Consequently, what users can do with this data is quite limited. Another severe limitation of traditional techniques is their almost exclusive emphasis on "creating awareness." Over time this becomes, and in many cases already is, a value proposition with declining marginal returns. The renewed focus should be on encouraging the public to act in ways that result in improved outcomes for the stewardship or regulatory compliance program. Besides increasing ROI of public outreach budgets, EcoLayers can now produce a "multiplier effect" of reducing the more significant stewardship or compliance costs over time. Online collaborative tools for performance tracking and management of such programs can be incorporated into the EcoLayers platform.  

EcoLayers is a cost-effective and compelling alternative to improve the effectiveness of public outreach and involvement programs through maps, data, documents, images, and other types of information. Users can interact with this information and personalize their experiences (learnings) within the parameters defined by the customer. Most user interactions are intuitive. For more detailed interactions, online wizards and help files will guide users through each step to the desired outcome. 

Different constituencies can be targeted through different levels of information and functionality. For example, water districts or stormwater departments can engage different groups of users in different ways to optimize outcomes across all user groups. Or NGOs can manage monitoring programs with different protocols to encourage different level of public participation. 

Representative projects where EcoLayers has been used for public outreach and involvement include: