Businesses can now use Google Maps for more than finding directions to the next client meeting.
Tucson-based Earth Knowledge Inc., founded in 2003 as an environmental-consulting company, now offers a new set of planning tools: in-depth data that the government already collects, overlaid on top of Google-made maps used by many today on the Internet.
Last month, Earth Knowledge launched its new Web site, giving customers access to information about the Earth and its resources.
Using GIS — or geographic information systems — is not new; scientists and researchers have done so for years. But the process usually requires expensive mapping software and extensive expertise to make sense of often-voluminous data.
What Earth Knowledge is doing, company officials say, is making those tools more accessible. One way of doing so is overlaying extensive geological data, such as water-well locations, with a familiar application like Google Earth.
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The new site, the company said, lets users pull from "diverse sources" by topics, such as biodiversity, land, water and climate. And that's the "very beginning of what we can do," said Julia Armstrong D'Agnese, the company's CEO and co-founder.
The site also draws in news feeds from global sources and allows users to comment and discuss issues online.
Earth Knowledge's clients include water districts, one of which is the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Earth Knowledge is mainly developing groundwater-flow models and technical reports for the group, which includes Las Vegas, authority spokesman Bronson Mack said.
"Businesses are seeing the bigger picture," said Earth Knowledge President Frank D'Agnese, a former U.S. Geological Survey scientist who co-founded the company with his wife.
Earth Knowledge, 500 N. Tucson Blvd., is also Tucson-grown. The company was the first graduate of the Arizona Center for Innovation, a business incubator at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park, about five years ago. Earth Knowledge now has about 14 employees.
"It's evolved, and it's pretty exciting the things that they're doing," said Bruce Wright, the incubator's founder and the University of Arizona's associate vice president for economic development.
With all the data available in a common, easy-to-use format, one scientist and former Earth Knowledge client said, "The possibilities are endless," particularly in researching water use — as well as relaying that data to the public.
"Most people have no concept on groundwater and how it moves from point A to point B," said Michael Johnson, the chief hydrologist for the Virgin Valley Water District in Mesquite, Nev. Johnson said Virgin Valley consulted with Earth Knowledge during the Tucson company's early years.
But the real impact of new technology goes hand-in-hand with Earth Knowledge's vision: to give firms environmentally sound information for business decision-making.
"Businesses can grow," said Julia D'Agnese, "and the environment can grow, too."