Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries

| Kevin McMaster

The Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries recognizes cemeteries among the most valuable historic resources of Louisiana for their information about events, religion, lifestyles, and genealogy of a local community. Recently brought to life by a Historic Preservation Fund grant awarded to the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (LTHP) from the National Park Service, the goals of the program include increasing awareness of historic cemeteries, for their protection, maintenance and respect of those buried within them. As part of this important effort, SymGEO was honored to partner with LTHP to build the web infrastructure to house the historic cemetery data and enable stakeholders to contribute to this growing, interactive library.

Built using ArcGIS Hub technology, the site features an interactive Historic Cemetery Dashboard that tracks all known historic cemeteries in Louisiana. Clicking on a cemetery icon will give basic information about the site, while cemeteries with detailed information and site pictures are differentiated by symbology.

An innovative twist in the Dashboard is presented by the “Info Needed” tab, where users can see which cemeteries are missing names, locations, or boundaries. If they are familiar with a cemetery on the list (filtered by parish or city), they are presented with the option of updating either the basic geographic cemetery information, or completing a more detailed information form, including picture upload options.

Built using ArcGIS Survey123, the forms include step logic to allow data updates or new cemetery information to be easily added to the growing collection of historic knowledge.

“The first step in protecting and respecting historic burials is to be aware of their location. By crowdsourcing this data beyond our initial research, we are able to learn about historic cemeteries in remote locations which may not appear on topographic maps or have even been used in over a century. The program will benefit descendants; industries such as tourism, real estate and construction; and should foster increased protection and maintenance at cemeteries.”

– Executive Director, Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to feature projects or sites using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

Preservation Society of Charleston Site Dashboards

| Kevin McMaster

The Preservation Society of Charleston (PSC) is a nonprofit organization established in 1920, dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of the distinct character, quality of life, and diverse neighborhoods in Charleston, South Carolina. To assist in these efforts, SymGEO partnered with PSC to build a pair of project dashboards to feature their Charleston Justice Journey (CJJ) and Historic Marker program sites. The dashboards were built using ArcGIS Dashboards technology and designed to be mobile responsive for information on the go.

The Charleston Justice Journey (CJJ) project was launched in 2019 to recognize sites significant to African American history and the ongoing journey toward racial equality in Charleston and the Lowcountry. This online research and mapping initiative is a growing resource for deepening our collective understanding of people, institutions, movements, and events that shaped the course of the region’s civil rights history. Through this project, PSC is partnering with the community to elevate the full narrative of Charleston’s history.

The Historic Marker program was established in 1959, with well over one hundred markers placed around the city so far. The PSC sought to create a digital database of markers, that would be a resource for Charlestonians and visitors alike, with baseline stats and photographs of the markers, properties, historical photographs, drawings, and other information related to associated historical figures and events. Using the PSC Historic Marker Database, members of the public can create their own walking tour, research from afar, and learn more about the city’s vibrant cultural and architectural history.

“SymGEO played a key role in helping us build both of these important digital platforms. After listening carefully to our goals and answering every one of our questions, they helped us create two distinct interactive platforms that are user-friendly, informative, and advance our mission to protect and make Charleston’s cultural and architectural fabric more accessible to all.”

– Preservation Coordinator, Preservation Society of Charleston

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to feature projects or sites using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

One Tree Planted Projects Site

| Kevin McMaster

To complement our donor portal with One Tree Planted, SymGEO is pleased to announce a new project impact site experience that tracks the progress and positive environmental benefits of One Tree Planted nonprofit projects to date and features a data-driven dashboard using ArcGIS Dashboards. The dashboard has all current project metrics and locations that can be filtered by project type, status, location, or impact.

The site also features:

An interactive map that reveals the millions of trees planted around the world,

A deep dive into several project-specific stories showcasing the environmental benefits of planting trees,
A Forest Note video series that shows all the dedicated, determined work that goes into successful tree planting projects.

“The impact portal of global reforestation projects provides users with an immersive experience to navigate and better understand the impact One Tree Planted is having around the globe. Through interactive maps and insightful data visualization, it empowers users to witness the collective impact of reforestation efforts, fostering a deeper connection with the worldwide initiative to restore and preserve our planet’s vital ecosystems.“

– Geospatial Systems Manager, One Tree Planted

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to feature projects or impacts using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Hubsite

| Kevin McMaster

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy seeks to improve quality of life through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. As a nonprofit private operating foundation whose origins date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute researches and recommends creative approaches to land as a solution to economic, social, and environmental challenges. Through education, training, publications, and events, they integrate theory and practice to inform public policy decisions worldwide.

