20 WAYS TO USE
WROC-GENERATED DATA
While the geospatial data collected during the Wisconsin Regional
Orthophotography Consortium project is extremely technical in
nature, its end use is quite practical.
Dan Kerntop, GIS analyst for the City of Wausau, said the City uses its
data often to facilitate development projects.
“We’re constantly sending data, whether it’s developers or
contractors, to help provide better data and better decision-making
and designing for projects,” Kerntop said.
See below for a partial list of other ways in which our WROC clients
use their data.
1 Preliminary planning 11 Parcel mapping
2 Forest fire planning 12 Hydro modeling
3 Site analysis 13 Floodplain mapping
4 Development project monitoring 14 Building permit tracking
5 Code enforcement 15 Address inventory
6 Engineering applications 16 Structure inventory
7 Urban planning 17 Hydro resources
8 Comparing change over time 18 Governmental decision-making
9 Property evaluation 19 Land use policy review
10 Zoning enforcement 20 Environmental purposes
– Jennifer Schmidt
14│ TRENDS
Participation wide and varied
The 2015 program resulted in
high-resolution orthoimagery for 43
counties and high-accuracy LiDAR for
topographic mapping in 17 counties.
Many municipalities have also joined
the effort to acquire products for
municipal planning and engineering
applications. Also participating in the
large-scale mapping project are electric
cooperatives, tribal agencies, and state
and federal agencies.
The Forest County Potawatomi
Community has been involved with
WROC since 2010, and its land
information director, Casey Swanson,
was instrumental in getting the Bureau
of Indian Affairs to allocate money
to Wisconsin tribes – $100,000 total
and $32,000 for the Forest County
Potawatomi Community specifically –
for the 2015 WROC initiative.
He advocated for funding in Forest
County particularly because, as its
name implies, it’s located in a heavily
forested area with a low tax base. He
knew any additional BIA funding would
go far – farther than it would in more
developed counties already possessing
high-resolution orthoimagery.
“The Forest County Potawatomi
Community thought it would be
beneficial to work with Forest County in
order to obtain the necessary funding to
participate in the 2015 WROC program,”
Swanson said. “By collaborating with
outside sources the County was able
to participate in the program. Without
participating in the 2015 WROC program
the County wouldn’t have been able to
update their imagery, which was last
updated in 2010. We knew that (with
the funding) we would have an updated,
higher-quality product that would be
beneficial to the tribes, governments,
and County taxpayers.”
What makes the innovative, one-of-
a-kind program work? Kirk Contrucci,
vice president of geospatial services
at Ayres Associates, believes it comes
down to value.