagery resources. Our solutions are designed to optimize delivery pipelines, minimizing latency and maximizing efficiency. Whether it's delivering imagery to remote field teams or integrating seamlessly with existing systems, we prioritize speed, reliability, and scalability to meet the dynamic needs of our clients.

Our commitment to innovation extends beyond just technology; it's ingrained in our culture. We're constantly exploring new ways to push the boundaries of what's possible, whether it's through advancements in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, or data visualization. By staying at the forefront of technological innovation, we empower our clients to stay ahead of the curve and achieve their objectives with confidence. Our teams of professionals are here to assist you in developing and deploying your delivery workflows.

Pioneering Collaborative Cloud-Based Imagery Management

For over a decade, Blue Raster has been working with clients and partners to deliver large volumes of imagery to support various geospatial workflows. Our cloud specialty has opened new frontiers for collaborative management. Maximizing the cloud's scalability, organizations can now store, share, and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time. This not only streamlines internal processes but also facilitates effortless collaboration with external stakeholders.

Across the globe, our clients and partners are employing our services to manage and deliver their imagery to support their projects and organizational goals. Here are some examples:

Learn more about our work here

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As the effects of a warming climate become more apparent, it’s increasingly important to consider ways to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere. Forests play a key role in the climate crisis, as about a third of human emitted greenhouse gases are sequestered in trees and forests. Analyzing the impact these forests and tress have using land use and land cover change data is a great way for municipalities to get a read on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions in their own communities.

Blue Raster is pleased to release the new build for the LEARN (Land Emissions and Removals Navigator) Tool. Built in partnership with Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and the World Resources Institute (WRI), the LEARN Tool allows for community inventorying of the effects of land use change on greenhouse gas emissions. This tool empowers policy makers, local governments, and community members to make informed decisions on environmental and climate policy. Blue Raster developed the LEARN Tool to address a significant gap in existing carbon accounting methods. Traditionally, previously analyses have focused on measuring their emissions from energy and transportation sectors, while the emissions and removals from land-use change and forestry have been overlooked. However, these land-based emissions and removals are responsible for a significant proportion of the carbon footprint, particularly in rural areas.

The LEARN Tool simplifies the process of assessing a community's net greenhouse gas balance. Users can quickly select their area of interest by searching for a municipality name or uploading their own shapefile. With intuitive sliders, users can configure their desired land cover and tree canopy data and choose data for forest and land cover change between 2001 and 2019, as well as data for trees outside of forests for the selected time frame. The analysis is generated for the chosen location and time frame, and users can compare their results against other cities and municipalities. The tool provides emission factors, removal factors, and harvested wood products as view factors for the selected comparison area, with the option to download the results as a PDF or CSV file.

The latest version of the LEARN Tool comes packed with new features that improve its functionality. Users now have access to 1m Tree Canopy Data within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, courtesy of the Chesapeake Bay Program and Chesapeake Conservancy, providing users with valuable insights into how trees and forests impact greenhouse gas inventories. The inventory period configuration screen has also been upgraded with new toggle widgets, offering users greater flexibility in selecting between 30m and 1m data in their analyses. These new features enhance the user experience and expand the tool's capabilities, making it even more valuable for communities looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Blue Raster is excited to roll out this tool in its final form to benefit communities across the country.

Software used: ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Image Server, Esri JavaScript API

Introducing the National Audubon Society’s Migratory Bird Project: Bird Migration Explorer

Since 1905, the National Audubon Society has worked to protect birds and the places they depend on for survival through science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. With over 500 chapters across the United States, the National Audubon Society is known by many for its impeccable and expansive conservation work.

With the launch of its Bird Migration Explorer platform in September 2022, Audubon and its partners hope to teach users—including birders, conservationists, researchers, and even the general public—about the joys, complexities, and unique connections of migration. Through a partnership with Blue Raster, the platform tells the stories of migratory birds across the hemisphere, features mapping of over 450 species’ travels, and visualizes the conservation needs of high priority areas. Our team was able to help make this application a reality by configuring, publishing, and visualizing data from over 400 research studies.

