THI Reached for the Cloud and Developed Mitigation Analyst. Back in 2013 Trout Headwaters (THI) designed and built a new data analyzer for the National Mitigation Banking Association (NMBA) that was reliable, fast, and wholly interactive.
When it debuted, Mitigation Analyst (www.mitigationanalyst.org) was a new interactive platform available exclusively to NMBA members. The system took hundreds of thousands of lines of raw data and transformed it into useable information. The powerful web interface enabled rapid ‘mash-ups’ of multiple databases, including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ORM, RIBITS, and others. Beta users were blown away to learn that powerful visualizations including graphs, charts, and maps took only seconds to produce, enabling a quick analysis of market conditions for any selected service area.
NMBA – Members Map with Data 2013
That new tool accessible exclusively to NMBA members was made possible by the timely convergence of an open data mandate with emerging cloud software technology.
After testing it, Environmental Banc & Exhange's Randy Wilgis said, “Mitigation Analyst will truly facilitate better decision-making for our members by bringing together market data which has been historically very challenging to access and the association is excited to be working with Trout Headwaters to develop this innovative and valuable tool for our members.”
NMBA – RIBITS Bank Locations & ORM Impacts 2009 – 2010 Map
The 2013 release of Mitigation Analyst could not have come at a better time. Just months earlier on May 9, 2013, President Obama had signed his first executive order: the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, ushering in a new era of open and accountable government. The President then backed up the order with the Open Government Directive, requiring federal agencies to take immediate, specific steps to achieve key milestones in transparency, participation, and collaboration.
THI President and mitigationanalyst.org developer Michael Sprague said at the time “The increasing availability to public data has presented challenges, as these data sets become larger and more unwieldy.” He went on to say “While access to various government data is an important first step, making this data intelligent and useful represented a significant challenge. In that challenge, the NMBA found a significant opportunity to work with THI to build an interface that will create useful information from mounds of raw data.”
NMBA – Omaha District Wetland Credit Releases Pie Chart
Fast forward to 2015 and with the release of EcoBlu Analyst 2.0, the chosen tool of private industry, governments, and nonprofits including the National Mitigation Banking Association, The Corps Network, ACRE, and others is now available to anyone for a low cost annual subscription.
EcoBlu Analyst 2.0 lets users tame big data to make better land and water management decisions supporting policy, conservation, and ecological restoration. The restoration industry, government, NGOs, mitigation credit buyers, and supporting institutions can now incorporate complex data sets including carbon, nutrient, wetland, and stream and conservation banking data into their project development and decision-making using this comprehensive, cloud-based, interactive, data analytics system.
Contact Us or call THI RiverWorks at 888-218-8507 for more information.