Blue Raster Natureserve Synergy Workshop Presentation
1. Corporate Capabilities for Blue Raster
2012
Promoting Synergy in the Innovative Use of Environmental Data Workshop
December 3, 2015
Michael Lippmann, Co-Founder and Principal
2. Michael Lippmann - Blue Raster
• Specialists in GIS and Web Application
Development
• Core Capabilities:
– Interactive Web Mapping Applications
– Mobile Apps
– Advanced Data Analysis
• Small business formed in 2002
• Headquarters in Arlington, VA with clients
worldwide
4. From Data To Visualization
We’ve been using maps for informatics since the 1800’s
5. London Cholera Outbreak – John Snow
LONDON, 1854
In 3 days over 120 dead in London
John Snow was skeptical pollution
was the cause- so he mapped the
incidences and found patterns
6. London Cholera Outbreak- Early Spatial Analysis
Discovered all cases were clustered
around this pump
Early example of power of spatial
analysis/informatics
8. Success Story- Landsat, 1964
Producing big data before data was “big”
Landsat data collected en masse without knowing all the ways it would be used in
the future
9. Investment in Collection of Data -
Unknowns
Vision to collect data for
years/decades
Today we can unlock value of
data and put it to use
13. Motivating Change With Environmental Data
Tree Cover Loss from 2001-2014
Matt Hansen, University of Maryland Department of Geographical
Sciences
Tree Cover Loss from 2001-
2014
Matt Hansen, University of
Maryland Department of
Geographical Sciences
28. Transformational Power of Data - Lessons Learned
• Power of spatial analysis is rapidly
advancing
• Collection of data enables analysis
(for value it must be open and available)
Ease of access to data + powerful tools for
we are a services organization - provide consulting to our clients and application architecture and development
The ability to visualize the implications of data is as old as humanity itself.
-1854, massive cholera outbreak in Soho, London – in 3 days over 120 people died from the disease.
-Snow was skeptical of popular theory that cholera was caused by pollution
-Plotted the locations of the deaths on a map
-Discovered they clustered around a pump in Broad Street.
-Snow's efforts to connect the incidence of cholera with potential geographic sources is one of the first examples of using geographical analysis and informatics to solve real-world, complex problems.
At the time Landsat data was started it was hard to tell its full value
First time GIS is used
Billions of points on the map, but how do you make sense of it?
Taking your env. data, doing well thought out analysis, and ending up with narratives
Billions of points on the map, but how do you make sense of it?
Taking your env. data, doing well thought out analysis, and ending up with narratives
Billions of points on the map, but how do you make sense of it?
Taking your env. data, doing well thought out analysis, and ending up with narratives
-Instead of data locked up in a PDF, it becomes accessible to anyone on the web
-DevAlert!
-GFW Fires story map
Country dashboard view provides stats on:
-biodiversity
-land type
-socioeconomics
-Sliders to enable users to adjust the data they’re visualizing