At a Glance
- Client: Burns & McDonnell
- Project: Wetland delineation for a 1,400-acre renewable energy site in North Texas
- Challenge: Complete fieldwork in just three days amid difficult site conditions
- Solution: Field and office workflows streamlined with Ecobot
- Results:
- 33 wetland sample points and 14 streams mapped
- Fieldwork finished in under 3 days
- Full regulatory submittal completed within the month
The Challenge
A two-person Burns & McDonnell wetland team was tasked with verifying wetlands and streams across a 1,400-acre proposed renewable energy site in North Texas.
Despite the project’s size and complexity—including a patchwork of forests, fields, manipulated hydrology, and multiple stream systems—the team had just three days to complete fieldwork due to a tight construction schedule.
To complicate matters further, the project kicked off at the very beginning of the growing season, requiring dormant-season plant identification.
“We knew that speed was imperative for the success of this project.” — Olivia Haney, Environmental Scientist and Wetlands Specialist, Burns & McDonnell
The Approach
Burns & McDonnell deployed Ecobot for the first time on a paid client project, dramatically improving field and office efficiency.
Fieldwork with Ecobot Collector
Using Ecobot’s intuitive interface, the team:
- Learned on the Fly: First-time users successfully adopted the app mid-project without delays.
- Worked Offline: Spotty cellular service wasn’t an issue thanks to offline soil, hydrology, and vegetation indicator lookup tools.
- Accelerated Data Collection: Integrated wetland plant indicators and automatic calculations for dominance tests and prevalence indexes sped up sample point completion.
“A major benefit of Ecobot lies in the convenience of having everything stored in one place. We are often covering a lot of ground daily, and it’s very helpful to only have to carry around one device as opposed to multiple resources.” — Olivia Haney, Environmental Scientist
Office Work and Reporting
- Geospatial Integration: Field data seamlessly imported into ArcGIS for review and shapefile creation.
- Desktop Pre-Assessment: Used USGS, NHD, NWI, FEMA, and NRCS datasets to identify probable wetland areas ahead of fieldwork.
- Fast Submittals: Final report and jurisdictional determination (JD) documents were completed well ahead of deadlines.
The Results
By using Ecobot, Burns & McDonnell delivered faster, more efficient results despite project challenges:
- Rapid Fieldwork: 33 wetland sample points and 14 streams identified and mapped in fewer than three days.
- Seamless Data Integration: Geospatial data collected with Ecobot imported directly into ArcGIS, expediting analysis and reporting.
- Ahead of Schedule: Final regulatory submittals were delivered within a month, keeping the overall project timeline on track.
Burns & McDonnell’s successful deployment of Ecobot marked a pivotal shift away from pen-and-paper methods, demonstrating how modern tools can transform complex wetland assessments—saving time both in the field and in the office.
