The Northwest Regional Environmental Data Management Conference is coming in May!
March 31, 2010
The Northwest Regional Environmental Data Management Conference provides environmental data management professionals with a two-day opportunity to share ideas; tools and custom applications; brainstorm and collaborate on data workflow; and present data management success stories. The conference is limited to 30 registrants. There is a non-refundable registration fee of $35 per person for both days, which includes snacks and lunch and a participant certificate.
The schedule of planned presenters is still growing (see agenda here). Please contact Dan Higgins or Jennifer Rea if you have a suggestion for additional activities or presentations. We want the conference to represent a broad cross-section of data management professionals and will gladly substitute one of AMEC’s presentations for yours.
Dates: May 20-21, 2010
Location: McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey, Troutdale, Oregon 97060
A block of hotel rooms are set aside for conference attendees who want to spend the night. There are no special rates for attendees.
Registration Info: Send registration checks to AMEC at 7376 SW Durham Road, Portland, Oregon 97224, use this form to register with a credit card, or call Dan Higgins at (503) 639-3400 to register by phone.
Please call Dan Higgins of AMEC at (503) 639-3400 or Jennifer Rea of EarthSoft at (541) 686-3276 with questions.
Click here for the registration form.
Upcoming Office Hours- ArcGIS Series, Part 2: EQuIS for ArcGIS Server- April 1, 2010
March 23, 2010
EQuIS for ArcGIS Server is an ASP.NET web application that allows users to explore their EQuIS data and documents, visualize report output, and perform data analysis from anywhere with an internet connection. This Office Hours session is the second in a 3-part series and will serve to demonstrate several of the features available in EQuIS for ArcGIS Server.
Due to the popularity of this topic, sessions will be held at 11am EDT (-5 GMT) (FULL) and 6pm EDT (-5 GMT) on April 1st, 2010 and at 3pm EDT (-5 GMT) on April 2nd, 2010.
To sign up for a session, please send us an email at officehours@earthsoft.com or register on the Office Hours page and indicate your session of preference. Note that spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, but there will be recordings of the session also available for download.
Microsoft Case Study Featuring EarthSoft EQuIS — Released in German, French and Spanish
March 15, 2010
The Microsoft case study, titled Manage and standardize all your environmental and sampling data — efficiently and cost-effectively is now available in German, French and Spanish versions!
Click here for German version.
Click here for French version.
Click here for Spanish version.
EarthSoft Releases EQuIS Data Gathering Engine (EDGE)
March 15, 2010
EarthSoft announced today the release of their new EQuIS Data Gathering Engine (EDGE) software – for data collection and field data management. EDGE is a comprehensive collection of integrated environmental field tools ensuring accurate and complete data collection using modern software and mobile computing technologies. Software highlights include:
- COC / eCOC Generator
- Field EDP Interface
- Completeness Checker
- EDD Generator
- Sensor / Datalogger Manager
- GPS Support
- Electronic Sketchpad
- Integration with EarthSoft’s Sample Planning Module (SPM)
- And much more…
Using EarthSoft’s COC Manager, environmental field crews can easily generate, print and email eCOCs (Chains of Custody) or Excel COCs – directly from the field. EDGE currently supports the Promium eCOC format – with more electronic COCs under development. Furthermore, EarthSoft’s EDGE Excel COC source code templates are available so you can build custom formats to meet your business needs.
EarthSoft’s EQuIS Data Processor (EDP) is the most widely used software in the world for checking electronic data deliverables (EDDs). EDGE includes a field version of EDP, allowing users to easily check for accuracy and completeness as data indices are collected. According to EarthSoft, many clients have provided findings that indicate up to 70% of data errors originate with problems during field data collection. With this in mind, field EDD errors (formatting and valid values) are highlighted and flagged in real time, at the point of data entry.
EDGE imports data into EQuIS from field sensors and data loggers. Imported data are checked with EDP and merged with other field data. EDGE currently supports select data loggers from QED and Campbell Scientific, with more options on the horizon.
EDGE supports GPS receivers outputting NMEA data to a USB, RS232 or Bluetooth COM ports. EDGE features automatic detection of connected GPS devices and a user-friendly interface showing device status and current position.
Using the Sketch Tool, users can draw and mark aerial photos, site plans or custom templates. Transfer images to EQuIS with Field EDDs, using the EDP Sign and Submit feature – which provides a secure data submittal to EQuIS EDP.
Over the past several months, EDGE has been meticulously tested by several large clients and was successfully implemented and deployed in a major chemical company. Additionally, Dave Van Vliet, principal at AquaResource said, “EDGE and SPM will change how consultants conduct their field activities.”
EarthSoft’s EQuIS is the most widely used environmental data management system in the world. EQuIS is used by many government agencies, industrial property owners, over 300 consultants and over 450 analytical labs around the world.
For further information please visit http://www.earthsoft.cm or write info@earthsoft.com. For a PDF version of this press release, please click here.
Added more times to next week’s Office Hours session
March 10, 2010
Due to the popularity of next week’s Office Hours session “ArcGIS Series, Part 1: ArcGIS and EQuIS Professional”, we have added two more times for anyone else who would like to sign up.
Update: The Thursday, 11am ET (-5 GMT) is now full and the Friday, March 19th, at 11am EST (-5 GMT) is nearly full.
If you are unable to attend one of the other sessions, a recording of the session will be available for download after the session.
