Blake Draper is a Software Developer with the Web Informatics and Mapping (WIM) team at the Upper Midwest Water Science Center.
I have dedicated my career in the USGS to serving our mission of delivering actionable intelligence on Earth systems to relevant decision makers. I have always enjoyed working to promote and deliver USGS science through development of timely, useful, and intuitive web application and web service products.
My work is primarily client-side, developing web apps in Javascript/Typescript and the Angular framework. I also work on system administration and technology infrastructure maintenance for the WIM team. Much of my work requires configuring server environments and preparing GIS data for use in web services. My professional goal is to create useful, intuitive data visualization and data management products that advance and promote USGS science.
Professional Experience
Serve as lead developer and project manager for multi-year software development cycles
Interface with clients/cooperators to gather requirements, and present and manage development feedback
Author project proposals, technology specifications and software documentation
Lead efforts within team to implement standards and best practices approaches to agile collaborative development, workflow optimization, software testing, deployment pipelines, and software release cycles
Onboard, mentor and support junior developers with administrative and technical guidance
Assist in strategic decision-making for my team’s technology stack and software architecture planning as part of the Senior Dev Team
Education and Certifications
GIS Certificate, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2012
M.A., Florida State University - International Affairs, 2009
B.A., Florida State University - International Affairs, 2007
Science and Products
Blake has worked on development of the projects below:
Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs)
WHISPers
USGS Flood Event Viewer: Providing Hurricane and Flood Response Data
National Water Census
NorEaST: A Tool to Understand the Responses of Fish to Changes in Stream Temperature
Blake has worked on the following web applications:
Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment Geonarrative
The Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment (GLCWRA) uses principles of geodesign to identify, assess, and restore areas along the U.S. coast of the Great Lakes that have the most potential to restore coastal wetland habitat. This Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funded work supports land managers and restoration practitioners from site-specific to landscape scales.
Science and Products
- Science
Blake has worked on development of the projects below:
Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs)
The USGS Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs) are a multi-extent, stakeholder driven, near real-time census and prediction of water availability for both human and ecological uses at regional and national extents.WHISPers
WHISPers, the Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership - event reporting system, is a partner-driven, web-based repository for sharing basic information about historic and ongoing wildlife mortality (death) and/or morbidity (illness) events. The information, such as county-level locations, onset and ending dates, species affected, and diagnosis has generously been shared with the USGS...USGS Flood Event Viewer: Providing Hurricane and Flood Response Data
During large, short-term floods, the USGS collects additional data to help document these high-water events. This data is uploaded to the USGS Short-Term Network (STN) for long-term archival, and served out to the public through the USGS Flood Event Viewer (FEV) which provides convenient, map-based access to storm-surge and other event-based data.National Water Census
The National Water Census is a USGS research program on national water availability and use that develops new water accounting tools and assesses water availability at the regional and national scales. Through the Water Census, USGS is integrating diverse research on water availability and use and enhancing the understanding of connection between water quality and water availability.NorEaST: A Tool to Understand the Responses of Fish to Changes in Stream Temperature
Climate change is expected to alter stream temperature and flow regimes over the coming decades, and in turn influence distributions of aquatic species in those freshwater ecosystems. To better anticipate these changes, there is a need to compile both short- and long-term stream temperature data for managers to gain an understanding of baseline conditions, historic trends, and future projections. - Web Tools
Blake has worked on the following web applications:
Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment Geonarrative
The Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment (GLCWRA) uses principles of geodesign to identify, assess, and restore areas along the U.S. coast of the Great Lakes that have the most potential to restore coastal wetland habitat. This Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funded work supports land managers and restoration practitioners from site-specific to landscape scales.
- Multimedia