Every hero begins their quest facing a daunting challenge; with environmental consulting, the “hero” is the specialist tasked with applying an important and expert lens to natural and built world projects. The environmental consultant puts themselves into a trusted position of protecting our planet while navigating a maze of regulations, fragmented data, and shifting client demands. These agents of the environment must master an expertise in knowledge-management by using technology to overcome obstacles while delivering projects that are compliant, sustainable and resilient.
Confronting the Environmental Labyrinth
Our consultant-hero begins their journey surrounded by challenges. Regulations twist and turn, each compliance requirement a new test. Time and resources are consumed in observing, documenting, validating, and reporting to regulatory bodies, leaving little room for innovation. Data silos exist like castle walls, isolating vital information and slowing progress.
On one side, clients are slow to move from printed binders and paper maps; on the other, a new wave calls for impressive (even immersive) digital deliverables. It’s a balancing act between the past and the future amongst stakeholders with competing priorities. The consultant-hero is taking on the weight of the world addressing issues as large as the impacts of extreme weather, safeguarding biodiversity, mitigating disasters, changing urban demands, population-shifts, or pollution risks.
Discovering Geospatial Power
Enter Esri with its geospatial technologies arming the consultant with tools that support environmental regulations by enabling better data collection, analysis, visualization, and decision-making. With GIS and location-intelligence compliance tracking becomes automated, data sources converge into a connected data environment, and maps tell a story that brings clarity where there was once chaos. The offering is more than a set of tools; GIS delivers a data and contextual vision of what’s possible through efficiency, transparency, and with sustainability in mind.
Embracing Transformation
With Esri’s ArcGIS system in hand, our hero takes the first steps into a transformed workflow. Data once locked in isolated systems now flows freely as it is leveraging “location” as a connector of disparate data. Teams collaborate across offices and disciplines through a suite of modeling, analyzing, visualizing and reporting tools.
Digital and traditional deliverables merge into tailored experiences, satisfying the wide range of project stakeholders. The jobsite becomes a connected workspace where right-time data eliminates delays and reduces human error. The consultant moves from reactive to proactive, identifying environmental outcomes before they become challenges.
Uniting Stakeholders
Environmental projects demand collaboration between government agencies, private firms, and the general public. These groups often speak different “languages” and see the world through different lenses. By using Esri’s collaboration tools to create a shared map everyone can see the same data, understand the same story, and work toward a shared outcome. Public comment collection and response processes are streamlined. Transparency builds trust, and trust fuels cooperation.
Predicting and Shaping a Sustainable Future
Our hero shifts from managing today’s problems to shaping tomorrow’s solutions. Historical and real-time data become the basis of analytical models forecasting environmental impacts, helping design sustainable solutions that meet regulatory requirements and safeguarding the ecology.
The consultant becomes equipped with technical skills and with the ability to inspire others. GIS allows them to deliver projects faster, with greater accuracy, and with clear visual stories that resonate with both conventional workers and digital natives. Their success becomes the success of their organization, their clients, and the planet they protect.
For more information about Esri’s solutions that empower environmental consulting, click here.
