Putting Data to Work: Kubota Garden Stormwater Story Map

Mud and sand carried by stormwater is washing into the catch basins and through the ponds at the beautiful Kubota Garden in south Seattle. Learn about how a savvy team including a mapmaker, field staff, water quality expert, engineer, and landscape architect put data to use to determine the sources of sediment and craft a plan to restore the garden to the delight of its visitors.

Click to learn how Aspect used Esri StoryMaps to help guide the Kubota Garden Foundation and the City of Seattle (SPU, Seattle Parks and Rec, and SDOT) through the decision-making process.

The Future of Stormwater Management: MuniCon 2021 - Part 1

Aspect is looking forward to discussing key stormwater management issues at this year’s Municipal Stormwater Conference April 5-8, 2021. Please join us in four (virtual) sessions where our stormwater team helps lead the discussion of the future of stormwater management in the Pacific Northwest. The first two Aspect presentations are summarized here:

Stormwater Story Maps: Streamlining Project Outreach – April 5 

Join Emelie Crumbaker, Senior GIS Analyst, as she discusses the appeal of story maps –with an example from the City of SeaTac and in two compelling interviews with WA Dept. of Ecology on their Stormwater Action Monitoring and nitrogen loading story maps.

The discussion covers visual storytelling and what public outreach audiences look for from science communication.

Illicit Connection and Illicit Discharge (ICID) Training Workshop – April 6

Join James Packman, Senior Hydrologist, and colleagues from King County and Herrera to learn the takeaways from the newly released 2020 IC-ID Manual for Western Washington agencies.

• Understand how to use the 2020 IC-ID Manual when investigating an illicit discharge

• Learn how to use some common field equipment for indicator sampling

• Learn about proper sampling techniques and what to look for during catch basin/manhole inspections

See training videos on ICID best practices here.

How to Deliver More Successful GIS Outreach Campaigns at NW GIS in Bend

Conducting a successful public outreach and/or marketing campaign using GIS is more involved than just publishing a web-map. Marketing, communication, design professionals, and a wide range of other professionals are increasingly seeing the value of map-based infographics to promote marketing and communication campaigns. Aspect’s Blair Deaver recently presented at the Northwest GIS User Group on how to conduct a successful marketing campaign that involves GIS. Blair has developed successful story map campaigns and he brought his experience on those to propose marketing tips outside of simply publishing your web map such as:

• Messaging and Audience

• SEO/SEM considerations

• Engagement with marketing, communication, and management colleagues

• Increasing Virality

• Measuring Impact

In addition to Blair’s presentation, Aspect’s GIS crew was thrilled to learn their fish passage poster presentation — visualizing Aspect’s fish passage removal GIS tool — won the award for “Best Analysis.”

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From left, Parker Wittman, Robyn Pepin, Emelie Crumbaker, and Blair Deaver

Learn more about the conference here.

Visualizing Stormwater Infiltration + Visualizing the Story

Aspect recently led a first-of-its-kind approach to help the City of SeaTac (City) understand water quality requirements at the land use planning stage. Aspect, along with Robin Kirschbaum, developed publicly-available webmaps that visualize stormwater infiltration potential at a parcel level across the City’s 10 square miles. These maps will help both City planners as well as developers screen development options with infiltration requirements and make this step of the land use planning process much more efficient.

Take a look at the interactive Story Map for this exciting new tool here: https://maps.aspectconsulting.com/lidmapjournal/index.html.

Read Emelie’s article in the Daily Journal of Commerce about this pioneering project.