August Newsletter: A new tool for visual storytelling, updating forecast initialization times & more

One of the fundamental goals of our products is to help folks assess and communicate the impact of their work. Visual storytelling with data, graphs, and maps is a powerful way to showcase how lands are changing and understand the impact of natural and human interventions. For example, if we were describing the impacts of a 20,000-acre burn in California, it would be best if we could?show you.

Curious how you too can share your visual monitoring stories with others? Read on for more details about the new Lens Share Link, and other exciting changes from both Lens and HydroForecast.

Lens

The latest news from Lens. Questions? Email us at?[email protected].

Introducing the Lens Share Link

We’re making it easier than ever before to share your impact with partners and stakeholders. With the new Share Link in Lens, you can provide a link to a single property with anyone, regardless of whether they have a Lens account.?Check it out here!?Transparency is essential for knowledge-sharing and trust, and we’re excited to make it easier than ever before to share your story using Lens. To learn more about how to create Share Links, see our article here.

Download Your Custom Overlays from Lens?

You can now download overlays you’ve uploaded to Lens in the past from the Overlay Library - making it easy to download an existing overlay, edit in GIS, and then re-upload it to Lens. To learn more about overlays and uploading your own, see our?article here.

The Latest Datasets in the Lens Library

1. Global Forest Loss. The Global Forest Change layer displays 30m data showing gross forest loss for each year from 2001 to 2022, derived from Landsat 8 imagery. This dataset makes it possible to assess the timing and annual extent of forest loss over the last two decades, which can support site assessments and baselining. This work is a collaboration between the Global Land Analysis & Discovery Lab at the University of Maryland, Google, USGS, and NASA. Read more?here.
2. Burn Index (S2 and L8). Available for Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 sensings, the Normalized Burn Ratio can provide insight into the timing and severity in burned areas. This can be used by organizations assessing pre- and post-fire conditions or monitoring vegetation recovery following a fire. It's also helpful for distinguishing burned areas from other types of vegetation disturbance. Learn more in our article?here.
3. Native Lands Territories. Native Land Territories is an open dataset developed by Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led nonprofit based in Canada. This overlay maps Indigenous territories and is intended to shed light on the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations. To learn more about this dataset, see our article?here.

Hot Tip??? from Miles van Blarcum, Lens Customer Success Lead

Want to analyze the area of an overlay polygon? Just hold down Option + A and click the overlay you'd like to analyze. This is handy for quickly visualizing changes in harvest or restoration areas. To learn more about adding your own custom overlays into Lens see our?support article.

HydroForecast

The latest news from HydroForecast. Questions? Email us at:?[email protected].

Feature Spotlight: More frequent weather forecast initialization times

We are now displaying more frequent weather forecast initialization times on our dashboard to give users access to the latest weather data within your basins. We display:

• ECMWF 0Z and 12Z forecasts
• GEFS 0Z and 12Z forecasts
• GFS 0Z, 6Z, 12Z, and 18Z forecasts
• HRRR 0Z, 6Z, 12Z, and 18Z forecasts

Additionally, we are updating weather observations from HRRR every hour.

So, when do our flow forecasts update??HydroForecast Short-term has two primary initialization times: 0Z and 12Z. During these two primary updates, we pull in the latest weather forecasts from ECMWF, GEFS, and GFS. In between those two main updates, we produce new forecasts every two hours incorporating the latest stream gauge observations.?Check out our support documentation?to learn more about when our forecasts become available through our API and in the dashboard.

We have R&D planned to incorporate the remaining weather forecast sources and initialization times into our model to bring you the most up-to-date flow data as possible.

Upcoming Webinar: How our model works, new features, and upcoming R&D

From the latest research into model improvements to new dashboard features that make your workflows easier, there has been a lot happening with HydroForecast.?Join us on Tuesday August 15th?for a deep dive into how HydroForecast Short-term works and learn about the latest R&D across the HydroForecast product suite. Don't miss out on the latest research!

What We're Monitoring

Articles, videos, and stories that we've enjoyed in the last month.

Interview: The importance of storytelling for nature based solutions

Read our interview?with advisory board member MaryKate Bullen about the importance of storytelling for effective nature based solutions, and how storytelling molder her own career in forestry, climate, and conservation.

Monitoring for Biodiversity

Learn about?the latest UN-backed agreement signed in 2022 to protect 30% of the world's biodiversity, and why data is so important for monitoring and measuring progress on targets.

How AI can be a useful tool for climate and the sciences: Part I

Are you keeping up with the AI conversation? Brush up on neural networks, model training, and more in our?new blog post.

Let's Chat In Person!

We’ll be at the following upcoming conferences. Will we see you there?

• Land Trust Alliance Rally 2023 - Portland, OR, September 6 - 9, 2023
• Dam Safety Conference?- Palm Springs, CA, September 17 - 21, 2023
• CEATI - HOPIG Fall Meeting - Portland, Oregon, September 20, 2023

Where on Earth?

Any idea why this forested hilltop in West Virginia was spared from the coal mining that surrounds it? Here's the?property?if you'd like to see it in 3D. Take a guess and let us know in the comments!

That's all for now! Want to ensure that you're the first to receive these updates straight to your inbox??Sign up for our newsletter here?and you'll never miss an update.

Cheers,

The Upstream Tech team