Our Work

Blue Raster helps you tell your story through interactive
mapping technology. Make your message clear, exciting,
and user-friendly for both mobile and web platforms.

Women in Science

Templeton Roots & Shoots Prizes: Honoring International Changemakers Who Are Making A Difference

Blue Raster is proud to announce another project from our long running collaboration with The Jane Goodall Institute.

Among Jane Goodall's many vital programs is Roots & Shoots, with the mission to empower young people to affect positive change in their communities.

In 2023, JGI collaborated with the John Templeton Foundation to award the Templeton Roots & Shoots Prizes.

Jane Goodall Templeton StoryMap

From the JGI website: "The Templeton Roots & Shoots Prizes are an extension of the partnership between JGI and the John Templeton Foundation to elevate the extraordinary efforts of visionary youth leaders and their adult mentors worldwide.  Awardees were selected based on their exceptional work with Roots & Shoots at the intersection of science, compassion, and community – specifically those who exemplify curiosity and wonder and the pursuit of knowledge, as well as the expression of compassion towards people, other animals and the environment we share."

When Erin Griffin, Director of Partnerships, Jane Goodall Institute-USA sought a novel way to showcase the 30 winners of the inaugural Templeton Roots & Shoots Prizes she turned to trusted partner Blue Raster and the concept of an ArcGIS StoryMap.

The StoryMap showcases the 2023 winners and features an interactive map, videos and a brief write up of each winner and their vital contributions.

StoryMap screenshot

Blue Raster built several StoryMaps for The Jane Goodall Institute. The platform is ideal for visual story telling, with or without a map based visualization.

Check out the Templeton Roots & Shoots Prizes StoryMap, honoring international changemakers who are making a difference today!

Templeton StoryMap

Ready to tell your story?

Contact Us

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Jane’s Green Hope: Blue Raster supports 87 Years of Jane Goodall’s Impact

For over 60 years, Dr. Jane Goodall has inspired and motivated millions of people around the globe to live in greater harmony with nature and to take action on behalf of the planet we share. To celebrate her 87th birthday, Dr. Goodall is asking you to pledge to make a difference via the Jane’s Green Hope campaign,

Jane’s Green Hope Pledge

In the fight against biodiversity loss and the Climate Crisis, restoration, regeneration, and protection of global forests are some of our greatest hopes. Join Jane and thousands of people from around the world in taking action to create a greener future for all by making a pledge to the Jane’s Green Hope (#JanesGreenHope) campaign.

Jane and the Jane Goodall Institute’s efforts to protect and restore forests are part of the Trillion Trees initiative. It emphasizes the potential of forests to improve wellbeing and livelihoods for local and indigenous communities, combat climate change, and protect global biodiversity. Every individual can make a difference.

To support this goal, the Jane Goodall Institute asked longtime partner Blue Raster (read about past efforts here) to develop a pledge action response form and dashboard using Esri’s Survey123 , ArcGIS Online Web Maps and ArcGIS Dashboards.  At the end of the campaign, the map will be presented to Dr. Goodall so she can see the global reach of the campaign. YOUR efforts will be on that map if you take the pledge and follow it up with action! Join the  Jane’s Green Hope campaign today!

Jane's Green Hope campaign celebrates Jane Goodall's 87th birthday

Jane Goodall and the Blue Raster Team

Jane's Green Hope campaign celebrates Jane Goodall's 87th birthday

Action Response Form developed by Blue Raster

TAKE ACTION FOR FORESTS & GREENING YOUR COMMUNITY

Pledge to plant, protect, and/or restore native trees and forests, and engage in greening your community. Visit Jane’s Green Hope on the web and take action for the world today!  https://janegoodall.org/make-a-difference/janes-green-hope/

Celebrating 60 Years of Discovery with Jane Goodall

DISCOVERY, INNOVATION & HOPE

On July 14th, 1960, a young Jane Goodall would arrive in Gombe, Tanzania to begin her study of wild chimpanzees. Six decades later, the same Dr. Goodall is a forerunner in the field of animal behavior, an innovator in community-led conservation, and a scientist whose work will continue to influence future generations of researchers.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Dr. Goodall's pioneering research, Blue Raster partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to create a new, interactive story map using Esri's ArcGIS StoryMaps technology. This new story map, titled DISCOVERY, INNOVATION & HOPE, builds on the previously published ENGAGE – LISTEN – UNDERSTAND – ACT, with a greater focus on how Jane’s work changed the world of conservation.

DISCOVERY, INNOVATION & HOPE utilizes the sidecar feature within ArcGIS StoryMaps to demonstrate how the Jane Goodall Institute’s research area has expanded over the past 60 years. Viewers can travel from the Gombe Stream Game Reserve of 1960 to the over six million hectares of land the Institute now works with today by simply scrolling through the maps.

