GIS for Renewables: Turning Your AOI into an Interactive Map & Dashboard
At New Era Land Services, GIS (geographic information systems) technology plays an important role in supporting our clients’ land-related needs. We regularly use GIS to understand topography, landowner density, transmission line location, floodplains, and other considerations within areas of interest.
But, it’s not all about building maps. There are a lot of data, systems, and processes to deliver reliable, actionable visualizations. Here’s a quick overview of how we use GIS for renewable energy projects.
Key Components of Our GIS Workflow
Clients hire us to help ensure successful renewable energy projects—specifically with regard to site selection and land rights acquisition. Achieving success goes far beyond understanding a parcel’s topographic features, which is why our approach brings together geographic, landowner, and project status information. We use the following tools to bring visualizations to life.
Project and data management system: Land agents use a web-based system to view assigned parcels, track project details, and indicate status (landowner contacted, signed, etc.). Parcel data may be provided by our clients, or we can help to source it.
GIS software: We use multiple GIS tools for a variety of purposes, such as joining data sets, creating symbologies, and building maps.
Dashboards: Our dashboards allow us to combine multiple visualizations (land maps, parcel status charts, etc.) into a single, interactive, queryable, web-based experience.
Overview of Our GIS Workflow
How do we go from a seemingly unstructured collection of parcel data to an interactive dashboard? View our sample GIS project for a detailed explanation, but here’s a quick summary:
Provide Land Agents with Data: We start by uploading parcel data to our cloud-based project and data management system, allowing land agents to get to work and efficiently share updates and collaborate in real-time with fellow team members and client representatives.
Join Together Project Status & Geographic Data: Next, we use various GIS and geoprocessing tools to connect dynamic project updates with underlying spatial data. Data integrity is very important to us, which is why we carefully verify that geoprocessing operations are executed as intended.
Symbolize the Data with Color-Coded Indicators: Colors are used to indicate project status within an area of interest. For example, green indicates that a signed land agreement has been obtained for a parcel.
Create the Dashboard: Symbolized maps, charts, graphs, and other visualizations are then embedded into client-facing dashboards.
Example Dashboard Visualization
The following sample demonstrates the type of work that we can provide for your next solar, wind, or battery storage project. With just a few clicks, stakeholders can easily understand which parcels have been acquired—and which parcels still require additional work. Filtering by parcel number and landowner information simplifies analysis.
Connect with New Era Land Services
Looking for GIS support for an upcoming renewable energy project? Contact us to explore our GIS and project management services.