You can sign up for this session on the Office Hours page or by sending an email to officehours@earthsoft.com.
Upcoming Office Hours- ArcGIS Series, Part 1: ArcGIS and EQuIS Professional- March 18, 2010
March 8, 2010
ESRI’s ArcGIS is a complete system for authoring, serving, and using geographic information. It is an integrated collection of GIS software products for building and deploying a complete GIS wherever it is needed
The EQuIS for ArcGIS extension adds powerful geospatial analysis capabilities to this revolutionary platform. This Office Hours session is the first in a 3-part series and will serve to demonstrate several of the features available in the EQuIS for ArcGIS interface.
These sessions will be held at 5am EST (-5 GMT), 11am ET (-5 GMT) and 6pm ET (-5 GMT) on March 18th and another the following day, March 19th, at 11am EST (-5 GMT).
(edited to reflect additional times due to this session’s popularity)
To sign up for a session, please send us an email at officehours@earthsoft.com or register on the Office Hours page and indicate your session of preference. Note that spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
EarthSoft Featured in Lake and Reservoir Managment Case Study
March 4, 2010
Lake and Reservoir Management
Managing the lakes of the Rotorua District, New Zealand
Noel Burns, John McIntosh and Paul Scholes, Lakes Consulting, PE/175 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna, 0622, New Zealand, Environment Bay of Plenty, 5 Quay St., Whakatane, New Zealand
Abstract
Burns N.M., McIntosh J., Scholes P. 2009. Managing the lakes of the Rotorua District, New Zealand. Lake Reserv. Manage. 25:284–296.
In 2005, Burns, McIntosh and Scholes described strategies to manage the Rotorua Lakes using lake monitoring together with designated baseline Trophic Level Index values established for each lake. Continued monitoring has revealed that 9 of the 12 Rotorua Lakes have Trophic Level Index values in excess of their baseline values. Action Plans have been drawn up for the remediation of these damaged lakes that specify the excess nutrient loading to each lake and propose actions for the decrease of these loadings. Nutrient loading to various lakes has been decreased by upgrading waste treatment facilities, dosing tributary streams with alum, diverting an enriched tributary flow directly into the outflow channel of a lake, precipitating in-lake phosphorus with PhoslockTM and zeolite additions, and removal of macrophyte biomass from a lake and planting an artificial wetland at the entry point of a tributary to a lake. Where data are available, the results of these actions are explored. The similarities between the management system for the Rotorua lakes with the management systems used for two American and European lakes are described. Key words: action plans, trophic level criteria, water quality criteria, trophic level indexes
The twelve Rotorua Lakes lie in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand in what is know as the Central Volcanic Plateau (Fig. 1) and vary widely in character. The beauty of the lakes, together with the interesting geothermal features of the region, have resulted in the Rotorua District being one of the most important national tourist and sport fisheries area of New Zealand. The region also supports a significant amount of successful farming and forestry. The sustainable management of the Rotorua Lakes is the legal responsibility of the Environment Bay of Plenty (EnvBOP) Regional Council.Water quality of the Rotorua Lakes began to change in the early 1900s soon after European settlement of their catchments. A program of routine monitoring of the lakes was started in 1990 by EnvBOP and intensified in 1999 when strategies to halt the deterioration of all the lakes were put into place by EnvBOP (described in detail in Burns et al. 2005). Statutory legislation supporting this management strategy is contained in EnvBOP’s Water and Land Plan (W&LP). This article is a sequel to the previous article (Burns et al. 2005) and describes the strategies, their implementation, their refinement with time and some results of the actions that have been taken.
Background
The Rotorua Lakes are considered to be a national resource in NewZealand.Widespread public concern about the degradation of many of these lakes prompted an investigation and report by the New Zealand arliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (2006). His report endorsed the strategy for restoration of the Rotorua Lakes and led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Crown (New Zealand Government) and the Rotorua Lakes Strategy Group, consisting of the Te Arana Lakes Trust, the Rotorua District Council and EnvBOP (EnvBOP 2007a). The Memorandum endorsed the use of the Trophic Level Index (TLI) system together with the TLI targets included in the W&LP. Subsequent to the signing of this agreement, the New Zealand government agreed to pay NZ$72 million toward the estimated cost of NZ$144 million for the planned remedial work to improve the damaged lakes. In 2006, the Government of New Zealand signed an agreement with the TeArawa Maori Trust Board transferring legal title to the Rotorua lakebeds to the local Maori people, while protecting public access, as a partial redress for past actions against the Maori people. This does not currently change EnvBOP’s management role.
For the complete case study, including Methods, Results and Discussion and References, click here.
EarthSoft featured in MicroSoft’s Case Studies
March 3, 2010
EarthSoft was recently featured in MicroSoft’s case studies due to EQuIS being specifically designed for SQL Server 2008.
“Manage and standardize all your environmental and sampling data — efficiently and cost-effectively.
In our increasingly ecologically conscious society, the demand for environmental data is growing rapidly. Regulatory bodies and government agencies require detailed and comprehensive environmental data, such as water, soils, sediments or air quality data collected from sampling events. However, it’s often time-consuming and costly for companies involved in generating, handling or receiving such large volumes of data. In addition, a lack of standardization means that this data can arrive in a variety of formats or with different valid values — for example, the same chemical may have numerous common names. What’s more, individual laboratories and consultants may report their data in different ways.”
Read the full case study on MicroSoft’s Case Studies site here: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006592
