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.

Environmental Protection Agency

Partner of the Year: Federal Small Business Specialty

Blue Raster is excited to be recognized as the first ever Partner of the Year as part of the Esri Federal Small Business Specialty (FSBS) program. Each of the members has a unique opportunity to connect with the US Federal Government customers and other small business looking for the newest and most creative Esri solutions.

To learn more about our products and federal customers, visit us at the 2017 Esri Fed GIS Conference on February 13-14 at our booth near the small business pavilion, or catch one of our presentations at the Federal Conference:

  • “The Potential of Drones to support Forest and Chimpanzee Conservation”, Phil Satlof and Lillian Pintea from The Jane Goodall Institute, Esri’s Drone Zone, Hall B, Feb 13th at 2:20pm and Feb 14th at 2:00pm
  • “Applying Spatial Analysis Techniques to Make Better Decisions”, Kevin McMaster and Brett Rose from Esri, Feb. 14th, Room 145 A, 8:30am
  • “Small Business Partners Fostering Next Generation GIS”, Amy Ramsdell , Feb. 14th, EXPO Hall Workshop 2, 12:15pm
  • “Analysis and Geoprocessing in ArcGIS Pro”, Chris Gabris, Feb. 14th, Room 146, 4:00pm

Blue Raster has launched several Federal projects in the past year which are featured at the conference, including:

  • Critical Loads Mapper, built for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), helps better understand local and regional vulnerability to atmospheric pollution.
  • The College Map, a collaboration with Sanametrix, and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a search tool to geographically narrow down colleges and filter by major. state, school size, and other common search parameters.
  • STATcompiler and the DHS Program Mobile App now available in French, part of a longstanding partnership with USAID to disseminate demographic and health survey data for over 90 countries.

If you can’t make the Federal Conference, the entire Blue Raster team will be participating in the 2017 Esri Developer Summit March 7-10.

Visualizing Evolution of Atmospheric Deposition

Blue Raster launches the Critical Loads Mapper for the Environmental Protection Agency, the latest tool in a collection of EPA’s Global-Change-Explorer platform. This interactive web application analyzes atmospheric deposition from Nitrogen and Sulfur. Despite abundance in atmosphere and aquatic ecosystems, an excess of Nitrogen can cause significant environmental and health issues, leading to economic impacts across communities. Sulfur, when compounded to form various Sulfur Oxides, can cause health and respiratory problems, damage foliage, and create haze. Working with EPA, Blue Raster created a consolidated source of information, allowing the study of these elements within our ecosystem across a variety of models and timelines.

EPA’s Critical Loads Mapper incorporates a collection of four different respected scientific research efforts, including the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP),  the Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAQ), Total Deposition Science Committee (TDEP), and the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Each group of deposition estimates offers information on a variety of time spans, with some as early as 1851. Concentrations of these pollutants are predicted in deposition models which can help us better understand ecosystems at risk for exceedance of Nitrogen and Sulfur pollution.

In the application, you can overlay Federal lands and Wilderness areas from the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the US Forest Service. In our next release, users will be able to generate Deposition and Exceedance Profiles specific to each area.

With over 500 display options, the Critical Loads Mapper makes it easier for researchers, policy makers, and public officials to access this data, and create styled maps that can be saved, exported, or printed directly from the browser.

The Critical Loads Mapper is optimized to run at high performance, and leverages the ArcGIS Image Server for raster visualization and analysis. In addition, the application is built using Knockout, a JavaScript library that renders JSON (data) objects into html, for a simpler and more dynamic user interface experience. HTML5 Canvas, an html element, is the backbone for all of the on-the-fly printing capabilities. Each component of the application works to support the immense data being supplied while providing a user interface and user experience that is easily navigable and reliable.

Watersheds New Release for EPA

EPA’s Global Change Explorer provides data visualization across all aspects of environmental change and is now available to the public. Blue Raster worked with The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to redesign and improve their Watersheds mapping application, one of the three modeling projects which focuses on the largest 19 watersheds in the United States and how these watersheds are predicted to change under various climate change and urban development scenarios.

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The application explores trends in sediment levels and nutrient loading, enabling viewers to visualize the sensitivity of watersheds nationwide. The sites selected represent a range of geographic, hydrologic, and climatic characteristics of the US.  While several water quality measures are included, the project has particular emphasis on stream flow, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment loads.

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The site’s powerful data visualization is made possible by ArcGIS for Server, the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, and ArcGIS Desktop. To learn more about the project, visit the Watersheds Application and full report publication.

 

New Climate and Land Use Tools for EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partnered with Blue Raster to release a new version of ICLUS (Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios), richly visualizing climate and land-use model scenarios.

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The ICLUS model incorporates:

  • Climate change variables
  • Commercial and industrial growth
  • Enhanced land use and impervious surface coverage relationships

EPA intends to use the results of this first phase of modeling to facilitate investigation of additional impact scenarios including water and air quality. This research will enable more sophisticated model runs evaluating effects of projected climate change on population growth and economic development.

To let users compare and contrast maps, the application features a side-by-side comparison view. Users can easily view up to four maps in parallel, revealing similarities and differences in density and distribution. The maps can be synced to the same dataset, year, and/or location.

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ArcGIS for Server 10.2 and the latest JavaScript API power the upgraded application. ICLUS leverages the powerful visualization components of D3.js and Highcharts.

EPA ICLUS Application

Visit and explore the ICLUS tool today.