Challenge

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) provides vital policy recommendations, regulatory programs, and alert information about the air quality within the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. A large component of their outreach is public maps that visualize and quickly communicate the state of air quality in the Bay Area. BAAQMD had previously implemented one-off maps that were difficult to maintain and extend as data sources were updated and web interfaces became more advanced.

Solution

Farallon Geographics has built a series of interoperable and easily deployable maps to quickly communicate the state of air quality in the Bay Area. First, Farallon standardized and centralized the previously ad-hoc data collection and storage methods. Next, Farallon developed a series of scripts to package these data into vector tiles and host them in Mapbox. Along with hosting tiles in Mapbox, Farallon also generated custom styling for each layer.

Next, Farallon turned its attention to the User Interface and built a custom JavaScript library to provide functions for powering the user’s interaction with the BAAQMD maps. The BAAQMD-maps library also promotes speedy development and deployment of new maps. The custom API allows District staff to quickly create new maps by specifying options for how the map should render and behave.

Finally, Farallon provided extensive training and documentation for the BAAQMD-maps library such that District staff can quickly develop, test, and deploy their own maps. Farallon is providing ongoing application support, training and maintenance.