Locus delivers U.S. EPA Superfund data through ePortal and Google Maps Mashup

Users can instantly see information on U.S. EPA Superfund sites

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 2, 2007 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental data and information management services, announced today that it has expanded its hugely popular Web-based LocusFocus ePortal Google™ Maps Mashup to include U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. With Locus’s portal toolset and Google’s Map API (application program interface), users can now look for data in a rich map interface and gain instant access to data once hidden away in governmental data silos.

Using Locus’s Mashup, users can search by map location, zip code, or state and instantly see information on the U.S. EPA Superfund sites in their area. With the same ease as finding addresses or driving directions, anyone can now access U.S. EPA Superfund data previously only available in much more complex interfaces or not available at all.

“Advances in technology have made instant access to EPA Superfund data a reality,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, president and CEO of Locus. “With an XML data stream provided by the EPA, Locus was able to quickly create a user-friendly map view into complex Superfund data. As the EPA releases more information, the application database can easily grow to display all types of environmental information, from regulatory permits on a site to other EPA program data such as the latest Toxics Release Inventory chemical information.”

“We are thrilled to see innovative technologies from private industry enabling the delivery of environmental data from government-managed data resources to the Web,” said Pat Garvey, a Geospatial Download Service Manager with the EPA. “It is gratifying to see the private sector take the initiative to deliver EPA data in an engaging and easy-to-use Web interface that allows citizens, as well as companies, to make use of the vast amounts of data the EPA has collected.”

The LocusFocus ePortal Google™ Maps Mashup can be viewed at www.locustec.com. In addition, Locus will be presenting the Mashup and other innovative technologies at the EPA-sponsored “Long-Term Stewardship Roundtable and Training” in San Diego, Calif., April 4-5, 2007.

Customers who already use Locus’s Environmental Information Management system can Mashup their own site data and access it through their existing interface. By zooming in on a site through Locus’s Google Map interface, customers can click on soil boring and groundwater monitoring well locations to retrieve analytical, geotechnical, geological, or any other data available for these or other locations.

“This advancement will help the EPA reach out to constituents and share information it has been collecting for years,” said Rick Bergquist, chief software evangelist for Locus. “It’s a win-win for all parties: citizens can easily access data they never had before, and the EPA can easily deliver data to the public at no cost to the government. This service is now possible because of Locus’s innovative On-Demand environmental information products.”

Locus’s environmental data Mashup is part of the company’s commitment to providing innovative, cost-effective environmental data management solutions to the environmental community and giving companies that want to become “green” the state-of-the-art tools they need to manage, show and document their progress.

Locus Technologies Brings Google Maps to the Environment

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 28 November 2005  — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in environmental information management, today announced that it has expanded its award winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system to work with the popular Google™ Maps. Locus embedded Google Maps API to its popular EIM application for manage analytical data on the Internet. A user can now add overlays of environmental information to the map and display shadowed “info windows,” just like Google Maps. The result is a Google Map Mashup, a web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

With the same ease of finding an address location or driving directions, users can now find subsurface environmental information at their sites, such as chemical concentrations in groundwater. Users can zoom and pan the maps and photos for a seamless view of the geography around sites. Using this Mashup, EIM provides a data box listing the chemical concentration in groundwater, borehole information, and other relevant environmental information associated with location. With Google Maps in EIM, users have the power of a Geographical Information System in a light-weight web browser application.

The EIM interface to Google Maps significantly improves productivity in managing spatial environmental information by developing and delivering the next generation of Internet mapping application services to the environmental industry. The result is the almost instant transformation of previously inaccessible raw environmental data into meaningful, actionable, and productive visual information.

“Drawing upon input from hundreds of our clients who currently use EIM’s SVG-based GIS application, Google Maps provides EIM users with additional convenience, efficiency, and a distinct competitive advantage. The product is ideally suited for large or small sites that require a GIS application, but don’t have resources to build one using an expensive traditional GIS tool. Furthermore, all of this exciting new functionality comes without the need to store large image files on the server end, thus minimizing the number of trips between browser and server, minimizing storage and Internet traffic requirements,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus.

This application is offered as a value-added service to existing users of Locus’ eGIS-SVG module.

Locus expands Environmental Information Management (EIM) system with ability to export data directly into Arcview 8 GIS from ESRI

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 11 November 2003 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, today announced that it has expanded its award winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system, a part of their LocusFocusSM web portal, to include the capability of exporting data directly to the ArcView 8 Geographical Information System (GIS) from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). Based in Redlands California, ESRI is the industry leader in geospatial applications and technology. ArcView 8 GIS is rapidly becoming the standard for geographical analysis and is based on the highly successfully ArcView 3.x program, which has sold more than a million copies.

