WRA Engineering used Filio to streamline environmental photo logs, reduce manual reporting effort, and keep field documentation moving with an app update delivered in under seven days.
The Project
WRA Engineering, a Filio customer, employs a team of environmental scientists to execute regulatory assessments for land development. These evaluations are often conducted as mitigation for construction projects, as environmental protocols require construction companies to restore a certain percentage of vegetation. One such project ensures the native vegetation inhabiting a Florida wetlands construction zone meets the criteria established in the development’s construction permit.
Tracking the zone’s plant life requires a quarterly photographic inventory of vegetation across the site. For this project, one environmental scientist had to document 80 photo locations and capture north-, south-, east-, and west-facing images at each point. By year end, that process produced more than 1,200 plant photos that then had to be organized, identified, and reported in the correct order.
AUSTON GERMANO
SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST
Before Filio, WRA relied on three separate software tools to complete a documentation workflow that Filio now handles in one searchable system.
The Challenge for WRA Engineering
For WRA Engineering, the challenge was not just collecting photos. The team also had to keep each quarterly record complete, directionally consistent, and easy to retrieve for review and reporting. The previous process spread that work across separate tools and manual steps, creating extra handling for a large volume of similar field images.
The Solution
Using Filio, WRA’s environmental scientists capture photos and videos directly in the mobile app. Filio automatically records geolocation and photo direction and lets users add voice notes and markups in the field, helping the team keep environmental records organized from the moment of capture. Because media syncs to the cloud right away, office teams can review documentation as crews collect onsite data. In the web platform, users organize media into dedicated projects so records stay standardized, searchable, and easier to filter, edit, report on, and present later. Prior to implementing Filio, a WRA scientist would take a picture or video using a camera roll app, manually mark GPS locations on individual photos in a separate global positioning system (GPS), and finally create a map in a geographic information system (GIS). Filio brings these three functions together, streamlining WRA’s photo-management process from three separate software tools to one.
My favorite thing is the convenience and time saving factor. I use Filio every time I am in the field.
Results and Impact
When WRA first deployed Filio in their wetlands monitoring project, the app enabled rich data collection in the field, but the users still faced an enormous challenge. The project included more than 1,200 photos of similar trees and landscapes, making it extremely difficult for the WRA team to differentiate between images within the project. Filio originally sorted images by date, which was sufficient for smaller photo collections, but did not suffice for the wetlands survey’s enormous document library. Filio and WRA discussed the issue on a conference call and identified the solution: the web platform needed a sort-by-description feature. Within seven days, the Filio team updated the program to enable document sorting using any field: not only date, but also name, description, and geolocation. WRA scientists can hover over a thumbnail of any image in the photo log to view the name, accompanying description, and coordinates. With this capability at their fingertips, the WRA team can easily identify critical information about each photo (such as which cardinal direction it faces). The feature turned a multi-day sorting process into a simple click and is now available to Filio customers everywhere. For deeper Filio workflow context, review GIS data integration for project reporting, plan sheets in Filio, and annotations and tags in the Filio app.
Implementation
WRA Engineering implemented Filio around its established field documentation process. Scientists captured visual records in the mobile app while the platform retained the location, direction, description, and related project details needed to organize the quarterly photo log. The team could then review and sort the growing record set in the web platform rather than assembling it manually across separate tools.
Looking Ahead
The enhancement requested by WRA Engineering now supports clearer sorting across the project library and is available to other Filio customers. For future field documentation, the case shows how standardized capture, searchable records, and project-level reporting can reduce the effort of turning extensive environmental observations into a usable photo log. For deeper Filio workflow context, review construction photo documentation software.