Jane Goodall Institute Story map

Jane Goodall's Influence

A reoccurring theme throughout the Story Map is Jane’s dedication to mentorship. The knowledge and impact of Gombe researchers extends across the globe with over 300 scientific articles produced at the Jane Goodall Institute. An interactive map of affiliated researchers allows readers of the Story Map to learn a little more about the people who continue to study animal behavior in Tanzania.

Jane Goodall Institute Story map
Images courtesy of Vanne Goodall, Nick Riley Photography, Shawn Sweeney, Lilian Pintea, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

The importance of spatial analysis in conservation efforts is also highlighted. Gombe has three distinct communities of chimpanzees: Mitumba, Kasekela, and Kalande. Using long-term data, researchers were able to estimate range maps for the groups, which then informed decisions on habitat restoration. Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS brings these range maps to life by showing chimpanzee community movement from 1973 to 2016. Story map readers can interact with the app to learn about how deforestation and an increase in human settlements have affected each of the chimpanzee groups.

Jane Goodall Institute Story map

Restoration of vital great ape habitats is jointly achieved through natural resource management and local involvement in land-use planning. Connecting spatial information with conservation efforts fosters a more sustainable environments for both humans and chimpanzees.

View the new story map here. For more information about our work with the Jane Goodall Institute, read our blog posts here.

ArcGIS Urban: Take City Development Further

Blue Raster Project Manager Megan Gottfried took her ArcGIS Urban skills to the next level at Esri’s "Deploying ArcGIS Urban" training. The training, held in San Diego just before Esri’s annual User Conference, included other Esri business partners, distributors, and advanced level users from around the world.

ArcGIS Urban is gaining significant attention in the GIS and City Planning & Development industries. The platform is a complete solution allowing municipal planning departments and development-focused NGOs to improve urban planning practices and decision-making on a city-wide scale. Users can use ArcGIS Urban to create 3D renderings of city landscapes, proposed buildings, and compare proposed site projects across key stakeholders.

ArcGIS Urban case study

Megan Gottfried used San Francisco as a study area for development and used ArcGIS Urban technology to assist the city’s urban planners with the growing issue of overcrowding. Key program features such as theoretical population and employment projections helped officials to understand the regional severity of the problem and work to find innovative solutions, while 3D building renderings with zoning and building setback details gave realistic building city scapes for user exploration.

San Francisco City
"Today's advanced GIS software can now model cities in 3D and integrate the full planning workflow, thereby dramatically enhancing efficiency and effectiveness."

- Scott Edmondson, Senior Strategic Sustainability Planner for the City of San Francisco

Other highlights of the training session included a product demo and an overview of the ArcGIS Urban system. in addition, Megan Gottfried was able to learn both the back-end and front-end ArcGIS Urban platform and provide clients with tips and best practices for deployment. Megan tested the many features of the ArcGIS Urban program and created sample projects & planning files for the San Francisco area. The event concluded with a Q&A session where Megan and her colleagues were able to ask questions about the program and troubleshoot some of their problems.

ArcGIS Urban Site Project

Learn More

Blue Raster is excited to begin offering ArcGIS Urban solutions for our clients. Are you interested in harnessing the power of informed planning for your business or municipality? Contact us today!

Contact Us

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

LOOK UP and take a Skyfie

Ever wonder what people in far off places are seeing at the same time you’re looking up at the sky? On October 18, sky-watchers across the globe can take part in a 24-hour phenomenon by using Look Up’s new app, Skyfie, and share their experiences as they look up at our shared sky.

Working with the Dorothy Jemison Foundation, Blue Raster helped develop the Sky Tapestry 3D Globe for the October 18th Look Up event. Dr. Jemison, spearheading the Look Up event, is a physician, engineer, educator and entrepreneur, and was the first woman of color in the world to go into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. She was a NASA astronaut for six years before founding her own technology company and is now the current principal of the 100 Year Starship organization.

The app captures expressions of what individuals see and feel and allows participants to see the sky from a different perspective. Images, audio/video, and text about the sky taken in the mobile app will populate the Sky Tapestry globe in near-real time.

The Sky Tapestry is built on Esri’s latest 3D Globe technology. Skyfies from the mobile app populate a Google Firebase database. Blue Raster developed a Node.js script to push records from Skyfie to an ArcGIS Online feature layer, which display on the Globe.

“I believe the impact of looking up at the sky can be as profound as seeing the Earth from space orbit. Especially when it’s a shared, worldwide experience!”  – Dr. Mae Jemison

Download the app for iOS or Android and take part in Look Up! Follow the #LookUpTogether, #Skyfie and #lookuponesky tags on social media for news and updates about this global event.

 

 


Page 1 of 2