Media

Identifying Connectivity Across US Communities

Posted on by Andrew Patterson

Blue Raster recently collaborated with New America on a story map highlighting city and community connectedness across the US. The story map looks at 25 different community focused networks working to help cities and counties solve a wide-range of challenges including climate change, criminal justice, and homelessness. The story map was developed in conjunction with a larger publication by New America focusing on the contribution that community networking makes to renewal and revival.

New America Story Map

To better understand the factors that contribute to a city’s overall connectivity, New America asked our team to enrich their data with indicators such as population, Tapestry Segmentation, and MSA to determine if there were patterns and trends among the most networked communities. Population turned out to be one of the biggest contributing factors to a city’s overall connection.

Top 10 Most Connected Metro Areas (2018)

To visualize connectivity of both cities and communities simultaneously, the Blue Raster team used a combination of heat map cartography in addition to point and polygon data to show where overlaps occur between cities, communities, counties, and states.

Our team also built customized pop-ups through ArcGIS Online. Using SQL Query syntax we were able to make pop-ups that are customized to each network depending on the type of data in that network, whether it be cities, communities, counties, or any combination of geographies..

Check out the story map, and see how well connected your own community is by reading New America’s full report!

New Paper Identifying Emerging Hot Spots of Deforestation

Posted on by Christina Nordling

Blue Raster is proud to have worked with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Esri Big Data Team to co-author the study, Using Spatial Statistics to Identify Emerging Hot Spots of Forest Loss.

Published in Environmental Research Letters, the study lays out the data-analysis workflow Blue Raster developed to identify trends in tree-cover loss in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 2000 and 2014. Using Esri’s emerging hot spot analysis and big data analysis techniques, Blue Raster identified persistent, accelerating, and new hot spots of tree-cover loss, as well as cold spots of diminishing loss. New forest policies such as logging moratoria and incentives were linked with reduced forest clearing, whereas timber harvesting, road-building, and agricultural land clearing were associated with hot spots.

Techniques identified in the study will help decision makers, technical experts and the broader public better understand trends in deforestation and improve forest monitoring going forward. While the article focuses on Brazil, Indonesia, and the DRC, the methodology can be scaled for larger or smaller regions, as well as for different windows in time.

Accompanying the paper, Blue Raster produced maps of intensifying, sporadic, and new hot spots of deforestation for each area of interest. The visuals indicate a broad range of trends including:

  • Shifting spatiotemporal patterns of loss in Brazil, with forest loss significantly diminishing within the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia and intensifying within the cerrado biome;
  • New and statistically significant hot spots of forest loss in 2013 and 2014 in West Kalimanta, Indonesia; and
  • The emergence of vast areas of DRC as significant new hot spots of forest loss, with intensified loss radiating out from city centers such as Beni and Kisangani.

The release of the article coincides with the World Economic Forum, an event where 20 of the world’s largest commodity producers, traders, manufacturers, consultants, and retailers launched a new partnership with research institutions and banks to monitor deforestation and manage sustainability from farm to customer. The partnership, led by WRI’s Global Forest Watch team, will focus on building an online global decision-support tool that builds on the GFW Commodities platform to increase transparency and traceability across supply chains.

Read the full publication by WRI, Blue Raster, and Esri online at IOP Science.

Local Students Celebrate GIS Day at Blue Raster

Posted on by Christina Nordling

Arlington School Students at Blue Raster GIS DayOn November 16th, we celebrated GIS Day by inviting GIS students from Washington-Lee High School to visit Blue Raster. Led by teacher, Ryan Miller, Washington-Lee offers several technology classes linked to James Madison University. For the fifth year, Blue Raster has hosted the class, giving students insight into the connection between what they learn in the classroom and the work GIS professionals do in the world today.

The Blue Raster team shared real-world GIS success stories through a round of lightning talk presentations on ongoing projects and then invited the students to use their GIS skills with a fun Collector for ArcGIS challenge. After collecting and mapping data on transportation in their county, students saw the application of GIS in a new meaningful way.

Ryan Miller“It’s such a tremendous asset to be able to link my high school GIS students with the professionals at Blue Raster. Blue Raster’s willingness to dedicate time, effort and resources, into a GIS day collaboration, benefits my students as they get to observe incredible GIS work and potential career opportunities. The students and I are so grateful to Mike, Stephen and to the entire Blue Raster team.”

  — Ryan Miller, Teacher @APSVirginia and Meteorologist @ABC7NEWS

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We wrapped up the day with viewing their data collection in the Operations Dashboard and enjoying some pizza and desserts.

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Blue Raster at the White House AAPI Data Challenge

Posted on by Christina Nordling


Elevate: AAPI Data ChallengeBlue Raster is excited to attend and present at the 2016 White House Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Data Challenge & Convening on October 7th. The event highlights the importance of AAPI data and how it can be used to improve outcomes in areas including education, health, and civic participation.

Christina Phang will tell the story — Language of the Election — how a little known provision of the Voting Rights Act brings bilingual voting materials and ballots to minority-language citizens. The talk will highlight how we used a story map and geographic visualizations to bring a temporarily relevant topic to life. This presentation is part of a collaboration between Blue Raster and Esri. For more information about the event, visit the White House’s Elevate: AAPI Data Challenge event site.
 

cphang2“Every vote matters, and language should not be a barrier to participation. Our ArcGIS Online Story Map shares how a little known provision of the Voting Rights Act invites participation and enfranchises minority-language speaking communities, and you may be surprised which community is growing the fastest.”
Christina Phang, Blue Raster

See how an ArcGIS Story Map delivers a platform for sharing ideas and telling stories that matter:

aapi-storymap

Blue Raster now an Esri Federal Small Business Specialist

Posted on by Megan Gottfried

Blue Raster is proud to announce our participation in Esri’s Federal Small Business Program. This program creates opportunities for small businesses to deepen Geographic Information System (GIS) skills and prepare for upcoming federal procurements. The program offers a variety of outreach such as business development boot camps, hands-on technical workshops, and access to marketing and community events. Access to these benefits promotes good practices in business development, and prepares our developer staff to be the most knowledgeable in the GIS and Application Development fields as possible.

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Under this program, Blue Raster will work closely with Esri, providing comprehensive service to the federal government. Involvement in the Federal Small Business Program is just one of the ways Blue Raster is constantly striving to be experts in the latest Esri technology, allowing us to deliver the best value to our many federal customers.

For more information about the Federal Small Business Specialty, visit the Esri News announcement.

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