Hollaway Environmental + Communication Services is a consulting firm focused on planning and clearance, project development, and public engagement with an eye toward risk reduction and problem-solving.
The Project
Hollaway collaborates with government agencies and manages environmental assessments and regulatory clearances ahead of infrastructure improvement projects.
The Harris County Flood Control District, headquartered in Houston, TX, enlisted Hollaway to carry out all aspects of environmental due diligence on a 300-acre roadside site ahead of an $11.9M detention basin project.
The Harris County Flood Control District needed a profile of the site as soon as possible in order to commence planning and construction for the detention basin. The County knew that mitigation credits would be necessary due to the presence of an ephemeral stream.
The Solution
Using Ecobot Collector and Manager, the field and office components of Ecobot’s comprehensive environmental permitting platform, Hollaway was able to streamline data collection and report generation by up to 50%.
Ecobot’s built-in tools automatically apply data collected for one permit to address other project needs, including mitigation banking and site monitoring, and with many options for exporting and integrating data, Hollaway can maximize how they use field data.
Ecobot Collector
In the field, Hollaway completed the wetland delineation comprising nearly100 sampling points and a variety of wetlands in a week and a half. The team, led by environmental scientist and project manager Kasey Clarke, AWB, WPIT, utilized the following time-saving features to dramatically streamline their data collection workflow:
- Built-in reference tools enabled them to quickly confirm soil features on the large site, which featured a range of profiles.
- Using the cloning feature to replicate sampling points, the team easily duplicated points with significant data crossover, omitting the need to enter repetitive information.
Ecobot Manager
Back at the office, Clarke could complete QA quickly and easily on a desktop computer, with forms generated as soon as fieldwork was complete. Manager enabled her to:
- Automatically populate location data based on sampling point coordinates and bulk edit information across several sampling points at once.
- An interactive map demonstrates the spread of sampling points across toggleable layers including known NWI wetlands, county lines, and more
Feature Focus
Mitigation bank information is automatically generated for the area.
Manager automatically generates a list of mitigation banks, along with type, status, and contact information for each. “[The mitigation banking tool] is very helpful for quickly identifying potential mitigation banks within the area around the project,” Clarke says.
Clarke has ready access to preliminary information about mitigation banks surrounding a project area even before conducting fieldwork, including available credits.
“Ecobot sped the process of collecting data with tools that allowed us to make accurate and efficient wetland calls. The entirely digital process reduced errors and simplified data processing.”
Molly Lenihan, Field Scientist
Time savings:
The time benefit was huge,” said Clarke, “especially on such a large project site, with so many datapoints and wetlands.” She estimates that her team saved 10-12 hours using Ecobot.
Real-time updates:
When it came time for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to review Hollaway’s determinations, several months after the initial delineation, Clarke was able to update her data in real time in line with any changes at the site, including adding an additional wetland that had not been present previously.
