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.

Tag: WordPress

Map Creation Made Easy With WRI’s MapBuilder

At Blue Raster, we pride ourselves on our longstanding relationships with our clients. We’ve been a steadfast partner with the World Resources Institute (WRI)—a research organization that works to solve global challenges—for many years, and in 2016, we helped them launch MapBuilder, a configurable ArcGIS Online template, for their Global Forest Watch (GFW) program. The GFW program is an online platform that grants users access to valuable, real-time information about the status of forests all around the world.

image

Making MapBuilder More User-Friendly

In 2022, our team assisted WRI with some updates to make MapBuilder more user-friendly for the general public to access and use. To do so, we created a WordPress site that provides a workflow to create a configuration file and offers step-by-step tutorials on the following:

  • How to set up an ArcGIS online account
  • How to create your own map within the MapBuilder application
  • How to share your map

WRI asked the question: “What if the general public could use their own inputs with WRI’s spatial data to create analytical, interactive maps that show forests, tree cover loss, land use, and more?” Blue Raster answered the call and now WRI’s MapBuilder tool allows users to create custom maps that combine their unique metrics with the global organization’s robust datasets and layers using ArcGIS Online. One of the most notable qualities of the application is that users can integrate it with both organizational and free ArcGIS Online accounts.

Integrating Deforestation Alerts

In addition to the public accessibility updates, WRI wanted to integrate deforestation alerts into MapBuilder, combining multiple deforestation calculations into one layer. With so many organizations now interested in forest conservation, MapBuilder gives any individual the ability to build their own maps and visualizations leveraging WRI's existing deforestation records. Users can access WRI's data and use the pre-designed ArcGIS Online template to input information and then output the results as a product to reference for research purposes.

Now more people can make educated, well-researched decisions on environmental priorities such as impact, restoration, or conservation thanks to the easy-to-use MapBuilder application and the updates that Blue Raster made in 2022. We look forward to continuing our partnership with WRI and helping change people’s lives and how they view and treat the world we live in.

Mekong Monitor – Providing Vital Insight for River-dependent Communities

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.

Mekong MonitorBlue 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.

Mekong Monitor

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.

Mekong Monitor

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.


Page 1 of 3