Solid waste and recycling collection within Washington County is managed by private collection companies, who use legal certificates that guarantee them exclusive authority to collect waste in a given geographic area. The last update of the...

Lincoln County found that its 20-acre property used for the Lincoln County Fair was underutilized and not producing sufficient revenues to cover the year-round costs of owning and maintaining the site. To identify potential expanded...

With the recent departure of several long-time staff combined with an inefficient asset management system based on institutional knowledge and paper records, SPUD managers needed a new way to track their water and sewer assets. Snoqualmie...

Development activity is a hot topic for the City of Sammamish, where citizens were calling for a more transparent way to learn about planned housing and business construction.   The City of Sammamish is experiencing considerable growth,...

A non-profit land trust explores the impact of climate change on a nature preserve using aerial imagery and maps captured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Inland Northwest Land Conservancy (INLC) works with willing private landowners to...

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) aided a county in efficient and accurate landfill management.    As municipal solid waste is unloaded into landfill cells, the waste compacts and settles, reducing the landfill’s surface elevation....

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) quickly and efficiently documented destructive flooding with aerial footage. Flooding in Ellensburg, Washington, unexpectedly shut down roads and inundated agricultural fields. In need of a quick way to...

Aerial maps helped a farm manager understand impacts and patterns of seasonal flooding. Founded in the 1850s, Plas Newydd Farm in Ridgefield, Washington, has been managed as a year-round dairy farm and cattle ranch, as well as for...

A 3D terrain model of a rock quarry created using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) saved the quarry’s owner time and money. When Potlach, a public diversified forest products and real estate company, needed to know the remaining capacity of...

Aerial imagery enriched the Port of Ridgefield's ability to tell a detailed story about the renaissance of their waterfront. From the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, Pacific Wood Treating Co (PWT) pressure-treated wood products with toxic...

When it comes to topographic mapping, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are an efficient and inexpensive alternative to total station surveys or aerial surveys using aircraft. The high cost of total station surveys or aerial surveys using...

School bus transportation is an essential service for many students, guaranteeing them a safe and reliable way to get from home to the classroom. Although the purpose of a school bus is simple, the system in which it operates comprises...

As school planning consultants, we often hear from administrators that their district is too small to need student enrollment projections. But experience tells us that’s a misconception. Case in point: Washougal School District, a...

When you hear the word “plumber” you might think of someone coming to your home to repair a leaky kitchen sink, but in reality, plumbers and other pipe trades workers do a whole lot more. They maintain the infrastructure that keeps our...

The story map we developed in collaboration with Greenbelt Land Trust won first place in the Conservation, Environment, and Sustainability category of Esri's storytelling with maps contest in 2015. The map journal takes you along a trail at...

Land trusts that focus on strategic priorities protect land more efficiently and raise more funds. But how does a land trust align their conservation work with their mission, and make sure that lands they pursue meet their conservation...

As part of a multi-disciplinary team, we evaluated Pierce County's existing land use policy for designating agricultural resource lands (ARL). This evaluation process led to our recommendations for alternative approaches to better protect and...

Our team conducted a GIS needs assessment for the City of Pullman to objectively evaluate their current use of GIS, and provide recommendations for optimizing their use of GIS in the future. We conducted a series of on-site interviews with...

The Burlington-Edison School District was in the process of updating their Capital Facility Plan when they reached out to FLO Analytics for a new student enrollment forecast. The district needed help answering pressing questions, like:...

Edmonds School District (ESD) found themselves in need of a better way to use student enrollment projections to plan for future facilities. The problem? The district’s enrollment projections provided forecasts for the district as a...

Whatcom County Public Works Department is responsible for maintaining the stormwater system in the Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District. To fund this stormwater system, a fee is levied against properties within the...

Redrawing school attendance boundaries can be stressful for school district leaders—not only do they have to make the best possible decisions about current school capacities and student-teacher ratios, but they also must ensure that...

Ecova is an international energy and sustainability management company that helps their clients save resources. This increases profitability, lowers risks, and enhances their clients’ reputations. For the last few years, we’ve been...