An EIM™ user now can connect to EIM™ by using a Locus toolbar in the ArcView 8 interface. The toolbar, built on Web Services and Microsoft’s .NET technology, lets the user query EIM™ for analytical, groundwater or field-reading data. Query results are automatically added to the ArcView 8 map as an ESRI shapefile. The new ArcView link to EIM™ reflects Locus’s commitment to building an enterprise system that allows national or multi-national companies to meet their diverse data management needs and reporting requirements across the U.S. and around the world. Other recent enhancements to the system give companies even more flexibility in exporting their data to a variety of formats, including Microsoft Excel and AutoCAD .dxf files, while still allowing all the company’s data to reside in a single repository.

“ArcView is the world’s most popular desktop GIS and mapping software, with more than 500,000 copies in use worldwide. It was critical that EIM™ support users who employ ArcView for their spatial analysis needs. The new Locus toolbar for ArcView 8 lets users seamlessly query their EIM™ data and put the results on a site map. Users who have invested time and money in ArcView 8 customizations and programming do not have to abandon that commitment to take advantage of EIM™’s rich suite of environmental management tools. By leveraging Microsoft’s .NET technology and XML as the underlying structure for the ArcView link, Locus remains on the leading edge of web-enabled environmental software integration.” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, president and CEO of Locus.

LocusFocus(SM) is a multi-channel, dynamic Web portal that provides for all aspects of environmental site management. LocusFocus(SM) has the potential of bringing the benefits of Internet technology to the environmental industry and, as such, eliminate the many inefficiencies and incompatible technologies that afflict the industry.

Locus Technologies Implements Environmental Industry’s First Scalable Vector Graphics-Based Geographic Information System

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 1 December 2001 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental information management, today announced it has released the first version of a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) for its award-wining LocusFocus suite of Internet technologies. The system allows users to see a map of a site, click on a well on the map, and obtain chemical and water level information for that well, including a log, if one exists. Data can be displayed in tables or graphs, posted on the map, or downloaded. Such capabilities and features represent only a starting point. Locus also intends to expand capabilities into contouring, animation, and 3D visualization. What is exciting about this new development is that it is entirely based on a new Web graphics format and XML-based language called Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

SVG offers many benefits. Foremost among these is that it is not a proprietary technology. Rather, it has been developed as an open, vendor-neutral specification by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Companies who have contributed to the specification include Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Autodesk, Apple, AOL, Sun, Adobe Systems, and Macromedia. SVG is compatible with other Web technologies like HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Javascript, Document Object Model (DOM), and Java. As such, rich user interfaces and dynamically-generated, data-driven graphics can be easily developed. Because SVG is a vector format, images download faster, and users can zoom in on a section of a map or graphic without any loss of resolution and without having to reload the image. This is of particular importance for the environmental industry that deals with large amounts of information. Lastly, because it is entirely text-based, users can search for text (such as a well ID or a contaminant name) within the SVG image itself.

Traditional GISs, especially web-based versions, are expensive to purchase and difficult to implement. Most require extensive, time-consuming custom development. Personnel with the necessary experience and expertise are in scarce supply, in contrast to the number of programmers familiar with HTML, Javascript, and other common Web-based tools and languages. Those organizations that require sophisticated, enterprise-wide GIS functionality can justify the cost and complexity of implementing a GIS Internet Map Server (IMS). Most, however, cannot. Moreover, the vast majority of interactive Internet maps for the environmental industry don’t need to offer anything close to this level of functionality.

“The complexity and cost of traditional GIS software is amazing—even after all these years,” says Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “In contrast, interactive, map-based systems using SVG can be developed in a fraction of the time and, as a result, for less money. SVG will form the foundation for all the graphics and GIS work that Locus will be undertaking in the near future. Most other consulting companies are either stuck with outdated approaches or have no GIS capabilities at all. We hope to seize this opportunity and make Locus an industry leader in applying this new and exciting web-based technology to the graphical display of environmental information.”

LocusFocus is a multi-channel, dynamic Web portal that provides for all aspects of environmental site management. LocusFocus has the potential to bring the benefits of Internet technology to the environmental industry and, as such, eliminate the many inefficiencies and incompatible technologies that afflict the industry.