Case studies
Two systems we built and still run. We keep the descriptions general.
Case study 01 Federal environmental review database A structured record of federal environmental reviews, with a source for every field.
- Challenge
- The documents for one federal review sit in several different systems, and each uses its own formats and names. There was no consistent way to see how similar reviews had gone.
- Approach
- We built a pipeline that gathers the public documents, cleans them up, and links each one to the review it belongs to. Every field records where it came from, and checks run whenever the data updates.
- Result
- Questions about past reviews can be answered from the database, with a source for every number, instead of by searching agency websites.
- Built for
- Teams that plan, advise on, or study federal environmental reviews.
Case study 02 Long-term site monitoring Several years of satellite imagery over documented sites, compared against the records.
- Challenge
- Public inventories list a large number of sites with uncertain locations and no recent inspection. Checking them all in person is slow and costly.
- Approach
- For each documented location we pull several years of satellite imagery, compare it with the record, and screen the results automatically. An analyst reviews anything the screening can't settle.
- Result
- A ranked list of sites where conditions have changed, which field teams can use to plan their visits.
- Built for
- Regulators, land managers, and environmental researchers.