Te Miro is a water resources engineering consultancy that was started by Mike Chapman. Prior to starting his own company, Mike had 20 years of experience in the water resource industry, working on a diverse range of projects from local government flood schemes, water quality and stormwater to water supply technology and rural development in the Indian Himalaya. He’s held technical engineering as well as water policy roles in the UK central government and private consultancy in New Zealand.

Te Miro focuses primarily on smart freshwater management, which is imbedded in all aspects of business and professional service delivery. They aim to explore ideas to transform the water business not only for financial profit but also for cultural, social and environmental wins. They’re interested in how hydrology, engineering and ecology can work closer together to connect the dots, especially with the assessment of effects using water quality modelling and hydrology indicators to add value to ecological assessments, breaking the modelling silos to integrate flood flow, environmental flow, water quality and groundwater.

When Mike started his consulting business, he needed to find a workflow solution for mapping. He wanted to be able to view, create and publish maps for his project work, in a way that was professional but not too time consuming.

Mike came from a large corporate firm before starting his own company. He knew that he wanted to continue producing the professional looking maps he had access to in the corporate environment, without the GIS specialists that helped make them happen.

Before discovering Equator, Mike was using a mix of QGIS, Google Earth, and occasionally ArcGIS. While free and fully-featured, Mike found that basic mapping was overly complicated in QGIS. At the other end of the spectrum, Google Earth was quick and easy to use, but lacked the customization he needed.

Mike was looking for mapping software to facilitate a faster turnaround and delivery of projects. Specifically, he wanted to be able to view spatial data and create professional looking maps that could compete with the capability and technology of larger firms, without spending too much time or money.

Equator has allowed him to create high quality deliverables, without a huge learning curve, including the ability to customizing his projects from start to finish. His favourite part is the 3D terrain, allowing him to view his projects and surroundings from multiple perspectives. After using it for a few months, he has become an advocate for Equator and says he does not see himself switching to another mapping software any time soon.

While having an easy to use, functional software is half the battle, seeing real and tangible results come out of using it is the other. Although Mike is still fairly new to Equator, he’s already seen impressive results that make him excited for the future. In the past, he said it would take him about 3-4 hours to make a map in other platforms (ex. QGIS), whereas now he can make a more impressive map in a third of the time. Local industry leaders have been impressed with the work he’s been putting out using Equator, while other peers have been interested in learning more about what he used to create these standout maps. We’re thrilled to hear about Mike’s success with Equator, and can’t wait to hear even more results from him and Te Miro in the future!

Mike’s map: Ecological impacts of more frequent flooding and longer water retention in Waikato District