As I peered out the window of Amtrak's Northeast Regional on the way to New York City to attend the Esri GIS For Good meetup at the UN on November 18th, naturally my thoughts turned to GIS and I reflected on all the ways we have supported the Big Apple, especially the public open areas.
For more than a decade, Blue Raster has partnered with some of New York City's most celebrated green spaces-Green-Wood Cemetery, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Central Park Conservancy-to elevate how they manage, protect, and communicate the stories of their landscapes. Across these collaborations, we've modernized geospatial data ecosystems, implemented ArcGIS Online and Portal environments, and delivered intuitive web and mobile tools that support everything from day-to-day maintenance to long-term conservation planning. Whether mapping historic trees, refining operational workflows, or enabling staff to visualize work across hundreds of acres, our focus has been on creating GIS solutions that are sustainable, elegant, and built for the people who use them.
We're also excited about a new partnership with major public parks support organization-an effort that will help unify community data, operational insights, and planning resources into a single ArcGIS-powered platform. This next chapter strengthens our commitment to New York's public spaces and the teams who care for them.
Beyond the park boundaries:
Our work includes other iconic New York institutions outside of the parks but that nonetheless contribute to the vital fabric of the city. Since 2015 Blue Raster has been supporting NY based global development and health organizations- notably Columbia University and the United Nations.
Our enduring partnership with the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health includes the recent Columbia Impact Exchange and multiple HIV surveillance projects.
Our most recent collaboration with the UN includes the forthcoming UNFPA Human Rights Recommendations dashboard. Watch this space in early 2026 for the debut!
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Blue Raster is proud to support organizations that keep New York green, resilient and a center of global development.