Digitizing Environmental Permitting for Successful Restoration Projects

Environmental data and permitting are the vital first steps for construction projects of all kinds. The digitization of these processes enables greater efficiency and shorter project timelines, and allows environmental consultants to visualize, organize, and analyze data for robust project planning.

Award-winning engineering, planning, and consulting firm Freese & Nichols, Inc. (FNI) is best known for creating major infrastructure across the country, but the firm also works to restore vital wetland and stream habitats. The City of Beaumont, TX contracted the firm to survey a site, secure permits, and restore wetland functions to Lawson’s Canal, a defunct water supply canal that had been filled for an emergency equipment staging area. Prior to FNI’s involvement, the City had received a Section 404 violation for creating the canal in existing wetlands. 

Facing an aggressive schedule that had been stymied by regulatory hurdles, FNI sought to assess and plan corrective action due to fill impacts within features deemed regulated as waters of the United States (WOTUS), and to devise a creative solution that restored the site to its previous condition as a forested wetland. To ensure expedient project delivery, FNI used Ecobot, the comprehensive environmental assessment platform they have used since 2020, to manage fieldwork and permitting.

Environmental scientist Brynn Putnam and her team used Ecobot Collector, the mobile application, to rapidly conduct fieldwork, where their efforts were augmented by automated calculations and built-in QA tools for increased accuracy and efficiency. At the office, the web-based Ecobot Manager gave Putnam real-time access to her team’s field efforts and enabled frictionless QA/QC and immediate report generation. Putnam leveraged geospatial data collected in the field into readily-available GIS figures, which were required to support their restoration project.

“The urgent situation made Section 404 compliance the critical path,” said Putnam. “Using Ecobot allowed us to collect and integrate field data seamlessly with a two-day turnaround, including instant availability of geospatial files. Project delivery was on time and on budget, and Ecobot was critical to that success.”

With site assessment reports within days, Putnam’s team accelerated the approval process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The project team was able to move forward with a restoration plan to remove fill and successfully restore the pre-existing hydrological connection. Ecobot’s seamless data collection and management approach enabled a successful project and expanded FNI’s growing portfolio of restoration projects and nature-based solutions. 

More information about the Lawson’s Canal Restoration Project is available in the City of Beaumont’s StoryMap, which showcases the transformation of ecological conditions at the site.