AFS-USA (AFS) is a nonprofit organization based in New York City that offers international exchange programs in more than 40 countries around the world. We’ve worked with AFS over several years, providing them with the means to make...

We were asked by High Desert Organix to conduct a GIS-based site suitability analysis to identify a site for the construction of an organic compost facility that would have minimal environmental impact, land disturbance, public risk, and site...

Earth Fare is the second largest natural foods store chain in the country, with over 30 stores located in ten states east of the Mississippi River. Recently, Earth Fare became interested in growing their business by looking for opportunities...

The City of Spokane and the Northeast Public Development Authority are leading an effort to revitalize an approximately 500-acre industrial area in the Hillyard neighborhood. The city is examining approaches to improving public infrastructure...

Our team conducted a solid waste system assessment for Thurston County to support their new solid waste management plan (SWMP) and to help meet capital facilities planning needs for six- and 20-year planning horizons. A critical component of...

Biomass, a renewable energy source, is an efficient way to generate energy from forest residues from timber harvesting and maintenance operations, as well as from mill residues from lumber and pulp and paper mill operations. We’ve partnered...

New Seasons Market prides themselves on being the Portland Metro region’s neighborhood grocery store and supports both local and regional products, including family farms. With the goal of opening a number of additional stores, they looked...

Humanitarian relief and development NGOs often work in insecure countries where threats and risks can escalate and change at short notice. To maintain the effectiveness of a program, it is important that field staff and managers be kept...

Having worked on numerous infrastructure projects in the U.S., we were excited at the opportunity to turn our attention to a Mercy Corps-led, $60 million, DFID-funded water, sanitation and hygiene program in three urban centers in the eastern...

As part of a two-year project with electric utility Seattle City Light (SCL), we are providing the environmental affairs group with ongoing GIS services to support their Boundary Dam relicensing program. SCL’s Boundary project supplies more...

The Port of Whitman County (Port), like all Washington ports, is empowered with broad economic authority to bring businesses and jobs to its local community. In support of these objectives, the Port has developed infrastructure plans to...

Our team is currently working with Multnomah County Drainage District (the District) to develop a comprehensive GIS-based asset management system to support their day-to-day management of the Columbia River floodplain and receiving stormwater...

We recently began providing Clark Regional Wastewater District support on multiple fronts. The District is one of the largest wastewater districts in the state of Washington and provides professional wastewater services to more than 81,000...

The City of Kelso’s Phase III Stormwater Management Plan (SMP) provides critical information for capital improvement projects and assists the city in complying with municipal stormwater permit requirements. To facilitate the development of...

Lewis & Clark College is a liberal university that describes itself as a “private institution with a public conscience.” The campus is situated in a remarkable natural setting, among 137 wooded acres in Portland’s southwest...

Ridgefield School District is located in north Clark County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Washington. As the county’s population continues to grow over the next 20 years, the district expects a rapid increase in...

Central Valley School District is in one of the fastest-growing counties in Washington, Spokane County. Geographically diverse, the district spans urban and rural communities—all experiencing rates of residential development so high that...

Bellingham Public Schools (BPS) knew their district was growing and was likely to continue to do so, based on 10-year student enrollment projections. But where in the district would these students live and how would the increase impact...

The Coeur d’Alene Trust’s data management goals are to promote secure, consistent, and efficient management of data throughout the extended timeframe of activities undertaken in the Upper and Lower Basins of the Coeur d’Alene River in...

Our conservation professionals assisted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with restoration and preservation efforts, including GPS surveying, in the Gee Creek Watershed and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, located in the state of...

Capitol Land Trust had a very specific conservation planning goal in mind when they approached us to help them identify high-priority parcels for salmonid habitat conservation in Thurston County, Washington. To meet the requirements of their...

To help speed up the development, implementation, and monitoring of sediment cleanup and restoration projects under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has received funding...

After the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that took 11 lives, oil was released for 87 days until the ruptured well was capped. As the subsequent natural resource damage assessment (NRDA)...

With a large number of GIS users throughout the organization, Columbia Land Trust decided it was time to ramp up their capabilities and install some structure to their use of GIS. As a first step, a needs assessment helped to develop a clear...