SymGEO partnered with the Lincoln Institute to build an internal, central ArcGIS Hub platform and support five of their Centers and Initiatives. This involved curating and displaying authoritative data layers detailing resource equity, population demographics, historic redlining information, land zoning information, and historic city spending and revenue information among others.

Configurable applications, including ArcGIS Dashboards and web applications, were built to facilitate the exploration of data and visualization of analytical results.

“SymGEO has the unique ability to distill content into compelling visual geospatial products and narratives that tell a story and help track impacts. They are very proactive, responsive, great communicators, and can spin up apps quickly as proof of concepts that help with design decision-making. It has been a great experience working with them collaboratively, and I highly recommend SymGEO as a geospatial solution expert.”

– Director, Partnerships and Strategy, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to build a central spatial data hub framework using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

One Tree Planted Donor Portal

| Kevin McMaster

One Tree Planted wants to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. By partnering with 680+ organizations across 80+ countries, they have restored forests, created habitats for biodiversity, and made a positive social impact around the world by planting over 100 Million trees! Learn more about the critical importance of their nonprofit mission in the following educational video.

Keeping track of the positive impact of 680+ partners can be a daunting task. Fortunately, through a collaborative effort with SymGEO, One Tree Planted built an interactive Donor Portal prototype that helps communicate project-specific information to funding partners. The portal was designed so that each partner will have their own specific page, featuring just the projects that their funding helped to support. The donor portal was built using ArcGIS Experience Builder, and leverages Dashboards, StoryMaps, and embedded content to provide data transparency and inspiration.

Projects are geo-located to show the global breadth of a partner’s funding impact.

Project-specific information is presented upon selection with links to the detailed project report.

Projects are also displayed on a dedicated mapping page and can be searched by name or geography.

The map links to a detailed project dashboard with key information and a virtual fly-through of each planting site.

The report section of the portal links to the most recent planting report, highlighting key achievements of the year.

The monitoring section uses before and after imagery to convey the landscape scale impact of the planting projects and details the methods used to monitor and ensure planting success.

“The impact of the prototype on our donors was nothing short of astounding. Collaborating with SymGEO to craft a functional prototype during the feedback-gathering phase proved instrumental in cultivating a comprehensive catalog of requisites across all donors.”

– Geospatial Systems Manager, One Tree Planted

Talk to SymGEO today if your organization would like to feature projects or impacts using the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform – we are certified experts and here to help.

Arborist Workload Optimization

| Kevin McMaster

DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division (UFD) is the primary steward of Washington, D.C.’s ~175,000 public trees and has a mission of keeping this resource healthy, safe, and growing. At the front lines of this work is a team of almost twenty Urban Foresters who have district boundaries within which they provide tree services, inspections, special tree permit processing, and work order generation for tree planting, pruning, and removals as well as other daily responsibilities. As the tree canopy composition and jurisdictional boundaries change over time, workload optimization between arborists is key to keeping the process flowing smoothly. To help provide visibility into current workloads and explore proposed re-districting options, SymGEO worked with DDOT to build an Arborist Workload Dashboard using ArcGIS Dashboards technology.

The dashboard leverages Arcade expressions to aggregate workload components by arborist teams and proposed arborist boundaries, as well as display the proportional work per boundary sub-area.

Information is also aggregated to geographic boundaries, including Wards, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs), and Single-member Districts (SMDs). Interactive charts allow exploration on a local, neighborhood-scale level as needed.

To facilitate the exploration and balancing of workloads, the final component of the dashboard allows interactive boundary area selection and workload summarization by individual components. With a balanced target in mind, the Supervisory Urban Forester can explore scenarios and then update the online information to reflect the preferred boundary scenario.

“This is really slick, thank you! I have already been editing in a webmap, and watching things balance out on the dashboard. Very cool, thank you again!”

-DDOT Supervisory Urban Forester

Talk to SymGEO industry experts today if your agency or organization is interested in leveraging ArcGIS Dashboards to re-district boundaries and optimize workloads – we are certified experts and here to help.