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You may be familiar with the USAID funded DHS Program Spatial Data Repository (SDR) and use it to access spatial and non-spatial indicator data produced by The DHS Program surveys. However, if you have not visited recently or are new to the tool check it out today!
There are brand new features, like a Model Dataset to use for familiarizing yourself with The DHS Program data, lesser known features like Geospatial Covariates and Modeled Surfaces and even some amazing new visualizations under construction that will debut in spring 2024.
The new Model Dataset is useful for learning how to use DHS Program data to produce your own results.
The SDR is a custom application built with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python, Node and other tools. It relies on Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise for serving boundary files, Python tools for creating customized datasets and The DHS Program Indicator Data API for instant access to the vast universe of DHS Program survey data and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting and serverless solutions. Blue Raster is a trusted technology partner to The DHS Program with over 15 years of dedicated service to the USAID funded project.
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
From replenishing and regulating the human body to nurturing and fueling our environments, water is a valuable commodity that we cannot live without. In areas where rainfall can be unreliable, or drought often occurs—such as the western United States—alternative methods must be used to supply water to impacted communities and their agricultural regions. With the frequency of droughts in California, groundwater pumping is a widely-used tactic to combat the scarcity of natural water placement, but in time the groundwater used must be recharged to avoid an imbalance.
That’s why the Groundwater Recharge Assessment Tool (GRAT) was developed in partnership with The Earth Genome and Sustainable Conservation. It’s a valuable decision support tool that enables Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to identify and prioritize potential groundwater replenishment options to achieve sustainable groundwater supplies. This technical tool was originally created for the Madera and Tulare Irrigation Districts and the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District to help model recharge scenarios across different fields using various recharge types. The goal was to help these districts understand where water is, how it can get to crop fields, and how it can be used to prepare for droughts—all while being more sustainable.
Building Out the Application
With data from the districts and complex, analytical logic provided by The Earth Genome and Sustainable Conservation, Blue Raster was able to help design and develop GRAT using ArcGIS Enterprise and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. The application allows users from select California water districts to adjust water availability scenarios, recharge types, and specific crops used in the analysis. The application details site locations, fields’ recharge suitability, and impacted crop types, and visually shows on the map sites where water is placed. A series of charts and graphs provide information on groundwater change, recharge by crop, unused water available for recharge, and costs associated with the proposed recharge.
Blue Raster was responsible for preparing the data for use in the application and converting the analysis logic to an interactive mapping application. Our team formatted the datasets provided by the districts to create the crop layer, apply indices that rank and prioritize sites as well as determine suitability, and allow for different scenarios to be run against the GRAT logic.
Looking Towards the Future of GRAT
With GRAT being utilized by other GSAs in California, various water districts have expressed the need for more map-centric, data-visualized applications. In 2022, we helped launch the Turlock Subbasin GRAT for the East and West Turlock Subbasins. Similar in purpose and design to the original GRAT tool, the Turlock Subbasin GRAT also features enhancements related to proposed projects that could impact how water reaches fields and is placed and introduces new recharge types.
With the concentrated efforts of The Earth Genome and Sustainable Conservation, and using the GRAT platform, additional water districts throughout Central California can implement more effective and environmental solutions for groundwater recharge. The Blue Raster team looks forward to partnering with both organizations to help ensure groundwater balance and effective management now and into the future.
Interested in Learning More About GRAT?
Contact us to learn more about this application or to discuss how interactive mapping technology can enhance your data.
Established in 1891 and covering 250 acres in the Bronx, New York Botanical Garden is the largest urban public garden in the United States. With the beauty of the collections, landscapes, and gardens it's no wonder why over one million people visit the garden annually. Looking to upgrade their public mapping presence and expand internal use of GIS, NYBG and Blue Raster partnered to develop PlantTracker. Replacing a previous tool, PlantTracker is the online catalog of NYBG's living collections used to find plants, navigate the grounds, get plant information, view photographs, and take curated tours.
PlantTracker aides the public onsite and from home and also daily workflows of NYBG staff and the institutions educational programs rely on the tool. Funded through an IMLS Grant, PlantTracker replaces the legacy Garden Navigator application and provides an enhanced user experience with a map-centric and mobile-first design.
Blue Raster first deigned a GIS architecture environment and installed and configured ArcGIS Enterprise. Next, Blue Raster had to create many spatial datasets for use in GIS by converting existing CAD files and tables. This included working with exports of plants managed through BG-Base, totaling over 143,000 living and historical records. The GIS Team at Blue Raster improved the spatial accuracy of almost 700 location codes used for mapping and outlining the main garden locations. Plant photo workflows were also upgraded by integrating with the Asset Bank API.
In addition to PlantTracker, GIS upgrades allowed the opportunity to integrate Esri mobile workflows for staff. Configuration with ArcGIS Field Maps and Workforce for ArcGIS expands plant mapping workflows, allowing workers to update existing location, condition and measurement data in the field. Blue Raster works closely with BG-Base to sync both systems through a series of Python scripts that run nightly and as often as every five minutes. This means NYBG can continue to use BG-Base as the system-of-record for their collections, but take full advantage of GIS for mapping applications and field workflows.
NYBG has embraced GIS in a big way. In short time, a lot has been done to improve public and staff workflows around mapping. Explore NYBG PlantTracker to see for yourself!
Learn more about Blue Raster's work with public gardens, cemeteries, and arboretums here.
Modern Solutions for Addressing Today’s Public Health Challenges
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) aims to strengthen family physicians and the communities they care for through prevention and public health initiatives. As part of this effort, their innovation arm, HealthLandscape, develops geospatial data visualization to help the community find insights to improve health care.
Zeroing in on Community Health Demographics
Blue Raster has been working with the organization for over a decade, creating and modernizing GIS solutions. Recently, the team moved the Community Data Portal from Flash to Java Script.
Using this portal, health providers and public health officials can filter the data most important to their communities and their area of practice. The configurable tool enables users to explore demographic, education, income, and health disparities and can be configured for any geographic area. The tool can ingest datasets from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid…the possibilities are endless. Users can create side-by-side maps between indicators (for example, diabetes and poverty) to visualize potential relationships. Additionally, users can overlay infrastructure data such as interstate networks or locations of health facilities and start to visualize patterns between the two. Graphs and charts are available to see the numbers behind the data and reports can be automatically run off the filters. The solution uses Esri ArcGIS API for JavaScript, Node, React, and ArcGIS Enterprise and Portal for ArcGIS.
Meeting the Demands of High Risk Populations
Similarly, Blue Raster developed the Local Needs Assessment application that helps identify high-risk areas based on social determinants of health (“cold spots”) and poor health outcomes (“hot spots”). Identifying and mapping these high-risk areas allows for targeted approaches. The solution allows users to explore relationships between these two and identify outliers by creating scatter plots. In addition, users can customize this solution to examine childhood health, geographic population health, mental health and more public health indicators.
Health organizations are developing innovative ways to harness the data integration and spatial visualization power of GIS.
GIS plays a critical role in determining where and when to intervene, improving the quality of care, increasing accessibility of service, finding more cost-effective delivery modes, and preserving patient confidentiality while satisfying the needs of the research community for data accessibility. Contact us today to learn more!