Exploring the Bird Migration Explorer’s Maps

Working with Postlight for all processing and publishing of datasets, and using Esri’s GIS software, Blue Raster was able to utilize ArcGIS Online to work with all of the given data and design the intricate and interactive maps within the digital Bird Migration Explorer experience.

When the Explorer first opens, it prompts users to select a bird species. This opens the Species Migration Map, which displays the movement and migration of the selected bird throughout the hemisphere each year using real tracking data. With the precision of the tracking data being an important element to each bird’s journey, our team had to find a way to depict the accuracy of the technology used—such as GPS tagging or banding—to follow each species. Using purple dots for low precision and yellow dots for high precison, we were able to successfully illustrate the differences in tracking methods.

The Species Connections Map shows where tagged birds have been re-encountered as they travel across the hemisphere using tracking, banding, automated radio telemetry, and genetics data. The Conservation Challenges Map combines migration data with conservation challenges data to show where, when, and how birds are exposed to issues such as climate change, urbanization, pollution, and more throughout the year. We used time enabled data layers for the threat locations and the weekly location of the birds to showcase the most threating areas to each species during migration. This feature helps users understand their impact on the lives of these birds and how they can improve their journeys.

How We Helped Audubon’s App Take Flight

Blue Raster configured this data in a PostgreSQL enterprise geodatabase, calculated connections using spatial joins, and set up automation processes using Python to publish and manage updates to these datasets. This system was used across all species migration, species connections, and conservation challenges datasets to generate the incredible mapping for the Bird Migration Explorer. We also created a scripting process for writing and formatting citations using the Zotero API which are applied to each dataset on ArcGIS Online.

Ready to experience the full annual migration for over 450 bird species? Check out Blue Raster’s work for the Bird Migration Explorer now!

Blue Raster Can Bring Your Story to Life

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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.

Blue 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.

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.

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.

As communities around the United States seek to mitigate the impact of climate change by reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the importance of land use to the GHG balance has become more apparent. About one third of human caused GHG emissions each year are sequestered in forests and trees but most communities do not include forests and trees in their inventories. To help fill this gap, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) developed the Land Emissions and Removals Navigator (LEARN) tool.

The LEARN tool provides an intuitive step-by-step workflow for communities to assess their net GHG balance based on land-use and land-cover changes. Once users have selected or uploaded their municipal boundaries and inventory period, the tool calculates land cover change using National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. Users can then explore a change image to quickly see where areas are being converted to and from forests.

As the characteristics of the forests within the municipality impacts the amount of carbon emitted or removed, the change image is then compared to a carbon stock map developed from US Forest Service data based on the age and type of forest. NLCD tree canopy data is also used to identify addition or removal of trees-outside of forests to ensure a comprehensive assessment. Forest disturbance data for insects, fires, and other disturbances are also incorporated into the GHG balance. Finally, users can input the value of GHG removals from Harvested Wood Products (HWP) within the inventory period as HWP continue to sequester carbon.

Once the user has gone through the four simple steps to complete the audit, they are presented with an easy-to-understand table showing their community’s Net GHG Balance and the source of the emissions and removals. A PDF report and CSV data are also available to provide detailed analysis of the land-use and land-cover change with charts and graphs as well as the carbon factors for emissions and removals used.

The LEARN Tool was developed using the Esri JavaScript API and ArcGIS Image Server to provide the analysis.

Our Work

Blue Raster Pioneering Imagery Management Technology and Delivery Workflows with ArcGIS

Employing ArcGIS for Imagery Hosting, Analysis & Management

Providing On-Demand Imagery Delivery Services

Pioneering Collaborative Cloud-Based Imagery Management

Contact Us

New Features in the LEARN Tool Expand Functionality for Assessing GHG Emissions from Land Use

National Audubon Society’s Bird Migration Explorer

Introducing the National Audubon Society’s Migratory Bird Project: Bird Migration Explorer

Exploring the Bird Migration Explorer’s Maps

How We Helped Audubon’s App Take Flight

Blue Raster Can Bring Your Story to Life

Mekong Monitor – Providing Vital Insight for River-dependent Communities

Estimating Community GHG Emissions from Land Use Change